155 Harbor Condominium

The 155 Harbor Condominium is a Modern Style skyscraper designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, and built between 1972 and 1975 in Chicago, IL.

155 Harbor Condominium is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Harbor Point.

Its precise street address is 155 North Harbor Drive, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

Together with the Lake Point Tower, which was completed in 1968 just a few blocks away, the Harbor Condominium is another example of the possibilities of curved curtain walls. This goes back to some of the exploratory exercises that Mies van der Rohe, a big influence in the adoption of this type of facade, had been playing with back in 1922 in Berlin.

Solomon Cordwell Buenz was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

The 155 Harbor Condominium can be categorized as a Modern Style building.

By their own nature, the Modern and International Styles can still look current, even in contemporary buildings. So that's not to say the 155 Harbor Condominium appeared old or outdated when it was completed, but Solomon Cordwell Buenz certainly did not take many risks when it came to choosing the design style. This made the building look more "classic" and integrated within the city's architecture.

The 155 Harbor Condominium uses a frame structure made of concrete columns and beams.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features metallic black spandrels between rows of dark gray mirrored glass. The curved curtain wall, raises on columns at the ground level, which allows the lobby to take a step inwards, creating a covered, yet open transitional space between the outside and the inside.

Other materials found at the 155 Harbor Condominium include, rose granite, used on the lobby's floors, beige stone, found in large panels covering the lobby's walls, and wood, seen in some details of the lobby, such as the concierge desk, residents' mailboxes, or the staircase railing.