With the Tribune Tower up for sale, it’s time to reflect on this iconic landmark. In 1922 Colonel McCormick, the Tribune publisher, held an architectural competition for the construction of the paper’s new headquarters. The winners of the $50,000 prize, Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, completed the project in 1925 and today their spires, grotesques and gothic details loom thirty-six stories over Michigan Avenue. The lower exterior is adorned with 149 stones; remnants from places like the Great Wall of China, Westminster Abbey and the Union Stock Yards. The Hall of Inscriptions inside is equally impressive. Hopefully whoever buys The Tribune Tower will have the good sense not to rename it.
