Primary classification

Residential (RES)

Terms of protection

Original situation or character of site: After completion the towers were marketed as a cooperative apartment building and are fully occupied by September 1952.

Designations

U.S. National Register of Historic Places, listed on August 28, 1980 | Chicago Landmark, designated April 29, 1998

Author(s)

Deirdre Gould | Columbia University | 2/25/2007

view of the towers showing their “right angle” placement

Designer(s)

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Nationality

German, American

Georgia Louise Harris Brown

Architect

Georgia Louise Harris Brown was born in Kansas in 1918. She excelled in school and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1944. She also attended classes at IIT. She worked in the office of black architect and structural engineer Kenneth Roderick O’Neal and later for Kornacker Associates. In the 1950s, seeking to advance her career free of racism and sexism, she moved to Brazil, where she worked on a number of high profile public commissions as well as many private residences. Brown asserted that she never thought of herself as having been a black pioneer female architect, but simply an architect.

Other designers

Original owner(s)/patron(s): Herbert Greenwald, Developer

Name(s): Robert H. McCormick
Association: Landowner and developer with Herbert Greenwald
Period: 1948-1951

Commission

1948

Completion

1951

Commission / Completion details

Architect(s): Mies van der Rohe
Other designer(s): Holsman, Klekamp and Taylor, Jacques Bownson, Myron Goldsmith
and Joseph Fujikawa.
Consulting engineer(s): Pace Associates

Original Brief

commission or competition date: c.1948, start of site work: e. December 1949, completion/inauguration: e. 1951

Significant Alteration(s) with Date(s)

Of whole building/site: the site is well maintained and although renovations have been
performed no major work has been done that has changed the aesthetic integrity of the
structures.
Comments: Due to the buildings recommendation for landmark status as early as 1980,
the buildings received the usual protection afforded to Chicago city landmarks without
receiving the official designation

Current Condition

Of whole building/site: Residential apartment buildings

General Description

The technical significance of 860-880 Lake Shore Drive is seen in both Mies’ choice of
materials and structural approach. The buildings are considered his first application of
glass and steel curtain wall on high-rise apartments houses in Chicago. The materials
themselves are also one of the few steel and glass residential high rises in Chicago.

Construction Period

Name(s) of surrounding area/building(s): The Promontory Apartments,5530 S Shore Drive, Chicago, IL
Other relations: The Promontory Apartments (5530 S Shore Drive, Chicago) constructed
by Mies van der Rohe in 1948 for Herbert Greenwald were originally designed to have a
glass ands steel exterior. The final design instead utilized concrete with exposed columns,
however the buildings alternate drawings were later developed into the design of 860-880
Lake Shore Drive.

As stated above, in January 2007, an approximately $7.5 million restoration of the
buildings was announced that will include travertine repair, restoration of the plaza and
lobby interiors, exterior steel returned to the original black color, restoration
of exterior glass panes to sandblasted glass.

Original Physical Context

The twin structures located perpendicular from each other are considered among
Chicago’s most famous and prestigious apartment buildings. The pair of twenty-six-story
towers at 860/ 880 Lake Shore Drive are located along the City'.s Gold Coast Extending
from Chestnut Street north one block to Delaware Street with a view to Lake Michigan
across the drive. Also important, is the site plan of the two buildings, which is shaped in a
triangular shape and working with the position of 860 and 880 allows both buildings
maximum views of the Lake Michigan.

Technical

“The Glass Houses.” Known as a modern architecture landmark, the buildings also
represent a sleek style of modern living in its contemporary structure. The building is on
the United States National Register and also was the first Mie’s van der Rohe designated
landmark in the city of Chicago.

Social

The cultural and aesthetic evaluation can be seen through the buildings comparative
significance The towers are considered trailblazers in international style and the
evolution of both the curtain wall and Mies van der Rohe'.s design influence on the city of
Chicago. Recently featured on a USPS postal stamp celebrating “Master works of
Modern Architecture”, the buildings are considered the symbol of the international style
in Chicago. Further serving as inspiration for similar structures around the world, 860-
880 lake Shore Drive is still considered one of the most pure examples of international
style in a skyscraper.

Canonical status: As a symbol of modern architecture, the buildings have held a status of being designed by
a “celebrity architect.” As the appreciation of modernism has increased in recent years
the role of these modern towers are integral id understanding the evolution of modern
design in residential structures as well as the architectural and design growth of Mies van
der Rohe. Furthermore, the buildings reflect and enforce the status of Chicago as being
on the forefront of architectural patronage and design during the 20th century.

Historical

The referential value of the buildings is their place as one of the first modern residential
high rise structures in Chicago. The structures capture a moment in modern history that
combines both a social and aesthetic crossroads in the city of Chicago. Capturing the
sentiment of “modern living” reflected in the composition of glass and steel, the towers
reflect both the sentiment of the mid twentieth century and the role of architecture in
reflecting the aspirations its generation of architects. Its status as a symbol of the
International Style in Chicago and around the world only serves to reinforce the
importance of most pure examples of the international style in a skyscraper.
860 and 880 Lake Shore Drive also mark a point of when the Chicago School of
Architecture (started by Sullivan, Burnham and Root et al.) reaches its “height of
modernism” (in the use of architectural innovations)- with the glass and steel
construction, high rise structure and curtain wall façade. All advances put in place with
the work of the original architects of the Chicago school and achieving full recognition
and application by Mies and other architects at this point.

General Assessment

Avery Archives, Columbia University, New York, NY

Selected Bibliography-
“860-880 Lake Shore Drive.” Chicago Landmarks. http://www.ci.chi.il.us
/Landmarks/numbers/860880LSD.html. Accessed 4 February 2007.
Abrams, Janet. “Modernity…860-880 Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.” Metropolis.
Bey Talks to Lifson, Lifson Talks up rehab of Mies 860-880.” Architecture Chicago
October 1992, v.12, no.3. pp.76-77
“
Plus. 11 January 2007. http://arcchicago.blogspot.com/. Accessed 4 February
2007.
Carter, Peter. Mies van der Rohe at Work. New Ed edition, 1999. Phaidon Press, New
Kamin, Blair. “2 of Mies’ Best Still in a Glass By themselves.” Chicago Tribune.
York. P.52
Lifson, Edward. “860 - 880 N. Lake Shore Drive by Mies to be Restored!” The New
Chicago, Il. 20 September 1992, Final Edition.
Modernist. 9 January 2007. http://edwardlifson.blogspot.com/2007/01/860-880-
n.html Accessed 4 February 2007.
Pomaranc, Joan. 860-880 Lake Shore Drive. Commission on Chicago Historical
Sell, Shawn. “The Only Game in Town: Under Chicago’s New Landmarks Law, Politics
Architectural Landmarks. Chicago, Il, 1980.
Rule Preservation.” Historic Preservation. May-June 1996, v.48, no.3. p.24

860-880 Lake Shore Drive