Related Midwest completes marathon foundation pour for 400 Lake Shore Drive

This week Related Midwest in collaboration with LR Contracting Company and BOWA Construction completed a mat foundation pour for the first of two towers at 400 Lake Shore Drive. 

To form the foundation of the 72-story tower, a caravan of over 250 concrete trucks delivering every 2 minutes over a 12-hour period delivered 9 million pounds of concrete. Over 2,300 cubic yards, or 470,000 gallons, of concrete was placed on-site. The volume is equivalent to filling an Olympic size swimming pool or a 9-mile-long sidewalk. 

Approximately 622,000 pounds of reinforcing steel, equivalent to about 155 automobiles, was placed on-site over the past two weeks in preparation for the foundation pour. The massive effort was managed by 30 workers on-site, plus 25 concrete truck drivers.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with Stantec serving as the architect of record, the towers feature thoughtful nods to Chicago architectural history and geography. This includes reimagining the iconic “Chicago Window”—a bay window design that is a hallmark of the city’s historic architecture—as a shallow bay of floor-to-ceiling glass. The towers taper down in plan to frame a view of the lake while angling back towards the cityscape—with metal detailing evoking the rippling surface of Lake Michigan. 

When completed, the 72-story, 858-foot-tall phase one tower will deliver 635 new apartments, 20% or 127 units of which will be affordable. With construction underway, completion of the north tower is set for 2027.