List of tallest buildings in Chicago

First skyscrapers

Towards the second half of the 19th century, Chicago grew to become the second-largest city in the United States as a railroad and trading hub.^[14] After the Great Chicago Fire destroyed most of the wooden structures in the city in 1871,^[15] Chicago was rebuilt on large plots of land in a grid network^[16] and followed new city ordinances that prohibited wooden construction. These factors encouraged the construction of taller buildings in Chicago.^[17] New technologies such as the development of the elevator and in heating, lighting, and ventilation made taller buildings more viable.^[18][19]

The first skyscraper in the world is considered to be the 10-story Home Insurance Building, built in 1885, due to its use of structural steel in a metal frame design. The building was designed by William Le Baron Jenney, who had been trained as an engineer in France and was a leading architect in Chicago. The design was innovative, incorporating structural steel into the building's internal metal frame alongside the traditional wrought iron. This frame took the weight of the floors of the building, and in addition, helped to support the weight of the external walls, proving an important step towards creating the genuine non-structural curtain walls that became a feature of later skyscrapers.^[20]

These innovations caught on quickly in Chicago, as the city's earliest high-rises followed suit. Among the world's first high-rise boom occurred in Chicago from 1888 onwards,^[21] and by 1893, Chicago had built 12 skyscrapers between 16 and 20 stories tall, tightly clustered in the center of the financial district.^[22] These include the Tacoma Building, The Rookery, Monadnock Building, and the Rand McNally Building, which was the world's first all-steel framed skyscraper. Structural engineers specializing in the steel frame design began to establish practices in Chicago.^[23]

One of the tallest buildings completed during this boom was the Masonic Temple, built by the Freemasons at a time when they were a fast-growing community in the city. The Freemasons competed with a local rival, the Odd Fellows, who intended to build a much higher skyscraper, 556 feet (169 m) tall, that would have been the tallest building in the world, which was never built.^[24] Until the turn of the 20th century, Chicago led New York City in high-rise construction. It was not until 1895 when New York City would surpass Chicago in the height of its high-rises, with the American Surety Building. In 1892, owing to the oversupply of office space, Chicago limited the construction of high-rises to under 150 feet (46 meters).^[25] By the 1890s, a distinct architectural style emerged from Chicago, named the Chicago school.^[26] This style involved placing rich, ornate designs on the outside of skyscrapers at the ground level and simpler, plainer ornamentation on the upper levels, with strong vertical lines.^[27]

1900s–1930s

Chicago's construction boom continued into the early 20th century, up until the mid-1910s when World War I began. The city's elevated train network opened by 1910, making it easier for more workers to come downtown.^[28] By the end of the 1910s, Chicago had the second largest number of headquarters in the United States.^[28] Local architectural firms such as Daniel H. Burnham and then Graham, Anderson, Probst & White continued to design skyscrapers in the Chicago style popularized in the previous decade.^[29] The Masonic Temple Building was overtake in height by the Montgomery Ward Building in 1899. The building served as the headquarters for Montgomery Ward, the United States' oldest mail order firm.

Following a pause in development during World War I, a larger construction boom took place in the 1920s until the early 1930s. Limited wartime construction created supply shortages in the city, and rent levels rose in response by around 100 percent between 1919 and 1924.^[30] This level of potential profits encouraged an explosion of new building projects in the city.^[31] The 1892 height limit was relaxed in 1920 to 260 feet (79 m), and in 1923, Chicago passed its first comprehensive zoning ordinance, permitting taller towers, but with more controls on overall volumes.^[32]

One of the first new skyscrapers of this boom was the Wrigley Building, which was Chicago's tallest building from 1922 to 1924. It was the first major office building north of the Chicago River. In 1924, the Wrigley Building was surpassed in height by the first skyscraper in Chicago to exceed 150 metres (490 ft), the Chicago Temple Building.^[33] Besides as an office, the Chicago Temple Building was also used as the congregation of the First United Methodist Church of Chicago. The Morrison Hotel became the tallest hotel building in the world when it was built in 1925. The tower is an expansion to the existing Morrison's hotel, and it was the first building outside of New York City to have over 40 stories. Significant additions include the Pittsfield Building (1927), the Carbide & Carbon Building (1928), and the Palmolive Building (1929), all incorporating architectural features of the Art Deco style. Another mixed-use building was the Civic Opera Building, which in addition to office space, housed a 3,563-seat opera house, which serves as the permanent home of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

