Eclectic Luxury

Aurélien, a new residential high-rise in Chicago’s upscale Gold Coast neighborhood, hides a lot of gold-inflected drama behind its restrained facade.

- Zach Mortice

For Ryan Companies’ first luxury rental high-rise in Chicago’s city center, the developer decided to tackle the design in-house, focusing on the exterior. The 31-story, 368-unit Aurélien tower comprises alternating bands of glass and beige-painted precast-concrete panels. At street level, the dark granite base continues the roofline of the building’s turn-of-the century brick neighbor. A few stories above, but concealed from view, is the lawn-topped terrace—in actuality, a serene urban park, complete with a bocce-ball court.

But to complete the project, Ryan hoped to tap an experienced interior designer who operated on the periphery of the residential sector. “Our goal from the beginning was to find someone that isn’t doing this with frequency,” says Mike Ryan, president of Ryan A+E, the company’s design arm.

The firm settled on Karen Herold’s West Loop–based Studio K, best known for its portfolio of reserved yet materially rich restaurant and hospitality projects. Residential is a market Herold knows well but is skittish about: Her hang-up (to be avoided at Aurélien) is that many residential towers opt for one or two iconic moments (a chandelier, an accent wall) at the expense of a comprehensive design approach.