Inside and out, innovation abounds at the Trump Organization’s hotel/condominium development near Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence.”

Daniel Burnham, the influential architect and urban planner whose vision continues to influence planning in Chicago, said those words in 1910. Nearly 100 years later, developer Donald Trump, a man who certainly makes no little plans, will make his imprint on the Chicago skyline.

Trump's eponymously named International Hotel and Tower, when completed in 2008, will occupy one of the most high-profile pieces of real estate in the country, towering over Chicago's Michigan Avenue, the famed “Magnificent Mile.”

The 92-story high-rise, being built on the former site of the Chicago Sun-Times building, will feature 472 “super-luxury” condominiums, from studios to seven-bedroom penthouses. It will also be the site of the Trump International Hotel, a 286-room, five-star luxury condominium hotel. The hotel will host a 60,000-square-foot health club and spa, grand and junior ballrooms with 30-foot-high ceilings and an outdoor terrace, a fine dining restaurant with lake views and an outdoor terrace, a 20,000-square-foot conference center and 90,450-square-feet of retail and restaurant space, with exclusive boutique shopping and fine dining along the Chicago River.

When it is completed, the Trump International Tower will not only be Chicago's second-tallest skyscraper and an instant landmark on the city's skyline at a height of 1,361 feet, but it will be “the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the world,” says Trump Organization Executive Vice President of Construction Andrew Weiss.

Concrete Kings
Additionally, Weiss says, the Trump Tower will be the tallest structure built in the United States since the completion of Chicago's Sears Tower, formerly the world's tallest building, in 1974. “We're really pushing the envelope in the use of concrete,” he adds. The weight of the structure will be approximately 800 million pounds, or about 400,000 tons, Weiss says. The concrete yardage of the building will be approximately 5,000 cubic yards, with about 25,000 tons of reinforcing steel.

The building will have a concrete and steel frame with a stainless steel and glass curtain wall façade. The light silver palette of stainless steel and clear anodized aluminum will reflect and refract light from the sun, according to building architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. “The vertical fins are set out from the glass surface in order to provide density and thickness - as well as a metallic quality - to the otherwise flush glass wall,” the firm says. “This mullion system is vertical with horizontal stainless steel bands and provides a delicate latticework to the façade.”

The transparent glass façade is a Trump signature, and the glass being used on this building's facade, made by glass fabricator Viracon, is “one of the highest-quality, energy-efficient types of glass,” Weiss says, with a “state-of-the-art ability to reduce heat loss in winter and reduce heat gain in summer.”

Rivers and Roadways
A number of challenges presented themselves to the construction group, Weiss says. The site not only is right up against the Chicago River, but also has a double-deck roadway at its heels. One challenge involved the river wall, Weiss says. “The existing river wall is a constructed structure, which has battered piles acting as braces to the wall, preventing the river from being pushed into the site. Obviously, we didn't want to disturb that wall in any way.” Consequently, most of the excavation for the building was set back away from the river wall.

Additionally, the upper roadway of Wabash Avenue, which had led to the front door of the Sun-Times building, presented the project with logistical obstacles, so an agreement was reached with the city of Chicago wherein the roadway was demolished and a new roadway is being built by Trump. This is an aspect of the project that is a significant contribution to the city by the developer, since “the old roadway was built in the 1920s,” Weiss says, “and the steel and the structure was not in good shape, and needed replacement. The city is getting it at no cost.”

In addition to those challenges, the caissons that supported the old Sun-Times building were still in the ground, but instead of spending a lot of money and some time taking them out, the Trump engineers designed the structure to locate the new building's column footings in-between the existing ones.

The rock caissons used for this building, Weiss says, “were tested to strength greater than any utilized before in the city of Chicago, and perhaps anywhere. They were actually tested in place to a load-bearing capacity of 630 tons-per-square foot, which is a record. They've never been tested to that level before.”

Personal Guestrooms
There are a lot of “never befores” associated with the Trump International Hotel and Tower, and from a resident or condo buyer's viewpoint, the most unique thing about this building is the hotel/condominium aspect. Separate from the luxury condo residences, the hotel's guestrooms are to be owned by individual residents or investors. The owner, a family member or a friend may occupy the hotel guestroom as much or as little as desired. At other times, though, the guestroom can be rented out to hotel guests and the revenue from the hotel rental program is paid to the unit's owner.
“From a buyer's perspective,” says Trump Organization Vice President for Development Jill Cremer, “people enjoy it because they see it as an investment, but one which can be used as much or as little as one would like.”

Residential sales have gone so well that office floors originally planned for the building have been dropped from the plan. So far, 70 percent of the building had been sold, Cremer says.