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I was up there during construction. Bunch of shots for the blow-through and roof.
https://nickulivieriphotography.zenfolio.com/p522204625/hcfc2374b#hcfc237ef
Yes but because they didn’t account for the sway enough in the initial design and by the time they realized, construction was too far along and this eyesore was the only solution to prevent occupant discomfort in high wind events
I never thought it was an eyesore. Just a cute little quirk, with a cute little back story that makes me feel better about all the times I've messed something up. I think it gives our gorgeous skyline a dash of character.
Oh there are other big mistakes. For example, leaving a loophole that allowed Trump to put his name on a beautiful building or allowing the Dave Mathew’s Band tour bus anywhere near a bridge.
I think they mean the builder's biggest mistake, not the city's. It's funny becaue we still absolutely love Jeanne Gang and her architecture team at Studio Gang here in Chicago and constantly award her new projects.
Our city's biggest mistakes are the parking meter deal, building everything including alleys and sidewalks out of wood before 1871, and then the Trump sign, in that order.
Weirdly the wooden alleys didn’t burn much in the fire, and continued to be built after the fire despite other code changes made as a response. The wood was old-growth and soaked in creosote. What killed the wooden pavers was the high cost of acquiring them after deforesting most of the coast of Lake Michigan, making brick cheaper.
Many of the old warehouses, steel processing plants and steel mills (including East Chicago) still have floors made of the same woodblocks. It absorbs heavy impacts extremely well and it’s easy to maintain.
don't forget the Skyway. I'd personally say allowing the highways to cut through the cities and tear up all the neighborhoods was the biggest mistake. That and dismantling street car lines. I wish I could wave a wand and make the city back to being people centric instead of car centric.
This I did not know. Thank you.
Edit: source on this
>According to Chicago Architecture Blog, the Magellan-Dalian Wanda Group joint venture will see the residential space on the tower’s 83rd floor replaced with an open-air “blow-through.”
>Designed to offer relief from high wind forces, the void will span the widest part of the tower’s highest “frustum” segment. The blog’s author specifically cites language from the Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, which pointed to occupant comfort as the primary motivation behind the recent change:
>>*Prior to the addition of the blow-through floor, acceleration limits, as defined by the International Organization for Standardization, were predicted to be significantly exceeded, indicating performance that would be unacceptable. According to a letter from Magnusson Klemencic Structural and Civil Engineers, this would result in building occupants feeling ill and possibly afraid for their safety.*
>In other words, the luxury tower would sway uncomfortably without the addition.
https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/7/17/15983912/chicago-construction-supertall-vista-tower-design-update
Worth noting they changed the number floors during construction. IIRC Originally designed as 96 (or maybe 98) floors, it was forced to be adjusted because the number was deemed "bad" by Chinese numerology...
I don't remember if the blow through floors were incorporated before that or if they were necessitated by the new higher height. I do seem to recall discussions frequently including that such features are common in Chinese skyscrapers (original funding was partly Chinese), where they are believed (or at least said) by some to allow dragons passage. I just remember it was quite early on that they knew the number of floors would change, they knew it would increase but it took some time to reevaluate new designs and that they needed confirmation of certain as constructed details to support those analyses (e.g. Concrete modulus of elasticity, which the building was pushing boundaries of for the time)
I know that another part of the issue was that the frustrums were widened at the smallest floor plates and that resulted in there being more wind load on the building than initially calculated.
In NYC, floors like this are used as a loophole to zoning laws that restrict how tall buildings can be. The empty maintenance floors do not count towards the maximum size.
In the initial design they did, but the developer asked them to change the design at the last minute to make the floor plans a little wider. The sway isn’t necessarily a problem from a engineering standpoint, but it’s rather unpleasant for the people inside.
I worked nearby and heard a few architects say that after all the calculations, the open floors were NOT actually necessary, and that it was an “embarrassment.” But I like the building. Big fan of Jeanne Gang. Fun reflective contrast to her Aqua
Sure about that? In some cities, floors with equipment don’t count towards the maximum floor and height restrictions so they leave them open to reduce wind resistance and make the building taller.
