Columns of Chicago documents an architectural phenomenon in Chicago: the isolated column. The function of the columns ranges from memorial to commemorative to artistic. Narrow pages provide historical information above each of the pictured columns. The cover column was never built; it was Aldolf Loos’s entry to the Tribune Tower design competition of 1922.
Columns was printed in black, gray and brown inks. The brown printing plate was created, not simply to tone the image as in a standard duotone or tritone, but to pick out brown and orange elements in the original scene.
