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In the early-morning hours of July 4, while most people were still in their beds ahead of the Independence Day celebrations, residents of Kerr County, Texas, began fleeing for their lives. The county is located approximately 60 miles northwest of San Antonio and 90 miles west of Austin. At around 4 a.m. local time, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued an urgent warning of a flood watch that posed a severe threat to human life. Less than 90 minutes later, the Associated Press reports, parts of Kerrville City were seeing alarmingly high water levels. Soon the onslaught of rain sent waters rushing into the Guadalupe River, which flows through Kerr County and others, causing it to rise by 26 feet in under an hour, damaging homes and vehicles and leading to a staggering loss of life. Texas flooding death toll climbs The Kerr County, Texas, floods are among the worst that this area has experienced in nearly a century. And Kerr isn’t the only county affected. As of the time of this writing, at least 82 people from six counties, including Kerr, Travis, Kendall, Burnet, Williamson, and Tom Green, are confirmed to have died in the flooding, with many still missing. CNN reports that at least 28 children are among those who have died, including some who were attending the Camp Mystic summer camp near the Guadalupe River. Search and recovery efforts are still underway. How to help the Texas flood victims It will likely be days before the final death toll is known and many months or longer until the affected areas are cleaned and rebuilt. Until then, there are several ways to help the victims of the Texas flooding, including: The Kerr County Flood Relief Fund: This fund was set up by the Texas Hill Country Community Foundation to help the victims of the July 4 floods. Monies donated to the fund will be distributed to organizations that provide flood assistance, rescue efforts, and relief efforts. The communities supported through this fund include Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point, and Comfort. You can make a donation here. The American Red Cross of Central & South Texas: The American Red Cross is accepting donations. The Central & South Texas branch focuses on relief efforts in the area, including providing food as well as financial and travel assistance for those affected. You can donate to the American Red Cross here. The Salvation Army: The Salvation Army is providing myriad types of relief efforts in the areas affected by the flooding, including emergency aid, food and drinks, and other critical supplies. You can donate to The Salvation Army here. GoFundMe verified fundraisers: GoFundMe has set up a landing page featuring fundraisers that have been verified by the platforms Trust & Safety experts. A list of verified fundraisers for the July Texas floods can be found here. Kerrville Pets Alive: People arent the only ones affected by the flooding; animals have been, too. Kerrville Pets Alive is accepting donations that will help buy supplies for homeless pets in the area. You can make a donation here.
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E-Commerce
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. In the fall of 2019, as editor of Fast Company, I commissioned a package of stories on innovators working to reinvent and bolster capitalism to make it more equitable and environmentally sustainablethe theory being that a system that works for everyone is good for business and society. The print magazine featured a close-up photograph of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard with the provocative headline: Capitalism is dead. Long live capitalism. Six years later, those stories feel almost quaint, and Fast Company has published something of a rejoinder. Its summer cover story, How business for good went badand what comes next, explores the fall and future of so-called stakeholder capitalism, which posits that CEOs should lead their companies to serve not just shareholders but also employees, customers, suppliers, local communities, and the environment. (The story is behind Fast Companys paywall. Modern CEO readers who arent yet subscribers can access a one-day premium pass here.) Enlightened self-interest’s ROI In the piece, writer James Surowiecki highlights the shifting economic and political winds that have swiftly eroded diversity, environmental, and other societal initiatives. He writes: This reversal has been so fast and so dramatic that even many of the youngest mission-driven companies now look like relics of a bygone era, while the environment that spawned them feels like little more than a dream. Stakeholder capitalism isnt exactly dead, though. Proponents argue that business for good needs to be underpinned by benefits to the business such as cost savings or customer acquisition. “Most corporations are adopting ethical sourcing not because of values but because of enlightened self-interest, says Paul Rice, founder and former CEO of Fair Trade USA, and author of Every Purchase Matters: How Fair Trade Farmers, Companies, and Consumers Are Changing the World. They see an opportunity either to de-risk their supply chains or tap into the growing conscious-consumer segment that is looking for sustainable products.” Jonquil Hackenberg, CEO of Ellen MacArthur Foundation, similarly has argued that material security is one reason why companies should embrace the circular economy, which encourages companies and individuals to recycle, refurbish, and reuse materials. This pragmatic approach isnt a bad thing. Rice, who