One North Wacker, UBS Tower is a 50-story ()

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

at One North

Wacker Drive Wacker Drive is a major multilevel street in Chicago, Illinois, running along the south side of the main branch and the east side of the south branch of the Chicago River in the Loop.Hayner, Don and Tom McNamee, ''Streetwise Chicago'', "Wacker D ...

in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The tower was built from 1999 to 2002 to accommodate Swiss investment bank

UBS AG UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

's Chicago headquarters. Originally UBS Tower, as it was solely known then, housed four different branches of the bank including its

investment banking Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated wit ...

, wealth management advisory,

asset management Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of value from the things that a group or entity is responsible for, over their whole life cycles. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as buildings ...

, and

private banking Private banking is banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs)—defined as those with very high levels of income or sizable assets. A bank that ...

businesses. It was designed by Lohan Associates (now Goettsch Partners) and developed by John Buck Company.

Building

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

Architecture

The tower's main lobby's glass wall was a first in the United States. The wall was made out of 5' x 5'

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

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 Schott AG is a German multinational glass company specializing in the manufacture of glass and glass-ceramics. Headquartered in Mainz, Germany, it is owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The company's founder and namesake, Otto Schott, is credi ...

) with an unusually low surface reflectivity of 1% is used. This imbues the lobby with an almost transparent appearance. Exterior

landscaping Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including the following: # Living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly called gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal o ...

was designed by the Berkeley, California-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.One North Wacker Glass Facade
at Enclos

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 Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...

'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 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

Stifel Stifel Financial Corp. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company created under its present name in July 1983 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange on November 24, 1986. Its predecessor company wa ...

* Barnes & Thornburg LLP * L.E.K. Consulting *

Northwestern Mutual Northwestern Mutual is an American financial services mutual organization based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The financial security company provides consultation on wealth and asset income protection, education planning, retirement planning, investme ...

PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

* Resolution Economics * Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP

References

External links

One North Wacker
at Hines Interests Limited Partnership
One North Wacker Architecture
at Enclos {{Chicago skyscrapers Skyscraper office buildings in Chicago Hines Interests Limited Partnership 2002 establishments in Illinois Office buildings completed in 2002