Compiling notes from a recent Chicago Tribune trawl on 860-880 Lake Shore Drive and came across an article covering the buildings’ groundbreaking ceremony. Mies was, of course, in attendance, along with the local alderman and the sales agent from McCormick Managment, Robert McCormick, who would commission a house from van der Rohe in 1952. But these A-listers were, apparently, topped by another visitor, who made a tellingly dramatic entrance. According to the Tribune, Dec. 17, 1949:

“Part of the program will be the arrival of ‘Santa Claus’ by helicopter to present a six foot model of the proposed structures to Gordon Lang, president of the North Michigan Avenue association.

That’s a detail you don’t see in the history books very often, now, do you?