Trump International Hotel and Tower
- Architect
- Adrian Smith
- Year
- 2009
- Style
- Contemporary Modern
- City
- Chicago, IL
The Trump International Hotel and Tower is a 100-story condo-hotel skyscraper on the Near North Side, built between 2005 and 2009 by Bovis Lend Lease and designed by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Donald Trump, for whom it is named, first announced in 2001 that it would become the tallest building in the world; after the September 11 attacks the plans were scaled back and revised several times before construction finished. It sits directly on the Chicago River, with views down the river toward its entry into Lake Michigan.
the building
Riverfront site. The tower stands beside the main branch of the Chicago River, looking out past a series of downtown bridges to where the river meets Lake Michigan.
Reality-TV construction manager. Bill Rancic, winner of the first season of The Apprentice, was given the job of managing the tower's construction as his prize, choosing it over managing a Trump golf resort near Los Angeles -- generating publicity for the project as it rose.
the style
The tower is a work of modern architecture, its glass-and-steel form shaped around the structural and mechanical demands of carrying a 100-story condo-hotel skyward -- the scale-driven design language typical of the era's supertall towers.
More on Contemporary Modernthe architect
Adrian Smith designed the tower as a partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; the commission put him at the helm of one of the tallest buildings raised in the United States in decades.
significance
At 1,388 feet including its spire, with a roofline at 1,169 feet, it is one of the tallest buildings in the United States -- the result of Trump's 2001 ambition to build the world's tallest tower, scaled down after 9/11 but still reaching supertall height when it topped out in 2009.