If you've never been to Chicago by matter of choice, you're cheating yourself out of a truly magnificent city. The city has something for everybody, and of course that includes soaring skyscrapers and fascinating architecture. It's very well known that Chicago was the first city to make all of the great skyscrapers today even possible, and I feel that not only the quantity, but quality of the arhitecture here that spans many decades makes it a complete Skyscraper Museum.

This thread compares and celebrates two of Chicago's older and more treasured gems, both of which sit on North Michigan Avenue.


Wrigley Building

134-m/438 ft.
27 floors
Completed in 1922
Designed Graham, Anderson, Probst & White

http://kcsnapshots.typepad.com/photos/travel/scan0013.jpg

Tribune Tower

141-m/463 ft.
34 floors
Completed in 1925
Designed by Hood and Howells

http://www.aviewoncities.com/img/chicago/kveus1919s.jpg

I gotta go with the Wrigley Building. Tribune tower is beautiful, but I love Wrigley's white color and clock. I like the facade just a tad more. They're both great, both classics.

I tend to agree. As stunning as the Tribune Tower is, the Wrigley Building is one of my all-time favorites although I prefer not to compare or list it among buildings that are two to three times its height. Both of them are easily top ten for high-rises under 200 m.

20 views and two posts... :?

20 views and two posts... :?

Perhaps they want Vol. 2 -- Sears vs. JHC? :sleepy:

Perhaps they want Vol. 2 -- Sears vs. JHC? :sleepy:

Well I know it would get more replies. These older buildings just don't get the recognition and attention they deserve. It's really quite sad.

I've seen many modernist boosters calling buildings like these ugly, just for being old. It's just :sleepy:

Wrigley. As much as I respect the Tribune Tower, Wrigley is just such a gem. It was also a trendsetter for buildings on the north side of the river. It' blinding white light during the day and its wide variety of colorful lights at night truly set it apart. It also was the first A/C building in Chicago, has a river-side park that's somewhat gated off, and a skybridge. I think the top is now a private library for a law firm.

Well I know it would get more replies. These older buildings just don't get the recognition and attention they deserve. It's really quite sad.

I've seen many modernist boosters calling buildings like these ugly, just for being old. It's just :sleepy:

That is partly the reason I created this thread + poll. I feel these skyscrapers get slept on and it shouldn't be that way. While the new futurisitic supertalls are great, I'll always have a special place for towers such as these. When I visit Chicago, I'm just as excited to see Wrigley and Tribune as I am the mighty Sears and Big John, among others.

Wrigley building looks more "clean"

How can you not love 'em?

http://tanmaypics16.tripod.com/TallShips2003/WrigleyBuilding.jpg

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9013/wrigleybuilding0yn.jpg

Tribune for me. I love everything about this tower. Its history, the ornate cladding and finishes in/on this building cant be found today. I love how there are pieces of buildings from many architectural wonders. I mean rock fragments from the Alamo, the Colosseum, The Great Wall of China, the Parthenon, Taj Mahal, Bunker Hill, Mark Twain's "Injun Joe Cave", Abraham Lincoln’s Tomb, the Berlin Wall, the Arc de Triomphe, Forbidden City, White House, Great Pyramid of Cheops, Petrified Forest, Badlands, St. Peter's, Notre-Dame, Stonehenge (my favorite), Hagia Sophia, Antarctica, Omaha Beach, the Great Pryamids of Giza, Mammoth Cave including a moon rock. The entrance is amazing. Its all in the details for me.

The clock tower is great

Wrigley.

This was the tower that sparked my obsession with Chicago architecture.

If it ever goes condo (God forbid), I'd totally buy a place there.

I'm going with the Trib for pure detail.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Nathan-Hale-Statue-Tribune-tower.png

http://www.december.com/places/chi/images/tribdet.jpg

http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/imgb/imgb3/163d.jpg

Where's James to defend Tribune? ;)

Prefer Tribune

Both are great...but I like Wrigley a little more.

Wrigley for me, but nothing against Tribune. They're both truly amazing structures, like time capsules from the '20s.

Two beautiful buildings. The Wrigley Building is massive, and I like its juxtapositioning with the river.