St. Regis Chicago

The St. Regis Chicago is a Contemporary skyscraper designed between 2014 and 2016 by Studio Gang Architects, with Jean Gang as lead architect, in association with bKL Architecture, and built between 2016 and 2021, for a reported $1.03 billion dollars, in Chicago, IL.

St. Regis Chicago is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Vista Tower.

Its precise street address is 363 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

The St. Regis Chicago has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 2021. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• CTBUH Awards in 2022
• Citation of Merit, AIA Chicago Design Excellence Awards, Architecture – XL Category in 2023
• Juror's Favorite, Most innovative Structure, excellence in Structural Engineering Awards in 2021

Studio Gang Architects, with Jean Gang as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with bKL Architecture.

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 St. Regis Chicago a reality:

• Magnusson Klemencic Associates in charge of Structural Engineering
• James McHugh Construction Co. as the Main Contractor
• Curtain Wall Design and Consulting and Lee Herzog Consulting in charge of Facade Consultancy
• Magellan Development Group as the Main Developer
• dbHMS in charge of MEP Engineering
• OLIN in charge of Landscape Architecture
• Gensler and HBA in charge of Interior Design

The St. Regis Chicago can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

The St. Regis Chicago 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.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features five different shades of blue high-performance glass, which create gradients that come and go as the building grows in height.

At the lower level, reflective metal panels direct light into the interior.