Situated equidistant from Chicago’s downtown and the McCormick place convention center, Chicago’s 100 year old Chinatown is surrounded on all sides by major transportation arteries, including Interstate expressways, railroads, rapid transit, and the Chicago River. To overcome the isolation of this hidden enclave, a “Dragon Tower”, symbol of hope and good fortune in Chinese history, was envisioned to create an iconic symbol that would identify Chinatown on the Chicago skyline.

The program for this proposed tower is 114 levels of automated robotic parking, where the cars are dropped off at the ground floor and are then mechanically stored and retrieved. The tower is sited for direct access to rapid transit and river boats to easily convey visitors to downtown or to the convention center, as well as to attract visitors to Chinatown. The top of the 1050 foot tower houses a restaurant and observation deck surmounted by a communications mast.

​Completed: 2004
Architect: Lohan Anderson