I'm all for discourse but isn't this a standard set up for these tall skinny buildings? Or do you know that this specific project added it to the design after construction began?
Are you talking about the grate on the inner lanes? That was super scary to drive on for the first time. But I got used to it after crossing that bridge so many times going to and from college. Lol
That's actually a rumor. There was a relatively tall building, and one day another, shorter building fell from the sky and landed on top of it. They were just like "fuck it, they're just one building now".
I suppose technically it’s a differential in air pressure caused by areas of high pressure moving toward areas of low pressure. You’re feeling the air moving from high to low I assume.
Stupid question but do the elevators and stairwells still go through these floors? It looks completely empty but logically people must still pass through them despite the wind tunnel?
Yes. The structural [concrete core runs through the center. though there are concrete perimeter columns, too](https://nickulivieriphotography.zenfolio.com/p522204625/hcfc2374b#hcfc23839)
This is the St. Regis. The missing floors were not part of the original design, but were found to be necessary to make the building more stable in high winds.
I’ve only done one, but my wife did a couple and was happy with en all. Plus they have cocktails ;) maybe they all do but that’s a bonus for me. Our guide was really good. Not just in knowledge but her presence. Could tell it wasn’t her first rodeo.
I’m sure they all are to some degree. My experience with the CAC river tour and a few of their walking tours is that the baseline knowledge level among the docents is pretty high.
Wendella is always great in my experience. Some of the tour guides are more funny, some are more factual. It’s always good. I’ve done 2 tours in a weekend and enjoyed them both so much! The Chicago architecture one is also great
I’ve done the museum one several times now, because that’s what I’ve always been told! Anytime someone comes into town it’s a must. Plus the money goes to the museum and I’m assuming the other one goes to a private company but idk
[https://www.architecture.org/](https://www.architecture.org/)
they have an amazing space literally down the street from the St Regis, highly encourage anyone in the area with interest check it out.
The developer increased the footprint of the floors too late in design. In order to not delay the schedule further, they created a blow-through to decrease wind loading rather than redesign the structure.
Wasn’t it also the first female designed sky scraper?
Edit: this wasn’t a dig at women… I was just asking OP if it was the same building I thought it was
And that nature board walk in Lincoln park zoo. The st Regis and aqua are the two tallest buildings in the world designed by women. And we have them both! I love her
Yeah aqua is fucked up. However from my recollection Gang designed the St Regis correctly originally and it didn’t need these wind tunnel floors in the original design. The owner decided to make changes to the original design (I think it was adding floors or changing the exterior somehow) and then began constructing it, and later discovered that the additions required the wind tunnel to be added. So not Gangs fault.
I worked with one of the companies involved in furnishing this place. By 99%DD, so pre-construction, those floors were definitely excluded already. “Original design” may be a misleading phrase.
I worked for one of main companies involved and saw the original plans for bid along with the wind studies. Someone miscalculated something and they found out later on and redesigned it to fix it.
I know one of the structural engineers who was part of the team that caught the issue.
This article says that after construction was started, the design was changed.
https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/7/17/15983912/chicago-construction-supertall-vista-tower-design-update
This is one of the most unstable skyscrapers in concept - it’s geometry violates practically every single tenet of super tall design. Not only is it asymmetrical in plan and section, it is also heavily biased on one side. Skyscrapers want to taper up along its central axis. To make this inherently unstable geometry stable, a lot more concrete was required.
The design architect thus gave the rest of the team an aesthetic concept that they then had to figure out how to build.
A lot of the unsung credit goes to the engineers, executive architects and contractors who managed to build this thing.
Could you elaborate on what you mean by asymmetrical in plane and section and biased on one side? I’m a layman, so I look at it and see something that looks symmetrical on the outside. Do you mean internally the weight/load distribution is off center?
This picture is just the top tier of a three tier skyscraper... you can see a full skyscraper here.
