340 on the Park

The Buckingham, formerly known as Buckingham Plaza, is a 44-story all-residential condominium designed by Fujikawa Johnson & Associates. Located on East Randolph Street in Chicago, Illinois, the building sits between the new 340 on the Park building to its west and the older Outer Drive East building to its east. Two parks, Millennium Park and Lakeshore East Park, are immediately located to The Buckingham's south and north faces respectively. It is one of the few buildings that predates the new surrounding Lakeshore East development in the New Eastside neighborhood. There are 7 rooms located on every residential floor of the building for a total of 306 units. An indoor pool, sauna, laundry room, fitness center and open roof deck are located on the top floor. The Buckingham has 3 high-speed elevators that run the length of the building plus one elevator that runs from the first floor to each floor of the 4-story underground parking garage.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower (BCBS) is on the north end of Millennium Park along E. Randolph Street at the NE corner of Randolph and Columbus Drive, in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. It is home to the headquarters of Health Care Service Corporation. The building's address is 300 E. Randolph Street and is next to the Aon Center. Original plans to connect the two buildings via an underground pedway never came to fruition. Architect James Goettsch of Goettsch Partners designed the building. The 33-story first phase was completed in 1997 under the firm name of Lohan Associates (now Goettsch Partners). The 24-story second phase started in 2007 and was completed in 2010.

Maggie Daley Park Ice Skating Ribbon is a seasonal public ice skating surface in the Maggie Daley Park section of Grant Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, which is bounded by Columbus Drive, Randolph Street, Monroe Street and Lake Shore Drive. The ice skating ribbon opened on December 13, 2014, along with the park. The rink extends for one-quarter mile (0.40 km) mile and has a capacity of 700 skaters. In the summer, the rink serves as a walking and rollerskating path. The rink features changes in elevation, which give it an incline and decline.On November 20, 2014, the city announced that the ice skating ribbon would open on an undetermined date in December with free admission and $12 skate rentals, which was the same price structure as was being used at McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink at the time; other outdoor public skating rinks in the Chicago Park District charged a $3 admission for adults but had lower rental fees. Lockers are also available for rental for a nominal fee at the skating ribbon. Among the numerous rules for the skating ribbon is a ban on the use of smartphones while skating. In the first month, 28,000 skate rentals generated over $300,000 for the city.The rink is closed for one-hour periods during which the ice is resurfaced by a Zamboni machine. Because of the inconvenience of frequent lengthy closure periods, the Park announces the skating schedule and resurfacing schedule daily via a dedicated Maggie Daley Park Zamboni Twitter account, @MDPZamboni.

Lakeshore East is a master-planned mixed use urban development being built by the Magellan Development Group in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located in the northeastern part of the Loop, which, along with Illinois Center, is called the New Eastside. The development is bordered by Wacker Drive to the north, Columbus Drive to the west, Lake Shore Drive to the east, and East Randolph Street to the south. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill created the master plan for the area. The development, which had been scheduled for completion in 2011, was set for completion in 2013 by 2008. Development continued with revised plans for more buildings in 2018 and continuing construction of the Vista Tower in 2019. Although the majority of the buildings in the neighborhood will be 21st century constructions resulting from the master plan, some of the current buildings were built as early as the 1960s and 1970s decades. Thus, the term "Lakeshore East" refers only to the components of the new master plan, while the term New Eastside refers to the greater neighborhood surrounding Lakeshore East that extends westward to Michigan Avenue. In the 1960s, Illinois Center near Michigan Avenue was developed. There is little formal distinction between buildings in the masterplan and other buildings in the neighborhood because the pre-existing buildings are referred to as being located in the Lakeshore East area.Lakeshore East features several of the tallest buildings in Chicago and may include a few of the tallest buildings in the United States. The overall planned development, the park, and several of the individual buildings have won awards for architecture and/or urban planning. The buildings are planned for various types of residential use (condominiums, apartments, or hotels). Due to the neighborhood's proximity to both Lake Michigan to the east and the Chicago River to the north, many of the buildings are named with aquatic or nautical themes. As of August 2008, 1,500 condominiums have been sold and 1,200 apartments have been completed.

The Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Garden was built in 1996 and occupies 2 ¼ acres of land in the Northeast corner of Maggie Daley Park. The garden located in Chicago is one of 24 Cancer Survivor parks across the country built by the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Foundation. The R.A. Cancer Foundation primarily funded the garden costing $1.3 million to create. The park is designed to be a celebration of life. It is a safe haven for cancer patients and meant to aid them in their healing process. The three main garden rooms represent the three main states of healing: acceptance, support, and celebration.

