Just north of the Randolph & Aberdeen intersection in West Loop, Greystar Development’s 166 N Aberdeen Street can be seen rising past the second floor. The 21-story project involves a mixed-use package of ground-level retail and 224 total apartment dwellings. Greystar purchased this parcel, a former sausage factory, for $6 million from MCZ Development.
The edifice’s story begins almost exactly 100 years ago, when The Chicago Tribune newspaper held a public competition to design its new headquarters. The key guideline was to design the “most beautiful office building” in the world, with over 260 submissions vying for that title and a first prize of $50,000 (roughly $800,000 in 2021). The winning entry was the Neo-Gothic design by New York-based Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, whose dramatic Neo-Gothic design came to fruition with the tower’s completion in 1925. The Chicago Landmark would serve as the Tribune’s headquarters for another 93 years, up until its 2018 relocation to One Prudential Plaza. Upon the departure, the property was sold for $240 million to co-developers CIM Group and Golub & Company.
Coming in at spot number 20 in our year-end countdown of tallest construction projects is 166 N Aberdeen Street, a new mixed-use high rise near the western end of the Fulton Market District. Rising 241 feet to the top of its elevator overrun, the 21-story building has been planned by MCZ Development, and will provide ground-level retail and 224 total apartments. Replacing the now-demolished Fabbri Sausage Factory, the project recently broke ground and erected its tower crane.
Coming in at #26 on YIMBY’s year-end countdown of tallest active projects is the renovation of The Belden Stratford, a hotel-turned-residential building bordering Lincoln Park. Standing 16 stories and 176 feet, this iconic Beaux-Arts-style building was designed by Meyer Fridstein and completed in 1923 at the address 2300 N Lincoln Park West.
One of Chicago’s more common high-rise colors is the omnipresent beige that can be seen in large herds clustered in areas like River North and West Loop Gate. We recently looked at 600 N Dearborn in River North, where The Farallon’s owners have been repainting its exterior walls from a tan-like tone to a cooler dark gray. As seen in recent photos, the Presidential Towers at 555 W Madison Street in West Loop Gate have been receiving a similar treatment. All four of the 49-story, 461-foot-tall towers are transitioning to a medium-gray paint job along most of the exterior walls, as well as a secondary dark-gray at the base and top.
