Chicago’s Four

Let’s face it this bridge is a superb vantage point from which you can enjoy an iconic view over Chicago. This view is framed by the group of 4 buildings erected in the 1920s surrounding the bridge: 333 North Michigan, the London Guarantee, the Wrigley and the Tribune Tower. 333 is the art deco building on your left. Its elevators feature the city’s finest art deco bas-reliefs, and if you look closely, on the fifth floor you’ll see a sculpted frieze depicting scenes from Chicago’s history. On the right, the London Guarantee building, was built to host the headquarters of a British insurance group. Its top is reminiscent of a Greek temple, but its main inspiration is supposedly the Stockholm’s City Hall. It was built on the site of the former 1803 Fort Dearborn. On the side of the bridge from which you came from, you’ll see the famous Wrigley building on the left, topped by its large clock. This building, composed of two towers of different sizes linked by footbridges, was designed to house the offices of the Wrigley chewing-gum brand. Its architecture is inspired by the Giralda in Seville, with influences from French Renaissance. Every two years, the entire building is hand-washed to preserve the terracotta. In 1920, it was the very first office building in Chicago to have air conditioning! Finally, to its right, you have the beautiful tribune tower, full of sculptures, gargoyles and flying buttresses reminiscent of flamboyant Gothic. That’s because it was built on the model of Rouen’s Notre-Dame cathedral butter tower! ! These are the offices of the Chicago tribune. They share the space with the WGN radio station and the offices of the CNN television channel . The tower was built following an architectural competition launched by the Chicago Tribune to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Architects Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells won the competition. You can have fun scrutinizing the facade, as several details carved into the tower are a nod to the architects . There’s a Robin Hood for Raymond Hood and a howling dog for John Howells, and a frog-shaped gargoyle for the French origins of Chambellan, who sculpted all the ornaments.  But that’s not all! The tower boasts numerous fragments of exceptional historical sites from all over the world, and you’ll see them accompanied by a legend! Fragment of Notre-Dame de Paris, the Kremlin, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Parthenon, the Palace of Westminster, Lincoln’s tomb, the pyramid of Cheops, to name but the most incredible. More recently, a piece of metal from the World Trade Center was included. A piece of the Moon was also exhibited, but could not be integrated into the building, as NASA is the sole owner of all the moon rocks. All four buildings are included in Chicago Landmark , the city’s protected historic sites.