STREETERVILLE — The latest luxury high-rise set to break ground Downtown is One Bennett Park, a 67-story tower inspired by Chicago's classy pre-war buildings.
Developer Related Midwest plans to break ground "imminently" on the new skyscraper at 451 E. Grand Ave., spokeswoman Tricia Van Horn said. The tower, which is replacing the former River East Art Center Park at Grand Avenue and Peshtigo Court, is expected to open in 2018 along with a new public park, she said.
Designed by New York-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the tower will be among the tallest in Streeterville and narrowly outside the top 10 in the city.
The project takes its name from Edward H. Bennett, an architect who co-authored Daniel Burnham's 1909 city plan for Chicago. The design is inspired by the landmarked Palmolive Building off Michigan Avenue and other classic Art Deco towers here, Related President Curt Bailey told Crain's.
A rendering of One Bennett Park in the daytime. [Related Midwest, Robert A.M. Stern Architects]
The tower will include 280 apartments as well as 69 luxury condominiums for sale. Asking rents and prices have not yet been determined, Van Horn said.
The 1.8-acre Bennett Park next to the tower will include "rolling topography, meandering pathways, a children's playground, a lawn bowl for gatherings, a quiet shade grove, and a dog park," according to the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents.
The apartments and park will open in 2018, and the condos will be finished in 2019, Van Horn said.
The project will add to the swarm of construction cranes Downtown, where a record number of apartments are being built this year and next. Related, which also owns the former Chicago Spire site at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive, will begin planting temporary landscaping including trees and berms there in an attempt to beautify the long-neglected Spire property. The landscaping would not impact any future development at the site, Van Horn said.
Check out more renderings of One Bennett Park here:
A rendering of the new park.
A "motor court" for the tower's condo residents.
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