Fern Hill reveals 395-foot-tall tower at 1600 N. LaSalle

Fern Hill revealed their proposal for a mixed-use development at 1600 N. LaSalle last night at a 2nd Ward community meeting. After initially announcing their backin Octber 2021, the developers from their community engagement in the form of a development framework.

With the Moody Church parking lot and Walgreens property under consideration to the west of N. LaSalle Dr, Fern Hill will be focusing the density of the project onto this parcel. Designed by GREC Architects, the new mixed-use tower will rise 36 stories to a height of 395 feet. The building will have a total of 500 rental units, with 100 of them, or 20%, set aside as affordable at or below 60% AMI.

The tower has been designed to fit into its context, with podium buildings that reference the surrounding heights and are finished in a facade treatment that is inspired by the vocabulary of surrounding buildings. Rather than the solid brick facade that exists currently, the new ground floor facade will be highly transparent to activate the pedestrian experience and bring a sense of safety to the area.

Rising as a rectangular tower intersecting with the contextual base, the residential volume has been designed with inspiration from the modernist lakefront towers, activated with the concept of building as painting. Using the abstraction of a sunrise on the lakefront as inspiration, color is added to the building’s facade to make it unique and memorable.