Chicago's Tribune Tower: A Skyscraper Embedded with Fragments of World Landmarks

The Tribune Tower in Chicago, completed in 1925, is a neo-Gothic skyscraper that houses over 150 fragments from iconic buildings worldwide, including St. Peter's Basilica, the Forbidden City, the White House, the Berlin Wall, Notre Dame Cathedral, Pompeii ruins, and a moon rock. The collection was initiated by Robert McCormick, owner of the Chicago Tribune, who asked correspondents in Europe to bring back pieces of monuments and historic sites to preserve their memory and glorify the newspaper's prestige. The fragments are embedded in the building's exterior facades, labeled with their origin. The collection grew through donations and acquisitions, including bricks from Wrigley Field, metal from the World Trade Center, and a moon rock from NASA. Some acquisitions, like tiles from Pompeii donated by a private citizen and a rock from the Parthenon quarry donated by the Greek delegation to the first US International Fair in Chicago, are documented. Others, like a fragment from the Grotto of the Nativity in Bethlehem, were reportedly purchased clandestinely. The tower originally served as the Chicago Tribune's headquarters, later housed CNN and a radio station, and was converted into luxury condominiums in 2018.