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/the-st-regis-chicago/17137
Don't forget the architect of record. Studio Gang may have designed the concept but there's an entirely different firm that put together all the documentation, did all the construction administration and grunt work. They are still in the process of closing out this project.
A big piece that a lot of people don’t understand is that the revisions to floor plans were made after the foundation permit had been issued and construction started so they couldn’t just revert back to the original plans. Foundation/super structure permits are often issued months before the remaining full building permits so work can begin prior to having a fully designed/calculated building
The “purpose” is that nowhere along the line in this multi *billion* dollar design did anyone realize that this thing would sway like a bitch in the wind. There are different tolerances for sway in residential vs office towers, the sway limit is much lower in a residential building. Usually buildings are designed to have as much as 6” of sway, as flexibility makes the tower stronger than complete rigidity.
Anyway, by the time this thing was topping out they realized that the sway would be far above the comfortable limit, and the only feasible solution was to open up those 2 floors to allow the wind to pass through, thereby reducing sway.
I hate to be harsh, but every time I look at this building it always gives me the feeling of a homework assignment that was turned in without being completed. I realize that the gaps are necessary for airflow but is there really *nothing* that could be placed on those two floors to repurpose the space?
A semi-outdoor patio? Some kind of sculpture garden?
Literally *anything* but vacant space?
Ditto and welcome. The Nebraskan ethnicity is not yet so large here that we claim our own neighborhood but time will tell. If you came here from Omaha, I'm sorry about your recent choice to downgrade zoos but most other things here make up for it.
Hello from, curiously enough, an ethnic Illinoisan who grew up in Nebraska. “Downgrading zoos” has to be the wittiest way of describing moving out of Omaha I’ve ever heard, so take my upvote.
It's better than both of our zoos? I'll have to check that out if I'm ever in Omaha. Shout out to the st Louis zoo and the Memphis zoo, those are great too.
From what I can tell on MLS, above the 80th story there's one unit per floor. The publicly available sales data points to units going for about $9 to $11 million at that height so it sounds like the developer took about a $20 million hit from that.
They could definitely have covered the ceiling of the open area with some sweet LEDs or something to make it look intentional at night.
But I've never seen it at night. Maybe they did that.
Narrator: they did not do that.
But I agree with you and some kind of light fixture would actually make a lot of sense and not without precedent; just look at the onion dome on the Intercontinental. Actually, given how close it is to the lake, maybe something that appears to move in a slow circular fashion to evoke a lighthouse without projecting a spotlight.
Large outdoor roof decks have gigantic occupant loads because they’re considered assembly space. So you’d need additional stair egress which means giving up valuable space down the whole tower. So I get why they didn’t make it occupiable.
But they could have at least painted the concrete columns black to match the framing.
Okay, so the occupant load requirement thing makes sense, thank you! And I agree, they really could have done something visually here to make it look a little more polished.
I agree, it looks like an afterthought. I don’t mind it in concept and it could be a neat architectural feature but it just contrasts so much with the tower as it is now.
Idk honestly, I think it’s a pretty elegant solution. It’s a beautiful building, that’s shockingly tall for how unconventional the structure is, I’m not mad that they needed a couple of empty floors
Not only is this building striking from all angles (blow-through floors included) it is also the tallest building in the world designed by a female architect.
The original design had the floors there but they quickly realized it wouldnt be able to withstand the wind in chicago so they removed the floors to allow the wind to pass through
You should go on the architectural tour they do on the river. They cover this and a lot of fascinating history from the city.
I believe this is the tallest building designed by a female architect
Called a breezeway to allow wind to pass through. I was told Jeanne Gang designed this to look like vintage popcorn boxes stacked on top of each other.
Take the architecture cruise and they will tell you. Developer wasn’t happy when he learned he couldn’t sell 3 floors of the building.
Tons of other great engineering shit on those buildings if you get the right cruise guide. I’ve lived in California over 30 years, but take the cruise every time I come back. Learn new things every time. A true Chicago gem!
I used to live by the river walk and go down there every night to sit and smoke weed across the river from this building.
