Waves Above the City
Redesigning Massing and Facade
A reinterpretation of the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive towers, translating the Chicago River’s wave patterns into massing studies and 3D-printed facade prototypes.
Context
The seminar takes Mies van der Rohe’s Lake Shore Drive towers as a starting point for experimental redesign. The task moves from massing in the urban context to the development of a facade, using the river’s irregular yet continuous wave pattern as a formal reference.
Approach
Repeated elements are bent and varied to develop a changing tower profile. Massing models and facade fragments test the transition from a drawn pattern to a three-dimensional surface, with particular attention to depth, openings, and the relationship between neighboring towers.
Digital fabrication
A sequence of 3D prints makes the pattern available for direct inspection. Full-tower studies establish the overall rhythm; smaller fragments isolate the geometry of the facade and reveal how repeated elements meet.
Envelope and opening
Elevations and model studies compare the dense vertical rhythm of the towers with larger interruptions in the envelope. These openings give the wave pattern a spatial role and establish moments of contrast within the repeated surface.