Erie on the Park is a striking statement in steel. This sleek 25-story residential tower emphasizes the material with exposed chevron-shaped steel bracing punctuating the façade. The result is a distinctive design that stands out in the Chicago cityscape, where concrete is the typical choice for apartment buildings. Floor-to-ceiling glass runs between steel spandrels and the dramatic chevrons, achieving an open airy look and offering building residents views of nearby Lake Michigan. The building site is in the shape of a parallelogram, with existing neighboring buildings located directly on the property line on the east and west sides, and major streets on the north and south sides. The dimensions of the site and the largest floor plates are approximately 90’ between the existing buildings and 120’ between the streets. The 266,000-sq.-ft building consists of three concrete stories at the base, and 22 stories framed in rolled shapes and steel joists rising above the base. The STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers, Chicago ARCHITECT Lucien Lagrange Architects, Chicago FABRICATOR Zalk Josephs Fabricators (AISC member), Stoughton, WI ERECTOR Area Erectors (NEA member), Wheeling, IL DETAILER Dowco Consultants, Ltd. (NISD member), Burnaby, BC Canada JOIST FABRICATOR Canam Steel Corporation (AISC member), Washington, MO ENGINEERING SOFTWARE RAM Structural System, ETABS DETAILING SOFTWARE Xsteel $25M OR GREATER, BUT LESS THAN $100M JUROR COMMENTS:
Structural steel responding well to irregular floor-plate geometry and need to keep floor-tofloor heights at a minimum. Read more about Erie on the Park in the May 2002 issue of Modern Steel Construction. typical floor-to-floor height is 10’–8”.
The lateral system is comprised of concrete shear walls at the base and threestory steel mega-braces in the steel
stories. The foundation system consists of grade beams and caissons. Unlike typical mid-rise construction, there is
no basement. As a result, a structural slab was designed at the base of the building to act as a rigid diaphragm and transmit the base shear to all of the caissons.

When Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, NM required additional square footage to create more rooms for patients, three additional stories were built on top of the existing four-story structure—and the hospital remained open throughout the construction process. Through careful teamwork, communication, and electronic data interchange, a design-build team met the challenge of expediting the expansion with little disturbance to hospital functions.