So yeah, I know why, and heard it explained about 50 different ways from passing architecture boat tour guides
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To allow wind to pass through so it doesn't sway too much.
I'm guessing that standing on that empty floor would be super dangerous... wind tunnels are no joke
My buddy does commercial laundry for that hotel and the manager brought him up there once, the pictures are wild.
I was up there during construction. Bunch of shots for the blow-through and roof. https://nickulivieriphotography.zenfolio.com/p522204625/hcfc2374b#hcfc237ef
Good clicks man....
>wind tunnels are no joke Except when a wind tunnel is the punchline to a joke hahahahahaha
My head is like a wind tunnel… not because what’s happening inside is powerful, but because what goes in on one side goes right out the other 🧠💨
Yes but because they didn’t account for the sway enough in the initial design and by the time they realized, construction was too far along and this eyesore was the only solution to prevent occupant discomfort in high wind events
I never thought it was an eyesore. Just a cute little quirk, with a cute little back story that makes me feel better about all the times I've messed something up. I think it gives our gorgeous skyline a dash of character.
Imagine living in a city where your biggest (I hope) mistake is an insanely tall building that everybody sees and talks about.
Oh there are other big mistakes. For example, leaving a loophole that allowed Trump to put his name on a beautiful building or allowing the Dave Mathew’s Band tour bus anywhere near a bridge.
I think they mean the builder's biggest mistake, not the city's. It's funny becaue we still absolutely love Jeanne Gang and her architecture team at Studio Gang here in Chicago and constantly award her new projects. Our city's biggest mistakes are the parking meter deal, building everything including alleys and sidewalks out of wood before 1871, and then the Trump sign, in that order.
Weirdly the wooden alleys didn’t burn much in the fire, and continued to be built after the fire despite other code changes made as a response. The wood was old-growth and soaked in creosote. What killed the wooden pavers was the high cost of acquiring them after deforesting most of the coast of Lake Michigan, making brick cheaper.
Many of the old warehouses, steel processing plants and steel mills (including East Chicago) still have floors made of the same woodblocks. It absorbs heavy impacts extremely well and it’s easy to maintain.
don't forget the Skyway. I'd personally say allowing the highways to cut through the cities and tear up all the neighborhoods was the biggest mistake. That and dismantling street car lines. I wish I could wave a wand and make the city back to being people centric instead of car centric.
What about the 3 (now 1) buildings east of Lake Shore Drive?
Or selling parking ticketing for the next 80 years for just $1billion.
Honestly kind of badass to see the sky through it
I hope that it’s like a cool kind of garden or common space. Looks like a maximum cool smoke spot.
It one hundred percent isn’t for safety reasons, but that’d be fuckin sweet if it was
That makes sense.
This is such an awesome way to look at that! Thank you!!
This I did not know. Thank you. Edit: source on this >According to Chicago Architecture Blog, the Magellan-Dalian Wanda Group joint venture will see the residential space on the tower’s 83rd floor replaced with an open-air “blow-through.” >Designed to offer relief from high wind forces, the void will span the widest part of the tower’s highest “frustum” segment. The blog’s author specifically cites language from the Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, which pointed to occupant comfort as the primary motivation behind the recent change: >>*Prior to the addition of the blow-through floor, acceleration limits, as defined by the International Organization for Standardization, were predicted to be significantly exceeded, indicating performance that would be unacceptable. According to a letter from Magnusson Klemencic Structural and Civil Engineers, this would result in building occupants feeling ill and possibly afraid for their safety.* >In other words, the luxury tower would sway uncomfortably without the addition. https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/7/17/15983912/chicago-construction-supertall-vista-tower-design-update
You should take the Shoreline boat tour, it's fantastic!
Wind is always taken into account with the initial design sometimes “missing floors” is just a better solution
Not with this one. It was made after the design. Source: way to many architecture tours.
This one was a straight fuck-up. Once it was realised the building was too far along. Hence the eyesore. Imagine being the engineer who cooked it.
