Tribune Tower

트리뷴 타워

The neo-Gothic limestone skyscraper that won the 1922 Chicago Tribune competition, its crown an octagonal lantern after Rouen Cathedral's Butter Tower, braced by flying buttresses.

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At a glance

Country: United States
Location: Chicago, USA
Built: 1925
Height: 141 m
Type: Skyscraper

Quick answers

Where is Tribune Tower?

Tribune Tower is in Chicago, USA, United States.

When was Tribune Tower built?

Tribune Tower was built in 1925.

How tall is Tribune Tower?

Tribune Tower is about 141 m tall.

Tribune Tower is a 36-floor neo-Gothic skyscraper at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. It is 463 feet (141 metres) tall and was finished in 1925. It was built for the Chicago Tribune and its owner Robert R. McCormick. Since 2018 it has been converted into luxury homes, and in 2023 it won a Driehaus Prize for preserving and reusing an old building.

The tower is famous for its design competition. In 1922 the Tribune offered 100,000 dollars to find 'the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world', and over 260 entries came in. The winning plan by the New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood has buttresses near the top and a crown modelled on the 'Butter Tower' of Rouen Cathedral in France.

The 1922 competition

The competition began as a publicity stunt for the newspaper's 75th birthday. The first prize was 50,000 dollars. The Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen took second place with a design that many architects preferred, including Louis Sullivan, and it strongly influenced the next generation of skyscrapers. Famous names like Walter Gropius and Adolf Loos also entered. The entries were published in 1923 as a book, Tribune Tower Competition.

Stones from around the world

Sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan carved the building's gargoyles and decoration, including Robin Hood for Hood and a howling dog for Howells near the entrance. Colonel McCormick asked the newspaper's correspondents to bring back rocks and bricks from historic places. There are 149 stones from every U.S. state and every continent embedded in the lower walls, labelled with their origins, including fragments from the Great Pyramid in Egypt, a piece of steel from the World Trade Center and tiles from the Sydney Opera House.

From newsroom to homes

The Chicago Tribune was the main tenant from 1925 until it moved out in June 2018. The conversion into condominiums was reported to cost more than 500 million dollars. Colonel McCormick's former office on the 24th floor will become offices. Visitors have also been able to tour it free on Open House Chicago since 2011. In the lobby, quotations about freedom of the press are carved into the walls.

Fun facts

Stones from famous places, including the Great Wall and the Taj Mahal, are set into its walls.
There are 149 stones from famous sites embedded in the walls.
A frog gargoyle is the sculptor's joke about his French ancestry.
The first prize was 50,000 dollars in 1922.
The building's top copies Rouen Cathedral's Butter Tower.