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 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 columns 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. The outer walls are curved to prevent residents from seeing into other condominiums. 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.
Other features
Well known for its graceful curves and enviable location, Lake Point Tower is the only major private structure on the east side of Lake Shore Drive and likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future, given the city's rare occasions of building large structures on the east side of Lake Shore Drive. At the top of the building, on its 70th floor, is the upscale restaurant Cité. Lake Point Tower was one of the first high-rise residential buildings in the world to feature all-electric appliances and utilities 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. Lake Point Tower's position between Lake Shore Drive and Navy Pier gives it unimpeded views in all directions that are protected, for the foreseeable future, by ordinances controlling the use of construction exactly on the city's waterfront. On some sites such as Reddit, some have stated the tower appears to look like a fidget spinnerfrom the top. In actuality, the tower debuted in 1968, decades before fidget spinners debuted in 1993, so a better statement may be that fidget spinners look like the tower. Lake Point Tower likely inspired the fictional Merlaut Hotel featured in the video game Watch Dogs.