Aqua is an 82-story mixed-use, primarily residential skyscraper in the Lakeshore East development in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Designed by a team led by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, with James Loewenberg of Loewenberg & Associates as the Architect of Record, it includes five levels of parking below ground. The building's eighty-story, 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) base is topped by a 82,550 sq ft (7,669 m2) terrace with gardens, gazebos, pools, hot tubs, a walking/running track and a fire pit. Each floor covers approximately 16,000 sq ft (1,500 m2).Aqua was awarded the Emporis Skyscraper Award as 2009 skyscraper of the year, and was shortlisted in 2010 for the biennial International Highrise Award. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, Aqua was selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois) and was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine as one of AIA Illinois' selections for Illinois 25 Must See Places. It has been compared to 8 Spruce Street in New York City.When it was completed, the skyscraper was the world's tallest building designed by a woman. It was surpassed in 2020 by the nearby St. Regis, also located in Chicago and designed by Studio Gang Architects.

McDonald's Cycle Center (formerly Millennium Park Bike Station) is an indoor bike station in the northeast corner of Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city of Chicago built the center at the intersection of East Randolph Street and Columbus Drive, and opened it July 2004. Since June 2006, it has been sponsored by McDonald's and several other partners, including city departments and bicycle advocacy organizations. The bike station, which serves bicycle commuters and utility cyclists, provides lockers, showers, a snack bar with outdoor summer seating, bike repair, bike rental and 300 bicycle parking spaces as of 2004. The Cycle Center is accessible by membership and day pass. It also accommodates runners and inline skaters, and provides space for a Chicago Police Department Bike Patrol Group.Planning for the Cycle Center was part of the larger "Bike 2010 Plan", in which the city aimed to make itself more accommodating to bicycle commuters. This plan (now replaced by the "Bike 2015 Plan") included provisions for front-mounted two-bike carriers on Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) buses, permitting bikes to be carried on Chicago 'L' trains, installing numerous bike racks and creating bicycle lanes in streets throughout the city. Additionally, the Chicago metropolitan area's other mass transit providers, Metra and Pace, have developed increased bike accessibility. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was an advocate of the plan, noting it is also an environmentally friendly effort to cut down on traffic. McDonald's controversially claimed that, since it is providing a healthier menu and fostering grade school physical education in an effort to help its customers improve their health, sponsoring bicycle and exercise activity in the park augments the company's other initiatives.Environmentalists, urban planners and cycling enthusiasts around the world have expressed interest in the Cycle Center, and want to emulate what they see as a success story in urban planning and transit-oriented development. Pro-cycling and environmentalist journalists in publications well beyond the Chicago metropolitan area have described the Cycle Center as exemplary, impressive, unique and ground-breaking.

Maggie Daley Park is a 20-acre (81,000 m2) public park in the Loop community area of Chicago operated by the Chicago Park District. It is near the Lake Michigan shoreline in northeastern Grant Park where Daley Bicentennial Plaza previously stood. Maggie Daley Park, like its predecessor, is connected to Millennium Park by the BP Pedestrian Bridge. Designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, the park had its ceremonial ribbon cutting on December 13, 2014, and is named for Maggie Daley, the former first lady of the city who died of cancer in 2011. The park was almost entirely remade with multiple new features including a new field house, an ice skating ribbon, climbing walls, landscaping and children's playground. An older section of the park maintains a garden dedicated earlier to honor cancer survivors. The park is bounded by Randolph Street, Monroe, Columbus and Lake Shore Drives. Construction took 2 years and cost $60 million, including rebuilding an underground parking lot.

