Lake Point Tower

This article is about the building in Chicago. For the building of the same name in Dubai, see Lake Point Tower (Dubai).

Lake Point Tower
Lake Point Tower
General information
Location	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Coordinates	41°53′30″N 87°36′44″W / 41.89167°N 87.61222°W / 41.89167; -87.61222Coordinates: 41°53′30″N 87°36′44″W / 41.89167°N 87.61222°W / 41.89167; -87.61222
Construction started	1965
Completed	1968
Height
Roof	645 ft (197 m)
Technical details
Floor count	70
References
^[1]

Lake Point Tower is a high-rise residential building located on a promontory of the Lake Michigan lakefront in downtown Chicago, just north of the Chicago River at 505 North Lake Shore Drive. It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. It rises somewhat apart from the urban cluster of downtown Chicago in a composition that sets off and punctuates the skyline. The building is also the only skyscraper in downtown Chicago east of Lake Shore Drive.

Development

The architects for Lake Point Tower were John Heinrich and George Schipporeit, working under the firm name of Schipporeit and Heinrich; the two were students of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the best known architects of the Bauhaus movement and International Style school, who taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Lake Point Tower was completed in 1968, is approximately 645 feet (197 m) tall, and was the tallest apartment building in the world at that time. The project developer was William F. Hartnett, Jr., chairman and founder of Hartnett-Shaw Development Company, which was responsible for more than 260 residential and commercial real estate developments in the United States from 1961–1983.

Architecture

Lake Point Tower was inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s 1922 design for a glass-curtained skyscraper in Berlin. Schipporeit and Heinrich took van der Rohe's unbuilt office building concept and converted it to a residential building. Despite differences — Lake Point Tower is much taller than van der Rohe’s original project, more regular in form, and its exterior glass curtain wall is tinted — many consider it a Mies van der Rohe building executed by two of his protégés.

Because of its height and lakeside site, the skyscraper had to be designed to withstand high winds. At the center of the building is a triangular core, 59 feet wide, that contains nine elevators and three stairwells. This core holds all of the vertical weight of the building, allowing the perimeter pillars on the facade to be much smaller.

Radiating from the core are three arms that form an asymmetrical Y-shaped floor plan. The original four-armed design was changed to a three-armed design (120° apart). The outer walls are curved to prevent residents from seeing into other condominiums.^[2] The façade of the building is a curtain of bronze-tinted glass framed by gold-anodized aluminum, which reflects the sunlight off of Lake Michigan and looks golden.^[3]

Other features

Well known for its graceful curves and enviable location, Lake Point Tower is one of the most widely recognized Chicago landmarks, following the Willis Tower and the John Hancock Center, and the structure most closely associated with Lake Shore Drive. It is the only major private structure on the lakefront side of Lake Shore Drive and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future, given the city's prohibition on building on the lakefront.

Lake Point Tower was one of the first all-electric high-rise residential buildings in the world and pioneered the concept of the "Park in the City," being the first residential complex in a major city to have its own two-and-one-half acre park—including a playground, pool, duck pond, and waterfalls—three stories above ground. The building also features an assortment of shops and restaurants on the second and ground levels of the complex, under the third-floor park. Cite, a restaurant and bar on the top floor of the 70-floor residential tower, boasts spectacular views of the city and lake and serves gourmet French/American cuisine. The restaurant and lounge are open to the public.

Lake Point Tower's position between Lake Shore Drive and Navy Pier gives it unimpeded north, east, and south views that are protected, for the foreseeable future, by the ordinances controlling use of the city's lakefront. A wedge of the cityscape view to the southwest would have been lost to architect Santiago Calatrava's Chicago Spire, which was to be built diagonally across from Lake Point Tower on the other side of Lake Shore Drive. However, the spire project was a casualty of the nation's economic recession—construction was halted in October, 2008.

Movies shot on location

Lake Point Tower has been host to many film shoots including:

Raw Deal (1986 film)
Folks! (film), (1991)
Straight Talk, (1992) This film featured Dolly Parton and James Woods, and had Parton's character living in LPT.
While You Were Sleeping, (1995) Parts of this film, starring Sandra Bullock and Peter Gallagher, were shot in the building.
Meet the Parents, (2000)
Category 6: Day of Destruction, (2004) In an outtake of this film, it is destroyed by a tornado in news footage.
The Lake House, (2006) Hospital reception area filmed in LPT lobby.
Divergent (2014) Briefly shown abandoned and decayed in a future Chicago. Lake Michigan is shown to have transformed into a wetland in the same shot.

