400 N Lake Shore: Chicago’s Newest Skyline Icon is Finally Fully Clad

追加: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]This is 400 Lakeshore. This sits at the mouth of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.

[00:00:09]This is a transformational skyscraper for the area because this is the site of the failed Chicago Spire.

[00:00:20]This was a plan back in 2008 for a 2,000-ft twisting mega tower.

[00:00:30]It failed and sat empty for 18 years. We are talking about a site where they dug a hole for the foundations of the building. It filled with water and just sat there fenced off and empty.

[00:00:52]And now we have this new skyscraper that has topped out at 858 ft.

[00:01:00]This is the north tower of a two-tower project. The south tower will be completed in the future, but this is the newest skyscraper to the Chicago lakefront area. So, this is pretty beautiful. And if we look at it, it is completely cladded. This is amazing to see because we watched this construction site come along after it being empty forever, and then watching this construction site come along and they do one floor every 3 days. They pour the concrete, and then the glass cladding comes right along behind it.

[00:01:49]And that is done using a unitized glass system. This means that every panel installed on this building was entirely fabricated, sealed, and tested inside a new Hudson Facades climate control facility in Pennsylvania. We are talking about panels that stand one story tall, which is typically 11 to 13 ft, and they are several feet wide.

[00:02:21]This project has some pretty big names on it.

[00:02:25]These are companies that I don't have any connection to, unfortunately. But, we are talking about Related Midwest as the developer. This is a company from New York, Related Companies, but Related Midwest, they are headquartered here in Chicago. The designer, the architects of the project is SOM, which is Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. That is the company that designed the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center.

[00:02:58]Then, we have general contractors R.L. Contracting and Boa Construction, and then Gable Forming for the concrete work.

[00:03:10]Now, let's look at what is being called cascading waterfall. These are asymmetrical stepping setbacks.

[00:03:20]These are for aerodynamic disruption. This is to prevent the swaying of the building from side to side. We are talking about the lakefront of Chicago. This is known as the Lake Michigan shoreline effect. When that lake goes across, blows across Lake Michigan, there is nothing to stop it from building up maximum velocity. And so, anything that sits here is hit with extreme wind force. So, this helps break up that wind and hopefully prevents some of that wind wall from going down the river. But, we are looking at the city of Chicago. This is such a beautiful place. This does not stand tall like Toronto has been doing.

[00:04:18]Uh we just don't have development moving quite at that pace. But, Toronto is seeing a massive uh population influx that we don't have. Chicago has a much more stable population. But, this is a lake sitting This is a city sitting on Lake Michigan. This is one of the Great Lakes and this is These are one of the biggest uh freshwater sources in the world. So, uh everybody living in Chicago absolutely loves being on the lake because we have such a beautiful lakefront to access it.

[00:04:59]But, as we turn here, we see the museum campus coming into focus and then we see some of that South Loop, uh which is uh steadily growing. And then, coming back around to the skyline of Chicago. But, this is Chicago. It's a pretty amazing place and I would recommend everybody come visit it here on a weekend. And uh thank you everybody for watching this video.