Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower is a Contemporary skyscraper designed by Goettsch Partners, and built between 1995 and 1997, for a reported $503 million dollars, in Chicago, IL.

Its precise street address is 300 E. Randolph St., Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 1997. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• Distinguished Building Honor Award – American Institute of Architects, Chicago Chapter in 1998
• Interior Architecture Award – American Institute of Architects, Chicago Chapter in 1998
• TOBY Award – Building Owners & Managers Association/Chicago in 2000
• Trustee Award – Chicago Architecture Foundation in 2007
• Development of the Year – Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards in 2010
• Merit Award for New Construction Chicago – Chicago Building Congress in 2011
• Building Team Platinum Award – Building Design & Construction Magazine in 2011
• Distinguished Building Award – American Institute of Architects, Chicago Chapter in 2011
• AIA - Local Awards in 2011
• Vision Award, Innovation – Urban Land Institute, Chicago in 2012
• Global Award for Excellence – Urban Land Institute in 2014

The building is one of a few in the city that uses his monumental high to communicate with the people of Chicago. Through its lighting system, the facade can display messages towards the city, turning the entire building into a huge, low-resolution screen.

The building underwent a major restoration between 2007 and 2010. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was James Goettsch.

Goettsch Partners was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower a reality:

• Magnusson Klemencic Associates in charge of Structural Engineering
• Walsh Construction Co as the Main Contractor
• Permasteelisa Group in charge of Facade Consultancy
• Mitsubishi Electric & Electronic as the company in charge of the elevators system
• Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) as the Main Developer
• Cosentini Associates in charge of MEP Engineering

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

That being said, and even thought being a contemporary building, probably taking advantage of modern materials, construction techniques, and technology, the design of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower is inspired by the international-style style.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

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 a blue-tinted glass curtain wall. The curtain wall extends uninterrupted on the long facades of the building, and is divided by marble-clad mullions on the short sides. Each module of the curtain wall is divided into transparent glass large pane at the top and a textured glass spandrel below it. The spandrels are delimited by two ribbons of white glass, which create a horizontal striped pattern.