Nothing announced at the moment as far as I'm aware. They seem to be treating each building individually since they're probably redesigning them. Hopefully we'll get more finalized plans for the next one sometime soon since this one is finishing up. No guarantees though. It probably depends on how fast the Reed fills up. The Cooper was completed in 2018 and the Reed didn't release renderings until 2020 and it only started construction last year. Though that could be because the whole project got split in 2 in 2019... fingers crossed they keep moving at a steady pace.

There are small latches attached to the parking ramps on the east and north sides, so I think some kind of screen will be covering those sides at least. I haven't seen the west side, but the south side does not have the latches.

Interesting story about P+W architect Ralph Johnson, which mentions his work designing Southbank and The Reed:

This architect may stay under the radar, but his designs for prominent Chicago buildings don't
Ralph Johnson, the architect behind designs at Rush University Medical Center, O'Hare and the Skybridge condo tower, is a homegrown talent who started out in the Union Stockyards.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...nent-buildings

I noticed some base cladding being installed along the north facade. I may not hate it as much as I thought.

09.09.22
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/ser...779189/enhance

Looks like the parking podium isn't going to be nearly as awful as we thought! Great sleuthing!

Aaron (Glowrock)

From that angles it reflects the townhouses at Cooper, so we can all pretend it fronts the park with active use!

Today

Decent write-up, overall. And yes, obviously Johnson is not the global fame-seeking type, however, I think the reporter overdid this somewhat, making it sound like he's virtually unknown. That's silly.

Also, on the complete opposite side of the design talent ledger, we have this:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...ecu-story.html

Well, Chicago, you win some.....you lose some. The design gods giveth, and, you know.........et al.

Shame, Clayco, Lamar Johnson, shame.


Also, Colin Kihnke of CMK was interviewed for Ralph Johnson article. Reference to Riverline (the actual Riverline not Southbank, of which The Reed and Cooper are part). Reporter states the obvious, that Riverline itself is paused. Would love to know strategy there and new prospective timing, if any.

I heard (with a grain of salt) they likely won't move on Riverline until South Bank is built out or The 78 is underway, whichever happens first. They see no harm in waiting.

How many buildings are left for the South Bank land? One more tower?

The black coating they put on the middle 3 floors concrete (south + west) appears to be the same waterproofing they used on the north + east sides, so I'm guessing they will install some kind of screening there as well. The north + east sides are the glass screening - looks like this was a substitute for the townhouses that were deleted. The south + west sides would be a perforated metal screening. If that's still the plan, then these are two separate trades (glazing vs misc metals) so I would expect them to be installed at different times.

Not sure why they did not build townhouses as originally proposed - maybe they wanted more parking post-Covid, or maybe the first batch of liner townhouses on Cooper were not profitable.

2 more towers in Southbank after Cooper and Reed. Of course they could scale it back:
https://chicagoyimby.com/wp-content/....06.15-PM.jpeg

I love this image. It has the same quality for me as the photos you'd see in 90s-era coffee-table books about Chicago.

Whoa, you took the words right out of me. I had that same thought but you articulated it perfectly. Maybe it's the low-contrast, the angle, or the composition but it does have a subtle retro look.

That vantage was a very popular one for a lot of images/material back in the day. I personally hated it because it hid city behind Sears, which was so dominating from that angle it made the rest of the city look very low slung.

That said, with new developments over the last 20-30 years, this angle has become quite a bit more substantial and thus more complimentary of the skyline in my opinion. Of course the Sears dominates (and will continue to do so at this angle for a long while, I don't doubt), but not overly much as it did a few decades ago.

I hope the designs for the last two buildings are decent. I an pleasantly surprised by the black cladding of the new building. It really helps break up the some of the monotonous look of the white cladded buildings nearby.

Ahh that's exactly why this is my least favorite vantage of the skyline. Never could articulate why.

That shot was from the passenger seat of a car on the Dan Ryan just South of the UPS facility (as seen at the very bottom of the shot). I was surprised how familiar the angle looked after I cropped out the highway. I like the prominence/contrast of the CBOT building in the skyline from this angle. Unfortunately, the other 2 buildings in this development will mostly likely cover it up.

I've been meaning to try to catch 1000M from the Dan Ryan as it's just starting to take its place in the skyline, but there's only a moment when it's really visible at the moment. I'm gonna capture it one of these days.

The Reed at Southbank - 234 W Polk
 

September 19, 2022

I am very relieved to see that the garage is getting at least partially/mostly covered up! I really dig the black cladding and dark glass. This building went from ho hum/forgettable to actually somewhat interesting.

Thanks for the pics, Solar!