Famous residents

Lake Point Tower has been home to many affluent Chicagoans past and present, including:

David Axelrod, Political Consultant
Ryne Sandberg, former Chicago Cubs player
Sammy Sosa, formerly of the Chicago Cubs baseball team
Alice Cooper, rock singer, songwriter and musician
Ozzie Guillén, Chicago White Sox former player, manager
Andre Dawson, former Chicago Cubs outfielder
Scottie Pippen, former Chicago Bulls player
Goldie Hawn, actress
Kurt Russell, actor
Rich (Goose) Gossage, former Chicago White Sox pitcher
Mickey Rooney, film and stage actor
Joakim Noah, Chicago Bulls Center
B.J. Armstrong, former Chicago Bulls player
Helen Reddy, singer of I am Woman

Position in Chicago's skyline

The skyline of a city with many large skyscrapers; in the foreground are a green park and a lake with many sailboats moored on it. Over 30 of the skyscrapers and some park features are labeled.

References

↑ Lake Point Tower at Emporis
↑ Lepik, Andres (2005). Skyscrapers. Munich: Prestel. pp. 84–87.
↑ Blaser, Werner (1981). Mies van der Rohe: Continuing the Chicago School of Architecture. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag. pp. 224–27.

Schulze, Franz; Kevin Harrington (2003). Chicago's Famous Buildings. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p. 157.
Sinkevitch, Alice (1993). AIA Guide to Chicago. Orlando, FL: Hardcourt Brace & Company. pp. 117–18.
Skyscrapers, Antonino Terranova, White Star Publishers, 2003 (ISBN 8880952307)
In 2007, the American Institute of Architects listed Lake Point Tower as one of America's 150 favorite structures.

External links

Chicago Skyscrapers

Tallest towers	Aon Center Franklin Center John Hancock Center Trump International Hotel and Tower Two Prudential Plaza Willis Tower

Selected towers with 20 or more floors	35 East Wacker 55 East Erie Street 77 West Wacker Drive 111 South Wacker Drive 155 North Wacker 181 West Madison Street 311 South Wacker Drive 330 North Wabash 333 North Michigan 333 Wacker Drive 340 on the Park 401 East Ontario 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments 900 North Michigan 1700 East 56th Street ABN AMRO Plaza Allerton Hotel Aqua Bilandic Building Blackstone Hotel Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower Boeing International Headquarters Carbide & Carbon Building The Chandler Chase Tower Chicago Board of Trade Building Chicago Place Chicago Temple Building Chicago Title and Trust Center Citigroup Center City Hall Square Building Civic Opera House Coast at Lakeshore East CNA Center Crain Communications Building Dirksen Federal Building Field Building Fisher Building FOUR40 Four Seasons Hotel Chicago Harbor Point Hilton Chicago Home Insurance Building Hyatt Center James R. Thompson Center Joffrey Tower Kluczynski Federal Building Lake Point Tower The Lancaster LaSalle-Wacker Building Legacy Tower Leo Burnett Building London Guarantee Building Marina City Masonic Temple Mather Tower Metropolitan Tower Montauk Building NBC Tower Olympia Centre One Magnificent Mile One Museum Park One North LaSalle One North Wacker One Prudential Plaza Outer Drive East Palmer House Hotel Palmolive Building Park Tower The Parkshore Peoples Gas Building Pittsfield Building Plaza 440 Powhatan Apartments The Regatta Regents Park Richard J. Daley Center River East Center Roanoke Building and Tower The Shoreham Skybridge The Buckingham The Fordham The Heritage at Millennium Park The Grant The Pinnacle Three First National Plaza The Tides Time-Life Building Tribune Tower Virgin Hotels Chicago Waldorf Astoria Chicago Water Tower Place Wrigley Building

Chicago Landmark skyscrapers with 12 or more floors	Auditorium Building Brooks Building Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building Chicago Building Gage Group Buildings Heyworth Building Hilliard Towers Apartments Inland Steel Building Manhattan Building Marquette Building Marshall Field and Company Building Monadnock Building Mundelein College Skyscraper Building New York Life Insurance Building Old Colony Building Reliance Building Rookery Building

See also	Architecture Art Deco Chicago City Hall Chicago School Tallest buildings Washington Block

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