The Wrigley Building

394 pages

An in-depth look at America’s historic skyscraper and Chicago’s most iconic building.

This is the captivating story of the spectacular architecture of the century-old Wrigley Building—its design, construction, and enduring significance as one of Chicago’s most emblematic buildings. Through meticulous research and spectacular photography, the book unearths a century’s worth of architectural, social, and business history, shedding light on many aspects of the Wrigley Building for the first time.

The Wrigley represents the high-water mark of Beaux Arts Classicism in the city, a gleaming white palazzo at the head of Chicago’s grandest boulevard, Michigan Avenue. With lavish terra-cotta ornamentation, it was Chicago’s tallest building when it opened in 1921. The book focuses on the intertwined stories of William Wrigley Jr., the larger-than-life founder of the chewing gum empire, and Charles Gerhard Beersman, the relatively unknown architect who, mentored by architect Julia Morgan, brought the building to life.