Design Assistance
840 North Lake Shore Drive
840 North Lake Shore Drive
840 North Lake Shore Drive is a 26-story luxury condominium tower overlooking Lake Michigan in Chicago’s prestigious Streeterville neighborhood. Designed by Lucien Lagrange & Associates and developed by Related Midwest, the building draws inspiration from Parisian boulevard architecture, featuring sculpted balcony railings, handcrafted detailing, and a distinctive mansard roof that crowns a lush penthouse terrace. Completed in 2004, it was honored with the Greater Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards’ “Multi-Family Residential Development of the Year” and has remained one of the city’s most sought-after addresses.
The predominant exterior material features rich architectural precast cladding manufactured by GATE Precast, which emulates natural French limestone and seamlessly integrates with the building’s natural stone base. Relief work in the precast exterior is showcased in the deep precast window returns and elegant precast cornices, while the turret on the building’s southeast edge features radius precast spandrel panels. This approach provided the warmth and elegance of limestone while streamlining costs, ensuring schedule control, and allowing for intricate detailing. Approximately 560 precast units, produced in Winchester, Kentucky, were shipped to the site for just-in-time installation as the reinforced concrete frame—engineered by Thornton-Tomasetti to withstand winds up to 127 mph—rose skyward.
The tower offers 73 expansive residences spanning 284,000 square feet, complemented by a health and fitness center, 24-hour attended lobby with concierge service, personal storage, and private wine storage. As part of the Residences on Lake Shore Park—alongside The Pearson and The Belvedere, both also produced by GATE Precast—840 North Lake Shore Drive helped define a new standard for luxury living in downtown Chicago. It also reinforced Related Midwest’s reputation for delivering architecturally distinctive, impeccably crafted properties that contribute to the city’s skyline and urban fabric. Its design and execution have earned praise for blending old-world elegance with modern construction innovation, standing as a testament to the durability, precision, and timeless appeal of architectural precast concrete.
AWARDS
- (2005) PCI Design Awards: Best Multi-Family Building
- (2004) Greater Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards: Multi-Family Residential Development of the Year
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LOCATION
Chicago, IL
ARCHITECT
Lucien Lagrange