says he was disappointed with the Fast Company piece, argues that a new generation of businesses doesnt see a trade-off between profits and purposethey see ethical supply chains and sustainability as strategic advantages. It is also worth noting that self-interest never goes out of style. A hyperefficient supply chain that just happens to reduce emissions is sure to withstand investor scrutiny, corporate leadership changes, and even political antagonists. How is your business adhering to conscious capitalism? Is your business committed to conscious capitalism, and if so, how are you positioning your approach to shareholders? Send your ideas to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and well highlight examples in a future newsletter. Read more: stakeholder capitalism The business case for diversity isnt working Why Patagonia was Inc.s 2022 Company of the Year Stakeholder capitalism is entering a new era
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E-Commerce
Charles Beersman was thirty-one when he began designing the Wrigley Building, young even in those days for such a major commission. Why he was given this break is unknown. From the very beginning, however, it is clear that he developed close bonds with Peirce Anderson and William Wrigley. He likely started with a sketch, as he was taught by Paul Cret all those years ago at the University of Pennsylvaniaa quick drawing of the facade and footprint and probably a detail of the clock tower. But before that, he would have walked the site and reviewed all the data relating to dimensions and square footage. More importantly, he would have met with William Wrigley, probably more than once, and questioned him about his plans for the building and what he hoped it would convey in terms of the company and its product. Years later, Beersman would tell his daughter that Wrigley was his favorite client. It is easy to see why. Wrigleys approach to architecture was in many ways identical to his approach to marketing. Be anything but ordinary! Stand out, make people notice you, give them something that feels like a gift. And dont take yourself too seriously. For Beersman, it was an open-ended invitation to dig deep into his imagination and create something extraordinary. William Wrigley (Left) and Charles Beersman. Chicago debut Beersman would also have been aware that the building would be his debut in Chicago and would determine how he was regarded for the remainder of his career. Ironically, the architect would never again have the freedom he enjoyed with this project. The building was and is unique, the product of a certain moment and of personalities who came together to create a lasting work of art. It also marked the last time Beersman would channel his mentor, Julia Morgan, in so forthright a manner. (In some ways the Wrigley Building is Morgans Los Angeles Examiner Building lobby turned inside out.) The uniqueness started with a site that was both advantageous and problematic. Advantageous because of its visibility. Fronting on the river and a vast new plaza, whatever was built there would dominate the Near North landscape for miles. Problematic because of its shape and dimensions. A true Beaux-Arts building is by nature completely symmetrical. The Wrigley Building, however, is completely asymmetricalcockeyed all the way around, as Williams son, Philip, later characterized it. There was also the added challenge of the Wrigley being a four-sided building. Most buildings are four-sided, of course, but most are also designed to fit into a block or a corner where two or more of those sides will never be seen. When a building sits by itself, it is held to a higher standard. It becomes an object and a form of public sculpture. (Which, of course, is precisely what Wrigley wanted offices, yes, but also a building that would be the architectural equivalent of his illuminated sign in Times Square.) “Frozen music” In 1919, the height limit for buildings in Chicago was 260 feet, with a proviso that allowed towers and other ornamental features to rise to 400 feet. The building Beersman designed was 210 feet. It had eighteen stories, two of which were below street level. The eleven-story tower soared to 398 feet. If architecture is, as Goethe famously called it, frozen music, the Wrigley is a symphonya series of movements and crescendos culminating in an explosion of ornamentation at the apex of its clock tower. The tower is at the heart of the buildings undeniable grandeur. The facade of the Wrigley is divided into what was then the typical Beaux-Arts arrangement of base, shaft, and capital or cornice. There are ornamental stringcourses at the third, fourth, fourteenth, and fifteenth levels, and the four- teenth level includes a flock of terra-cotta eagles with wings spread wide that gently lift the upper floors. At the top is an exquisite grouping of unoccupied spires and setbacks that serve as a transition to the eleven-story tower. A magnificent four-sided clock with faces 20 feet in diameter occupies the eighth and ninth floors. The clock hands were made of pine soaked in oil and painted black. The hour hands are 7 feet long, and the minute hands are 11 feet long. The floor above the clock was officially unoccupied but was designated for use as an observation deck. Above that is a circular Greek temple, which in turn is topped by a lantern and a crocketed spire. The lantern originally contained a flashing red and white beacon that was visible for twenty miles. Upon completion the Wrigley was the tallest building in the city, although it would hold the title only briefly. Structurally, the