If sculptor Constantin Brancusi had worked at a gigantic scale in turquoise-colored glass, the result might have looked something like Chicago’s St. Regis Tower. The 101-story supertall is artfully sculpted as three sleek, sensuous, shimmering spires of distinctive shape and graduated height. At 1,196 feet, the concrete-framed, glass-clad skyscraper, designed by Studio Gang, with bKL Architecture as architect of record, is the city’s third-highest after the 1,729-foot Willis (formerly Sears) Tower and the 1,389-foot Trump International Hotel and Tower, both by SOM. It is also the tallest designed by a woman anywhere. But its height, though impressive, is only one of several superlative qualities.
Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang’s founding principal, has a reputation as a creator of eye-catching forms, such as the undulating concrete slabs of Aqua, her first tower, which sits just one block away. But sensitive intervention in cities has always been a priority for Gang. “What if skyscrapers could be porous connectors,” she asks, “rather than barriers, for the public realm?” Not an easy task on this site, which straddles Lakeshore East, a 28-acre mostly residential enclave surrounding a 4.6-acre park, and Wacker Drive, a busy three-level road that runs along the south bank of the Chicago River. But Gang saw beyond the planning challenges to the urban opportunities. The greatest of these was to conceive St. Regis as the northern terminus of an axis that connects Lake Shore Drive to the Field Museum at the edge of Grant Park to the south. In doing so, she evoked the legacy of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Chicago Plan, which sought to create Beaux Arts order and splendor along Lake Michigan. She also created paths and vistas that open the space between Lakeshore East Park and the river.
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