One North Wacker Building

The One North Wacker Building is a Contemporary skyscraper designed by Goettsch Partners, and built between 1999 and 2002 in Chicago, IL.

One North Wacker Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as UBS Tower.

Its precise street address is 1 N Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

The One North Wacker Building has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 2002. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• Development of the Year by the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards in 2001
• Best Streetscape Addition by Chicago Magazine in 2002
• Award of Merit, Large Structure by the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois in 2002
• Merit Award for New Construction by the Chicago Building Congress in 2002
• Downtown Office Development of the Year by the by the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties in 2002
• Divine Detail Honor Award for the UBS Tower Cable Netwall, by the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2003
• Divine Detail Honor Award for the UBS Tower Planters, by the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2003
• General Design Honor Award by the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2007

At the time of its completion in 2002 the One North Wacker Building incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included an enormous glass wall of fifteen meters that confines the perimeter of the lobby space in 1.500 square meters of glass. This glass wall was a first in the United States.

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 One North Wacker Building a reality:

• Koz Sowlat in charge of Structural Engineering
• AMEC as the Main Contractor
• John Buck Company as the Main Developer
• Environmental Systems Design, Inc. in charge of MEP Engineering
• Peter Walker and Partners Landscape Architecture Inc. in charge of Landscape Architecture

The One North Wacker Building can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

The One North Wacker Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and steel 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 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 a glass curtain wall organized into several bays by the structural columns of the frame that have been pushed all the way out and are embedded into the facade. These columns are covered in polished steel.