While shorter than the aforementioned buildings, the Tribune Tower is one of this period's most famous skyscrapers. The tower emerged from a design competition held by the Tribune Company in 1922 to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The Tribune newspaper, one of the largest in the world at the time, used the competition to build a loyal following amongst its readership and generate free publicity.^[34] The final design was decided by competition panel mainly made up of the company's appointees, who chose John Howells and Raymond Hood's design.^[35] The resulting tower was a conservative Gothic design; controversy about the decision broke out almost immediately. Architect Louis Sullivan criticized the chosen design as being derivative of the Woolworth Tower.^[36] Regardless of its critics, the Tribune received as many as 20,000 visitors to its observation gallery when it opened in 1925.^[37] The unbuilt second-place entry in the competition, a more simplified stepped-back design by Eliel Saarinen, also proved highly influential.^[37]

In 1930, the Chicago Board of Trade Building was completed, replacing an earlier high-rise designed by William W. Boyington as the site for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). The skyscraper is known for its Art Deco architecture, sculptures, large-scale stone carving, and its large trading floors. The CBOT has operated in the building continuously since. In the same year, a notable high-rise, was opened; with 4 million square feet (372,000 m²) of floor space, the 25-story Merchandise Mart, wider than it was tall, was the largest building in the world by volume. Due to the Great Depression, the skyscraper boom came to an end in the early 1930s. The Home Insurance Building was demolished in 1931 to make way for the Field Building, which was completed in 1934; the Field Building is the last major building to be added before a hiatus in skyscraper construction over the next twenty years.

1940s–1950s

After the completion of the Field Building, very few high-rises were built in Chicago until the mid-1950s, leaving its skyline mostly unchanged for two decades. The tallest building completed in the 1940s were the Promontory Apartments, the first skyscraper designed by famous German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It was a cooperative housing tower in Hyde Park with an exposed skeleton. The building and its display at the Museum of Modern Art led Mies to be commissioned for the Seagram Building in New York City.^[38]

In 1942, work finished at Cabrini–Green homes, a public housing project on the city's Near North Side. The project one of the first large-scale public housing projects in the United States, consisting of high-rise and mid-rise tower blocks. Extensions to the estate occurred in 1957 and 1962. Over the following decades, the development became associated with high-crime rates and building deterioration; "Cabrini–Green" became a metonym for problems associated with public housing in the United States.

The lull in skyscraper development was broken by the Prudential Building in 1955, which at a height of 601 feet (183 m) became the city's second tallest building. It was followed by the Inland Steel Building in 1958. The Inland Steel Building is seen as defining high-rises for the post-war era of modern architecture.^[39]

1960s–1970s

Skyscraper development would return fully in the 1960s, as Chicago entered a third, larger building boom that shaped its current skyline. The city more readily embraced residential skyscrapers compared to other American cities, and apartment towers spread north and south from the Loop along Lake Michigan. At the same time, Chicago was also experiencing white flight, which was leading to a decline of the city's population. To combat this, the Service Employees International Union, a union of building janitors and elevator operators, financed the construction of the 588 feet (179 m) Marina City complex, which was completed in 1964. The twin cylindrical skyscrapers of Marina City sit on the Chicago River, and are known for their unique design that resembles corncobs. The complex's apartments contain almost no interior right angles, with a circular hallway surrounding the elevator core.^[40] An even taller residential building, Lake Point Tower, was built in 1968 at 645 feet (197 m) tall. Located adjacent to Navy Pier, it is the easternmost skyscraper in the downtown skyline, and was the tallest apartment building in the world at the time. The tower has a triangular core and three arms that form a 'Y'-shape. Two residential towers that surpassed 500 feet (152 m) were built far outside The Loop in the 1970s: Park Place Tower and Park Tower Condominiums.

The Chicago Board of Trade Building would finally be overtaken in height by the modernist Chicago Civic Center in 1965, later renamed the Richard J. Daley Center by then-Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. It is Chicago's main civic center; the 648 ft (198 m) tower houses offices and courtrooms for the Cook County Circuit Courts, Cook County State's Attorney and additional office space for the city government and Cook County. As building heights increased for Chicago's commercial developments, the title of the city's tallest building would be broken four more times from 1969 to 1974. The Morrison Hotel was demolished in 1965, making it the tallest building ever demolished at the time. In its place, One First National Plaza (now Chase Tower) was built in 1969, very briefly becoming Chicago's tallest building. Chase Tower is known for its distinctive curving shape and its vibrant public space, with a ceramic wall mural by Marc Chagall.^[41]

Of Chicago's five tallest buildings, three were completed within a 5-year span between 1969 and 1974. 875 North Michigan Avenue, completed in 1969 as the John Hancock Center, was the first supertall skyscraper in Chicago, supplanting Chase Tower as the city's tallest building. The building has a structural expressionist style, with a distinctive X-braced exterior. this tubular system was an innovation that allowed the John Hancock Center to achieve its record height of 1,127 feet (344 m). The taller of the building's two large antennas extends its height to 1,500 feet (457 m). The tube system in the John Hancock Center, and later in Sears Tower, was implemented by Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan. The Standard Oil Building, later renamed the Aon Center, was completed in 1973 as the headquarters for the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, which became Amoco. It was very slightly taller than the John Hancock Center, at 1,136 feet (346 m); its pinstripes and white marble-clad exterior on a rectangular profile was a prominent feature on the skyline, although the marble was replaced by granite in the early 1990s.^[42]

