Best Living Architect, Reader's Choice: Helmut Jahn (Near North Apartments)

Doug Snower

Reader’s Choice

Helmut Jahn

The splashy designs that rocketed Jahn to stardom in the 1980s (and earned him the nickname Flash Gordon) are firmly in his past, supplanted by work that shows a new kind of star quality: the brilliance to fuse exquisitely pure forms with technologically innovative engineering and materials. Though Jahn is known for his skyscrapers and for public works that incorporate dazzling public spaces, his most recent local projects are residential buildings, each serving a drastically different population. His State Street Village at IIT is spacious, open student housing; his Near North Apartments in Lincoln Park bring high design and green features (solar thermal collectors and rooftop wind turbines) to low-income housing; and the crystalline luxury condo tower receiving finishing touches at 600 N. Fairbanks in Streeterville is already a clear standout in an increasingly busy setting. murphyjahn.com. —Lisa Skolnik

Readers’ Choice

Helmut Jahn

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