City Approves First Robert A.M. Stern Tower for Chicago

Yesterday afternoon, the Chicago Plan Commission approved developer Related Midwest's proposal to construct a 65 67 story tower designed by New York's Robert A.M. Stern Architects at 451 East Grand Street in the Streeterville neighborhood. The approval signals the beginning of what will become the first highrise project designed by Stern for Chicago.

The precast concrete clad tower will contain 900 underground parking space and 350 residences — comprised of a mixture of condominium units and apartments. In addition to the tower itself, Related has committed to redeveloping the 70,000 square foot park next door with a design from noted landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. The tower will certainly stand in contrast to the plethora of new glassy towers that have gone up around the greater downtown area in the last several years, and along with the officially unveiled Wanda Vista perhaps marks a new wave of notable structures that will go up in Chicago. Related, who recently took control of the site of the failed Chicago Spire has also pledged to bring an "architecturally significant" tower to the location. At this point, it really doesn't matter if these projects are being funded by New York based or Chinese companies, it's just great to finally see some structures of significance going up in the Windy City.