The Chicago Traveler

Today’s architectural marvel is the UBS Tower located at One North Wacker Drive, just across the Chicago River from the Heller International Building. Standing at 651 feet (199 meters) and designed by Lohan Associates, this 50-foot skyscraper has a jagged east profile, with “steps” at the 19th and 34th floors.
The tower’s lobby is also an incredible sight, bearing a 40-foot transparent wall made of square glass panes hanging on a web of cables and medallions. This cable system, the first of its kind in the United States, can stand the pressure of a wind speed of nearly 250 miles per …read more

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Last week, I told you about Chicago’s Aon Center. Right next door is another interesting building, the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Tower. In fact, original plans included an underground pedway that would connect the two buildings, but alas, it never came to be.
The Tower currently stands at 411 feet (125 m) with 32 floors, but that will soon change. The only office high-rise to be constructed in Chicago between ‘92 and ‘99, the structure was completed in 1997 and made to support 24 additional floors, to be built whenever Blue Cross Blue Shield needed the space. Thinking ahead, the designers chose …read more

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