Gwen Lux was 20 years old when she brought the gods to Michigan Avenue. It was 1929, and Lux and her husband Eugene had been commissioned to create sculpture for a 16-story skyscraper going up at 520 N. Michigan. The building’s architects, Frederick J. Thielbar and John Reed Fugard, wanted embellishment that would complement the art deco building’s sweeping vertical lines and setbacks.
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The Luxes responded with a celebration of strength and grace. Their three heroic figures, Helios, Atlas, and Diana, are muscled, modern interpretations of the Greek and Roman originals. Carved in relief on limestone panels, they were placed three stories above the entrance, where they still stand, anchoring the building’s soaring piers. A winsome ring of zodiacal figures a floor below completes the scheme.
Now her gods might be falling. A mighty deity of retailing needs a doorway on Michigan Avenue, and developer John Buck plans to raze the McGraw-Hill Building to provide it. Greg Merdinger of the John Buck Company says it is “feasible” that the Lux work could be saved and incorporated in a new building, though no such plan has yet been developed.
