Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago)

A stainless-steel and glass supertall on the Chicago River whose three setbacks echo neighbouring buildings.

When it topped out in 2009 it was the second tallest building in the United States. It passed Chicago's John Hancock Center as the building with the highest homes in the world, a title it held briefly until the Burj Khalifa was finished. It has a mix of retail space, a parking garage, a hotel with 339 rooms, and condominiums.

Fitting in with the neighbours

The tower has three setbacks, steps where the building gets narrower, and each one lines up with the height of a nearby building. The first, on the east side, matches the cornice line of the Wrigley Building, and the second, on the west side, lines up with River Plaza and Marina City. This helps the tower blend into the skyline. The site at 401 North Wabash Avenue was once occupied by the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

A smaller plan after 2001

In 2001 Donald Trump announced that the skyscraper would be the tallest building in the world. After the attacks of September 11 that year, the architects scaled back the plans and the design was revised several times. The 339-room hotel opened with limited services on January 30, 2008, and with full services on April 28. The tower was topped out in late 2008, and construction was completed in 2009.

On the river

The tower is across the Chicago River from the Loop, the city's business district, and one block from the southern end of the Magnificent Mile. Its restaurant, Terrace 16, has a clear view of where the river meets Lake Michigan and of the four 1920s buildings around the Michigan Avenue Bridge. The whole height of the tower can be seen from boats on the river. In 2024, after a six-year lawsuit, a court ruled that its system for drawing in river water for cooling broke Illinois environmental law.

On the globe

The model shows the stepped glass-and-steel supertall tower beside the Chicago River.