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Architecture of the Night

A color image of the Chicago Tribune Tower at night. A random pattern of the rectangular windows are illuminated from within and appear white and yellow in color. The uppermost portion of the building, the crown of gothic ornament and buttresses, is glowing in a bright red-orange color that stands out from the rest of the building. A glowing yellow full moon in the background illuminates scattered clouds.
A color image of the Wrigley Building at night. The stark white building rises up from behind a bridge over a river. All of its windows are illuminated from the interior and glow orange or yellow. The upper portions of the building have classical details. In the center is a large square tower with a clock. A white full moon shines through the clouds.
Chicago Tribune Tower
Wrigley Building

The Tribune competition had alerted Hood to the importance of architectural illumination.

The Tribune building was across the street from the most attention-grabbing building in Chicago, that of the Wrigley Chewing Gum Company, with its prominent tower visible for miles down the city’s busiest street. Clad in white terracotta, the Wrigley Building was sensationally lit in its entirety at night by batteries of floodlights—the brightest and most extensive architectural illumination in the world.

Responding to the flood of light from across the street, Hood designed his tower “not only for its own outline and composition, but for the possibilities of illumination and reflected lighting at night.”