Essex on the Park is the first new building to be constructed along Chicago’s landmark South Michigan Avenue Streetwall since 1958. Rising 620 feet on the site of a former parking garage, it stands as the tallest building on Michigan Avenue south of the Chicago River. The 56-story mixed-use apartment tower is the residential component of a lifestyle development that also included the redevelopment and landmarking of the adjacent, 1961 Essex Inn and its repositioning as the 274-key Hotel Essex.

Key design goals were to construct a base that conformed to the scale of the Michigan Avenue street wall, and to lift the bulk of the tower above the Essex Inn and create a void to preserve the hotel’s southern views.

Essex is clad in layers of clear, tinted and patterned glass, and ornamented by specular metal fins, stepped elements and recesses.  The multiple materials echo, in a contemporary manner, the detail and interest of the neighboring vintage facades and the clean lines of International Style buildings represented along the Streetwall.  The Winter Garden, a 50’ section spanning four floors, features a cutout that provides a window through the building for the hotel’s guestrooms.

Certified LEED Silver as well as the fourth multifamily residential building in the U.S. to achieve WELL certification, this mixed-use project adds density and vibrancy to a formerly underutilized parcel, and has catalyzed the rapid redevelopment south of Roosevelt Road that is reshaping the city’s southern skyline.