US firm Morris Adjmi Architects has designed a 43-storey residential skyscraper in Chicago with a "deeply expressive" facade that takes cues from the city's industrial past and the work of architect Mies van der Rohe.

The 480-foot (146-metre) building is located in Chicago's Fulton Market District – a former meatpacking area that has undergone extensive redevelopment in the past few decades.

The skyscraper was designed by New York's Morris Adjmi Architects, with interiors overseen by March and White Design (MAWD), which has offices in London, New York and Los Angeles.

The building – which has a blocky, L-shaped footprint – holds 300 residential units and a range of tenant amenities, such as a fitness area, children's room and library.

The ground level holds retail space, and the main entrance is located on Peoria Street.

Designed in homage to the area's industrial heritage and Chicago's "muscular and ubiquitous" elevated rail lines, the building has gridded facades made with steel and glass.

The structural system is reinforced concrete with post-tension slabs.

"The Row features a signature, deeply expressive glass-and-metal facade defined by steel beams and curved aluminum brackets," the team said.

The brackets are a nod to the arched gusset plates found on the elevated rail tracks, some of which date to the late 1800s.

In addition to Chicago's industrial history, the tower's design draws upon the work of German-American architect Mies van der Rohe, who created many glass-and-steel buildings in the city, ranging from twin apartment towers on Lakeshore Drive to SR Crown Hall, which houses the llinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) College of Architecture.

"The exaggerated channels and beams are informed by the detailing and the articulation of Mies van der Rohe's works and vocabulary," the team said.

At the base of the tower is a five-storey podium that aligns with the height of the existing streetwall. At the top of the podium, a setback provides space for a landscaped terrace.

The sides of the podium not facing Peoria Street are clad in brick to match the "neighbourhood's urban fabric".

Within the tower, one finds one-, two- and three-bedroom units. High ceilings, large windows and plank flooring are among the features.

Twenty per cent of the units are designated affordable housing, according to REjournals.

Other projects in Chicago include the 10-storey David Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and the conversion of the city's iconic Tribune Tower into residential apartments by Solomon Cordwell Buenz.

A 73-storey, residential skyscraper designed by the late German-American architect Helmut Jahn is currently under construction in Chicago's South Loop.

The photography is by Tom Harris.