Chicago Tribune Tower

A black and white photograph of the tower as it appeared in the 1930s. Old-fashioned cars line the road that the entrance of the skyscraper is on. A bank of the Chicago River is barely visible in the lower right corner, peeking out from under a bridge. The majority of the skyscraper is the unornamented central shaft with beveled or angled corners; the base is made up of four stories topped by gothic-style balconies. The uppermost portion of the tower consists of eight flying buttresses that support a small, octagonal top portion which all together looks like a crown.

Tribune Tower Building, 1931
Photographic print
14" × 11"
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

A new building code allowing greater building heights went into effect in April of 1923, and Hood added four floors to the design—lending the building an even more formidable presence than his original competition entry.

Construction began in 1923, and the building opened to the public in the summer of 1925.