SAARINEN, Eliel
(b. 1873, Rantasalmi, d. 1950, Bloomfield Hills)

Chicago Tribune Tower

1922
Perspective drawing
Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki

On November 29, 1922, when the winners of the competition for the Chicago Tribune Tower had already been chosen, an entry arrived from Finland. The jury was so impressed by "the colossal beauty of this 11th-hour entry" that it awarded the design second prize. It was the work of Eliel Saarinen, whose son Eero would, in the 1950s and 1960s, become one of America's best architects.

Saarinen's Chicago Tribune Tower was never realized. Instead, his simplified modernist stepback skyscraper design influenced many other architects.




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