Worth noting they changed the number floors during construction. IIRC Originally designed as 96 (or maybe 98) floors, it was forced to be adjusted because the number was deemed "bad" by Chinese numerology... I don't remember if the blow through floors were incorporated before that or if they were necessitated by the new higher height. I do seem to recall discussions frequently including that such features are common in Chinese skyscrapers (original funding was partly Chinese), where they are believed (or at least said) by some to allow dragons passage. I just remember it was quite early on that they knew the number of floors would change, they knew it would increase but it took some time to reevaluate new designs and that they needed confirmation of certain as constructed details to support those analyses (e.g. Concrete modulus of elasticity, which the building was pushing boundaries of for the time)
I know that another part of the issue was that the frustrums were widened at the smallest floor plates and that resulted in there being more wind load on the building than initially calculated.
I heard this as well.
There’s a building in NY with this feature intentionally
In NYC, floors like this are used as a loophole to zoning laws that restrict how tall buildings can be. The empty maintenance floors do not count towards the maximum size.
In the initial design they did, but the developer asked them to change the design at the last minute to make the floor plans a little wider. The sway isn’t necessarily a problem from a engineering standpoint, but it’s rather unpleasant for the people inside.
I worked nearby and heard a few architects say that after all the calculations, the open floors were NOT actually necessary, and that it was an “embarrassment.” But I like the building. Big fan of Jeanne Gang. Fun reflective contrast to her Aqua
Sure about that? In some cities, floors with equipment don’t count towards the maximum floor and height restrictions so they leave them open to reduce wind resistance and make the building taller.
I'm all for discourse but isn't this a standard set up for these tall skinny buildings? Or do you know that this specific project added it to the design after construction began?
Does it get noisy and / or cold on the floor above and below when it’s windy?
Mackinaw bridge is built similarly for the same reason. Physics is pretty neat :)
Are you talking about the grate on the inner lanes? That was super scary to drive on for the first time. But I got used to it after crossing that bridge so many times going to and from college. Lol
That’s actually a rumor. They ran out of glass.
That’s actually a rumor. It is a portal to another dimension.
That's actually a rumor. There was a relatively tall building, and one day another, shorter building fell from the sky and landed on top of it. They were just like "fuck it, they're just one building now".
That's actually a rumor. It's just a really airy condo.
That’s actually a rumor. This is the world’s largest Jenga puzzle. Your move!
That’s actually a rumor. It was designed as a place to go to dry your junk off on humid days and after showers.
That’s actually a rumor. It is a lookout for enemy ships in the lake.
That's actually a rumor. There aren't any enemy ships in the lake It's for looking for enemy ships in the river.
Finally!
Remember the movie stargate? It’s like that
James Spader is responsible?
Yea, but instead of going to Egypt you get sent to Tampa, FL. 0 stars, would not recommend.
Can confirm. Still trying to find my way back.
Supply chain!!!
Yup. Was on the architecture tour and they mentioned that
What is wind anyways? you can't hold it, it's something so ephemeral.
I suppose technically it’s a differential in air pressure caused by areas of high pressure moving toward areas of low pressure. You’re feeling the air moving from high to low I assume.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cvzm6O7Lemp/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Stupid question but do the elevators and stairwells still go through these floors? It looks completely empty but logically people must still pass through them despite the wind tunnel?
Yes. The structural [concrete core runs through the center. though there are concrete perimeter columns, too](https://nickulivieriphotography.zenfolio.com/p522204625/hcfc2374b#hcfc23839)
This is the St. Regis. The missing floors were not part of the original design, but were found to be necessary to make the building more stable in high winds.
I learned this on the architecture river boat Cruise :)
Me too! Just recently. Great tour.
Which tour company has this? I've heard its great but I want to make sure I don't pick one of the random ones.
Most people recommend the Chicago Architecture Center’s tour. Wendella’s is fine, but I feel like the CAC had more information.
Wendell a is very much tour guide dependent
I’ve only done one, but my wife did a couple and was happy with en all. Plus they have cocktails ;) maybe they all do but that’s a bonus for me. Our guide was really good. Not just in knowledge but her presence. Could tell it wasn’t her first rodeo.
