THE REED at Southbank

The Project

THE REED is Lendlease’s luxury residential tower at Southbank on the Chicago River — a rare dual offering of condominiums for sale and luxury rentals under one roof. Full Bars Media served as the visual marketing partner across the entire lifecycle of the project, from construction through stabilization.

The Challenge

A mixed condo-and-rental tower has to convince two very different audiences at once: buyers making the biggest purchase of their lives, and renters comparing finishes across the luxury market. Both decisions start with the same question — what will living here actually feel like? — and much of the building had to sell before it was furnished, or even finished.

Our Approach

We embedded with THE REED’s marketing team from the construction phases onward:

1. Construction-phase coordination — working alongside the marketing team while the tower rose, we captured the actual views from the building for use in renderings, so pre-sale visuals were grounded in the real skyline and river vistas each residence would own.
2. Ultra-premium virtual staging — we virtually staged every floorplan in the building, condos and rentals alike, with furnishing and styling matched to each unit’s buyer or renter profile. No prospect ever toured an empty box online.
3. Full capture — all photography for the project, including architectural interiors, amenity spaces, and drone work over the river and skyline.
4. Advanced retouching & press support — advanced photo retouching across the library, and multiple dedicated shoots coordinated for press releases as the project hit its milestones.
5. Ad campaigns — we produced the ad campaigns for the project, keeping one consistent visual world across web, social, and paid media.

The Results

THE REED’s lease-up was a clear success — the rental side is fully stabilized, and condos have been selling at a high rate. A single visual partner across staging, photography, drone, retouching, press, and advertising meant every touchpoint a buyer or renter saw told the same story, from the first rendering to the final closing.