77 West Wacker Drive

The Taller’s first skyscraper is the result of numerous studies on different American cities. A few years earlier, in 1985, the works of the Taller de Arquitectura were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum alongside the work of Léon Krier. On this occasion, the Taller gave itself the task of drawing up plans for a tower that would rise up from New York’s urban grid.

In 1990, Ricardo Bofill’s Taller finally had the opportunity to participate in the challenge presented by the vertical development of American cities and to construct a tower in a context that generated it. It was suggested that the Taller compete to build a skyscraper. By calling on the Taller, the goal was clearly to break with the coldness of the urban fabric, fragmented by steely emanations. It seemed the occupants of these buildings had grown tired of the glassy parallelepipeds that were massively reproduced throughout the 1970s. The Taller de Arquitectura thus moved into action in Chicago, alongside a promoter who could successfully ensure the project’s fulfilment.

In the first place, the spirit of such vertical architecture had to be expunged. Its main quality is to offer views over the landscape, both near and far. Transparency was therefore preferred over opacity in terms of proportions, so the façades would be made more of glass than stone. The Taller proposed an innovative exchange between classicism and the pragmatism of the United States, and the tower—destined to house the offices of several law firms—needed to reconcile memory with technology, the comfort of its occupants with the outline of the city.

The geometry of the tower’s proportions recalls the Campanile de Giotto, on the Piazza del Duomo, in Florence. Criteria of height, profitability, and cost were imposed, but urban planning regulations were less of a constraint than in Spain or France. This construction in the heart of a young city and in the abstraction of constraints imposed by the adjoining grid or a heritage building brought about new challenges for the Taller.

The tower had to reach a height of 167 meters. The building comprises 50 floors, served by 23 elevators and connected to each other by columns that are visible on the façade. For the most part the tower has glass façades, enhanced by lines from solid elements made of white granite, which occupy a quarter of the façade. The body of the building is divided by four double-horizontals forming three orders. The angles are hollowed out to offer a double orientation to a maximum of offices. The tower’s base and summit are especially emphasised. At the bottom, the building is open to the gaze of passers-by: it must be identifiable and fit in at street level. But up top is the signature: the spire that distinguishes the building and individualises it among the city’s general outline. The temple pediment clearly stands out against the blue of the sky.