Brian Callahan (Luxgnos.com)
Lake Point Tower - Chicago (8/24/09)
© Brian Callahan 2009 All rights reserved.
I couldn't walk past here without getting at least one shot of this. I think it is the most beautiful residential h-rise in the world.
Lake Point Tower was inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s 1922 design for a glass-curtained skyscraper in Berlin. Schipporeit and Heinrich took van der Rohe's unbuilt office building concept and converted it to a residential building. Lake Point Tower is much taller than van der Rohe’s original project, more regular in form, and its exterior glass curtain wall is tinted; however, the building owes much of its innovative design to the van der Rohe original - and because of the design's origins, many in Chicago still consider Lake Point Tower to be a Mies van der Rohe building, albeit executed by two of his proteges.
Because of its height and the fact that Lake Point Tower sits on the shore of Lake Michigan, the residential skyscraper had to be designed to withstand the high winds. At the center of the building is a triangular core that is 59 feet across in length, which contains nine elevators and three stairwells. This core also holds all of the vertical weight of the building. Because of this, the perimeter pillars on the facade do not need to be large as they only have to bear the vertical loads.
Radiating from the core are three arms, which form an asymmetrical Y-shaped floor plan. The original plan for the building was to be a four-armed design but was later changed to a three-armed design (120° apart) with the outer walls strategically curved to ensure that the various residents could not see into the other condominiums. The façade of the building is a curtain of bronze-tinted glass framed by gold-anodized aluminum, which reflects the sunlight off of Lake Michigan and looks golden.
Lake Point Tower - Chicago (8/24/09)
© Brian Callahan 2009 All rights reserved.
I couldn't walk past here without getting at least one shot of this. I think it is the most beautiful residential h-rise in the world.
Lake Point Tower was inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s 1922 design for a glass-curtained skyscraper in Berlin. Schipporeit and Heinrich took van der Rohe's unbuilt office building concept and converted it to a residential building. Lake Point Tower is much taller than van der Rohe’s original project, more regular in form, and its exterior glass curtain wall is tinted; however, the building owes much of its innovative design to the van der Rohe original - and because of the design's origins, many in Chicago still consider Lake Point Tower to be a Mies van der Rohe building, albeit executed by two of his proteges.
Because of its height and the fact that Lake Point Tower sits on the shore of Lake Michigan, the residential skyscraper had to be designed to withstand the high winds. At the center of the building is a triangular core that is 59 feet across in length, which contains nine elevators and three stairwells. This core also holds all of the vertical weight of the building. Because of this, the perimeter pillars on the facade do not need to be large as they only have to bear the vertical loads.
Radiating from the core are three arms, which form an asymmetrical Y-shaped floor plan. The original plan for the building was to be a four-armed design but was later changed to a three-armed design (120° apart) with the outer walls strategically curved to ensure that the various residents could not see into the other condominiums. The façade of the building is a curtain of bronze-tinted glass framed by gold-anodized aluminum, which reflects the sunlight off of Lake Michigan and looks golden.