Overhead, the Tribune Tower rises like a cathedral built for a newspaper. In 1922 the Chicago Tribune held a worldwide competition for the most beautiful office building in the world, drawing more than 260 entries. The winning design, by Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, was finished in 1925 as a soaring Gothic tower crowned with flying buttresses modeled on Rouen Cathedral in France.
The losing entries quietly reshaped architecture for decades after. Look closely at the lower walls: embedded in the limestone are fragments brought back by Tribune correspondents from famous sites worldwide, including stones from the Parthenon, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and Notre-Dame. Each is labeled.
Notice the labeled stones from the Parthenon, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and Notre-Dame embedded in the limestone below.