333 Wacker Drive

333 Wacker Drive is a 149-meter office building standing exactly where the Chicago River makes its famous Y-shaped split. Designed by a young William Pedersen at Kohn Pedersen Fox and finished in 1983, it is widely considered the first major postmodern skyscraper in Chicago. Pedersen curved the green-blue glass facade precisely to the river bend so the water itself becomes part of the building. On opening night critics called it the most striking Chicago high-rise since the Sears Tower. Visitors today reach the lobby up a sweeping granite stair from Wacker Drive. Seen from the opposite bank, the tower shifts through the day between steel blue and silver green.