Reshaping the Summit
Developer makes over the top eight stories of 34-year-old "pinstriped" tower
Chicago Magazine
(June 2006)

A 49-story Loop office tower is getting a face-lift. Actually, it might be better characterized as a forehead lift, since the changes will affect only the top eight stories of 55 E. Monroe, where developers are installing condos - a process that entails adding balconies and removing some of the columns that give the 34-year-old structure its pinstriped look.

"We're taking great pains to make sure there's a good visual transition from the lower floors to the upper, residential floors," says Jim Losik, the Equity Marketing senior vice president who is overseeing the development of the Park Monroe condos. "It's not going to look like a new building put down on top of an old one. It's going to break up the monolithic look of the building."

Also broken up: the pricing structure of the 156 condos. Units on the west side, overlooking the Loop, will have either one bedroom or a bedroom and a den and will be priced from $300,000 into the high $400,000s. On the east side, looking toward Millennium Park and the lake, units will have two or three bedrooms, and some will be duplexes. Prices there will start at about $650,000 and go to $1.5 million, Losik says. The first residents should move in late next year.