BMO Tower vs Salesforce Tower

Comparing the BMO Tower and the Salesforce Tower is interesting because they both stand in Chicago, IL, and were completed within 2 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The Salesforce Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 817ft (249m) with 57 floors above ground, while the BMO Tower reaches 728ft (222m) with 51 floors above ground.

Despite being taller and having more floors, Salesforce Tower has less total built-up area than BMO Tower.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the BMO Tower and the Salesforce Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Contemporary style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Goettsch Partners and Pelli Clark & Partners followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

Both the BMO Tower and the Salesforce Tower were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

The BMO Tower also provides 324 parking spaces.

Both the BMO Tower and the Salesforce Tower rely on a Frame structural system.

A frame structure uses a grid of columns and beams to carry the building's loads. This frees the walls from structural duties, allowing for flexible floor plans and larger windows.

They also employ the same type of facade, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.