Sears, a department store chain headquartered in Chicago, had grown to become the largest retailer in the world by the 1960s. Requiring more office space, the company decided against relocating to the suburbs, opting instead to build a new skyscraper on the western end of the Loop.^[43][44] The new skyscraper was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with its planned height growing with Sears' growth projections.^[45] Plans for what would become the Sears Tower were announced in 1970, and construction began in the same year. During construction, Sears Tower met lawsuits as Chicagoland residents and broadcasters raised concerns that the skyscraper could disrupt television broadcasts.^[46][47] This led Sears to approve of installing an antenna atop the tower. The black glass-clad skyscraper uses a bundled tube structure, with nine square tubes that are set back at different heights. The Sears Tower was completed in 1974, not only becoming the tallest building in Chicago, but the tallest building in the United States, and the world, overtaking New York City's World Trade Center complex.

1980s–1990s

A minor slowdown in skyscraper construction in Chicago occurred in the mid-1970s, affected by the 1973–1975 recession. The 1980s was a very productive decade for skyscrapers in Chicago. Postmodern architectural trends influenced the design of several new skyscrapers during this period, including two additional supertall skyscrapers completed near the end of the decade: the Franklin Center, and Two Prudential Plaza. Located directly northeast of the Sears Tower and completed in 1989, the Franklin Center was built as the AT&T Corporate Center, following the split of the AT&T monopoly. The building is clad in granite, which changes shade from a deep-red color, to rose-beige at the top. The building's setbacks and the Gothic detailing evokes images of skyscrapers built in the 1920s.^[48] Two Prudential Plaza opened in 1990 to adjoin the Prudential Building–now renamed One Prudential Plaza–which had been built 38 years earlier. At the time of completion, Two Prudential was the world's tallest reinforced concrete building. Its distinctive shape features stacked chevron setbacks on the north and south sides and a pyramidal peak rotated 45 degrees.

Other postmodernist skyscrapers include One South Wacker (1982) and 900 North Michigan, a mixed-use tower containing a large, upscale shopping mall on the Magnificent Mile, built in 1989. The exterior of the tower is clad in limestone, although the building's most distinctive feature on the skyline are its four "lanterns" on the corners on top of the building.^[49] Adjacent to the Sears Tower to the south, 311 South Wacker Drive was completed in 1990. The skyscraper's crown consists of a translucent cylinder surrounded by four smaller cylinders, which was inspired by the massing of the Tribune Tower. Modernist developments continued with Huron Plaza (1983), a residential tower that was the first in the Near North Side's Cathedral District, and the mixed-use Olympia Centre (1986), its pink cladding provided by Swedish granite. The Onterie Center (Axis Apartments) has large 'X' formations; the building is considered the "final work" by Fazlur Rahman Khan, who died four years earlier in 1982 before the building's completion. In contrast, the NBC Tower, built in 1989, is in the Art Deco style, and bears a resemblance to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, NBC's global headquarters.

After 1992, there was a halt in skyscraper completions for nearly a decade due to the early 1990s recession. Thus, the rest of the 1990s saw little change in the city's skyline, until One Superior Place was completed in 1999. In 1998, Sears Tower was surpassed as the world's tallest building by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The decision by the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat that the Petronas Towers were taller than the Sears Tower was contentious, not least within Chicago itself. The Sears Tower was taller when measured by pinnacle height, due to its antennas, bringing the building to 1,729 feet (527.0 m), over 200 feet taller than the Petronas Towers' pinnacle height of 1,483 feet (451.9 m).^[50][51] In the ensuing controversy, four categories of "tallest building" were created.

Since the 2000s

The 2000s was a period of strong growth for Chicago's skyline. 31 skyscrapers taller than 492 feet (150 m) were completed between 2000 and 2009, the most of any decade in the city's history. According to Crain's, the cumulative height of all tall buildings built during the decade added up to over 34,000 feet (10 km), driven by a buoyant real estate market.^[52] Residential skyscrapers, though already present in significant numbers on the skyline, made up an increasing share of new completions, as downtown living became more desirable. Despite the city's population decline during the decade, population growth was healthy in the Loop, continuing a trend that began in the 1990s.^[53] Notable residential buildings include Park Tower (2000), one of the world's tallest buildings to be clad with architectural precast concrete; One North Wacker (2001); Millennium Centre (2003) and 340 on the Park (2007).

