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Tower PlaceIn this article we showcase the Water Tower Place in Chicago
Illinois. Many people are unaware of Water Tower Place, but for 15 years this
historic structure was the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world -
for its time, it was cutting edge technology that was impossible only a few years
before.  Water
Tower Place
Water Tower Place in Chicago Illinois was the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world from 1975 to 1990, when it was surpassed in height
by 311 South Wacker Drive, also in Chicago. Water Tower Place is 76 stories, 859
feet tall and contains concrete with a strength of up to 9,000 psi. Named
after the Chicago Water Tower, the building was designed by Loebl, Schlossman,
Dart & Hackl. The commercial construction company who built Water Tower Place
was Inland-Robbins Company. A conventional design was used for the bottom 12 floors
and a tubular design for the top 64 stories, using lightweight and normal weight
concrete, as well as high strength concrete. Water Tower Place could not
have been built before the mid-1970s because concrete made before then would not
have supported the massive structure. In the 1950s, any concrete with a compressive
strength of 5,000 psi was considered high-strength. That definition changed in
the 1960s, when high-strength concrete was anywhere between 6,000 and 7,500 psi.
It wasn't until the early 1970s that concrete with a strength of 9,000 psi, the
strength of some of the concrete used on Water Tower Place, was developed. Advancements
in improving concrete's strength have continued to improve the material even beyond
the time Water Tower Place was created; modern concrete can reach strengths approaching
20,000 psi.  Only
some of the cement in Water Tower Place is a strength of 9,000 psi. Commercial
concrete contractors used 11 different mixes, varying from 3,000 psi for the slabs
to 9,000 psi for the columns. The structural system of the building consists of
reinforced concrete on the outside with steel columns on the inside and steel
slabs topped with composite concrete. At 2/3 the height of the tallest steel building
when it was built, Water Tower Place serves as an example of how cement's abilities
make it a strong rival of steel.
Not only is the building composed of concrete,
but concrete also lies underneath the building site. Commercial construction was
delayed unexpectedly for several weeks when the commercial construction company
discovered a stream running under the building site. They resolved the problem
by creating a giant concrete dome to plug the water so that commercial construction
could continue. Even though taller buildings have been built since 1975,
Water Tower Place, which remains fully operational today, marked a major milestone
for commercial construction companies in the advancement of high-strength concrete
and the new capabilities this innovation afforded. |
