{"nrhp_refnum":"96001281","name":"Promontory Apartments","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5530--5532 South Shore Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.79426449600004,"lon":-87.58076958899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-11-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 22-story cooperative high-rise apartment building at 5530-5532 South Shore Drive on the Chicago lakefront, overlooking Promontory Point in Burnham Park. It was completed in 1949 and designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is nationally significant as the work of a master and for its high artistic value. It was Mies's first high-rise and the first International Style high-rise apartment building in the nation. It first realized two themes of his later work: an exposed structural frame and a tripartite horizontal division.","narrative":"Rising 22 stories above the Chicago lakefront at 5530-5532 South Shore Drive, this cooperative apartment tower was completed in 1949 to designs by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Its plan is a double T, with two linked buildings holding 122 units and avoiding long corridors. The reinforced concrete frame is left exposed and filled with buff brick and aluminum-framed windows. Columns on the east and west faces step back in four tiers, and the building is divided into a recessed ground-floor loggia, a shaft of residential floors, and a top element of two penthouses joined by a glass solarium. It was Mies's first high-rise and the first International Style high-rise apartment building in the United States. Developer Herbert Greenwald persuaded skeptical mortgage bankers to finance it, which opened the way for 860-880 Lake Shore Drive and later projects. The building remains a tenant-owned residence, with lobby and exterior restoration work carried out in the 1990s.","period_of_significance":"1949","architect_builder":"Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, and Pace Associates, Associated Architects","architectural_style":"International Style","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Tenant-owned cooperative still in residential use; ground floor lounge and mail rooms restored 1990-94 and exterior concrete frame and brickwork restoration begun in 1995-96.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.519339-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/8/8920/28892008/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/96001281.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001281/c26ce32498-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001281/c26ce32498-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Promontory_Apartments_(7375074472).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Promontory_Apartments_(7375074472).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100001970","name":"Promontory Point","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/promontory-point-100001970/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892008","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promontory_Apartments","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16898814"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/promontory-apartments-96001281/"}