In the October issue of New Homes Magazine, Dan Schuyler explores the challenges posed by the site of the Avenue East condo tower and the ways in which the developer and architect responded to them.
You might call Avenue East the condo building that could. The site, at 160 E Illinois St, in Streeterville, presented a set of unusual challenges, according to Arden Freeman of Built Form Architecture, the firm that designed the 26-story tower.
The half-acre footprint required building lot line to lot line, not uncommon in big-city development. However, Freeman says, that challenge was exacerbated by the InterContinental Chicago, the hotel that is virtually flush with Avenue East’s western wall. That required precision when digging the foundation, and it meant the new building had to be designed not to block the InterContinental’s east-facing windows.
Read more in New Homes Magazine’s Avenue East profile.