Adolf Loos's Tribune Tower
Adolf Loos answered Chicago's skyscraper competition with a 122-metre inhabited Doric column.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Never Born
- Peak stage
- detailed preproduction
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
Adolf Loos's unbuilt entry for the 1922 Chicago Tribune headquarters competition.
The design transformed the ancient column into a modern high-rise, combining a monumental shaft with conventional office floors. It was a fully articulated competition submission rather than a joke, despite its startling literalism.
Existence timeline
The Chicago Tribune seeks a new headquarters through an international contest.
Loos designs a skyscraper as a monumental Doric column.
Howells and Hood win with a neo-Gothic tower.
The built Tribune Tower confirms the alternate path Chicago chose.
Drawings and models keep Loos's unbuilt proposal in architectural history.
Why it ended
The competition jury selected the neo-Gothic design by Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, leaving Loos's column unbuilt.
Last confirmed trace
Competition drawings and later models survive in architectural collections and exhibitions.
What it left behind
The project remains one of the most memorable unbuilt skyscrapers and a sharp commentary on symbolism, monumentality and historical form.
How we classified it
The proposed archive unit never reached ordinary public access in the form being documented.
The strongest verified milestone maps to detailed_preproduction under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.