Morris Adjmi Architects

The two primary volumes that constitute this 31-story rental building balance the industrial history of Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood with the city’s rich Modernist tradition. The tower is clad in interwoven metal channels that recall the slender I-beams rising up Mies van der Rohe’s Lake Shore Drive Apartments. A secondary grid of metal panels subdivides the glass bays of floor-to-ceiling windows, creating a composition that echoes the façades of nearby warehouses and former manufacturing buildings.

The building’s podium more directly reflects the West Loop's context with ground-floor retail spaces and warm brick cladding that complements the existing streetscape. Above, three levels of parking are wrapped in perforated metal panels accented with metal cross bracing to give the garage a surprising depth and complexity. A large roof terrace transitions into the tower’s light-filled amenity spaces and offers views of the rapidly transforming neighborhood.