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by Nancy Hornak, Education Guide

For once an urban legend is true – Mies van der Rohe’s iconic twin towers at 860-880 N. Lake Shore Drive have no trash chutes!

The Glass House (as these buildings were originally known in marketing literature and to cab drivers) continues to draw Mies van der Rohe enthusiasts from around the world. Tourists stroll the travertine-topped plaza taking endless photographs of these landmark buildings, often trying to sweet talk the doormen into allowing just a brief step into the inner lobby. They fail.

But real people live in these masterpieces. Originally built as cooperative apartments (or more accurately a land trust since the buildings were constructed prior to the creation of condominium ownership), the units were designed for sale, not rental. Occupants are known as “tenant-owners” since the cooperative is a corporation in which owners hold shares. Previously these had to be cash sales (with personal loans quietly arranged through a bank), but now mortgages are permitted. Assessments include taxes, heat, electric (at the commercial rate since there are no individual meters), water, cable and internet. The exact amount a resident is charged each month is based on their percentage of ownership.

The 860 N. Lake Shore Drive Trust has a five-person board of managing trustees who are quite omnipotent. They have ruled that units can no longer be sold to people who smoke, and the no dog policy really means no dogs. (Some years ago, when a tenant-owner dared get a dog, she was given 90 days to remove the animal or sell her apartment…she moved). There is also a strictly enforced rental policy. During the entire span of ownership, an apartment can only be rented for a total of two one-year increments. (Kevin Costner rented an apartment for three months while in Chicago filming The Untouchables, but this counted as a full year of rental for the owner). Obviously, this policy yields very few non-owner occupied units.

The two buildings are equal in size–860 typically had four same-sized units to a floor and 880 had eight, but there were exceptions even back in 1950. Developer Herbert Greenwald took a bedroom and bath from a neighboring unit to make his apartment larger. Two other purchasers did the same. Originally the 26th floors – the top floors–were to house laundry rooms and storage lockers. However, prior to completion it was realized the best use for these floors were as apartments, so these utilities were relocated to the second floor.

Over the last seven decades, numerous units have been combined, the new configurations made easy by the non-load bearing walls. Typically, two apartments are combined, but some owners have put three residences together. There is one duplex apartment, The Stainless Steel Apartment, created in 1992 by architects Krueck and Sexton, located in the southeast corner of the 25th and 26th floors of the 860 building. From the original 278 apartments, there are now 234 units. While a few apartments remain in their original configuration with small Sloan valve toilet bathrooms and white metal cabinet galley kitchens, others have been lavishly upgraded.

Composition of the tenant-owners has changed over the years. Few couples with children ever occupied the buildings, which remains true today; however other factors have altered. Forty years ago, virtually everyone was a full-time resident with a few retirees slipping off to warmer climates during the winter and another minority getting away to weekend homes. Today it’s common for residents to depart Chicago in the winter, and a considerable portion of owners are suburbanites and out-of-staters who use 860-880 as an urban retreat. While this results in less wear and tear on building elevators, there is less chance to chat with one’s neighbors.

Until recently, a handful of original tenant-owners resided in the buildings—interestingly, a number of the men surpassed the century mark and many women lived well into their 90’s. They were attracted to these towers as their location made walking to work in the Loop or at Northwestern Hospital so convenient. These elders told tales of moving in without front doors yet in place, hosting bridge games and progressive dinner parties, and dancing the night away on the rooftop deck of the neighboring (former) Lake Shore Club.

The buildings were constructed without air conditioning—it was 1950 after all, and the apartments were built on spec. Through the years, approximately 100 apartments installed water-cooled central AC units. While no longer permitted by the city, those currently in existence have been grandfathered. The remaining apartments use standardized window cooling units that can also supply auxiliary heat. With single pane, floor-to-ceiling, non-tinted glass, cooling is an absolute necessity at 860-880, even on a sunny day during a polar vortex.

In 1950 labor costs were of little importance, but today the twin- tower design greatly affects building expenses. The buildings need two sets of doormen (although it wasn’t until 1978 that 860 got its own overnight doorman) and require a larger than typical maintenance staff for a non-rental building of this size. Numerous original amenities have been scaled back. There is no longer a building carpenter, nor does each tower have a receiving room with a valet for package delivery (and this in the time before Amazon when there were often fewer than a dozen packages a week!). These days a single part-time employee delivers packages and dry cleaning to the individual apartments each weekday.

There are 120 deeded parking spaces in a two-level subterranean garage that runs beneath both towers as well as under the service lane to the west. This layout makes it easy for owners and staff to cross between the two buildings below ground. These days the garage is no longer jammed with double-parked cars, since with the advent of Uber and Lyft and more Millennial-aged tenant-owners, fewer people own cars.

Now, when it comes to trash, the apartments in the 860 building share access to a “service area” (a 24 square foot closet-like space) from the back door in their kitchens. The garbage disappears seven nights a week, collected by building staff from a common hall door. In the 880 building, owners walk their trash to a main collection bin located on each floor. Recyclables are collected the same way. There really are no trash chutes.

While the 860-880 N. Lake Shore buildings are famous among architecture buffs, many television and movie aficionados know the buildings well. They had a starring role in the ‘80’s TV drama Crime Story, and numerous scenes from the 2018 movie Widows were shot in an 880 apartment overlooking Lake Michigan. Both stars, Liam Neeson and Viola Davis, were charming to building staff and tenant-owners during filming. The movie producers paid for a re-painting and upgrade to the building exercise room (but the scenes shot there were left on the cutting room floor!).

All in all, the buildings despite their age look as though they were constructed ever so recently and continue to delight owners and visitors alike.