One North Wacker

One North Wacker, formerly UBS Tower is a 50-story, 199 m (653 ft) skyscraper at One North Wacker Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Construction began in 1999 and was completed in the spring of 2002 with the designs of Lohan Associates (now Goettsch Partners) and developer, John Buck Company to accommodate the needs of UBS groups such as UBS Warburg, UBS PaineWebber, UBS Global Asset Management and UBS O’Connor in a single building.

Building

The UBS Tower was the first large multi-tenant tower to be constructed in Chicago for 6 years since 1993.

Architecture

The tower's most eye-catching feature is its main lobby. The lobby's glass wall was a first in the United States. The 40-foot (12 m) wall was made out of 5'x5' glass panes attached to a system of medallions and cable. This cable system was tested at pressures above 150 psf, or a wind speed of nearly 250 mph. The glass itself is also noteworthy- an optical interference anti-reflective glass (designed by Schott AG) with an unusually low surface reflectivity of 1% is used. This imbues the lobby with an almost transparent appearance.

Exterior landscaping was designed by the Berkeley, Calif.-based firm, Peter Walker and Partners Landscape Architecture Inc.

Enclos, a facade engineering and curtain wall design company, designed and installed the first ever cable net glass wall in the United States at the lobby area of One North Wacker in downtown Chicago. The cable net strategy developed effectively minimized the sightlines of the steel support structure supporting the glass, allowing architect Goettsch Partners to achieve maximum transparency with a series of 15 meter glass facades that wrap the perimeter of the lobby space in over 1,500 square meters of glass.^[5]

Artwork

Artwork throughout the building is drawn from the UBS PaineWebber Collection of contemporary art pieces and from the UBS Global Asset Management collection of architectural relics. Roy Lichetenstein’s sculpture, Archaic Head, is displayed on the 38th floor near Louis Sullivan’s elevator gate, claimed from the old Chicago Stock Exchange.

Use

With 1,754,000 sq ft (163,000 m²) of floorspace, UBS Tower's rents are among the highest per square foot of any building in the Chicago Metropolitan Area at an average of over $25 per square foot on a triple net basis, grossing up to over $40 per square foot. The building amenities also include a two story underground garage for senior executives, One North Kitchen and Bar, a Conference Center, Fitness Center and Convenience Store. The building also has a cafeteria on the 30th floor, which serves a range of traditional and contemporary American cuisine as well as other cuisine featured from around the world on a rotating basis.

Awards

In March 2002, the building was recognized as “Development of the Year” at the 14th Annual Greater Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards.

Major Tenants

• Allstate
• Barnes & Thornburg LLP
• L.E.K. Consulting
• Merrill Lynch
• Options Clearing Corporation
• PwC
• Resolution Economics
• Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP
• UBS

See also

• List of skyscrapers
• List of tallest buildings in the United States
• List of tallest buildings in Chicago
• World's tallest structures

References

External links

• One North Wacker at Hines Interests Limited Partnership
• One North Wacker Architecture at Enclos

City of Chicago Architecture Beaches Climate Colleges and universities Community areas Crime Culture Demographics Economy companies Expressways Flag Geography Government History political Landmarks Literature Media Museums Neighborhoods Parks People Performing arts music theater Public schools list Skyscrapers Sports Timeline Tourism Transportation Visual arts Portal Cook County Metropolitan area Illinois United States