The 474 North Lake Shore Drive is a Modern Style skyscraper designed by Dubin, Dubin, Black & Moutoussamy, and built between 1987 and 1990 in Chicago, IL.
474 North Lake Shore Drive is not the only name you might know this building by though. Between 1990 and 2005 it was also known as North Pier Apartments Building.
Its precise street address is 474 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.
Dubin, Dubin, Black & Moutoussamy 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 474 North Lake Shore Drive a reality:
The 474 North Lake Shore Drive can be categorized as a Modern Style building.
The modern style, also referred to as Modernism in the U.S. (distinct from the European Modernist movement), is characterized by minimal ornamentation, clean lines, and the use of materials such as glass, steel, and concrete. This style prioritizes functionality and the honest expression of materials and structure.
Modern architecture in the U.S. follows many principles of the International Style but with slightly less rigid rules than those of the purist European International Stylists like Le Corbusier, or even those who imported the style to the U.S. like Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius.
Modern skyscrapers often feature expansive glass curtain walls, open floor plans, and focus on volume over mass. This blend of innovation and simplicity defined the modern skyscraper, creating the sleek, functional urban landscapes prominent in mid-20th-century U.S. architecture.
By their own nature, the Modern and International Styles can still look current, even in contemporary buildings. So that's not to say the 474 North Lake Shore Drive appeared old or outdated when it was completed, but Dubin, Dubin, Black & Moutoussamy certainly did not take many risks when it came to choosing the design style.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 474 North Lake Shore Drive reaches an architectural height of 581ft (177m). It has a total of 61 floors.
Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1990, the 474 North Lake Shore Drive has mainly been used as Residential space.
The building includes a gym, an indoor pool, a sauna, parking, and a large terrace on the 16th floor with gas grills for residents' use.
The 474 North Lake Shore Drive has a total of 502 residential units throughout its 61 floors.
The 474 North Lake Shore Drive uses a frame structure made of concrete columns and concrete and steel 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 of the building however, is load bearing. This doesn't imply that it is a traditional load-bearing wall. Rather, it means that the structure's exterior pillars have been pushed to the very edges, becoming integrated with the facade, and therefore, technically, a part of it.
From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features precast concrete panels in dark gray, maroon, and pink tones, creating an abstract pattern.
The base of the tower combines those same precast concrete panels with exposed bricks.
