Suburban Sore Thumbs

[Steely Dan]

outside of a few little clumps in places like evanston, schaumburg, and oak park, suburban chicago generally doesn't do highrises.

but we do have a big one that sticks out like a sore thumb on the pancake flat topography of chicagoland's seemingly infinite sprawltopia.

"how did something that tall and expensive get built in the relative middle of nowhere?"


Oak Brook Terrace Tower | 418 FT | 31 FLOORS | 1986

google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8521.../data=!3m1!1e3


source: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...ands-big-lease






how about your metro, do you have any lonely suburban sore thumb towers?

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

outside of few little clumps in places like evanston, schaumburg, and oak park, suburban chicago generally doesn't do highrises.

but we do have a big one that sticks out like a sore thumb on the pancake flat topography of chicagoland's seemingly infinite sprawltopia.

"how did something that tall and expensive get built in the relative middle of nowhere?"


Oak Brook Terrace tower | 418 FT | 31 FLOORS | 1986

google maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8521.../data=!3m1!1e3


source: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...ands-big-lease






how about your metro, do you have any lonely suburban sore thumb towers?

All that building needs is a moat full of crocodiles and it would be perfect.

[iheartthed]

The NY area has a couple that I know of, but not many. You can spot some from the NJ Turnpike, like here and here.

Suburban Detroit is littered with them, so it would be a very time consuming to document them all. Most of the towers built in the Detroit area since the 1960s would qualify. I'd be surprised if the Detroit area isn't in the top 3 nationally for count of towers thrown up in random ass places. But here are some examples:

Southfield apartment tower: https://goo.gl/maps/e7JvmGMgGuLF9iUJA

Southfield Town Center: https://goo.gl/maps/sz3UCPvo1s89Fztq5

A sore thumb graveyard in Southfield: https://goo.gl/maps/B7dnz2TtC7c869N47

Two thumbs up in Southfield: https://goo.gl/maps/TmMvNWRAAgu49s186

My favorite suburban Detroit sore thumb is more like a middle finger to urban development: https://goo.gl/maps/b2g2ix4Da7oeFZqE9

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

The NY area has a couple that I know of, but not many. You can spot some from the NJ Turnpike, like here and here.

I've personally never seen those buildings as "sore thumbs". But maybe being used to using the NJ Turnpike, I never saw them as sticking out so much. I expect to see highrises here and there. These are not terribly tall, either. To me, in North Jersey, this building is more of a sore thumb.

I see those buildings you mentioned more as the natural product of "exit-oriented development", like transit-oriented development. Land next to an exit is going to have a high value, necessitating building upward. It reminds me of this development on the edge of Toronto.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Suburban Detroit is littered with them, so it would be a very time consuming to document them all. Most of the towers built in the Detroit area since the 1960s would qualify. I'd be surprised if the Detroit area isn't in the top 3 nationally for count of towers thrown up in random ass places. But here are some examples:

Right, most of Metro Detroit highrise development over the last 50 years would qualify. IMO the former American Motors World HQ in Southfield is the worst, but there are lots of examples. The Chrysler World HQ is also absurd, way out in Auburn Hills. And there's a random highrise condo tower in St. Clair Shores.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Right, most of Metro Detroit highrise development over the last 50 years would qualify. IMO the former American Motors World HQ in Southfield is the worst, but there are lots of examples. The Chrysler World HQ is also absurd, way out in Auburn Hills. And there's a random highrise condo tower in St. Clair Shores.

Yeah, the FCA HQ is probably the best example of a tower in a cornfield in all of Metro Detroit.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Suburban Detroit is littered with them

Southfield and Troy both have clusters of office/residential towers so I don't feel like this is akin to the OP's example where he specifically excluded places like Shaumberg.

[edale]

great idea for a thread, and I kind of love the Oak Brook tower.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Oral Roberts University near Tulsa, OK has one or two examples, iirc?

[BG918]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Oral Roberts University near Tulsa, OK has one or two examples, iirc?

Now called Cityplex Towers the tallest is 648 ft tall. Oral Roberts University is in the foreground.



https://tulsaworld.com/lifestyles/or...6132b34fb.html

From across the river you can also see the nearby 28 story River Spirit casino hotel tower


https://tulsaworld.com/archive/flyin...886ab5d6c.html

[Steely Dan]

^ Excellent example of a "suburban sore thumb".

Orel Roberts University, including the cityplex towers, has some truly strange and magnificent architecture.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ Excellent example of a "suburban sore thumb".

Orel Roberts University, including the cityplex towers, has some truly strange and magnificent architecture.

It all kind of looks like the Tomorrowland area of Disneyland to me. Like you said, strange, but fascinating even if I can't stand Roberts' beliefs.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by BG918

Now called Cityplex Towers the tallest is 648 ft tall. Oral Roberts University is in the foreground.



https://tulsaworld.com/lifestyles/or...6132b34fb.html

That whole area has some pretty neat-o mid-century architecture by the look of that pic, though.

[Qubert]

Bucks County, PA

[paytonc]

I guess "goofy one-off hotel" would be another valid rationale. Hotels have high fire code standards, so why not go vertical? And all kinds of seemingly arbitrary hotel locations are rooted in, oh I don't know, Bureau of Indian Affairs determinations of reservation boundaries.

My other favorite Carolinas example is the abandoned-before-it-opened, 21-story Heritage USA Hotel in Fort Mill, S.C., arbitrary location determined by Jeebus and/or his philandering messenger:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/heritage-usa-2

The megachurch at its base is still in use, under new leadership, and a few small buildings that were at the entrance are still there. Most of the circa-1978 Christian amusement park has been demolished and redeveloped into conventional townhouses.

Speaking of televangelists...

Originally Posted by BG918

Now called Cityplex Towers the tallest is 648 ft tall. Oral Roberts University is in the foreground.

OMG, currently listed at $14 PSF (per year). That's like warehouse rent! Has to be the cheapest 50th-floor+ office in the USA.

[BG918]

Originally Posted by paytonc

OMG, currently listed at $14 PSF (per year). That's like warehouse rent! Has to be the cheapest 50th-floor+ office in the USA.

Low ceilings (designed as a hospital), obscured windows due to the exterior paneling, small and inefficient floor plates and location basically in a suburban neighborhood are detrimental factors. And Tulsa's office market isn't the best even for prime downtown real estate.

Student housing for ORU students across the street would be a cool retrofit.

[SIGSEGV]

This is within Chicago city limits, but very isolated:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6937...7i16384!8i8192

And Wilson Hall must have been more impressive before the suburbs made it out to Fermilab:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8408...7i10240!8i5120

[mhays]

A highrise with surface parking. Jesus christ.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by mhays

A highrise with surface parking. Jesus christ.

I know, right?

It cuts against every notion of skyscrapers being "machines that make the land pay".

Like how did the pitch go down to the investors?

"Ok, so here's the plan, we're gonna buy 30 acres of land out in some random burb, and we'll take 1 acre of it and build an extremely expensive 400' office tower on it.

The other 29 acres? SURFACE PARKING!!!"

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by mhays

A highrise with surface parking. Jesus christ.

The case of Wilson Hall at Fermilab at least kind of makes sense... that way everybody can be closer together for better collaboration/seminar culture without walking long distances. So in the case of the office building being all one company, I can seeit making sense.