Trump International Hotel & Tower

Tower burnished in American pop culture when Chicago resident Bill Rancic landed job working on project after becoming first Apprentice on Trump's reality TV show. When completed, will be Trump's tallest building to date, as well as  tallest Chicago high rise built since Sears Tower in 1974. 

Trump's exhortations about new building already stirring controversy among skyscraper enthusiasts. Shortly after endorsing idea of rebuilding New York's fallen World Trade Center in spring 2005, developer began boasting his Chicago tower would be 1,362 feet tall -- the height of the destroyed Twin Towers -- even though its rooftop was planned at 1,125 feet before the addition of cosmetic spire. While insiders understood Trump's claim was meant to show he was unafraid to build at such heights (and thus encourage WTC reconstruction), it struck a nerve with proud Chicagoans; Chicago had been on the losing end of the now-infamous 1998 redefinition of building height that handed Sears Tower's height crown to Malaysia's shorter Petronas Towers, which feature higher-reaching cosmetic spires. Many skyscraper experts dismiss idea of including non-functional spires in height rankings. Controversy notwithstanding, Chicagoans have widely embraced forthcoming tower.

Design has undergone numerous changes since conception. Trump originally planned world's tallest building for site (formerly home to 7-story Sun-Times eyesore headquarters). Developer scrapped plan on 9/11 but ultimately recommitted to major "skyline" icon. 

Project initially approved as wide, 78-story (1,073-foot-tall) silvery mixed-use structure. Later gave way to current scheme as slender hotel/condo building, clad in bluish glass set off by stainless steel ribs protruding from the building around every floor plate to add surface texture. Rising steel costs, coupled with tower footprint constraints, made steel construction impractical for Chicago market. Trump opted instead for steel-reinforced high-strength concrete (which is far less expensive and also requires a narrower base and footprint). During construction, concrete will be chemically treated to keep it fluid enough to be pumped up to each successive new floor by an industrial siphon that Trump is having custom built in Germany.

Promise of fresh residential presence created in otherwise commercial area by forthcoming Trump Tower has directly spurred owners of buildings on immediately adjacent parcels to consider condo conversions. Acclaimed contemporary IBM tower -- Chicago's version of New York's Seagram Building -- directly across the street to the west of Trump Tower already planning conversion. Architectural landmark Wrigley Building, one of America's most famous vintage skyscrapers, sits directly northeast of Trump Tower and has increasingly been subject of conversion rumors.