Chicago’s New Second-Tallest Building Gets Plan Commission Approval

Written By Editor on May 11, 2020

The biggest thing to hit Michigan Avenue since Cap Streeter’s 35-ton steamboat has been approved by the Chicago Plan Commission.

Tribune Tower East is now passed the hardest parts of its approval process, and will soon be legally permitted to climb 1,442-feet into the Chicago skyline.

In spite of numerous tweaks over the last year, up top the CIM Group and Golub skyscraper retains the same smooth, satisfying profile of loosie Kool cigarette bought from a guy on the Green Line platform at 63rd and Cottage Grove.  Down below Michigan Avenue is the business end of this tower, with almost all loading, unloading, and other street-clogging activities hidden from surface-dwelling pedestrians. Precisely what the Chicago’s lower-level street grid was built for.

Tribune Tower East is part of a larger Tribune Tower redevelopment made possible when the withered husk of the former media empire blew down the street and lodged itself in the teeth of Prudential Plaza.  The new skyscraper packing 564 new residences and a 200-room hotel will rise from the old Tribune parking lot.  The rest of the complex, now known as The Tribune Tower Residences, will house 164 new homes and a passel of retail space.

Interestingly, it looks like the new mega-tower, which actually sits on North Cityfront Plaza, will use the address 421 North Michigan Avenue — a number lower than the original Tribune Tower to its west, at 435.