While developers and architects certainly need to keep their eyes on the bottom line, new buildings "are much more than just economic equations," Rafael Viñoly said this year in a video introduction of Nema, a 76-story apartment tower he designed for a site on the south rim of Grant Park. "They are there to contribute to the city."

Nema opened in the spring but had begun contributing to the city well before that. Bringing a new height to the South Loop, Nema joins two older, shorter towers in a flank that complements the older skyscrapers along the park's north and west sides. "It's a fundamental component of framing the park," Viñoly said at the time, "the most impressive of public spaces in Chicago" and much of the nation.

The tower is one of five new buildings that enhanced the look and character of the neighborhoods around them this year.

Among them: an Independence Park combo of branch library and senior apartments that serves the community but also has verve in its brightly colored facade, and a rehab of a 1960s building on the University of Chicago campus that was designed in a worried, insular time but now opens out broadly to the community.

Of course the biggest, boldest new addition to the skyline is the 101-story Vista designed by Jeanne Gang and her firm, Studio Gang. While it's far enough along that it looks like the multi-hued undulating wonder she promised, it's not yet complete and thus not on this list.

Take a look at five great new buildings that opened this year.