Jeanne Gang’s glass ceiling reaches 93 stories in height.
She broke that barrier when construction began Wednesday on the renowned Chicago architect and MacArthur fellow’s Vista tower, a 1,144-foot, 93-story hotel and condominium development projected to be the tallest building in the world designed by a woman.
Vista would be the third-tallest building in Chicago, exceeded only by Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower and for decades the world’s tallest building) and a relatively recent addition to the Chicago River’s edge, Trump International Hotel & Tower. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, measuring 2,722 feet to its tip, is the world’s tallest skyscraper.
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Studio Gang’s design features three frustums, creating eight corners at street level but a slender new peer for Chicago’s tallest towers.
Magellan Development Group/Studio GangGang’s Vista, estimated to cost $950 million, is a venture between Chicago-based Magellan Development Group and Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group.
The project will be the biggest real estate investment by a Chinese company in the U.S., according to Chen Xu, chairman of the China General Chamber of Commerce USA, reported in Crain’s Chicago Business.
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Once built, the frustum-shaped tower will include a hotel and 406 condo units priced starting at roughly $1 million and reportedly rising to $18 million for select apartments, according to the developers. A frustum is the portion of a solid shape that lies between one or two parallel planes cutting that shape (think of a cone without its tip).
Gang has compared some of the shapes in her firm’s Vista design to the frustum in a Toblerone chocolate bar.
A planned amenity suite will occupy the building’s entire 47th floor and will include many of the features that high-end buyers already demand, plus a few more: a fitness center and Lake Michigan–facing pool, screening room, demonstration kitchen and private dining area, plus a wine storage and tasting facility.
Gang’s design team earned accolades for a wavy reimagining of the steel-and-glass box with its mixed-used residential tower called Aqua. Opened in 2009, Aqua stands a stone’s throw from the Vista site.