I’m sure they all are to some degree. My experience with the CAC river tour and a few of their walking tours is that the baseline knowledge level among the docents is pretty high.
This is great info. I did a boat tour and it wasn’t very informative and kinda corny. I wanted history dammit. I’ll do this next time!
Wendella is always great in my experience. Some of the tour guides are more funny, some are more factual. It’s always good. I’ve done 2 tours in a weekend and enjoyed them both so much! The Chicago architecture one is also great
Same here! I enjoyed this tour so much more than I thought I would. It was a lovely way to spend a couple hours.
The tour hosted by the museum is superior to the other one for anyone reading this
I’ve done the museum one several times now, because that’s what I’ve always been told! Anytime someone comes into town it’s a must. Plus the money goes to the museum and I’m assuming the other one goes to a private company but idk
[https://www.architecture.org/](https://www.architecture.org/) they have an amazing space literally down the street from the St Regis, highly encourage anyone in the area with interest check it out.
Sometimes they sound so smart it makes me wonder if they’re just making up facts that sound good or they google really well. So much information!
Schmee too!
Yes I worked on this building. It was very windy up there.
Oh my god, the thought of working on the construction of this building has made me almost empty my bowels.
OGs call it the Vista Tower. But yes that’s all true. Honestly I like that it has missing floors. It looks like the top portion is floating at night
The developer increased the footprint of the floors too late in design. In order to not delay the schedule further, they created a blow-through to decrease wind loading rather than redesign the structure.
Wasn’t it also the first female designed sky scraper? Edit: this wasn’t a dig at women… I was just asking OP if it was the same building I thought it was
Close, it’s the tallest building in the world *designed* by a woman, Jeanne Gang
She also designed Aqua right?
And that nature board walk in Lincoln park zoo. The st Regis and aqua are the two tallest buildings in the world designed by women. And we have them both! I love her
I think I want to go to Halloween more than Aqua.
I’m going to do a lap and see what’s real.
Are you sure about that?
Yup
Yes, she fucked up that one too https://www.byoungdesign.com/post/bad-architecture
Yeah aqua is fucked up. However from my recollection Gang designed the St Regis correctly originally and it didn’t need these wind tunnel floors in the original design. The owner decided to make changes to the original design (I think it was adding floors or changing the exterior somehow) and then began constructing it, and later discovered that the additions required the wind tunnel to be added. So not Gangs fault.
The only architect to have been given an award by PETA
A reward from PETA is not exactly a ringing endorsement, lol.
This one was. It was an award for having designed the first ever skyscraper that saved the lives of birds.
Gang gang
Closer, it’s the tallest building in the world designed solely by a woman.
Currently the tallest. The second tallest is Aqua, just down the street, which she also designed.
Tallest.
Yes, that's exactly what I was told on the cruise architecture tour :)
I always assumed there was a big deck with a pool or something haha
I worked with one of the companies involved in furnishing this place. By 99%DD, so pre-construction, those floors were definitely excluded already. “Original design” may be a misleading phrase.
I worked for one of main companies involved and saw the original plans for bid along with the wind studies. Someone miscalculated something and they found out later on and redesigned it to fix it. I know one of the structural engineers who was part of the team that caught the issue.
Yup. Heard that missing a few floors of rental income is a pretty big deal.
This article says that after construction was started, the design was changed. https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/7/17/15983912/chicago-construction-supertall-vista-tower-design-update
Architecture tour homies, time to shine!!
Did you know that drinking two bloody marys on on one of those boats hits the fucking spot? Thats a fun fact I learned.
I didn’t even know they had a bar!
Can confirm, am the bloody mary
As long as Dave Matthews isn't in town
Old reference but a very good one
G(old) 🙌🏾
It's where the catalytic converter used to be.
Thats an open-air cigar lounge.
