Mather Tower
- Architect
- Herbert Hugh Riddle
- Year
- 1928
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- Chicago, IL
Mather Tower rose 521 feet at 75 East Wacker Drive in 1928, built as headquarters for the Mather Stock Car Company, which manufactured rail cars for shipping livestock. Designed by Herbert Hugh Riddle, it was briefly the tallest building in Chicago and remains the city's most slender high-rise, its base just 100 by 65 feet.
the building
The Inverted Spyglass. Chicagoans nicknamed the tower the "Inverted Spyglass" for its unusual profile: an 18-story octagonal spire set atop a more conventional 24-story rectangular base. The needle-like upper section, encouraged by the setback requirements of the 1923 Chicago Zoning Ordinance, holds the least square footage per floor of any skyscraper in the city.
the style
Mather Tower is a Neo-Gothic, terra-cotta-clad tower, its Gothic Revival detailing wrapped around an unusually narrow, needle-shaped structure rather than a conventional slab.
More on Gothic Revivalthe architect
Herbert Hugh Riddle (1875-1939) also designed the Chicago Theological Seminary; Mather Tower stands as his best-known contribution to the Chicago skyline.
nearby
- London Guarantee Building
- Chicago Motor Club Building
- Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist
- 333 North Michigan Building
- Old Republic Building
- Carbide and Carbon Building