Tribune Tower in Chicago - Lapidary of Artefacts with a Detail from the Wawel Castle

• Autorzy: Kossowski Maciej Dariusz

Identyfikatory

DOI

10.17388/WUT.2025.0031.ARCH

• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Built in 1925 in downtown Chicago, the 36-story Tribune Tower skyscraper is famous not only for its distinctive neo-Gothic-style architecture, but also for the fact that 150 architectural details, stones and bricks from historic buildings and historical sites around the world were incorporated into the façade of the lower level. Among the artefacts is an architectural detail from the Wawel Royal Castle. So far, it has been misidentified as part of a column. In fact, it is a fragment of a balustrade baluster from the castle’s original decoration. It was placed in a place of honour - on a marble base, in an alcove to the left of the entrance door to the building, at the level of the lintel. The artefacts embedded in the face of the skyscraper’s wall are certainly not trophies and emotional mementos of the type of items brought back from travel destinations. Nor are they form the ideological basis of the newspaper building, as they were not built into its structural foundation or deposited in the form of erection act. They can be an expression of ties to humanity’s global cultural heritage. Some of them are a kind of relic, like stones from battlefields (Bunker Hill, Alamo, Fort Sumter, Little Bighorn, Perl Harbour, Omaha Beach), consecrated places (St. Peter’s Basilica, the cathedrals of Paris, Rouen, Cologne, Vienna and Trondheim) and holy sites (Grotto of the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem). They are all expressions of national identity and historical memory materially visualised in public display. But they can also be a manifestation of hubris and megalomania, a conviction that the tower of the Chicago Tribune surpasses all the world’s buildings and consolidates within itself their values. The actual intentions of Robert Rutherford McCormick, the ideological creator of this concept, will probably never be known, although arguably all jointly they have merged into the crucible of this cosmopolitan city.

Słowa kluczowe

EN

Chicago; Tribune Tower; Robert R. McCormick; Wawel Castle; historical memorabilia

• Wydawca: Politechnika Warszawska, Wydział Architektury
• Czasopismo: Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki
• Rocznik: 2022
• Tom: T. 67, z. 3
• Strony: 80--84
• Opis fizyczny: Bibliogr. 14 poz.

Twórcy

autor

Kossowski Maciej Dariusz

• Heritage Rescuing Centre Warsaw

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5566-0749

Bibliografia

• Awards in Architects competition for new Tribune Building, „Chicago Tribune”, 3 December 1922
• Explore the rocks, bricks and other artefacts on Tribune Tower’s walls (interactive guide), „Chicago Tribune”, 15 November 2015
• Grossman R., The Tribune rocks, „Chicago Tribune”, 20 July 1999
• Kamin B., Cubs, Sox bricks on Tribune Tower to honour North Side-South Side rivalry, „Chicago Tribune”, 14 August 2015
• Kamin B., Ori R., Developers plan city’s second-tallest skyscraper next to new Tribune Tower condos, „Chicago Tribune”, 17 April 2018
• Peters J., Why the Chicago Tribune Tower is Not Just Another Skyscraper, „medium.com”, 29 March 2018 https://medium.com/@julie_52338/why-the-chicago-tribune-tower-is-not-just-another-skyscraper-8fbcb6a784eb
• Pevensey Castle Cannonball Display, Chicago Tribune Building, „American Legion”, 6 September 2021 https://www.legion.org/memorials/253567/pevensey-castle-cannonball-display-chicago-tribune-building
• Sadaj E., Siedziba Chicago Tribune idzie pod młotek. W jej murach kamienie ze słynnych budowli z całego świata, w tym z Wawelu, „Deon 24: portal Radia Deon”, 11 October 2015, https://deon24.com/2015/10/11/siedziba-chicago-tribune-idzie-pod-mlotek-w-jej-murach-kamienie-ze-slynnych-budowli-z-calego-swiata/
• Smith R.N., The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955, Evanston 2003
• Stępień P. M., Rekonstrukcja i kreacja w odnowie zamku na Wawelu, „Ochrona Zabytków”, 2007, no. 2
• Trexler S., Tribune Tower: A Vertical Museum, (Secret Knowledge of Spaces blog) https://secretknowledgeofspaces.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/tribune-tower-a-vertical-museum/
• Tribune Tower Residences [announcement of the real estate developer updated each year]: https://tribunetower.com/residences/
• Wharton A. J., The Tribune Tower: Spolia as Despoliation, in: Reuse Value: Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture from Constantine to Sherrie Levine, ed. R. Brilliant, D. Kinney, London and New York 2011
• World Artifacts on the Tribune Tower’s Walls, https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/world-artifacts-on-the-tribune-tower-walls