Wrigley is a typical steel-frame Chicago high-rise of its period, with fifty caissons encased in concrete going down 100 feet to bedrock. But almost everything else about it derives not from Chicagoa city Beersman had never visitedbut from the metropolises Beersman knew best: San Francisco and New York. A mash-up of masterpieces The completed building is basically a mash-up of two Renaissance masterpiecesthe Château de Chambord in Frances Loire Valley and the Giralda Tower in Seville, Spainwith additional inspiration provided by McKim, Mead & Whites Municipal Building in lower Manhattan. Whether Beersman saw either of the first two on his 1914 sketching tour is unknown, but he would definitely have been familiar with the third, as he was living and working in New York when it was completed. The Château de Chambord is an immense 440-room castle built as a hunting lodge for King Francis I over a twenty-eight-year period starting in 1519. No definite architectural attribution has been found, but it is likely that Leonardo da Vinci played some role in the design. The artist and inventor lived not far from the site, and several of Chambords most notable featuresincluding an ingenious double staircase and a surprisingly modern latrine systemare described in da Vincis famous notebooks. The château is also renowned for its skylinea dazzling collection of highly ornamented turrets and towers executed in glistening white limestone that novelist Henry James described as an exaggeration of an exaggeration. And then there are the salamanders. Francis I took as his emblem the mythological salamander, a creature that supposedly could live in fire. Architectural historians have counted more than three hundred depictions of salamandersmany wearing crownsthroughout Chambord. Beersman would re-create many of these featuresincluding the salamandersat the Wrigley Building. The Giralda Tower began as a minaret for a mosque in 1198 but did not achieve its final form until it was renovated into a bell tower in 1528, long after the mosque had been converted into a Christian cathedral. The heavily ornamented square tower is constructed of brick and marble and is 323 feet tall. At the top is a 19-foot metal sculpture of a womanLa Giraldathat doubles as a weathervane. (The word giralda is Spanish for she who turns.) A collection of spare parts? Does this mean that the Wrigley Building is nothing but a collection of spare parts? Not at all. Château de Chambord, the Giralda Tower, and the Municipal Building represent ideas and archetypes that are endlessly mutable and adaptable. Beersmans geniusand the ultimate greatness of the Wrigley Buildingrelates to the uses he makes of these venerable models. For example, the original Giralda Tower has the weight and ruggedness one associates with load-bearing structures. Beersmans interpretation, however, which includes steel construction, has the lightness and opalescent beauty of a pearl necklace. Due to the Wrigleys irregular dimensions, it functions almost as a prism, with different views from different directions. The view from the south is romantic. One journalist wrote, At a distance of about a mile, one becomes suddenly conscious of the new presence . . . one can see the tower in all the airy grace of its many pinnacles and turrets much as one might glimpse the towers of some distant castle set on a rock. The east facade, meanwhile, provides the illusion of symmetry and has a compressed verticality thatcombined with the explosive energy of the clock towercreates a thrilling sensation of upward thrust. And then theres the north facade, which is startlinga huge, sharp dominating prow, for the Wrigley building is only five feet wide at that point, wrote one journalist. It seems to cut the air and to be slowly bearing down on the spectator with an awful majesty quite overpowering. It clearly references D. H. Burnham & Companys Flatiron Building in New York, another structure that makes a virtue of its irregular site. Radiating joy In a city of mainly dark brown and dull gray buildings, the Wrigley stands out for its bold coloration. The facade is enameled terra-cotta in six different shades of white, starting with snowy white at the base and gradually acquiring a yellowish tint as it rises. The effect, according to one observer, is as if the sun were always shining on its upper reaches. (In order to maintain this illusion in Chicagos then-sooty atmosphere, the china-like facade needed to be washed four times a year in the early twentieth century.) The facade was fabricated by the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company, a Chicago-based firm with a long history of working both with Burnham and with Graham, Anderson, Probst & White on such monumental projects as the Rookery Building (1888), the Reliance Building (1894), the Fisher Building (1895), the Railway Exchange Building (1903), the Conway Building (1912), and the Continental and Commercial National Bank (1912). The Northwestern Terra Cotta Company operated out of a multi-acre complex at the corner of Clybourn and Wrightwood Avenues on the citys north side. With more than 1,500 employees, it was the largest terra-cotta firm in the country. The president was Gustav Hottinger, a Viennese immigrant who was one of the original founders of the firm in 1887. The companys reputation was such that Northwestern or better was a standard phrase inserted into contracts by architects in order to denote quality levels. As the firm that fabricated much of the terra-cotta for the architect Louis Sullivans extravgantly ornamented buildings, Northwestern