“The Wrigley Building’s most striking features, however, were the two hundred high-powered incandescent projectors mounted on adjacent buildings throwing over twenty-five million candlepower onto its facades and making the building visible – indeed, unavoidable – from the riverfront and Michigan Avenue.”

– Thomas Leslie: Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934.

How brash. How bold. How audacious. How… American. A self-made man accumulates millions of dollars from selling 5-cent packs of chewing gum and builds a gargantuan, shining beacon in the center of the country’s architecture mecca. That wasn’t enough though. He wanted to shine 200 flood lights onto it so that it could be seen from miles away even in the middle of the night. Not only did he want people to admire his accomplishment amongst its many other magnificent neighbors, he wanted to literally shine a spotlight on it. Every last corner and carving stood in stark relief, proudly inviting scrutiny and wonder from any passerby. With the exception of a few months during power shortages in the 1970’s, this tradition has continued every night for the past 100 years.

-Steven Snowden