Completed in 1990, the office building at 181 W. Madison Street was Pelli’s first commission in Chicago. The design features a glassy exterior framed by a metal grid and a recessed crown. The 680-foot-tall building is currently the architect’s only completed skyscraper in Chicago, but will soon be joined by a pair of new high-rises headed to Wolf Point.

Pelli’s next Chicago project didn’t arrive until 2003 with the opening of Gerald Ratner Athletics Center at the University of Chicago’s Hyde Park campus. The $51 million facility includes a gym and swimming pool wrapped in glass walls and a steel roof supported by a system of protruding masts, cables, and counterweights.

In 2013, the Pelli-designed DePaul University Theatre School opened in the heart of the school’s Lincoln Park campus. A radical departure from its more traditional surroundings, the boxy five-story structure features a glass and limestone-clad exterior concealing a 100-seat and a 250-seat performance space.

This Pelli-designed medical complex opened in north suburban Lake Forest, Illinois, in 2018. The campus is impressive—especially by hospital standards—and comprises a series of pavilions arranged in a crescent shape next to a tranquil reflecting pool with waterfalls cascading into a small lake below.

The 60-story rental tower known as Wolf Point East broke ground in 2017 and is quickly rising at the confluence of the north, south, and main branches of the Chicago River. Featuring a glassy facade with subtle protruding fins, the 660-foot-tall tower will offer 698 apartments, impressive amenities, and stunning views when it opens this winter.

After winning praise for San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower, Pelli designed this upcoming Chicago office development for the cloud software giant. Slated to rise just west of Wolf Point East, the 813-foot-tall skyscraper is on track to break ground in 2020 and welcome tenants in early 2023. The top of the building will feature prominent Salesforce signage and a quasi-public “Ohana Floor.”