This is the Wrigley Building, and it's here because a man who made his fortune selling chewing gum wanted you to NEVER forget about it.
William Wrigley Jr. built this in 1921, right at the corner where Michigan Avenue crosses the Chicago River. Prime real estate. Maximum visibility. The building isn't just white — it's aggressively white. It's six different shades of white terra cotta, arranged so the building gets brighter as it goes up, which makes it glow at night under the floodlights.
The effect is intentional. Wrigley wanted a building that was literally impossible to ignore. Mission accomplished.
Here's what's wild about Wrigley — the man started out giving away free gum as a bonus with baking powder sales. People liked the gum more than the baking powder, so he pivoted. That's it. That's the whole business insight. "People like the free thing better? Okay, I'll sell that instead." He died one of the richest men in America.
He also owned the Chicago Cubs, bought Catalina Isl
and off the coast of California because he wanted a place for spring training, and had this building designed to look like the Giralda tower in Seville, Spain, because he saw it once and liked it.
The clock tower has the largest clock faces in the city — each one is nearly 20 feet in diameter. Wrigley wanted people to be able to tell the time from across the river. He wanted to be useful AND impr
