Chicago · The Midwest
Seen before it's built.
Renderings and film that set a proposed West Side tower into the real skyline for its investors and the city.
Updated
Clients and collaboratorsFarpoint Development KOO Architecture VeLa Development Partners
NoTriangle is an architectural visualization studio. We build the narrative behind a development: the story that sells it, gets it approved and gets it funded.
NoTriangle Studio is an architectural visualization and 3D rendering studio, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, that has produced renderings, animation and launch films for developers since 2014. Around Chicago, we set a proposed West Side tower into the real skyline for its developer's investor and city pitch, and made the interiors and marketing film for SoLa, lakefront condominiums and townhomes in Michigan City, Indiana.
West Side, Chicago, Illinois
Residential High-Rise, Investor and City Pitch Renderings.
A proposed slender glass residential tower for a private developer. Four renderings, two exteriors composited into the real Chicago skyline, one of them from across Lake Michigan, plus a double-height lobby and a lake-view penthouse, gave an unbuilt concept a photoreal form to take to investors and the city. The tower remains a proposal.
Read the West Side Residential Tower case study →
Michigan City, Indiana
Lakefront Condominiums and Townhomes, Interior Renderings and Marketing Film.
Farpoint Development's lakefront condominium and townhome development on Lake Michigan, with architecture and interiors by KOO Architecture. Ten interior and terrace renderings and a marketing animation, built around the real lake views, launched two unit tiers for sale off-plan in 2025. The development was ultimately not realized.
Read the SoLa case study →
In Chicago and across the Midwest, a new tower or condominium has to convince investors, a city and then buyers, usually long before there is anything to visit. The images carry that case.
Every project runs the same way: we align the story first, then the cameras, then the images. That is how a developer, an architect and a marketing team all sign off on the same image.
The SoLa film
Marketing animation for SoLa, moving through the interiors and out to Lake Michigan
When a private developer brought a proposed West Side tower to us, it existed only as a design. Four renderings carried the case: two exteriors composited into the real Chicago skyline, one from within the city and one from across Lake Michigan, so its height and silhouette could be judged against its neighbors, then the lobby atrium and a penthouse that showed what the height was for. The tower has not broken ground (September 2026); the images were made as an honest, credible vision of a proposal.
Planning boards need a different image from investors. For VeLa Development Partners, the Kansas City based rental developer, we built drone-integrated aerials of high-rise towers in six markets, including Kansas City, so reviewers could read massing, height and fit with the neighborhood. How the two jobs differ is in our guide to approval and sales renderings.
At SoLa, Farpoint Development launched two tiers of homes on Lake Michigan off-plan in 2025, the Residence 925 terrace residences and the townhomes, with architecture and interiors by KOO Architecture. Many were meant as second homes for buyers coming from the city, and the developer's earlier renderings looked, in the client's words, very basic. Ten renderings and a marketing film lifted the styling to the price point, carried one material language across both tiers, and built every view from the developer's own drone footage of the lake.
The visuals carried the launch; the development itself was ultimately not realized. The work stands as a record of how a lakefront address is brought to market before anything is built. More on that in how to pre-sell luxury condos.
A townhome or condominium development sells two things at once: the building and the home inside it. The set usually pairs exteriors and terraces with the main rooms of each unit type, so buyers can compare tiers side by side. At SoLa, the townhome kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms were rendered in the same material language as the Residence 925 terrace residences, so the two tiers read as one development.
Chicago is short of new homes and prices show it. The city's median home price reached $405,000 in August 2026, up from $375,000 a year earlier, according to Illinois REALTORS data. Downtown, Integra Realty Resources forecast no more than 3,000 new apartments across 2025 to 2027 combined, a number the previous decade often delivered in a single year, as reported by REJournals. At the top of the market, JDL Development and Kayne Anderson broke ground on Foundry Park on 21 October 2026, a $3 billion project whose first phase is a 39-storey tower of 709 homes targeted for early 2029, per Crain's Chicago Business, and Tracy Cross & Associates counted 3,087 new homes sold across metro Chicago in the first half of 2026, up 6% on the year before.
For a developer, that means few new projects, each one watched closely by lenders, the city and buyers. With so little new product downtown, the renderings for the next tower or condominium are how the market first meets it, and at those prices per square foot the images have to show exactly what the buyer is paying for: the view, the light and the finish.
Since 2014: 500+ projects for 150+ clients, made by our own in-house team of 20 to 30 people.
A Chicago tower is judged against the buildings around it. For a proposed West Side tower we composited the proposal into real views of the city and from across the lake, so its height and silhouette could be read in context, not on a blank sky.
Every camera angle is approved on an untextured white model before color, light and materials go on. At SoLa that let the developer and its marketing team settle framing and furnishing level before a single final render.
