Design and Architecture
The design of the building incorporates three setback features designed to provide visual continuity with the surrounding skyline, each reflecting the height of a nearby building. The first setback, on the east side of the building, aligns with the cornice line of the Wrigley Building to the east; the second, on the west side, aligns with River Plaza to the north and with the Marina City Towers to the west. The third setback, on the east side, relates to 330 North Wabash building (formerly known as IBM Plaza). However, some views distort the alignment of the second setback.a The setbacks and rounded edges of the building combat vortex formation which may occur in the "Windy City". The body of the building is raised 30 feet (9.1 m) above the main Wabash entrance and 70 feet (21 m) above the Chicago River. The building uses clear low-emissivity coated glass and a curved wing-shaped polished stainless steel mullion system that projects 9 inches (23 cm) from the glass line. It incorporates a brushed stainless steel spandrel panels and clear anodized aluminum.
The building has 2,600,000 square feet (240,000 m2) of floor space, rises to 92 stories, and houses 486 luxury residential condominiums. These include studio apartments, a mixture of suites with one to four bedrooms, and five-bedroom penthouses. The tower also features a luxury hotel condominium with 339 guest rooms. The building includes, from the ground up, retail space, a parking garage, a hotel, and condominiums. The 3rd through 12th floors house lobbies, retail space, and the parking garage; the 14th floor and its mezzanine hosts a health club and spa. The 17th floor through the 27th-floor mezzanine contain hotel condominiums and executive lounges. The 28th through 85th floors have residential condominiums, and the 86th through 89th floors have penthouses. A 1.2-acre (4,900 m2) riverfront park and riverwalk, along a 500-foot (150 m) space in the area adjacent to the building to the east, was opened in the first half of 2010. The park facilitates public assembly and entertainment activity while linking the building effectively with aquatic commuters.
In 2011, the riverfront park landscaping surrounding the building, which is referred to as Trump Plaza and Riverwalk or sometimes just Trump Plaza, became the subject of controversy. In 2010, the Plaza had earned special recognition at the Mayor Daley's Landscape Awards. The press release noted the landscaping for "for their magnificent new civic landscape that is a poetic interpretation of native Illinois that seems at once sophisticated and familiar." However, in 2011, the award-winning plantings of small sumac trees, ferns and native grasses with yellow, orange and red hues were removed and replaced with evergreens like junipers and boxwoods, pieces of gray stone, and purple perennials (catmint and salvia), which may require significantly less watering. To add to the controversy the planting was accompanied by a plan to light the trees to attract nighttime park visitors in conflict with the "dark skies" movement to reduce light pollution to facilitate better stargazing.
The building surpassed the record for containing the world's highest residence above ground-level, which had been held since 1969 by the nearby John Hancock Center. Because the Trump Tower has both hotel condominiums and residential condominiums, it does not contest the record held by the 79-story The Torch in Dubai, which, at 337 meters (1,106 ft), is the tallest all-residential building.
Read more about this topic: Trump International Hotel And Tower (Chicago)
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