The Willis Tower, originally and still commonly referred to as the Sears Tower, is a 110-story, 1,451-foot (442.3 m) skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building, a title that it held for nearly 25 years. It is the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the 23rd-tallest in the world. Each year, more than 1.7 million people visit the Skydeck observation deck, the highest in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations.
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least 100 meters (330 ft) or 150 meters (490 ft) in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise buildings. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s. Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces.
The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.
Streeterville is a neighborhood in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, north of the Chicago River. It is bounded by the river on the south, the Magnificent Mile portion of Michigan Avenue on the west, and Lake Michigan on the north and east, according to most sources, although the city of Chicago recognizes only a small portion of this region as Streeterville. Thus, it can be described as the Magnificent Mile plus all land east of it. The tourist attraction of Navy Pier and Ohio Street Beach extend out into the lake from southern Streeterville. To the north, the East Lake Shore Drive District, where the Drive curves around the shoreline, may be considered an extension of the Gold Coast. The majority of the land in this neighborhood is reclaimed sandbar.
The Trump International Hotel and Tower is a skyscraper condo-hotel in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The building, named for Donald Trump, was designed by architect Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Bovis Lend Lease built the 100-story structure, which reaches a height of 1,388 feet (423.2 m) including its spire, its roof topping out at 1,171 feet (357 m). It is next to the main branch of the Chicago River, with a view of the entry to Lake Michigan beyond a series of bridges over the river. The building received publicity when the winner of the first season of The Apprentice reality television show, Bill Rancic, chose to manage the construction of the tower over managing a Rancho Palos Verdes–based Trump National Golf Course & Resort in the Los Angeles metro area.
Fazlur Rahman Khan was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, who initiated important structural systems for skyscrapers. Considered the "father of tubular designs" for high-rises, Khan was also a pioneer in computer-aided design (CAD). He was the designer of the Sears Tower, since renamed Willis Tower, the tallest building in the world from 1973 until 1998, and the 100-story John Hancock Center.
330 North Wabash is a skyscraper in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States, at 330 N. Wabash Avenue, designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. A small bust of the architect by sculptor Marino Marini is displayed in the lobby. The 52-story building is situated on a plaza overlooking the Chicago River. At 695 feet, 330 North Wabash is the second-tallest building by Mies van der Rohe, the tallest being the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower at Toronto-Dominion Centre. It was his last American building.
In structural engineering, the tube is a system where, to resist lateral loads, a building is designed to act like a hollow cylinder, cantilevered perpendicular to the ground. This system was introduced by Fazlur Rahman Khan while at the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), in their Chicago office. The first example of the tube's use is the 43-story Khan-designed DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building, since renamed Plaza on DeWitt, in Chicago, Illinois, finished in 1966.
The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton is a luxury residential skyscraper in Center City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At 518 feet (158 m), the 48-story skyscraper is the 12th-tallest building in Philadelphia, and the tallest residential tower in the city.
One Meridian Plaza, formerly known as the Fidelity Mutual Life Building, Three Girard Plaza and Three Mellon Bank Center, was a 38-story high-rise office building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The 492-foot (150-meter) tower was designed by Vincent Kling & Associates and completed in 1972.
North Pier was a retail and office complex located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The timber loft building, which lines the north side of Ogden Slip, was originally named Pugh Terminal and used as a wholesale exhibition center predating the Merchandise Mart.
One Bennett Park is a skyscraper at 451 East Grand Avenue, in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. The project was first announced as the building at 451 E. Grand Ave. in July 2014, approved in December 2014, and named One Bennett Park in October 2015. Both the building and the adjacent park are named for Edward H. Bennett, the Chicago architect and urban planner who coauthored the 1909 Plan of Chicago. The building topped-out in late 2018, and later opened in the spring of 2019. It is among Chicago's tallest skyscrapers.
455 North Park Drive or Loews Hotel Tower, also known as Loews North Park Drive, is a 54-story 569 ft (173.4 m) tall skyscraper located at 455 North Park Drive in Chicago, Illinois that is owned by Loews Hotels. The 52-floor building has 86,121 m2 (927,000 sq ft) of floor space. It has 400 hotel rooms, 398 rental apartments, and assorted ballrooms, bars, restaurants and parking spaces. All apartments were sold for $240.4 million. It is based on an L-shaped twelve-storey podium. It was the tallest building built in the city in 2015.
Optima Signature is a residential skyscraper in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side area in Chicago. The 57-story building is a joint venture between Optima Inc. and DeBartolo Development. It opened for occupancy in June 2017. The building has 490 units.
On 5 February 2019, a fire killed at least 10 people and injured at least 36 others at an apartment block on Rue Erlanger in Paris' 16th arrondissement, France, making it the deadliest fire in the French capital since 2005.
The Cook County Administration Building is a skyscraper located at 69 West Washington Street in Chicago, Illinois. The building, constructed between the years 1962 and 1964, is 475 ft tall, and contains 35 floors. It has a concrete structure. The building, engineered by Fazlur Khan of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is notable for innovating the tube-within-a-tube structural system.
