Onterie Center vs Lake Point Tower

Comparing the Onterie Center and the Lake Point Tower is interesting because they both rise in Chicago, IL, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Schipporeit & Heinrich, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than a decade 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 Lake Point Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 646ft (197m) with 70 floors above ground, while the Onterie Center reaches 571ft (174m) with 60 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 Onterie Center and the Lake Point Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Modern style.

Both buildings were completed when the Modern style was already past its peak. This makes them feel like late echoes of the movement, more reflective of continuity or nostalgia than of cutting-edge design at the time.

The Onterie Center follows a mixed-use model, combining residential, commercial, retail and hotel. In contrast, the Lake Point Tower has remained primarily residential.

The Onterie Center incorporates a -star hotel with 101 rooms. More information is available at the official website.

In terms of capacity, the Onterie Center offers 594 apartments, while the Lake Point Tower provides 725 units.

Both towers provide significant parking capacity, with Onterie Center offering 363 spaces and the Lake Point Tower offering 709.

The two buildings opted for different structural and facade solutions.

The Onterie Center uses a Trussed Tube system, which , while the Lake Point Tower uses a Frame system, that relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight.

And when it came to the facade, the Masonry went with a Masonry facade, which features a heavy masonry skin that gives it a more clasical look, while the Lake Point Tower opted for a Curtain Wall facade, that uses a lightweight glass curtain wall hung from the structure.