C40 Reinventing Cities Competition: Envisioning a Net Zero Apartment Building in Chicago’s Loop

Published by Urban Land Institute:

Chicago announces its second winner in the C40 Reinventing Cities Competition as developers, owners, and property managers work to meet the city’s goal to power 100 percent of buildings citywide with renewable energy by 2035.

For much of this past summer, as wildfires raged throughout the western United States and Canada, downtown Chicago’s Loop was enveloped in a murky shroud that was a foul byproduct of the faraway flames. What better time to announce the latest capstone in the city’s quest for the greenest of green high-rise construction, the kind of project meant to help head off the global warming that is the root cause of weather that has veered out of control around North America?

In June, Chicago revealed its second winner in the C40 Reinventing Cities Initiative, part of a global competition bringing together leading developers, architects, urban planners, environmentalists, and innovators to inspire a carbon-neutral future meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other climate risks. Within a sea of sustainability-certifying organizations, C40 stands out as perhaps the most exclusive and prestigious organization of all, sponsoring just a handful of urban competitions every couple of years in places like Madrid, Milan, Paris, and Reykjavik. Thus far, Chicago has been the organization’s singular beachhead in the United States.