Come on, they were clearly joking

This implies there is no more space available in Willis Tower which is very much not true, even with the recent Morgan Stanley announcement. Also I find it hard to believe that Blackstone would be willing to let their main tenant of 850K sqft leave over lack of space in a building that has over 4m sqft.

I suppose it's possible that United got a hell of a discount on their lease and Blackstone feels that with the new investments they can re-lease the space at a much higher rate and so they're willing to let United walk.

Could be the lack of open contiguous spaces. United is leasing, if I remember right, floors 5 thru 17 and 21 through 23. Floors 18 through 20 are held by Willis and with the recent signing of Morgan Stanley I don't think there are any large contiguous blocks available at the moment (tower is currently 90% leased).

The ongoing renovations are also a major headache. Beyond nuking amenities (imagine eliminating all of the food vendors in the dead of winter) the timeline for completion stinks (2019 to 2020) and there's also an ongoing elevator renewal program that will drag on till 2023 (each elevator is being refurbished and the generators are being replaced & updated which takes 3 months per elevator) so for a bank of six elevators serving a dozen floors that's 18 months of disruption.

Honestly it kind of sucks working here at the moment.

OPO in NYT
 

Not new news, NYT article on post offices in US adaptive reuse in general, mainly shines on Chicago. Some new interviews and pics.

NYT link

Live-look inside the Post Office. They are at full-speed ahead.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4624/...8f1b3cd8_b.jpg

I wonder why sprinklers are needed for a concrete frame building? That's a lot of iron pipe there.

Good to know the sprinkler-fitting is done, though (and presumably any concrete/asbestos work) and they're already doing mechanicals.

By code in Chicago your egress capacity increases 50 percent if it has sprinklers.

Building appears to be steel frame in this photo. You can see the fire block wrapped around the beams with a couple tiles missing exposing the steel

It's normally not smoke from the structural components of a building that kills you....rather the super heated and toxic smoke from the buildings contents.

Those look like nice tall floor heights 13-14 feet high?.

I hope they keep them open like via a loft and not do a drop ceiling calling from the 70's with popcorn ceilings.

I read some floors spaces are 19 feet tall or is that just the lobby?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/b...velopment.html


The redevelopment will turn former mail-processing areas into uncommon office spaces, taking advantage of expansive spaces with 19-foot-high ceilings, said Brian Whiting, president of Telos Group, a Chicago brokerage firm looking for tenants to fill the building. The biggest floor space stretches 285,000 square feet.

...

out of 2.8 million sq feet


Here is a nice 49 page of PDF of the post office history


https://www.cityofchicago.org/conten...relim_Summ.pdf

That would be the reason, then. I’ve never seen fireproofing like that, only the spray-applied kind or intumescent paint...

I guess since there’s no steel decking, it just made sense to soffit all the beams instead to get the desired fire rating.

I think Chicago was on a bit of a gypsum block craze in the 20’s and 30’s. My old apartment building had interior walls made of gypsum blocks and that also wrapped the steel. In Detroit, all of the fireproofing was done with orange structural clay, but I’m sure both were common everywhere.

The floor slabs probably aren’t reinforced concrete either. I’m assuming it’s a composite block slab topped with concrete. Reinforced concrete was around in the 30’s but I doubt it was practical for a building this big. Too new and variable at the time. I’ll bet if the the plaster and grout is scraped away from the ceiling you’ll see that orange block

I've totally seen buildings from that vintage that are reinforced concrete. The Pickens Kane building on Goose Island (now Lost Arts) is pretty enormous, it has entire reinforced concrete construction with drop panels and mushroom capitals (photo from 1909).

My condo building has this kind of reinforced concrete construction and it's even a little older than that so yeah it was around for a while.

Looks like reinforced concrete slab to me. If it were something similar to a clay tile arch system with topping slab, like most of the 1920s Loop office buildings, you would see the exposed clay tile from the underside. Since many of these floors were designed to be driven on reinforced concrete was probably a better method.

The gypsum block wrap however is new to me, I am much more familiar with the clay tile fireproofing system, which is pretty pervasive in Chicago too. The columns btw are most likely steel I shapes encased in concrete, That was a standard construction in highrises for the period.

Another reason to sprinkler the building, aside from protecting the structure, contents, and occupants: Chicago code allows you 50% greater egress distances to a stair when a space is sprinklered. Considering the massive size of the building, that may have been a requirement to make the exiting work without adding new fire stairs all over the place.

You've never seen steel protected by block or clay? Or are you just saying you've never seen it protected by gypsum block?

They have been fireproofing steel with block since literally the day they started using steel here. Here's a picture of one of the columns in Louis Sullivan's 1882 Jewelers Building. Notice the cast structural steel exposed from within a circular layer of clay coated with plaster.

https://i.imgur.com/9F8kYXE.jpg

Cool info. I didnt know it went that far back in history. When did they invent/start using the spray-on. Fire proofing?