was used to impossible demands. But even for Northwestern, the Wrigleys incredibly dense and compacted ornamentation was a challenge. It is an astounding menagerie Beersman has assembled here. In addition to the omnipresent salamanders, there are lions, horses, rams, eagles, raptors, crocodiles, roosters, swans, and dolphins as well as a plethora of mythological griffins, dragons, and gargoyles. Also present are cherubs and winged putti, dancing youths, grimacing satyrs, and what look to be carnival masks. All of this is in addition to twisted columns, niches, flaming braziers, stacked vases, rosettes, balustrades, molten finials, and seashell and poppy-flower cornices that embellish every available surface. The building has extraordinary animation. It radiates joy. Night lights The wildlife is depicted both in motion and at rest and with close attention to detail. Taken together, the grouping suggests that Beersman had been storing up imagery for years and was determined to use every last bit of it on this one project. Architectural ornamentation is usually limited to walls and surfaces that can be seen from the street. The Wrigley, however, has great swathes of ornamentation on the roof and tower that are all but unviewable. The ornamentation is there, presumably, to provide authenticity. As at the Château de Chambord, its implicit model, the ornamentation is part of the architecture, not an expendable add-on. (The architects of the Renaissance believed such unviewable ornamentation was meant not for humankind but for God.) The final touch was the exterior lighting, and here Beersmans early training in electrical engineering proved critical. No one knows who suggested that the building be lit at night. But the obvious inspiration was Times Square, an area famous for its nighttime effulgence. Both Beersman and Wrigley had connections to Times SquareBeersmans apartment at Westover Court was just off the square, while Wrigley had been a prominent advertiser there for many years. The system Beersman installed consisted of 198 projectors with 500-watt lamps and 16 projectors with 250-watt lamps. The total power consumption was 103,000 watts, while the cumulative candle power was more than 25 million. The system added 30,000 dollars (about 437,000 dollars today) to the budget, and it was estimated that the annual cost of operating it would come in at just under 30,000 dollars. An architecture magazine of the period commented, Although [the buildings] appearance at any time is impressive, it is particularly so at night when fully illuminated by a system which is itself unique and which is said to be the most complete illumination of a single building in the world. . . . Certainly it is for the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. the most striking possible form of advertising, indelibly impressing upon the minds of tens of thousands of people daily the Wrigley Chewing Gum product. Functional and businesslike The final cost of the building was 3.79 million dollars (about 60 million dollars today), almost double the initial estimate from late 1919. At $1.22 per square foot, it was one of the more expensive office buildings of its time. Money did not appear to be a problem, however. The building carried no mortgage. Wrigley paid for it out of company reserves. The higher-than-average cost must have related to the wildly embellished exterior. It certainly wasnt due to the interior. One of William Wrigleys inflexible rules of marketing was that you only spend money where people can see it. Consequently, the building has no grand interior spacesno dining rooms or boardrooms, no ballrooms or auditoriums. It was built to be as functional and businesslike as possible. Inside, the first floorwhich is actually the third floor due to the elevated roadwayhad a modestly scaled entry lobby with a vaulted ceiling and six elevator banks that occupy about one-third of the total square footage. (The rest was left open for retail tenants.) The original floor was marble, and the original plaster walls had a minimal amount of Spanish Renaissance detailing. The only hint of extravagance were the bronze fittings by the Chicago Ornamental Iron Company, another firm with a long history of partnering with Burnham and Graham, Anderson, Probst & White on various projects. The companys contributions to the interior include the elevator doors, two chandeliers, a mail chute, and a clock suspended from the ceiling. The upstairs hallways, meanwhile, had marble floors and wainscoting and mahogany doors but were otherwise unadorned. A work of staggering beauty Great buildings are always revelatory, not only about the hopes and dreams of their makers but also about the cities where they are located. Anyone can make gum, William Wrigley Jr. famously said. The trick is to sell it. Chicago was the ultimate mercantile city and the Wrigley Building was conceived as a tribute to salesmanship. But it was also a place where a group of artists and craftspeople came together to create a work of staggering beauty and complexity. That has always been the sustaining tension of Chicago architecture: art in the service of business and business in the service of art. And then, every so often, a building comes along that expresses this formula so perfectly that it becomes what the Wrigley Building isa beloved landmark and a symbol of a city that dares to dream big.Adapted from The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon, by Robert Sharoff, William Zbaren, Tim Samuelson and John Vinci
Category:
E-Commerce
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