Mather Tower

Address: 75 E. Wacker Dr. Year Built: 1928 Architect: Herbert Hugh Riddle Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: March 7, 2001

This building is Chicago's most slender skyscraper, a "Jazz Age" silhouette against the city's dramatic skyline. Clad in Gothic-inspired terra cotta, Mather Tower is one of Chicago's finest "Modernistic" skyscrapers, combining modern form with lush historic ornament both in its exterior and interior. The form of this "needle" skyscraper was encouraged by the 1923 Chicago Zoning Ordinance which called for tall, slender, "setback" towers. Mather Tower's design-a tower with many shallow setbacks rising to a height of over 500 feet-epitomizes the verticality possible under this pioneering zoning ordinance.