The "office building" fronting Van Buren is steel frame with tile arches, 12'8" floor-to-floor. The 1921 building on the east side is steel frame, floor details not known, 16 ft floor-to-floor. The workroom building is steel frame encased in concrete, 19 ft floor-to-floor. The details of the floors isn't explicit in any of my sources, but it sounds like they were poured concrete that enclosed the steel beams. Since the ceilings would be left unfinished, plywood or pressed wood was specified for the formwork. The structural bays were a rather unusual 29'10.5" x 44'9". The real engineering legerdemain was transferring the building's loads to caissons that avoided the railroad tracks underneath, which required unusual transfer girders and even caissons with oval bells! Magnus Gunderson of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White was the main engineer.

Assuming I'm not the only nerd who might be interested, I'll spend some pixels to post his description from the Oct. 1931 Journal of the Western Society of Engineers:

https://i.imgur.com/n1HhWXA.jpg

^ That's what I figured, though the workshop zone of the building appears to be more of a hybrid which is unexpected.

Reinforced concrete construction in older buildings corbels up in some way around the columns to diffuse the forces either with the conical "mushrooms" as ardecila mentioned or angled haunches , which isn't really the case with the post office. Plus there's a ton of steel spaced closely together, meaning the slab doesn't have all that much tensile strength.

While reinforced concrete construction was around at the time, it was still a new construction method, and there were probably not too many skilled contractors around to be commissioned on a building this large. I would imagine the US Post Office and their engineers proceeding with reliable and known methods of construction to deliver the project on time. I don't know what concrete encased around steel beams would be called as far as terminology, but it's not the common construction we see in modern times where grids or strands of rebar lend that tensile strength.

Anytime you see steel frame in an older building, odds favor that the slab will be clay tile.

This looks like the floor slabs are sitting on top of the steel structural framework. Surely they wouldn't enclose structural "stringers" that were sitting up on top of the beams. By 1930, the symbiosis of rebar and exothermic concrete would have been well-enough understood to just make these ordinary reinforced slabs same as today, right?

Post Office developer picks up another site nearby
By Danny Ecker

The developer overhauling the Old Main Post Office has added another property three blocks west of the massive office project, expanding its portfolio in an area it hopes will turn into a major corporate destination...

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...in-post-office

Interesting. That part of the South Loop (bounded by 290, 90/94, Taylor St & the river) needs to take better advantage of its proximity to transit (Clinton Blue and Union Station), adjacency to UIC, and excellent connections to 90/94 and the Loop proper. Right now it has a very industrial/back office vibe. Hopefully 601W can jump start it with the OPO and whatever they have planned for this site.

I might get chastised for this statement by some, but I wonder if the Amazon bid may be the reasoning behind this purchase?

When they purchased that other lot of land next to the Holiday Inn, I wondered whether they were going to purchase the land anyway or only do it if they had solid agreements or leads. The stupid naive part of me wants to say "yeah! They have a lead!" or something, but in reality I'm guessing they were going to purchase these sites no matter what. Worse comes to worse, they can probably just increase the property values on this land, or at least some of it if OPO is successful enough. Probably a decent investment no matter what for them.

That entire block holiday inn and parking lot across the street looks ripe for tear-down once this is done and the area starts to heat up.

^ Which is great, because that Holiday Inn looks like it belongs along an off ramp on 294 in Lake County.

I cant picture this holiday inn that your talking about. Any photos? How much land are we talking about?

Nevermind I found it. That lot is huge perfect for a supertall.

I can't express into words how happy I am that they're saving this building from rotting away. I can't think of a more glorious Art Deco Lobby on earth.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4602/...519b576d_b.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4708/...6208d4cc_b.jpg

For sense of scale, there are two dudes on the roof. Try to find them.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4745/...e1327ded_b.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4626/...6db286e2_b.jpg
From Today

Could/would they ever convert the Merch Mart roof into parkland, resteraunt, meeting space, ect.?

That's the old post office not MM, but yeah, green roof/patio please

Can the first page be updated with the current plans? The crazy British guy's insane plans are still up there, which I assume are just fantasy. Unless Amazon moves in.
Yea, that area of downtown is vastly underutilized! Can those electric utilities around that area be buried at some point? There ton's of land around there for redevelopment.

This place actually just closed, for some reason, but for decades this was a very popular (and probably profitable) use of an Art Deco building rooftop here in London:

http://www.virginlimitededition.com/en/the-roof-gardens


Something like that, which is “public accessible” (with a reservation or private event), but not necessarily a public park, could work well.

