A New Book Preserves the Lost Interiors of Ebony and Jet’s Chicago Headquarters
Design Milk | 14.10.2026 06:11
For decades, Ebony and Jet were among the most important publications documenting Black American life and culture, making Johnson Publishing Company the era’s most influential Black-owned media corporation. Completed in 1972, its headquarters at 820 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago gave that cultural presence a physical form. More than 40 years later, photographer Barbara Karant began documenting the now-abandoned building, capturing its kaleidoscopic patterns, mirrored surfaces, and remarkably intact 1970s interiors. Her photographs are now collected in 820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon, a new monograph from MW Editions that preserves the building and its design legacy.
