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Lake Effect –

Floating Skyscrapers as Urban Infrastructure 2007

Lake Effect was developed for The History Channel’s City of the Future Invited Design Competition, part of the Engineering an Empire series. Sponsored by IBM, Infiniti, and the American Institute of Architects, the competition invited architects and designers in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles to envision the American city in 2106 and consider how resilience, technology, and human settlement might be redefined over the next century. Strawn Sierralta was one of eight invited teams to participate in the city of Chicago.

The proposal leverages Chicago’s geographic position on Lake Michigan to imagine a super-dense ecological mega-city powered by a renewable hydrogen-based infrastructure. Energy collection systems take the form of floating skyscrapers pixelated across the lake, reinterpreting the skyscraper—not simply as habitation—but as an adaptive organism capable of generating energy and regulating ecological flows.

Guided by four thematic lenses—dwelling, moving, breathing, and powering—the proposal operates across multiple scales. At the urban scale, it integrates mass transit, urban agriculture, and green networks; at the neighborhood scale, it emphasizes diversity, density, and equitable access; and at the architectural scale, the floating towers act as infrastructural hybrids. By modeling the city on biological systems of collection, production, consumption, and reuse, Lake Effect speculates on a post-carbon metropolis where density and ecological stewardship converge.

HIGHLIGHTS Lake Effect received the IBM Engineering Innovation Award, one of three honors presented in each host city. The recognition highlighted the project’s integration of speculative design with advanced engineering concepts, particularly its vision of a hydrogen-powered ecological mega-city. The project was exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry—one of the largest science museums in the world—and the Chicago Architecture Center in the historic Santa Fe Building atrium.

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For: The History Channel

Size / Scale / Area: Urban

Type: Speculative Futures

Charette Collaborators: Jo Hormuth, Siamak Moustoufi, Annie Mohaupt, Iker Gil, Julie Michaels, Prince Ambooken, Tiffany Daniels, Daniel Vasini, Diego Sierralta

Engineering: Fieena Zvenyach, Lev Zvenyach; IBC Engineering Services

Model Fabricators: Model Options

Charette Participants: Chicago: Brinnistool +Lynch, Dirk Denison, Garofalo Architects, CUADdc, UrbanLab, Protostudio, Valerio Dewalt Train/ARUP. New York: Architecture Research Office, Architectonics, Diana Balmori, Joel Sanders, Diane Lewis, Craig Konyk, Rogers Marvel, Smith-Miller Hawkinson, System, Terreform, Urban Research Office. Los Angeles: Eric Owen Moss, EDAW/DMJM, George Yu, Griffin Enright, Harvard GSD, Office of Mobile Design, Roger Sherman/Robert Somol, Xerofitach/Imaginary Forces

Chicago Jury: Ned Cramer, Editor-In-Chief Architect Magazine. Lori Healey, Commissioner of Planning and Development City of Chicago. Diane Legge Kemp, DLK Civic Design and AIA Representative. Joseph Rosa, Curator of Architecture at the Chicago Art Institute. Leslie Shepherd, Chief Architect of the Unites States General Services Administration

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Lake Effect –

Floating Skyscrapers as Urban Infrastructure 2007

Lake Effect received the IBM Engineering Innovation Award, one of three honors presented in each host city. The recognition highlighted the project’s integration of speculative design with advanced engineering concepts, particularly its vision of a hydrogen-powered ecological mega-city. The project was exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry—one of the largest science museums in the world—and the Chicago Architecture Center in the historic Santa Fe Building atrium.

DATA + –

Lake Effect was developed for The History Channel’s City of the Future Invited Design Competition, part of the Engineering an Empire series. Sponsored by IBM, Infiniti, and the American Institute of Architects, the competition invited architects and designers in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles to envision the American city in 2106 and consider how resilience, technology, and human settlement might be redefined over the next century. Strawn Sierralta was one of eight invited teams to participate in the city of Chicago.

The proposal leverages Chicago’s geographic position on Lake Michigan to imagine a super-dense ecological mega-city powered by a renewable hydrogen-based infrastructure. Energy collection systems take the form of floating skyscrapers pixelated across the lake, reinterpreting the skyscraper—not simply as habitation—but as an adaptive organism capable of generating energy and regulating ecological flows.

Guided by four thematic lenses—dwelling, moving, breathing, and powering—the proposal operates across multiple scales. At the urban scale, it integrates mass transit, urban agriculture, and green networks; at the neighborhood scale, it emphasizes diversity, density, and equitable access; and at the architectural scale, the floating towers act as infrastructural hybrids. By modeling the city on biological systems of collection, production, consumption, and reuse, Lake Effect speculates on a post-carbon metropolis where density and ecological stewardship converge.

For: The History Channel

Size / Scale / Area: Urban

Type: Speculative Futures

Charette Collaborators: Jo Hormuth, Siamak Moustoufi, Annie Mohaupt, Iker Gil, Julie Michaels, Prince Ambooken, Tiffany Daniels, Daniel Vasini, Diego Sierralta

Engineering: Fieena Zvenyach, Lev Zvenyach; IBC Engineering Services

Model Fabricators: Model Options

Charette Participants: Chicago: Brinnistool +Lynch, Dirk Denison, Garofalo Architects, CUADdc, UrbanLab, Protostudio, Valerio Dewalt Train/ARUP. New York: Architecture Research Office, Architectonics, Diana Balmori, Joel Sanders, Diane Lewis, Craig Konyk, Rogers Marvel, Smith-Miller Hawkinson, System, Terreform, Urban Research Office. Los Angeles: Eric Owen Moss, EDAW/DMJM, George Yu, Griffin Enright, Harvard GSD, Office of Mobile Design, Roger Sherman/Robert Somol, Xerofitach/Imaginary Forces

Chicago Jury: Ned Cramer, Editor-In-Chief Architect Magazine. Lori Healey, Commissioner of Planning and Development City of Chicago. Diane Legge Kemp, DLK Civic Design and AIA Representative. Joseph Rosa, Curator of Architecture at the Chicago Art Institute. Leslie Shepherd, Chief Architect of the Unites States General Services Administration

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