The Guide: Chicago
September 1, 2005
Chicago became known as the mother of modern U.S. architecture after the Great Fire of 1871 leveled more than 17,450 wood-framed structures—giving the city a bittersweet opportunity to rebuild from the ground up. A subsequent law that banned any new non-masonry construction within city limits turned Chicago into a sturdy city of steel and stone, spawning advancements in technology that would lead to the birth of the skyscraper in the 1880s. The city remains a buzzing hive of architectural and design activity to this day (a recent 10-year research survey named 17,300 of the city’s buildings landmarks), and architects still flock to the Midwestern hub to follow in the footsteps of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, David Adler and Daniel Burnham, who helped shape the skyline. What follows is our insider’s guide to Chicago—all of the luxury design and real estate sources you need to make the city your home.
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Shedd Aquarium Oceanarium on Lake Michigan, Copyright Hedrich Blessing, Courtesy Goettsch Partners. (Click image to enlarge.) Layout
Living inside the city of Chicago usually means residing in a
skyscraper, the most coveted of which are on North Michigan Avenue and North
Lake Shore Drive. Mies van der Rohe’s twin towers on 860 and 880 Lake Shore
Drive set the standard for high-rise living when constructed in 1948, and are
still one of the most desirable addresses in Chicago. Newer buildings like the
Four Seasons tower and the Ritz-Carlton/Water Tower Place (Oprah lives on the
top floor) combine residences with five-star hotels and several stories of
indoor shopping. The city’s older skyscrapers and hotels in need of rejuvenation
are often redeveloped into luxury condominiums (LR Development is one of the
city’s most tenacious developers).
The rows of townhouses along Astor Street and North Lake Shore Drive make the Gold Coast (northeast of downtown) a secluded enclave and one of the most exclusive addresses in the city. Lincoln Park (further north) doesn’t quite offer all of the Gold Coast’s charm, but it does boast larger townhouses and more space to build new ones. For those who favor horizontal hedges over vertical views, just north of the city lie the affluent lakefront communities of Lake Forest, Glencoe and Winnetka, which are likened to Greenwich, Ct. with their country clubs and multiple-acre parcels of land.
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An aerial view from a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel. (Click image to enlarge.)
New residential buildings are being thoughtfully designed by top architectural firms eager to stamp the city with tomorrow’s landmarks. There is a good chance that Donald Trump’s eponymous tower will be numbered among them when completed in 2007. Skidmore Owings & Merrill (who also built the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building) is the architecture firm behind the $1,000-per-square-foot Trump residences, which will be completed in 2007, as well as the Prairie Crossing Community—a conservation community north of the city with 359 homes and 36 condominiums that use “green” construction; the EPA has named Chicago one of the nation’s top ten green cities because of its successful city planning that juxtaposes effective public transportation and pedestrian-friendly streets. Lucien LaGrange is currently working on 65 East Goethe Street (an eight-story, 14-unit Parisian-style luxury development). And Booth Hansen’s redevelopment of the historic Palmolive building will convert the 70-year-old, 37-story building into 103 luxury condo-homes (penthouses are priced at over $10 million).
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