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Skyline Recast

A Chicago Vertical Neighborhood

Type: High-Rise Mixed-Use Design
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Focus: Urban Density · Residential Typologies · Skyline Identity · Vertical Living

**[ 02 ]** Skyline Recast — vertical articulation against the Chicago skyline2024 – 2025

[ 01 Overview ]

Chicago's skyline has long represented innovation in high-rise architecture. Inspired by towers such as Willis Tower, Trump International Hotel & Tower, Vista Tower and One Chicago, this project explores how a new skyscraper can learn from the city's architectural legacy while responding to contemporary expectations for density, luxury and urban lifestyle.

Urban Density Residential Typologies Skyline Identity Vertical Living

[ 02 Background ]

Project background

I looked at Willis Tower, Trump International Hotel & Tower, Vista Tower and One Chicago to see the different ways architects have shaped Chicago's skyline. I wanted to try designing a tower of my own that learned from those buildings without simply copying them — one that could fit more people into the city while offering the space, comfort and amenities people expect from luxury urban living.

[ 03 Description ]

Project description

Skyline Recast is a conceptual high-rise that combines hotel suites, urban apartments, luxury condominiums and full-floor penthouse residences into one vertical community. The tower uses clean glass façades, strong vertical articulation and a layered residential program to create both skyline presence and interior variety. By organizing different living types within a single structure, the project studies how architecture can shape a dense urban environment while offering distinct experiences of privacy, openness and panoramic connection to the city.

[ 04 Design challenge ]

[ Question ]

How can a high-rise building contribute to Chicago's skyline while organizing multiple residential and hospitality programs into one coherent vertical community?

[ 05 Research ]

Research & analysis

01Chicago high-rise precedents — Willis Tower, Vista Tower, One Chicago, Trump International Hotel & Tower
02Skyline proportion, massing and façade rhythm studies
03Mixed-use program organization across vertical zones
04Residential typology comparison — hotel, apartment, condominium and penthouse living
05Urban density and viewshed analysis within a downtown context

Design objectives

01Create a strong skyline identity inspired by Chicago's high-rise tradition
02Organize hotel, apartment, condominium and penthouse programs clearly
03Provide varied experiences of privacy, luxury and urban connection
04Use vertical form and façade rhythm to express height and movement
05Study how density can support a complete urban lifestyle

[ 06 Drawings & models ]

Plans, models, and one skyline

**[ 01 ]**Plan study — dwellings, cores and a shared deck

**[ 02 ]**Plan variant — cores pushed to the edge

**[ 03 ]**Core study — shafts and lifts between the flats

**[ 04 ]**Typical floor — bays, cells and one corridor

**[ 05 ]**Massing model — the tower as stacked, shifting plates

**[ 06 ]**The same stack from the other corner

**[ 07 ]**Model, crown — plates stepping back at the top

**[ 08 ]**Model, middle — shear wall behind the stack

**[ 09 ]**Model, base — podium and the first plates

**[ 10 ]**Model, entry — the notch cut for the street

**[ 11 ]**Testing the stack by hand — plates, joins, weight

**[ 12 ]**Context — the skyline the tower joins

[ 07 Precedents ]

Nine towers, nine silhouettes

Before drawing the stack I redrew nine towers whose silhouette does the structural work — taper, setbacks, bundled tubes, paired shafts. None of them is copied; what I took is the idea that a profile can be a section through a structural decision.

**[ 13 ]**Precedent 01 — the tapering silhouette

**[ 14 ]**Precedent 02 — setbacks and the bundled tube

**[ 15 ]**Precedent 03 — the prism, unbundled

**[ 16 ]**Precedent 04 — base, shaft, cap

**[ 17 ]**Precedent 05 — setbacks carried to the crown

**[ 18 ]**Precedent 06 — paired shafts and the bridge

**[ 19 ]**Precedent 07 — twins on one podium

**[ 20 ]**Precedent 08 — the braced frame exposed

**[ 21 ]**Precedent 09 — the lattice shell

← Previous · 01 Waterline Memory Next · 03 → The Mother's Canopy

All work [ 02 of 10 ] — 2024 – 2025