Lawson House vs NBC Tower

Comparing the Lawson House and the NBC Tower is interesting because they both rise in Chicago, IL, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Perkins, Chatten & Hammond and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished over two decades apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of Chicago across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The NBC Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 561ft (171m) with 37 floors above ground, while the Lawson House reaches 272ft (83m) with 24 floors above ground.

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 Lawson House and the NBC Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

The NBC Tower was designed at a moment when the Art Deco style was already in decline, making it more of a lingering expression of the movement. In contrast, the Lawson House was built when the style still carried greater cultural weight.

The Lawson House is primarily residential, while the NBC Tower is primarily commercial.

Originally, the Lawson House was designed for residence, but over time it was converted to residential. The NBC Tower by contrast has maintained its original role.

The Lawson House offers 408 residential units.

The NBC Tower also provides 261 parking spaces.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.