engineering

Wrigley Building

Wrigley Building is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wrigley Building rather than just read about it. In short: The Wrigley Building is a commercial skyscraper located at 400–410 North Michigan Avenue on Chicago's Near North Side. It is located on the Magnificent Mile directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower.

Key takeaways

Wrigley Building belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wrigley Building to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wrigley Building from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Wrigley Building is a commercial skyscraper located at 400–410 North Michigan Avenue on Chicago's Near North Side. It is located on the Magnificent Mile directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower. Its two towers in an elaborate style were built between 1920 and 1924 to house the corporate headquarters of the Wrigley Company. Its bright white facade is covered in terra cotta.

History When ground was broken for the Wrigley Building in 1920, there were no major office buildings north of the Chicago River. The Michigan Avenue Bridge, which spans the river just south of the building, was still under construction. The land was selected by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. for the headquarters of his company. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White using the shape of the Giralda tower of Seville's Cathedral combined with French Renaissance details. The 425-foot (130 m) south tower was completed in September 1921 and the north tower in May 1924. Walkways between the towers were added at the ground level and the third floor. In 1931, another walkway was added at the fourteenth floor to allow for a rearrangement of Wrigley's offices. The two towers, not including the levels below Michigan Avenue, have a combined area of 453,433 square feet (42,125.3 m2). The two towers are of differing heights, with the south tower rising to 30 stories and the north tower to 21 stories. On the south tower is a clock with faces pointing in all directions. Each face is 19 feet 7 inches (5.97 m) in diameter. The building is clad in glazed terra-cotta, which provides its gleaming white façade. On occasion, the entire building is hand washed to preserve the terra cotta. At night, the building is brightly lit with floodlights. The Wrigley Building was Chicago's first air-conditioned office building. If one walks through the center doors, one will enter a secluded park area overlooking the Chicago River. In the 1957 science fiction film Beginning of the End, giant grasshoppers attack downtown Chicago, and in one scene are shown climbing up the side of the Wrigley Building. The Wrigley Building was sold in 2011 to a group of investors that includes Zeller Realty Group and Groupon co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. The new owners made the building more attractive to businesses by adding a Walgreens, a coffee shop, a fitness center and a nursing room for mothers. In 2019, billionaire Joe Mansueto completed the purchase of the Wrigley Building.

Tenants Addresses at 400 North Michigan Avenue:

The Consulate-General of Austria resides in Suite 707. The Consulate-General of the United Kingdom resided on the 12th and 13th floors of the Wrigley Building from 1996 to August 2011, when the Consulate-General relocated to another building on North Michigan Avenue. Select Model Management, located in Suite 700. Addresses at 410 North Michigan Avenue:

Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, housed in Suite 900. EZCall, a division of Kronos Incorporated, housed in Suite 660. Capax Global US Headquarters, housed in Suite 650. Perkins and Will

Gallery

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wrigley Building

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wrigley Building claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wrigley Building before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wrigley Building ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wrigley Building

In research: Wrigley Building appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wrigley Building in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wrigley Building is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1924 establishments in Illinois, Buildings and structures completed in 1924, Central Chicago, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wrigley Building outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Wrigley Building in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wrigley Building means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wrigley Building out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wrigley Building in simple terms?

Why does Wrigley Building matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wrigley Building?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wrigley Building.