Chicago's First Black‑Designed Downtown High‑Rise Becomes Cultural Archive After four decades, the empty tower at 820 South Michigan Avenue, once home to Ebony and Jet, is revisited and recorded by photographer Barbara Karant, preserving the legacy of a Black pinnacle of publishing and architecture. A four‑year milestone after the Civil Rights movement marked the opening of Chicago's first downtown high‑rise built by a Black architect, designed for a Black‑owned firm. The 11‑story tower at 820 South Michigan Avenue was home to the Johnson Publishing Company, a powerhouse that had published Ebony, Jet and Fashion Fair for decades. The founder, John H. Johnson, dubbed the building "the miracle on Michigan Avenue" because it was a triumph of Black entrepreneurship in a city that had long reflected white dominance.Epicenter of Black Culture and PoliticsOver the years the magazine's cover stars-Grace Jones, Prince, Donna Summer, Michael Jordan, Florence Griffith‑Joyner, and even President Barack Obama-made the tower a vivid epicenter of Black culture, politics and entrepreneurship. In the 2010s the company succumbed to financial pressures, selling its flagship magazines and its iconic physical assets to a venture‑capitalized holding group. Although the publishing ventures went digital, the former headquarters remained empty.Inside the austere modernist exteriors-crafted by architect John Moutoussamy-the vibrant interiors designed in the 1970s by Palm Springs duo Arthur Elrod and William Raiser had never been altered. Walls painted in bright chevrons, peacock‑feather motifs and swirling bands of orange, green and purple; floors carpeted in equally playful patterns; a cafeteria that drew pop‑culture elites; a photo studio that housed Ebony's legendary shooting crews.The space quietly stood abandoned after 2012, when the company declared bankruptcy and its last tenants packed out. Amid the emptiness emerged a quiet archivist, photographer Barbara Karant, who fell "obsessed" with the building's history and boarded the structure tens of times over nine years.Documenting the Abandoned HeadquartersShe roamed its floor plans, recording every detail in a series of photographs, archives and essays that would form the basis of a new book titled 820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon. The book busied itself with the idea that the tower was the heart and soul of Black America, a repository of creativity that lingered even in its vacant rooms.Karant shared that she felt a residual pulse of energy, a still‑alive spirit, resonating through the deserted hallways. The former headquarters was later sold to Columbia College Chicago, where Karant, then an adjunct professor, could return to the tower only in the cooler months due to the lack of air conditioning and heating.Inside the library on the seventh floor there were thousands of books about Black American and African history, while the cafeteria on the tenth floor remains a memory of when the building served celebrities and public figures. The tower's landmarked exterior survived redevelopment into residential units, leaving only the iconic rooftop sign and a subtle nod to its past. Today Ebony and Jet continue to appear in digital formats under new ownership.Preserving Black Architectural LegacyThe legacy of the Johnson Publishing Company remains a cultural touchstone and a testament to the power of Black architectural and editorial history, preserved in the photographs and narratives of Barbara Karant and the restless spirit of the building itself.