In 2001, then real estate developer and later U.S. president Donald Trump announced plans for a skyscraper on the site of a seven-story building formerly occupied by the Chicago Sun-Times.^[54] The initial height of the proposal was 1,500 feet (457.2 m), which would have made it the world's tallest building. Following the September 11 attacks, Trump reduced the planned height of the building, to reduce the risk of similar attacks,^[55] although up until 2005, Trump had still aspired for a building taller than the Sears Tower, though this was rejected by Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley.^[56][57] Construction on the Trump International Hotel and Tower began in 2005 and was completed in 2009, becoming the second-tallest building in Chicago and the building with the highest residence in the world, overtaking Chicago's own John Hancock Center. The skyscraper's design features three setbacks designed to provide visual continuity with the surrounding skyline.^[58]

The Great Recession caused another slowdown in skyscraper construction after 2010, which lasted until the middle of the decade. This affected some developments such as the Waterview Tower, where work on a planned supertall skyscraper had begun in 2005. The project was abandoned in 2008, and resumed in 2011 after another developer bought the site. Since known as OneEleven, the building was finally completed in 2015 at a reduced height. Perhaps the most significant casualty of the recession was the Chicago Spire. Proposed in 2005, the megatall skyscraper, designed by Spanish architect-engineer Santiago Calatrava, would have been 2,000 feet (610 m) high with 150 floors. Construction began in 2007, but was stopped a year later, as the subprime mortgage crisis set in. This left an infamous "hole" where the building's foundation had been completed.

Sears sold the Sears Tower in 1994 as part of a restructuring effort, but the building continued to be known officially under that name until 2009, when London-based insurance broker Willis Group Holdings agreed to lease a portion of the building and obtained naming rights for the building. On July, the building was renamed the Willis Tower. This change was met with considerable opposition, including from many Chicagoans, who continue to refer to the building as the Sears Tower today.^[59][60][61] Willis Tower was dethroned in 2013 as the tallest building in the United States by New York City's One World Trade Center.

Studio Gang

The second-tallest skyscraper built during the 2000s, Aqua, was completed in 2009. Designed by a team led by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, the residential skyscraper is distinctive for its irregularly shaped concrete floor slabs, inspired by the striated limestone outcroppings that can are commonly found in the Great Lakes, which lend the facade an undulating, sculptural quality.^[62] Aqua was awarded the Emporis Skyscraper Award as 2009 skyscraper of the year,^[63] and was shortlisted in 2010 for the biennial International High-Rise Award.^[64]

Aqua was the world's tallest building designed by a woman until the construction of the St. Regis Chicago, which Gang also designed. At 1,198 feet (365 m), the St. Regis Chicago is the city's third tallest building, and its newest supertall skyscraper. Similarly to Aqua, it features a curvilinear design as a defining feature of the building, consisting of three interconnected masses covered by six different shades of glass. The building was completed in 2020 amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic, delaying the opening of the hotel portion of the building until 2023.

Mega-developments

A number of large-scale redevelopments, or "mega-developments", have been proposed in Chicago in the early 21st century, each containing a number of high-rises, though none have yet been fully realized. The 78 is a plot of land from Roosevelt Road south to 16th Street and Clark Street, along the Chicago River. Its name is a reference to the Chicago's 77 existing community areas. The site has been unoccupied since a railyard was demolished in the 1970s. Many plans have been proposed or discussed for this site; a recent iteration of the plans will involve the construction of a new baseball stadium for the Chicago White Sox;^[69] another includes a proposal for a new soccer stadium for Chicago Fire FC.

Another mega-development, Lincoln Yards, would be located northwest of downtown, occupying more than 50 acres (20 ha) of land on both sides of the North Branch of the Chicago River. Plans included several towers and high-rises for apartments, condos, office, retail, and entertainment. Owing to financial issues, the proposal was shelved in 2025. A 31-acre (13 ha) portion of the land was transferred to JDL Development and Kayne Anderson Real Estate in 2025. The new developers have proposed a more modest project named Foundry Yards, containing fewer high-rises.^[70]

Bronzeville Lakefront is a 48-acre (19 ha) development in Bronzeville that will include over 5,000 new residential units in several mid-rises and high-rises, 20% of which would be affordable units, alongside the rehabilitation of the Singer Pavilion, a new senior housing building, and a 40,000 square foot community center. Construction of the project began in 2023 and is scheduled to be complete in 2035.^[71][72]

The 1901 Project, in the Near West Side, will revitalize over 55 acres (22 ha) of parking lots around the United Center. The multi-phase project is being led by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families, owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks respectively. The masterplan is expected to be completed in 2040, delivering 9,463 residential units, 1,309 hotel rooms, 660,000 square feet of office space, 670,000 square feet of retail space.^[73][74]

Tallest buildings by pinnacle height

This list ranks Chicago skyscrapers based on their pinnacle height, which includes radio masts and antennas. Standard architectural height measurement, which excludes antennas in building height, is included for comparative purposes. The "Year" column indicates the year in which a building was completed.