For decades, Ebony and Jet served as foundational publications in documenting and shaping the landscape of Black American life, history, and culture. As the flagship magazines of the Johnson Publishing Company, they established the enterprise as the most influential Black-owned media corporation of its era, projecting powerful images of achievement, style, and identity into homes across the nation. In 1972, this profound cultural presence took on a permanent architectural form with the completion of the company’s corporate headquarters at 820 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. More than 40 years later, photographer Barbara Karant gained access to the now-abandoned building, embarking on a meticulous documentation of its kaleidoscopic patterns, preserved mirrored surfaces, and remarkably intact 1970s interiors. Her striking photographs are now collected in 820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon, a comprehensive new monograph published by MW Editions that serves to preserve the building and its extraordinary design legacy before time and redevelopment erase it entirely.
The significance of the 820 South Michigan Avenue headquarters was palpable long before anyone ever crossed its threshold. Publisher John H. Johnson encountered considerable resistance from traditional real estate agents and conservative bankers who were wary of financing a major downtown real estate venture spearheaded by a Black-owned company. Refusing to be deterred, Johnson ultimately commissioned John Moutoussamy, who made history as the first Black architect to design a prominent downtown Chicago high-rise. At a time when the urban landscape was rapidly filling with uniform glass-and-steel towers lacking local or cultural specificity, Johnson envisioned a building that communicated permanence, dignity, and distinct character. Moutoussamy successfully delivered on this vision, designing a structure distinguished by a restrained, elegant exterior clad entirely in travertine marble, projecting an understated authority along the Chicago skyline.
While the exterior of the building exuded refined restraint, stepping inside revealed an interior world that was remarkably expressive, vibrant, and daring. To shape these spaces, the company enlisted the renowned Palm Springs design duo Arthur Elrod and William Raiser. Rather than opting for standard corporate minimalism, Elrod and Raiser gave each of the building’s 11 floors a distinct combination of color, texture, and pattern, creating bespoke interiors that mirrored the Johnson Publishing Company’s expansive cultural ambitions just as much as its corporate identity. The employee cafeteria, for instance, paired striking orange, purple, and gold chevrons to create an energetic communal hub. Meanwhile, the office of co-founder Eunice Johnson was executed in an opulent palette of cream and honey, incorporating carefully curated pieces from the couple’s extensive private art collection. Throughout the various levels of the headquarters, geometric wallpapers, mirrored surfaces, bold patterned carpets, and richly finished materials appeared in harmonious yet daring combinations, establishing a workplace environment unlike anything else in corporate America.
Remarkably, a vast majority of this bold interior design remained completely intact and unaltered long after the Johnson Publishing Company finally departed the building in 2012 amid shifting economic landscapes in the media industry. Recognizing the historical and aesthetic value of what remained, photographer Barbara Karant began documenting the empty, silent headquarters in 2013, continuing her meticulous photographic study through 2018. With all the original furnishings, desks, and office equipment removed, Karant was able to focus her camera entirely on the architectural surfaces, textures, and details that defined the building’s unique character. Her images capture striking geometric wallpapers, mirrored dressing rooms that playfully distort space, and the Test Kitchen’s swirling laminate cabinetry, whose psychedelic patterning bears a strong visual resemblance to traditional Italian marbled paper. Across her compositions, strategic mirrors double and multiply motifs, while the sweeping picture windows of the executive floor frame expansive, dramatic views of Lake Michigan and Grant Park, anchoring the vibrant interior world within the natural geography of Chicago.
The inherent emptiness of the building plays a vital role in lending Karant’s photographs their unique emotional and artistic power. Stripped of the people, bustling editors, stacked magazines, and day-to-day administrative activity that once animated the headquarters for decades, the rooms transform into quiet, contemplative studies in color, pattern, and material. At the same time, they function as poignant archival records of a physical workplace and a monumental cultural institution that no longer exists in this specific form. The architectural spaces stand as silent witnesses to an era when Black media executives deliberately claimed space in downtown Chicago and outfitted it with an aesthetic confidence that refused to assimilate into the sterile corporate standards of the period.
The new monograph broadens this visual record significantly by incorporating historical documentary imagery that captures the original active interiors, as well as behind-the-scenes views of Ebony’s in-house photo studio where countless iconic portraits of Black leaders, artists, and public figures were captured. The book also highlights prominent site-specific art commissions from the era, most notably Richard Hunt’s striking lobby sculpture, Expansive Construction, which was installed in 1972 and speaks to the dynamic intersection of Black artistic excellence and corporate patronage. To ground these visual elements in human history, the volume includes candid recollections from former employees who share firsthand accounts of daily life inside the building, offering intimate glimpses into an empowering workplace culture. Furthermore, the book traces the enduring conceptual and aesthetic influence of the headquarters on subsequent generations of contemporary artists, including Theaster Gates, Hank Willis Thomas, Kwame Brathwaite, Lorna Simpson, Martine Syms, and David Hartt, demonstrating how the building’s legacy continues to resonate within the contemporary art world.
Spanning 240 pages, 820 Ebony/Jet brings together 142 rich color plates and eight black-and-white images. The publication is introduced by a thoughtful foreword written by artist Deborah Willis, alongside rigorous scholarly essays contributed by Aaron Bryant, Cheryl Finley, Carla Williams, Jon Ott, Brenna Wynn Greer, and E. James West. Together, the text and imagery work in tandem to preserve a remarkable, often overlooked chapter of American design and architectural history. More than just a photo book documenting an abandoned structure, the monograph honors the physical environment that was meticulously crafted for two groundbreaking publications that fundamentally reshaped how Black American life was seen, documented, and celebrated on a global scale. Published by MW Editions, 820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of the Johnson Publishing Company, an American Icon is scheduled for release on October 13, priced at $65.