On a lakefront or high-floor home, the view is what the buyer pays for. SoLa's renders were built from the developer's own drone footage of the actual outlook, so the lake in every window was something a buyer could trust.
Towers composited into the real Chicago skyline, from street level or across the lake, for investor decks, city review and launch.
High-rise rendering →
Residences, penthouses and lobbies styled to the price point, with the lake or the skyline held open in the frame.
Interior rendering →
Marketing films built from the same model as the stills, like the SoLa animation that moves through the interiors and out to the lake.
Architectural animation →
Drone-integrated aerials that show massing, height and neighborhood fit for planning boards, like our Kansas City tower for VeLa.
Exterior rendering →What we need to see to review a project is in the questions below.
See our 3D rendering services or how we work.
Beyond the renderings:design support, landing pages, lookbooks and brochures that carry the same story into the sale.
Chicago and Midwest projects reach us from developers, their marketing teams, and architects, and each has a different first audience: investors, the city or buyers. Each page explains how the work changes for your role:
Or start with an overview of all the client types we work with.
Recent examples: a private developer (a proposed West Side tower), Farpoint Development with KOO Architecture (SoLa) and VeLa Development Partners (Kansas City and five other markets).
We serve developers, architects and agencies across Chicagoland and the Midwest, working remotely with calls and shared online reviews. Places where we have a published case study are in bold:
Other regions: New York, Nashville, Texas, New England and more projects across the US.
How developers use 3D visualization to raise capital: where renderings work in an investor deck, why accuracy matters, and how the imagery pays for itself.
How luxury condo developers use visualization to close pre-sales before completion, and why some renderings hold price while others don't.
Architects usually commission renderings for design approval, not sales. How approval renders differ from sales renders in audience, accuracy, and scope.
Images that raise capital do a different job from images that sell units. How investor and buyer renderings differ in purpose, timing, and finish.
FAQ
NoTriangle Studio, in business since 2014, rendered a proposed residential tower on Chicago's West Side for a private developer, composited into the real Chicago skyline for investors and the city, and produced the interior renderings and marketing film for SoLa, Farpoint Development's lakefront condominiums and townhomes in Michigan City, Indiana. Whoever you hire, choose a studio that can show you Chicago and Midwest work, not just a portfolio, and ask to see a tower placed in its real context, white-model approval of every camera angle, and views built from the actual site.
No. NoTriangle Studio is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area (Fremont, California), with its in-house production team based in Brazil, and a team of 20 to 30 people produces every project in-house. We have no separate office in Chicago or the Midwest; our work for the West Side tower, SoLa and VeLa ran remotely on calls and shared online reviews. You can meet the people who lead every project on our About page.
Yes, and a pitch needs fewer images than a sales launch, each doing more work. For a proposed West Side tower, four renderings carried the case: two exteriors set into the real skyline, one of them from across Lake Michigan, a double-height lobby and a lake-view penthouse. The tower has not been built (September 2026), and the images were made to be honest about that: a credible vision of a proposal. More in our guide to renderings for capital raises.
Yes, as long as they are made for review rather than for sales. A review image has to show massing, height and how the building sits next to its neighbors, from viewpoints a board can check. For VeLa Development Partners, the Kansas City based rental developer, we produced planning visuals for high-rise towers in six markets, including a tower in Kansas City, built from drone photography so boards could judge massing, height and neighborhood fit. In Chicago, the West Side tower renderings set the proposal into the real skyline for the developer's investor and city pitch; the tower has not been built (September 2026), so we claim no approval outcome. Your architect or land-use team sets which views the review needs, and we match the camera positions to that brief. See approval renderings vs sales renderings.
By making the view and the outdoor rooms believable. At SoLa, many of the homes were meant as second residences for buyers coming from the city, so every room pulled in the lake, the terraces and rooftop decks were lit at twilight without letting the interiors go dark, and the views were built from the developer's own drone footage. The finishes were fixed, so the furnishing and styling were lifted to match the price point.
Industry-wide, published guides put a 3D rendering at roughly $250 to $5,000+ per still image in 2026, and architectural animation at roughly $2,000 to $18,000 per finished minute, depending on the number of views, interior or exterior, custom modeling and whether design is part of the work. These are industry-wide ranges, not NoTriangle prices. We price every NoTriangle project to its scope once we have reviewed it; there is no price list. See how much 3D rendering costs.
To review a project properly we need to see the design and know what the images must achieve. The architect's latest 3D model (Revit, Rhino or SketchUp) is the best start; CAD drawings, interior design packages, site or drone photography and reference images all help. Every project includes white-model previews of each camera angle, a milestone schedule, high-resolution files for web, print and outdoor, and commercial usage rights. Revision rounds are included, and the exact number is confirmed in the proposal. See files needed for 3D rendering.
Tell us who the images have to convince first: investors, the city or buyers. We review every enquiry personally and come back with how we would approach it and whether we are the right studio for it.
