Wrigley Building / Tribune Tower

When the gleaming, white-enameled Wrigley Building was completed in 1922, it instantly became one of Chicago's favorite landmarks. Not to be outdone, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, long-time editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, was planning to move the newspaper's operations from an office building at the corner of Dearborn and Madison to a more upscale home on Michigan Avenue just north of the Chicago River. In 1922, his company announced an international competition that attracted 285 architectural designs submitted from 115 countries in an effort to fullfill his desire to create the world's most beautiful and eye-catching office building. New Yorkers Raymond Hood (who would later build the Big Apple's Rockefeller Center) and John Howell, won first place with their neo-gothic design that was initially criticized for going against the less ornate European style that had dominated Chicago architecture after the Great Fire of 1871. All dissenting opinions were put to rest on July 6, 1925, when the striking Tribune Tower opened its doors to the public and became an immediate fixture in the city's skyline. Rising 473 feet above Michigan Avenue, the tower's base contains more than 200 stones taken from many of the world's most famous monuments including the Great Wall of China, the Alamo, the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Roman Coliseum.