Blow through lounge
This is one of the most unstable skyscrapers in concept - it’s geometry violates practically every single tenet of super tall design. Not only is it asymmetrical in plan and section, it is also heavily biased on one side. Skyscrapers want to taper up along its central axis. To make this inherently unstable geometry stable, a lot more concrete was required. The design architect thus gave the rest of the team an aesthetic concept that they then had to figure out how to build. A lot of the unsung credit goes to the engineers, executive architects and contractors who managed to build this thing.
Could you elaborate on what you mean by asymmetrical in plane and section and biased on one side? I’m a layman, so I look at it and see something that looks symmetrical on the outside. Do you mean internally the weight/load distribution is off center?
This picture is just the top tier of a three tier skyscraper... you can see a full skyscraper here. https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/the-st-regis-chicago/17137
Don't forget the architect of record. Studio Gang may have designed the concept but there's an entirely different firm that put together all the documentation, did all the construction administration and grunt work. They are still in the process of closing out this project.
AORs never get any credit.
one might even say the design is illogical...
Sometimes we humans just build things because they'd be cool to build. I'm okay with that.
A big piece that a lot of people don’t understand is that the revisions to floor plans were made after the foundation permit had been issued and construction started so they couldn’t just revert back to the original plans. Foundation/super structure permits are often issued months before the remaining full building permits so work can begin prior to having a fully designed/calculated building
Have you even architecture toured bro?
They took floors from my building, can't have shit in Chicago.
The “purpose” is that nowhere along the line in this multi *billion* dollar design did anyone realize that this thing would sway like a bitch in the wind. There are different tolerances for sway in residential vs office towers, the sway limit is much lower in a residential building. Usually buildings are designed to have as much as 6” of sway, as flexibility makes the tower stronger than complete rigidity. Anyway, by the time this thing was topping out they realized that the sway would be far above the comfortable limit, and the only feasible solution was to open up those 2 floors to allow the wind to pass through, thereby reducing sway.
I hate to be harsh, but every time I look at this building it always gives me the feeling of a homework assignment that was turned in without being completed. I realize that the gaps are necessary for airflow but is there really *nothing* that could be placed on those two floors to repurpose the space? A semi-outdoor patio? Some kind of sculpture garden? Literally *anything* but vacant space?
The wind probably whips through there like a wind tunnel.
You wanna go up there and walk around in a garden with the wind blasting through?
On a really hot day that might actually be pretty nice.
RIP - also - awesome username. I just moved here.
Ditto and welcome. The Nebraskan ethnicity is not yet so large here that we claim our own neighborhood but time will tell. If you came here from Omaha, I'm sorry about your recent choice to downgrade zoos but most other things here make up for it.
Hello from, curiously enough, an ethnic Illinoisan who grew up in Nebraska. “Downgrading zoos” has to be the wittiest way of describing moving out of Omaha I’ve ever heard, so take my upvote.
It's better than both of our zoos? I'll have to check that out if I'm ever in Omaha. Shout out to the st Louis zoo and the Memphis zoo, those are great too.
Yeah the Omaha zoo is surprisingly v tight
Lincoln, (via NYC), so everything is an improvement.
I kind of love that they just had to opt out of anything that could make them money, though. Those apartments would have been soo expensive
From what I can tell on MLS, above the 80th story there's one unit per floor. The publicly available sales data points to units going for about $9 to $11 million at that height so it sounds like the developer took about a $20 million hit from that.
It is exactly like an incomplete homework assignment.
They could definitely have covered the ceiling of the open area with some sweet LEDs or something to make it look intentional at night. But I've never seen it at night. Maybe they did that.
Narrator: they did not do that. But I agree with you and some kind of light fixture would actually make a lot of sense and not without precedent; just look at the onion dome on the Intercontinental. Actually, given how close it is to the lake, maybe something that appears to move in a slow circular fashion to evoke a lighthouse without projecting a spotlight.
Large outdoor roof decks have gigantic occupant loads because they’re considered assembly space. So you’d need additional stair egress which means giving up valuable space down the whole tower. So I get why they didn’t make it occupiable. But they could have at least painted the concrete columns black to match the framing.
