Essex on the Park Building vs Salesforce Tower

Comparing the Essex on the Park Building and the Salesforce Tower is interesting because they both stand in Chicago, IL, and were completed within 4 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 Essex on the Park Building reaches 620ft (189m) with 56 floors above ground.

Salesforce Tower also offers more total built-up area, a total fo 1,449,994 sqf (134,709m²), which is about 829,994 sqf (77,109m²) more than what the Essex on the Park Building offers.

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 Essex on the Park Building 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 Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture 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.

The Essex on the Park Building is primarily residential, while the Salesforce Tower is primarily commercial.

The Essex on the Park Building offers 479 residential units.

The Essex on the Park Building also provides 177 parking spaces.

Both the Essex on the Park Building 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.