Not sure I get this comment. 601W companies bought this from Davies awhile ago before he died. They've been renovating it for over a year now (?) and have their own plans. Why would they have gone with Davies' plans? Even if Amazon went there, they wouldn't go with Davies' plans. There is a reason why they are buying up properties nearby.

I'm saying Davies plans are still on the first page of this thread. Why not put the currently plans there instead?

Someone probably forgot, but I agree the actual current plans should be on there. Maybe keep the Davies plans at the bottom to remind us what once was planned.

Many of you won't remember the plan before Davies.

Before the recession, there was a plan to obliterate the middle and turn it into condos.

It was an awkward plan and I'm glad it never happened. This whole majestic Art Deco landmark is being fully rehabbed in all of its glory.

Yep I remember those. Knocking down the center by 10 floors. Adding height on the corners.

All said it was a general mess an a colossus waste of a derelict space.

No one could figure out how to remarket it. Casino/hotel/strip club/parking lot/#anything other than what they are doing now which is quite sound business wise.

It was years of angst and many advocated just tearing it down to almost nothing.






No one thought giant floor plans could work in the business world until The Merchandise Mart and The Montgomery Ward building, the lower levels of the Sears towers filled with up with meaningful tenants.


This building has the potential to out do what the Merchandise Mart or the Ward building can do fully realized. The space one the rooftop is a potential gold mine if property addressed.

It certainly has better heavy commuter rail access than those first two other buildings that were also mentioned

other than the Sears Tower which is just about as close to the Metra lines..


IMO the Post Office will be one of the top of the line business buildings absorbing several millions of square feet. The developers are thinking long term when they are buying up as much land around them as quickly and cheaply as possible.


In less than ten years this area is going to be a buco bucks. These developers are thinking long term. Kind of nice to see this day in age.

I definitely remember. IIRC I was quite vocal against it. Glad it never materialized, it would have been a complete sin. 601W purchasing this from Davies was a complete godsend, and it makes me happy knowing that this beauty will be around for future generations to enjoy.

A few notes from a luncheon presentation today by Gensler about The Post Office:

The leasing program is for it all to be Class A office space. All 2.5 million square feet, with some desks being 150 feet from the nearest window. Now, we'll have to see if 601W actually lands Amazon, or Walgreens, or whoever, and makes that happen. I had expected the Van Buren side office building to become a hotel, and to have some of the other parts as colocation space.

Given the floorplates, the minimum office user will probably be around 50,000 sq ft. Some 300 parking stalls will be in the building.

A lot of the old machinery and other furnishings have been saved, to give the place character.

They did helicopter lifts rather than use a derrick to lower the removed asbestos and other stuff because of concerns about how much weight could be put on the building structure. Not sure I got the full or straight story there.

Rooftop is almost entirely a green landscape. Won't be open to public, but maybe a restaurant might have space up there. There is a riverside plaza that will be publicly accessible.

Glad to hear they kept the parking down to only 300 spaces. Hopefully most future workers will be taking transit to get to work here, as opposed to parking in nearby garages. Shouldn't be hard considering this building literally sits on the 2nd busiest line in the CTA.

Damn, that's a lot of brand new class A office space on spec, plus JP Morgan Chase providing full construction debt.

There must be a lot here going on behind the scenes...

I'm almost positive they have at least one major tenant committed to this for them to be putting so much money down. It'll be interesting to see who that mystery tenant is. I'm hoping for something out of town/state, although Allstate or Walgreens would also be welcome news.

Definitely, more than 200-400K SF than UA and Walgreens has likely leased. Those are the only tenants I've heard about. There has to be more.

Wait, this is the first I'm hearing about this, was this information released already, or am I brainfarting and forgot? Also, didn't UA just recently lease in Willis/Sears?

Nothing has been announced by I've heard through the grapevine that deals are in the works with both UA and Walgreens.

Many might not love a private rooftop, but heard about an idea that the corner towers could provide a dedicated single-tenant enclosed space plus a portion of the rooftop linked via private elevator essentially. That is a hell of an amenity. Basically a full rooftop patio / function space with direct private elevator access.

For 3 or the 4 towers.

Could see that being a pretty strong differentiator vs the typical Class A office options

^Isn't the main portion of the rooftop already planned to be private amenity space? I just assumed if they did anything with the towers, it would be the same, especially to compete with many of the newer developments in the West Loop (even some of the highrises now have private rooftops). It would be cool though if they left one of the towers (NE preferably) open to the public or as a restaurant/bar.

Anyway, some interior shots here.

The lobby looks gorgeous!

Wow, it really is beautiful! I toured the building years ago after it had sat vacant for a while. They appear to be doing a great job!

Unless they plan to put a 9-hole golf course up there, only part of the roof needs to be public.

But something like the (now, sadly, former) Babylon Roof Gardens could be cool.