CHICAGO | Highrise Projects & Construction, v7

[r18tdi]

^ sweet updates, as usual!

[sox102]

Parcel O at Lake Shore East is back on the street for exterior skin pricing. And they are already commenting that budget is an issue. I don't know who puts budgets together, but I'm convinced they're using budget figures from 10+ years ago. Materials and labor have gone up quite a bit since then. If you want a nice looking building, you're going to have to pony up. But then again it is Chicago, and they will find someone to do it for their budget. Profit is not a bad word.

[harryc]

Aug 22



Taking notes on Solar Wind's technical execution - always raising the bar.

On the other side of the church - the rectory is getting a new floor or two.


Aug 29

[Near North Resident]

Case foundation was packing up their equipment at 215 W. Hubbard this morning, so I'd expect some real work to begin soon!

[maru2501]

holy crap, 311 is flying

[harryc]

Aug 27

Looking SSE down Milwaukee








MiCa Web Site

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by maru2501

holy crap, 311 is flying

They also got permitted yesterday for the rest of the building (before they only had a foundation permit).

[ithakas]

Has anyone seen or heard anything about Georgetown's plans for 35 N. State (the Gap, formerly Old Navy)?

The Gap's lease ends in 2017, so I thought we'd see plans for the site by now. The developer hired Frank Gehry to develop IAC's headquarters in NY, so here's hoping they're working with a great architect for this.

[ChickeNES]

Tribune Tower redevelopment plan gets first challenge
Blair Kamin - Chicago Tribune - 09/02/2016
...

The contested ground forms the northern edge of an outdoor plaza to the south of the 36-story skyscraper at 435 N. Michigan Ave. The developers who will buy the Tower have floated the idea of erecting a small — and, presumably, profitable — retail structure in that space.
But Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, argues that the store would block views of the Tower's south facade from the Michigan Avenue Bridge and clutter a little-known sliver of open space, the so-called "Ogden Slip view corridor," which runs from North Michigan Avenue to Lake Shore Drive.
...
The city of Chicago declared Tribune Tower an official Chicago landmark in 1989, yet the legislation that protects the building does not safeguard three low-rise structures alongside it — two to the north, and one to the east.
...
Reilly said that the preliminary study, or massing diagram, from CIM and Golub proposed tearing down the structures to the north and replacing them with a retail "box" along the Magnificent Mile as well as a tower that would be set back from the street.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...01-column.html

Why would they tear down anything when they could build on the parking lot? The only reason I could think of is that the parking lot is DX-12 while the rest of the property is DX-16, but I would think that the printing plant and tower would eat up a decent bit of FAR.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by ChickeNES

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...01-column.html

Why would they tear down anything when they could build on the parking lot? The only reason I could think of is that the parking lot is DX-12 while the rest of the property is DX-16, but I would think that the printing plant and tower would eat up a decent bit of FAR.

The entire complex is being emptied out and repurposed. What use is there for a non-historic building designed to hold printing presses, or television studios? Those are highly specialized facilities that can't easily be adapted for new use.

I'm sure building on the parking lot will be part of the overall plan, but I would expect CIM to clear all of the various annex buildings around Tribune Tower before building a phased development.

I will admit that the consistent limestone cladding on all the annex buildings ties everything together seamlessly and gives the whole complex a grand civic appearance. Hopefully CIM preserves portions of the limestone skin for the new buildings, or uses limestone as a building material for the base of any future towers. Unfortunately CIM seems to hire local firms rather than importing talent, which tells me we're in for another boring-ass SCB project.

[maru2501]

um yeah, being replaced by "box retail"

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I will admit that the consistent limestone cladding on all the annex buildings ties everything together seamlessly and gives the whole complex a grand civic appearance. Hopefully CIM preserves portions of the limestone skin for the new buildings, or uses limestone as a building material for the base of any future towers. Unfortunately CIM seems to hire local firms rather than importing talent, which tells me we're in for another boring-ass SCB project.

This one's got SOM written all over it for me.

[Near North Resident]

saw this on reddit figured you all would enjoy it, some book about chicago architecture from 1905, scanned for our pleasure, very cool

http://imgur.com/a/k1uTd

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by ithakas

Has anyone seen or heard anything about Georgetown's plans for 35 N. State (the Gap, formerly Old Navy)?

The Gap's lease ends in 2017, so I thought we'd see plans for the site by now. The developer hired Frank Gehry to develop IAC's headquarters in NY, so here's hoping they're working with a great architect for this.

My guess is that they may pass on developing it this cycle. Apartments and hotels are saturated, this isn't a good site for office, and I'm not sure condos would work here, although I guess we can't rule them out

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by Near North Resident

saw this on reddit figured you all would enjoy it, some book about chicago architecture from 1905, scanned for our pleasure, very cool

http://imgur.com/a/k1uTd

Man I wish they would have restored the pyramid of the old Montgomery Ward building.

[rlw777]

Originally Posted by ChickeNES

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...01-column.html

Why would they tear down anything when they could build on the parking lot? The only reason I could think of is that the parking lot is DX-12 while the rest of the property is DX-16, but I would think that the printing plant and tower would eat up a decent bit of FAR.

Because of the Apple Store that just became a very high demand retail location. That's why.

[UPChicago]

Originally Posted by rlw777

Because of the Apple Store that just became a very high demand retail location. That's why.

I think you're given Apple a bit more credit than is due. Michigan Ave is a bigger draw than an Apple Store. I don't know for sure but I highly doubt the Huron store had much catalytic value.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Yeah, I'm sure being smack dab in the middle of one of the marquee retail districts in North America, if not the world, had a wee bit more to do with the decision than the new Apple Store. Also, the visibility of this site is tremendous, surrounded on three sides by street and plaza frontage. There is an enormous amount of value in retail street frontage just as you would have with water frontage on a vacation lake. There is only so much of it to go around and the Tribune Tower has let 2/3 of their waterfront turn into cattails from a leasing perspective. I'm of course concerned about what trash might become attached to the landmark Tribune Tower, but I'm not at all surprised by the move. Hopefully we can get some kind of classy limestone clad storefronts that tastefully complement the historic structure instead of brand-a-box garbage that we see on many Boule Mich retail storefronts these days.

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by Near North Resident

saw this on reddit figured you all would enjoy it, some book about chicago architecture from 1905, scanned for our pleasure, very cool

http://imgur.com/a/k1uTd

Wow, what a collection! And from a unique time in history, and with very detailed captions ("The splendid stage of the Auditorium is modeled after that in the opera house of Buda-Pesth."). I wonder if there is a way to download all the images simply, in case this disappears from the web in the future.

Also, from the publisher's foreword (fyi this is a Maine publisher, not a local one):

No American can doubt the ultimate destiny of this aggressive and progressive city to be its elevation to the first place as the greatest metropolis of the Western Hemisphere.

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by denizen467

I wonder if there is a way to download all the images simply, in case this disappears from the web in the future.

Scroll to the very bottom, click on the (...) to the right of the facebook/twitter/pintrest/reddit icons, and select download post. It will download as a .zip file, 125mb.