Wrigley Building

1.) Built in 1919 by Charles Beersman, the chief designer for firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White. The land was chosen by William Wrigley Jr. the owner of the Wrigley gum company as the company's headquarters (Northwest corner of Michigan Ave)
2.) Other buildings built by the firm in Chicago: Merchandise Mart, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Civic Opera House and the old main Chicago post office. In other states: Terminal Tower in Cleveland and the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas. The firm is known for its classical taste and elegance that has withstood multiple generations of critics. The buildings are still popular favorites today.
3.) Historical and architectural significance: William Wrigley Jr. originally started out as a soap alesman who gave away free baking soda to poeple who bought soap. People liked the soap so much that he sold baking soda instead. The gum that he gave away with the baking soda became so popular that he created a gum company. This was extremely successful and the Wrigley building stills erves as the company's headquarters and a memorial to Wrigley. For 75 years the building has been one of America's most famous office towers.
4.) What it's made of: The Wrigley building is built of 250,000 individually glazed terra cotta tiles. Each tile is in a database which tracks its location and determines when each one needs maintenance. Terra cotta is a ceramic material that has been used for building construction since ancient times. Terra cotta translates to “baked earth” and is made from natural clay, which attributes to its brown-red color. It is a waterproof and durable material. It is semi-permeable to air and water. Over the years, natural forces have weathered and destroyed the tiles. The tiles began to develop cracks because of the changes in Chicago’s temperatures. Water then began to seep through the cracks, and mortar caused the iron shelves which supported the tiles to rust. The rust then began to expand which created even larger cracks. When winter came, the water turned to ice. Because of this, in 1984 the Wrigley company began replacing each individual tile with plastic replicas.
4.) Clay is a sedimentary rock. Large deposits of clay are formed by sedimentary deposition after they have been transported from their original location.
5.) Clay is a naturally occurring substance made of fine-grained minerals. Clay is formed over a long time by the chemical weathering of rocks.
6.) Interesting facts:
Inspired by the Seville Cathedral’s Giralda Tower in Spain.
It was the first office building to be air conditioned.
It was the first large office building North of the Chicago river
Part of the movie "The fugivite" was filmed on the lower level
It's illuminated at night, and the colors correspond alot of the time with holidays.
Generations of Wrigleys have worked in the building. The company has been passed on from father to son for the past 4 generations.