Residential towers · Chicago, IL · 2022
Ashland House
A slender residential tower shaped by a compact core and a remarkably efficient perimeter.
The load path
How the building
stands.
Ashland House carries typical residential floor loads down its 42-storey, 136 m tower through the Level 4 podium transfer slab to the concrete core, perimeter columns and 28 m caissons bearing on rock.
The section is simplified; the values shown are representative design forces and dimensions for the primary load route.
- Typical floor · 4.8 kPa
- Level 4 podium transfer slab, 1.2 m deep
- Concrete core + perimeter columns · 21,000 kN
- Caissons to rock · 28 m
Project story
Design to deliveryThe challenge
The developer sought more daylight and usable floor area without sacrificing stiffness, constructability or the neighborhood scale at the tower base.
Engineering approach
We tuned the reinforced-concrete core and perimeter columns as a single lateral system, then transferred the tower loads around a generous ground-floor public passage.
The result
The 42-story frame keeps typical floors clear and repetitive, while a carefully resolved podium transition gives the tower a human-scaled street presence.
Project photographs
Next project · Adaptive reuse