400 East Randolph Street Condominiums or simply 400 East Randolph (formerly Outer Drive East) is a 40-story high-rise in Chicago, Illinois, designed by Reinheimer & Associates. The building primarily consists of residential condominiums, though there are a few businesses and restaurants also located in the building. Situated on East Randolph Street on the New Eastside, the building sits between the Buckingham to its west and Harbor Point to its east. Two parks, Millennium Park and Lakeshore East Park, are immediately located to 400 East Randolph's south and north faces respectively. It is one of the buildings in the area that predates the new surrounding Lakeshore East development. It was developed by Jerrold Wexler, who saw the legally protected lakefront as an ideal location for high income young office workers without children. In 1957, he encountered legal difficulties acquiring a lakefront site. Mayor Richard J. Daley, worried about a tendency of upscale Chicagoans to move to the suburbs, supported the project and told the planning department to make it work. The lakeshore was legally protected, but the city secured the needed legislation and resolved disputes with the Illinois Central Railroad, which originally owned the property. The city extended Randolph Drive into the lake area making the project possible. It was completed in 1962, as one of the largest apartment buildings in the world outside of New York City, with over 900 one-and two-bedroom units. It offered indoor parking, a pool and exercise facilities, a restaurant and a small grocery store. When it opened in 1962 The Chicago Sun-Times newspaper reported that Loop-area apartment towers such as Marina City, a few blocks away, "caught the city by surprise." A near-Loop location permitted one to walk to work at hundreds of office buildings, as well as walking access to the major department stores and theaters. In 1963 it became the first major apartment building in this part of downtown Chicago and started the trend of downtown living so that it is now surrounded by other upscale apartment and condominium buildings. However, after the 1970s, the amenities tended to leave the Loop and moved to North Michigan Avenue. It was converted from apartments to condominiums in 1973. Today the building houses a few businesses including the Lakefront Children's Academy.

Coast at Lakeshore East (sometimes Coast), originally known as Lakeshore East Building 2-A, is a 46-story residential skyscraper in the Lakeshore East development in the Loop community area of downtown Chicago. The building is located at 345 East Wacker Drive. It is the eighth 21st century skyscraper at Lakeshore East. It is the first smoke-free residential building in Lakeshore East.Groundbreaking for the building occurred in June 2011 and occupancy is expected to commence in 2013. The tower is designed by the architectural firm of bKL Architecture LLC, while Magellan Development Group is the developer along with its equity partner, JPMorgan Asset Management. James McHugh Construction Co., which has constructed six buildings at Lakeshore East, is the general contractor for the new tower. Magellan was informed by the City of Chicago that it would not be granted public way permits for scaffolding during May 2012 due to the 2012 NATO Summit held in Chicago. They also spoke with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Secret Service on the issue and did not apply for permits after gathering information. In November 2011, the designing architectural firm disbanded. Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin has described the building as "a boxy, 49-story, metal-and-glass apartment tower". Coast will comprise 499 apartments, 18,000 square feet (1,700 m2) retail space, a 272-car parking facility, amenities such as an outdoor pool and landscaped deck, a fitness center, resident lounge, business center, media room, and an indoor spa. As of June 2011 initial occupancy was targeted for February 2013. In February 2013, leasing offices opened for occupancy beginning in March 2013.

The Aon Center (200 East Randolph Street, formerly Amoco Building) is a modern supertall skyscraper in the Chicago Loop, Chicago, Illinois, United States, designed by architect firms Edward Durell Stone and The Perkins and Will partnership, and completed in 1974 as the Standard Oil Building. With 83 floors and a height of 1,136 feet (346 m), it is the fourth-tallest building in Chicago, surpassed in height by Willis Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and St Regis Chicago. The building is managed by Jones Lang LaSalle, which is also headquartered in the building. Aon Center formerly housed the world headquarters of Aon and Amoco. Aon still maintains headquarters of its US operations there. The building is also the co-headquarters of Kraft Heinz.

The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Maggie Daley Park (formerly, Daley Bicentennial Plaza) with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry and structurally engineered by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, it opened along with the rest of Millennium Park on July 16, 2004. Gehry had been courted by the city to design the bridge and the neighboring Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and eventually agreed to do so after the Pritzker family funded the Pavilion.Named for energy firm BP, which donated $5 million toward its construction, it is the first Gehry-designed bridge to have been completed. BP Bridge is described as snakelike because of its curving form. Designed to bear a heavy load without structural problems caused by its own weight, it has won awards for its use of sheet metal. The bridge is known for its aesthetics, and Gehry's style is seen in its biomorphic allusions and extensive sculptural use of stainless steel plates to express abstraction. The pedestrian bridge serves as a noise barrier for traffic sounds from Columbus Drive. It is a connecting link between Millennium Park and destinations to the east, such as the nearby lakefront, other parts of Grant Park and a parking garage. BP Bridge uses a concealed box girder design with a concrete base, and its deck is covered by hardwood floor boards. It is designed without handrails, using stainless steel parapets instead. The total length is 935 feet (285 m), with a five percent slope on its inclined surfaces that makes it barrier free and accessible. Although the bridge is closed in winter because ice cannot be safely removed from its wooden walkway, it has received favorable reviews for its design and aesthetics.