Wolf Point East Tower

The Wolf Point East Tower is a Contemporary skyscraper designed in 2012 by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, with Fred W. Clarke as lead architect, in association with Pappageorge Haymes Partners, and built between 2017 and 2020, for a reported $380 million dollars, in Chicago, IL.

Wolf Point East Tower is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Wolf Point Tower C.

Its precise street address is 313 W. Wolf Point Plaza, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

In 2021 the Wolf Point East Tower was awarded with the Award of Merit Residential/Hospitality.

The building was originally designed to be a mixed use building. However its function was revised before construction began and turned into a purely residential tower.

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, with Fred W. Clarke as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Pappageorge Haymes Partners.

But that's not all, there was also a whole team of architects involved, which included: Greg Biancardi, Sebastian Curria, Enzo Figueres, Cory Frost, Joshua Kuhr, Elizabeth Schneider, Connor Treanor, Mark R. Shoemaker, AIA, and Darin C. Cook, AIA .

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 Wolf Point East Tower a reality:

• Magnusson Klemencic Associates in charge of Structural Engineering
• Walsh Construction as the Main Contractor
• Hines as the Main Developer
• Cosentini Associates in charge of MEP Engineering
• Wolff Landscape Architecture, Inc. in charge of Landscape Architecture
• Soucie Horner, Ltd. in charge of Interior Design

The Wolf Point East Tower can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

The Wolf Point East Tower uses a frame structure made of 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 a continuous blue-tinted reflective glass curtain wall. The concrete slabs behind the curtain wall are marked by a light-colored aluminum stripe every 3 floors. 2 types of modules make up the curtain wall. One has a single, fixed, floor-to-ceiling pane, and the second one is divided into a fixed glass spandrel and a larger one above it.

The tower's shape incorporates a series of vertical and horizontal setbacks, adding visual interest and depth to the facade.