Reimagined Tribune Towers Set To Pop Up At Chicago Architecture Biennial

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 12, 2017 8:50PM

Sam Jacob Studio, 'Tribune Tower,' 2017

Ninety-five years after the Chicago Tribune launched one of the most famous architecture competitions—and publicity stunts—in local history, the annual Chicago Architecture Biennial is riffing on the original contest for Tribune Tower designs, bringing in more than a dozen contemporary redesigns set to go on display at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Some quick history: The Chicago Tribune in 1922 issued its famed call for designs for its then-upcoming headquarters. (Note to Amazon: If you pick Chicago for HQ No. 2, how about a contest?) Of course, the monumental neo-Gothic design with which we're all so familiar, courtesy of architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, won out. And while Tribune Tower has become one of the city's true iconic structures, that's never stopped folks from dreaming up alternate histories, of sorts. (Nearly 60 years after the original crop of famously wide-ranging aesthetics was submitted, architect Stanley Tigerman and his "Chicago Seven" came up with their "late entries" quasi-reenactment.)

For the Biennial's new spin on the old competition, more than a dozen architects were brought in to "reimagine" the competition, with some winners crafting designs that would feel right at home in the late '20s and others pushing a contemporary edge. (We love the Gothic Revival skyscraper, but its fun to imagine how a more modernist structure would have altered the skyline.) Each selection will be represented by 16-foot-tall models that will, ahem, tower "as a hypostyle hall," according to the Biennial. We had to look of "hypostle," too. It essentially means a room filled with tall, walkable columns.

Of course the Tribune Tower Competition is one of just a slew of exhibitions and events planned for the large scale CAB. (Other intriguing highlights include free bus tours to Frank Lloyd Wright's modernist-marvel SC Johnson building, in Racine, Wisconsin, and the River Edge Ideas Lab, where architects will share their visions for "a unified aesthetic along Chicago's riverfront.") You can find more info about the Biennial here.

The Tribune Tower Competition opens at the Chicago Cultural Center on Sept. 16 and runs through early January.

Kéré Architecture, 'Original Sketch by Francis Kéré,' 2017