One Museum Park Building

One Museum Park
  1. About the One Museum Park Building in Chicago
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectural style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The One Museum Park Building is a Contemporary skyscraper designed by Pappageorge Haymes Partners, and built between 2005 and 2009 in Chicago, IL.

One Museum Park Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as One Museum Park.

Its precise street address is 1201 South Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

Building's timeline

Construction begins
2005
19
Construction completed
2009
15
years ago
2024

Architect and team

Pappageorge Haymes 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 One Museum Park Building a reality:

  • Bovis Lend Lease as the Main Contractor
  • Manntech in charge of Facade Consultancy
  • The Enterprise Companies as the Main Developer
  • Cosentini Associates in charge of MEP Engineering

Architectural Style

The One Museum Park Building can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

Contemporary style architecture builds on top of the principles of Modernism and Postmodernism, but incorporates other variables which might not have been that important in the past, but certainly are today, such as technology, sustainability, inclusivity, and others.

From a historical point of view, it is hard to categorize things from a not-so-distant time, and therefore we choose to categorize most buildings built after the year 2000 as "Contemporary". It is possible that as time goes by and we, as a society, gain perspective on the things happening today, we'll be able to look back and recategorize all these buildings into more concrete subsections, some of which might not even exist today.

That being said, and even thought being a contemporary building, probably taking advantage of modern materials, construction techniques, and technology, the design of the One Museum Park Building is inspired by the postmodernism style.

Spaces & Uses

The One Museum Park Building reaches an architectural height of 725ft (221m), with the last accesible floor being 636ft (194m) off the gorund. It has a total of 64 floors, 62 above ground and 2 basements, served by 5 elevators.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 2009, the One Museum Park Building has mainly been used as Residential space.

About the residences

The One Museum Park Building has a total of 298 residential units throughout its 62 floors.

725ft (221m)
636ft (194m)
2 basements

Materials & Structure

The One Museum Park Building uses a frame structure made of reinforced 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.

Non-structural Curtain Wall Facade
Non-structural Curtain Wall Facade

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a blue-and-gray glass curtain wall reflecting the sky and water.

The building has an organic-shaped floor plate, which translates to a slightly curved facade that's divided into several panes that intersect with each other, creating concave and convex surfaces and edges that emphasize the verticality of the building. This feeling is also reinforced by the setbacks that happen through the elevation and which make the silhouette of the building narrower as it reaches the top and finished with an illuminated silver elliptical peak.

Sources

  • www.related.com
  • architizer.com
  • es.wikipedia.org
  • www.architectmagazine.com
  • www.rgconstruction.com