Park Tower is a lakefront high-rise residential building in the Edgewater community area in Chicago. It is one of the largest all-residential buildings in Chicago and the second-tallest building in Illinois outside of downtown Chicago.

Development

Originally constructed as 5415 EdgewaterBeach, on the former site of the

Edgewater Beach Hotel The Edgewater Beach Hotel was a resort hotel complex on Lake Michigan in the far-north neighborhood community of Edgewater in Chicago, Illinois, designed by Benjamin H. Marshall and Charles E. Fox. The first section was built in 1916 for its o ...

, it was renamed Park Tower and Mall in 1979 when it was converted from

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

s to

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

s by Robert Sheridan & Partners. Eight of the original 728 apartments have been legally merged into four units, leaving a total of 724 condos. Some other condos have been physically merged, to varying degrees, without being legally merged. Each of the 52 residential floors had an identical layout, originally consisting of 14 units each. The original units range from 565 to 1,258

square feet The square foot (plural square feet; abbreviated sq. ft, sf, or ft2; also denoted by '2) is an imperial unit and U.S. customary unit (non- SI, non-metric) of area, used mainly in the United States and partially in Canada, the United Kingdom, Bang ...

. The four legally merged units range from 1,815 to 2,516 ft². Total residential space is over 580k ft².

Amenities

Most of the building's amenities are not included in residents' monthly assessments. There is an underground

parking garage A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

that holds over 300 cars, but residents have to pay over $150/mo for a parking spot in it. There is an underground

laundromat A self-service laundry, coin laundry, laundromat, or coin wash is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the Unit ...

, but residents have to pay per load for

washers Washer most commonly refers to: *Washer (hardware), a thin usually disc-shaped plate with a hole in the middle typically used with a bolt or nut *Washing machine, for cleaning clothes Washer may also refer to: *Dishwasher, a machine for cleani ...

and per minute for

dryers Dryer (or drier) may refer to: Drying equipment * Hair dryer * Hand dryer * Clothes dryer, also known as a tumble-dryer * Belt dryer * Desiccant, a substance that absorbs or adsorbs water * Grain dryer, for storage grain bins * Oil drying agent ...

. The second floor has both indoor and outdoor

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

s, a hot tub, rooms with

weight lifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...

and

cardio Cardio (from Greek καρδίᾱ ''kardia'', 'heart') may refer to: * Of the Heart * Cardiology ** Cardiovascular system * Aerobic exercise, also known as cardio * ''Cardio'' (album), a 2010 album by Miguel Bosé See also * * * Physical exerc ...

equipment,

sauna A sauna (, ), or sudatory, is a small room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. A thermometer in a ...

s, and a

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velo ...

court, but residents have to pay over $25/mo to access them. Residents can rent the second-floor party room for $150. There is a ground-floor

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

storage room, but spots in it cost at least $48/yr. While the preceding charges are optional, residents are required to pay Astound Broadband over $60/mo for

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

and

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

Mall

Attached to Park Tower, at 5419 N Sheridan Rd, is an indoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

with 16 commercial units. Originally intended for

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

s and services targeting Park Tower residents, including Jonathan Livingston Seafood, Edgewater Market Ltd. ( Centrella), The Bike Stop, Brass Bed Emporium, and a pharmacy, the only remaining retailer is family-owned Chicago-area supermarket chain Go Grocer. The remainder of the units have been converted to office space, much of which has been taken by

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE) is a restaurant group currently comprising 120 or more restaurants mainly located in the Chicago metropolitan area. It was founded by Rich Melman and Jerry A. Orzoff in 1971. History The first restauran ...

. Park Tower Condominium Association, the governing body for Park Tower and Mall, uses one of the mall offices. The mall also has a First American Bank ATM and public

UPS UPS or ups may refer to: Companies and organizations * United Parcel Service, an American shipping company ** The UPS Store, UPS subsidiary ** UPS Airlines, UPS subsidiary * Underground Press Syndicate, later ''Alternative Press Syndicate'' or ...

USPS The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

, and

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

drop boxes.

References

*
Emporis
* {{URL, northdusablelakeshoredrive.org/pdf/Appendix_I_Edgewater_Survey_Forms.pdf Pages 10-19 * McNally and Quinn Records, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives,

The Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

Box 7 Folder 13 and Portfolio 4.4
Residential condominiums in Chicago Residential skyscrapers in Chicago Residential buildings completed in 1973 1973 establishments in Illinois North Side, Chicago