Architecture docents get Trump-eye view

May 18, 2013 – (Above) About 20 Chicago architecture docents survey their world from the penthouse on the 89th floor of Trump International Hotel & Tower last Thursday.

The docents were guests of the hotel. They were given a presentation on the construction of Trump Tower by one of the building’s architects, Lucas Tryggestad, an associate director at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, and Robert Prohaska, Trump’s Director of Sales & Marketing.

“I love talking about this building on my tour,” one of the docents told Tryggestad. Docents are volunteers who have completed an advanced education program on Chicago architecture and only after study and practice are certified by the Chicago Architecture Foundation to lead tours.

(Below) Architecture docents tour the Trump penthouse, which is currently on the market for $32 million. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

Five notable things about Trump International Hotel & Tower by one of its architects…

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill made its presentation on the building to The Trump Organization on September 11, 2001.

The first sales office for Trump Tower was located in the old Chicago Sun-Times building when it still occupied the site.

The Trump building takes up only about one-third of the overall site.

The tower is built near a rail line of which a railroad company wants to maintain ownership. Once a year, according to Tryggestad, workers for the railroad have to drive a handcar down the track to show that it is still in use.

The building has two levels that are below ground – and not just below the surface of the Chicago River but almost to the bottom of the river.