Completed in 1925, this 36-story, 463-foot tower on Michigan Avenue grew out of one of the most famous design competitions in architecture. In 1922 the Chicago Tribune offered $100,000 in prizes for "the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world," and received more than 260 entries.
New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood won with a neo-Gothic design whose crown of buttresses is modeled on the Butter Tower of Rouen Cathedral. Eliel Saarinen's second-place entry proved even more influential, shaping a generation of skyscrapers. Around the base, more than 140 stones from historic sites worldwide, from the Great Wall of China to the Taj Mahal, are set into the walls.
The newspaper moved out in 2018, and the tower has since been converted into luxury homes, a project that won a Driehaus preservation award in 2023.
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