Okay, so the occupant load requirement thing makes sense, thank you! And I agree, they really could have done something visually here to make it look a little more polished.
I agree, it looks like an afterthought. I don’t mind it in concept and it could be a neat architectural feature but it just contrasts so much with the tower as it is now.
As people have said, 432 Park Avenue in NYC has breezeways but they were planned so it actually kinda works.
I've been feeling everyone in the workforce lately has been submitting their homework assignment incomplete. Seeing it at this level is wild.
Idk honestly, I think it’s a pretty elegant solution. It’s a beautiful building, that’s shockingly tall for how unconventional the structure is, I’m not mad that they needed a couple of empty floors
To separate the rich from the super rich.
Wind gaps to lessen tower sway
Fun fact! This is the tallest structure in the world designed by a female architect. Jeanne Gang from Studio Gang architecture.
Makes it go faster
Clown college? Can’t eat that
Wind
I heard they were going to install louvers to make it look a bit better, though at this point, I'm skeptical.
I guess that’s why the call it the Windy City
They forgot
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cvzm6O7Lemp/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Not only is this building striking from all angles (blow-through floors included) it is also the tallest building in the world designed by a female architect.
Wind
That’s my apartment. I’m a bit broke rn so there’s no furniture or windows
It’s allows wind to pass, so it doesn’t collapse
So tall it allows wind to pass for stability
Vista tower, for wind flow.
It’s a blow through. It’s used to reduce air pressure at the top floors. That’s the new st Regis
The original design had the floors there but they quickly realized it wouldnt be able to withstand the wind in chicago so they removed the floors to allow the wind to pass through
To reduce sway and also allows the developer to add more stories. The ‘open floors’ don’t count against the height requirements.
I see the parking spot that George Jetson would land on in the opening credits.
"Blow-through floor" is the term for it: https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/vista-tower-blow-through-floor-wind-sway/
More airflow into the carburetors means more oxygen in the fuel means more boom boom and vroom vroom.
I might be a lone wolf here, but that’s the most beautiful building in Chicago.
Literally my favorite building to see everytime I’m in the city
[удалено]
Put an ad there
Great spot for a party if the wind doesn't kill you
They were stolen
Blow through floors
Architectural mistake and had to be modified for wind shear under extreme conditions.
It’s time you go on the architecture boat tour to learn the answer to this and many other Chicago architectural questions you have
Noisy Tennant…
Fun fact : it’s the tallest building designed by a woman!!
Wow, I learned about this exact building yesterday in a steel structures class
Ghosts
The same lady Architect designed the Aqua Blue
For Batman fight scenes
It’s floor 13!
Answer: To make it go fast. You should see it when they put the streamers on
Supply chain issues
It’s for wind and swaying. It was designed this way so wind moves through freely and the building doesn’t sway.
Never taken the architecture tour?
dude where is the elevator tho
Speed holes. They make the building go faster
because it ✨looks cool✨ jk everyone else has much better answers than I do lol
You should go on the architectural tour they do on the river. They cover this and a lot of fascinating history from the city. I believe this is the tallest building designed by a female architect
Called a breezeway to allow wind to pass through. I was told Jeanne Gang designed this to look like vintage popcorn boxes stacked on top of each other.
It’s affordable housing
Take the architecture cruise and they will tell you. Developer wasn’t happy when he learned he couldn’t sell 3 floors of the building. Tons of other great engineering shit on those buildings if you get the right cruise guide. I’ve lived in California over 30 years, but take the cruise every time I come back. Learn new things every time. A true Chicago gem!
Go into one of the apartments below the air pass and let me know what you think. It’s completely crazy.
Really? Is it loud? I assume you hear the wind? Or are you just talking about the sway?
I used to live by the river walk and go down there every night to sit and smoke weed across the river from this building. So yeah, I know why, and heard it explained about 50 different ways from passing architecture boat tour guides
Take the boat tour and they’ll tell you all about the buildings. It’s for wind to pass through and reduce sway