A Sign of Indulgence – Trump International Hotel and Tower, 401 North Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, United States

The Trump International Hotel and Tower is a skyscraper condo-hotel in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The building, named after businessman and current U.S. President Donald Trump was designed by architect Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Bovis Lend Lease built the 98-story structure, which reaches a height of 1,388 feet (423.2 m) including its spire, its roof topping out at 1,171 feet (357 m). It is next to the main branch of the Chicago River, with a view of the entry to Lake Michigan beyond a series of bridges over the river. The building received publicity when the winner of the first season of The Apprentice reality television show, Bill Rancic, chose to manage the construction of the tower over managing a new Trump National Golf Course and resort in Los Angeles.

Trump announced in 2001 that the skyscraper would become the tallest building in the world, but after the September 11 attacks that same year, he scaled back the building’s plans, and its design underwent several revisions. When topped out in 2009, it became the fourth-tallest building in the US. It surpassed the city’s John Hancock Center as the building with the highest residence (apartment or condo) in the world, and briefly held this title until the completion of the Burj Khalifa.

The design of the building includes, from the ground up, retail space, a parking garage, a hotel and condominiums. The 339-room hotel opened for business with limited accommodations and services on January 30, 2008, then full accommodation and services on April 28. The building topped out in late 2008 and construction was completed in 2009. As of 2015, the hotel is among three in Chicago with an elite five-star Forbes Travel Guide rating. Sixteen was one of five restaurants in Chicago with at least a Michelin Guide two-star rating in 2016 and one of three five-star Forbes-rated restaurants in the city until it closed in 2018. The spa is one of six with at least a four-star Forbes rating in the Chicago area in 2015.