Riding a construction elevator up the side of an unfinished high-rise is not for the faint of heart. Only a rattling wire cage separates you from the vastness below – the shrinking cars and pedestrians, the blue haze of the lake. The ride to the top of 600 North Fairbanks, the 41-story tower designed by German starchitect Helmut Jahn, offers a panorama of the condo towers underway in Streeterville: Cityfront Plaza, across the street, at 240 E. Illinois St.; Parkview, at 445 E. Illinois St.; and 550 St. Clair, among others.

If that elevator could somehow take you past the roof, into the downtown sky, you’d get a bird’s eye view of a city peppered with construction cranes. New Homes in mid-July counted at least 54 residential high-rise developments of 15 or more stories on the market. A dozen new-construction high-rises of 10 to 14 stories also are planned or under construction, and nearly 20 high-rise buildings are being converted from rental or other uses into condominiums. (more…)

For a high-rise to be successful, it must have three elements in harmony: location, architecture and layout.

So says Lucien Lagrange, the French-born architect with a range of high-profile Chicago buildings to his credit. For his latest design, Ten East Delaware, he aims to combine Gold Coast cache, neoclassical architecture and floor plans that respond to buyers’ lifestyles.

The 35-story high-rise underway at 10 E. Delaware Place has a sandy-colored French limestone facade with a pre-cast cornice, a style that evokes Chicago architecture of the 1920s. The detailing extends to the exterior of the ground-level garage.

"A building has to touch the ground in a very graceful way, so as you come down to ground, there’s a lot of detail," he says. "You want to design a building so it doesn’t hit the ground – it sits on the ground." (more…)

If you’re about to drop half a million dollars on a new condo, chances are you’re hoping for a room with a view.

Prospective homebuyers shopping the market in River North have plenty of high-end options, but not many of them have the kinds of sweeping views buyers tend to want downtown. The neighborhood’s stock of older loft buildings is mostly mid-rise, and on many blocks, zoning has capped new buildings around 14 stories. Superior 110, a glass-and-steel tower by JFJ Development Co. underway at the northwest corner of Superior and Clark streets, is an exception, clocking in at 27 stories.

The mechanics of Chicago’s zoning ordinance allowed JFJ to build tall on the former site of a police station. Because the buyer of the northern piece of the site constructed a building of just four stories, JFJ essentially was able to borrow the allowed height (or “floor area ratio”) not used by the other project. (more…)

New Construction Corner

Robert Frost wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

I think most homeowners would agree. The aphorism (from Frost’s 1919 poem “Mending Wall”) is something to keep in mind as you shop for a home in a high-rise. The owner of a house can build a fence or plant a row of trees to shut out his or her neighbors. The owner of a high-rise condo, living in a box stacked in a tower of other boxes, has no such recourse. If your neighbors are Metallica lovers or aspiring bagpipers, you could end up with some sleepless nights.

But there are steps developers can take to seal off what I’ll call the “owner’s envelope” – the floor, ceiling and walls of each unit – to limit sound transmission. (more…)

Trump brand, Skidmore design raise giant profile on prominent river perch

An awed "whoa" was Dana Sindha's gut reaction to Trump International Hotel & Tower, under construction at 401 N. Wabash Ave. in River North. The 27-year-old medical student was visiting from her home in Ohio for the first time in five years. The last time she was here, the squat, metallic Sun-Times building blighted this prominent spot on the Chicago River. "This looks like it's going to be pretty awesome. I love the blue," she said quickly, the sharp breeze off the river hustling her along. (more…)

Kargil hopes to make a splash with South Loop high-rise's spa amenities  

Another frenetic day at the office is finally over. Your head aches and you long to unwind. It's time to go home and plunge into your warm Turkish bath then chill out under your high-tech shower, programmed to simulate the roar of a thunderstorm. (more…)

CMK combines cutting-edge design with affordable prices in South Loop

On a recent January afternoon, a young woman in slim gray pants and a white fur-trimmed parka passed through a hallway at 1620 South Michigan, the sleek high-rise completed late last summer in the South Loop. She looked as if she might have been designed to go with the building, to match its white walls, clean lines and slabs of exposed concrete. (more…)

The area between Roosevelt Road and the Chicago River used to be reserved for business – civic or private – and living in a condo there would have been about as appealing to most Chicagoans as renting a tree house in Oswego. But after years of city investment in the Loop, a decade-long real estate boom and significant residential growth in surrounding areas, from River North to the West Loop, the Loop itself has emerged as a hot if nascent residential neighborhood. (more…)

Building: Vetro, 611 S. Wells St.
Buyer: Steve Ryan, creative director, VSA Partners
Because: For Steve Ryan, moving to the Loop was largely an aesthetic choice. For the last five years he has lived in a 100-year-old West Loop loft – a great place, he says – but he found himself craving "modern, clean lines." When Ryan saw a public television feature on Vetro, a 31-story glass tower on the edge of Printers Row, he was hooked. The simplicity seemed inspired by Mies van der Rohe, but to his practiced eye, developer and architect Roszak/ADC had "taken that Miesian aesthetic and contemporized it a bit." He also likes the building's "spa-like" amenities, the nearby vegetarian restaurants and the neighborhood's growth. "It's a convenient spot, close to bookstores, which I like." (more…)

RDM's 1400 N. Lake Shore Drive offers modern amenities in historic setting  

When RDM Development's Robert Mosky acquired the vintage Gold Coast apartment building at 1400 N. Lake Shore Drive, he saw an opportunity to convert its apartments into condos that combined Old World charm with 21st century technology. (more…)