The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon

This is an in-person program at the Museum's lower Manhattan gallery. You must reserve your place registering on Ticketstripe. Museum members recevie prority registration by emailing programs@skyscraper.org. General registration will open on October 1st.

Chicago’s tallest skyscraper when it opened in 1921, the Wrigley Building could be called the Midwest's Woolworth Building. The gleaming white terra-cotta tower at the head of Michigan Avenue marked a move that opened the northward extension of the commercial concentration of the Loop. To celebrate the publication of the handsome new monograph The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon, the Museum will convene a two-session program that features a presentation by the book's authors and a symposium of scholars that places the building in context and contrast to the contemporary towers of New York.

In the opening session, principal author Robert Sharoff, the Chicago historian Tim Samuelson, and the photographer William Zbaren will offer an overview of the book's ambitious scope, which brings together archival sources and stunning new photography to document a century’s worth of architectural, social, and business history. They will highlight the intertwined stories of William Wrigley Jr., the larger-than-life founder of the chewing gum empire, and the relatively unknown architect Charles Gerhard Beersman, as well as evoke the interior life the tower as a a hub for everything from modernist art and jazz to groundbreaking advertising and broadcast media.

After a break, the second session will feature a panel with skyscraper historians Gail Fenske and Thomas Leslie, as well as artist and publisher Don LePan. They will respond to the authors and engage in a playfully serious discussion of the "Chicago-ness" of Wrigley and the "New York-ness" of Woolworth as city-signature terra cotta towers.

To register for this FREE program, click on the link above to RSVP. You will be redirected to Ticketstripe to reserve your seat. In-person attendance is limited to 50 people, but you can still watch the program live on our YouTube channel when it begins at 6pm.

You do NOT need to register for the YouTube livestream.

Program:

5pm - 6pm: Session 1

Break

6:30pm - 7:30pm: Session 2

Reception