I'm loving the crown on WP East. Hopefully it lights up bright.

Wow, very nice cohesive vibe to this entire development, yet each building is different enough to still be interesting on it's own. Can't wait to see WPE go up. I'm definately getting the Rockafeller vibe not because it looks Deco or anything, but because of the way the buildings function as a unified design. WPS will be the nicest supertall on the River when complete if it lives up to this rendering.

Here

66-Story Wolf Point Tower To Break Ground With New Look

By David Matthews | September 30, 2016 1:26pm | Updated October 3, 2016 6:01pm

https://assets.dnainfo.com/photo/201...extralarge.png
https://assets.dnainfo.com/photo/201...extralarge.png
https://assets.dnainfo.com/photo/201...extralarge.png

Looks really good. I love the site layout.

The new renderings look pretty good, and they certainly make for a more cohesive whole with WPW.

I am a bit worried about the seeming lack of retail though. Those big garden plazas by the riverfront seem like they deserve a cafe, a restaurant, a coffee shop, etc. And with 2/3 of the towers (now including the only one with frontage on a thru street) going all residential, they're foregoing opportunities for that kind of thing.

This iteration of the south tower looks better than the last two.

"The east tower will add 707 units of luxury rentals to Chicago’s downtown, as well as 198 parking spaces, 40,000 sf of amenity space, and 3,000 sf of ground floor retail."
- AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust

Hopefully it's a cafe or white table cloth restaurant and not a dry cleaner and nail salon...

Always post the link to the original story.

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2016...ound-next-year



The notch on the east tower seems to equal the roof height of the west tower and the setback on the south tower seems to equal the height of the east tower.

If that setback on the south tower does equal the roof of the east, it appears visually at least the to the top of the structure is more that 200'. The 950' figure may still equate to the underside of the top most occupied floor. That central thrust/blade may be mechanical/ornamental. It will probably be a few years before we have an exact figure, I'm just eyeing it.

Oh shit my bad I thought I added a link.

The South and East towers may be the sexiest renderings I've ever seen....

I'm aroused

Eyeballing it the south tower height is easily way past the 4-digit mark.


A bit late for them, but last month I think the Apparel Mart just finished punching out another row of windows in the formerly blank wall...

Yeah, they did... I always hoped they'd just punch the building down instead.

^ Time to get on the phone ... "Hey, Heneghan Man!"

Happy to see they got rid of the spire on the center tower; it just looked tacky (i.e. literally tacked on à la Trump Tower) from previous iterations. If I had to guess, the center tower is probably about 1100'+ if you take into account WPE's currently known height of 750'.

This is a very handsome development shaping up here. Very Chicago.

Oh God, I said handsome...

Just eyeballing the south tower looks about 30 stories taller than the east. Both look good to me!

Check out this dope ass video of Wolf Point West
• Video Link

Wow, that view down the river towards the lake really is amazing - day and night. I'd kill to live in that penthouse apartment right now.

^First time I noticed the fitness center is at the top of the building. That must be the best workout view in the city, straight sightlines down two branches of the river (for now).

That really exemplifies one of the bonuses in newer rental towers which now usually have more than one amenity floor. You can rent the cheaper unit with no view sightlines on a low floor, but have access to roof decks and community rooms with views sometimes better than than the highest priced units.

Anyone notice that "Editor" over at ChicagoArchitectureBlog has been ignoring this news ever since we called him out for not only being wrong about it but also being smug about it? The guy is acting like a baby hahahaha

I'll never understand who would want to live downtown or in a massive apartment building like this, but man, this building is really nice!

Right? There's really no good way to yell "get afff my laawn" from a high-rise.

Thank your alderman...

From the most recent 42nd Ward newletter:

"The upcoming phase 2 will include a 660' tall building with 700 residential apartment units, amenity retail space and accessory parking at 313 W Wolf Point Plaza."

Further:

"As mentioned above, Phase 2 will have less height, less site coverage and less density than what is allowable under PD 98 and previously approved. The allowed uses have not changed and the development will not deviate from the allowable onsite parking limits, which the Alderman insisted should be some of the lowest in all of downtown Chicago based upon proximity to public transportation and the walkable nature of River North. The following design modifications were negotiated based upon residential concerns raised at the time of initial project approval."

"The Alderman asked the developers to reconsider the height, density and site coverage based upon ever-increasing traffic in River North and the fact that the Wolf Point site is landlocked."

Sit and spin budday.

New details released via Alderman Reily are explained and shown in a post from the Chicago architecture blog. Wolf Point South appears to be 950 feet still, so no supertall :(

http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2...f-point-south/

At least we have 4 years to lobby for a height increase...

As long as the finished product is optimal I can't complain, but I highly doubt a marginal increase in height or volume would suddenly flood the streets with traffic.

Not necessarily. Depends on what height we are talking about. Sometimes the measured 'height' of the building is the top floor sometimes it's the roof and sometimes it's the top of a parapet or antennae. The diagram especially on the south tower doesn't offer much detail. It's still quite possible that the top of a parapet extends up to supertall range.

Also... BTW Chicago Architecture blog on behalf of the forum. You're Welcome! ... for all of the material you get from this forum. Let us know if you want some of our stale Cheetos.

Lol you guys and your obsession with a building's height. 600 feet, 700 feet... it's all the same: VERY TALL.

A building's height is such an arbitrary thing to obsess over. I've never understood why people on this site put such little emphasis on a building's design and maximum emphasis on a building's height. So strange.

I remember when I was a kid, being seriously bummed out when the Petronas Towers stole our title of WTB. Ever since then, I've cared very little about a building's height. Unless we soon build something taller than 3,000 feet, I'll continue not caring.

No, it's not all the same.

Some locations need the vertical reach to make a grand visual impact.

If this was a mid-block project perhaps, but is at the confluence of the branches of the river and is visually important.

People here don't put such little emphasis on design. Where the hell have you been?

Feel free not to care about height, but from many of your responses, you're not necessarily visually observant when it comes to location impact.

With this being at the spot where Franklin/Orleans jog, a better vertical exclamation is warranted.

679 feet won't make a visual impact? Um...

Not like 750' would, no! I look and talk about this stuff all day, every day; I know what I'm talking about.

Btw, what do you do during the winter?

And has anyone ever thought to run a glass-ceilinged tour boat all months that the river isn't iced over?

School... Travel... Rest...

Does he know what landlocked means?

If there was a height reduction I doubt it was just at the bequest of the Alderman. The developers probably realized that condo sales aren't coming back anytime soon with Millenials all making half a mortgage payment a month towards student loans. They also probably realize that it's maybe not the most prudent thing in the world to break ground on a 750' tall apartment tower with max density given the current frothiness of the market. They are entitled to that density, so I doubt they are planning on just throwing it out, hopefully it shows up in the form of a maxed out WPS tower in the early part of next cycle.

This is probably just a case of a developer saying "hey, we don't really want a building that big right now, why don't you take credit it for it?" It's not as if they actually lose entitlements by not using them all now, they can cram extra SF into the big boy on the South parcel.

https://assets.dnainfo.com/photo/201...extralarge.png

Missed this post, have to say this is an improvement! Not stellar or signature but at least solid. I actually perfer the first design for the south tower and the second design for the east tower.

Kinda reminds me of Rockefeller in NYC.

Spin. WPE will complement WPW very well. WPE will be another lovely building at the Confluence. And, the density lost by down-sizing WPE can be tacked on WPS when/if it is ever built.

But, the Alderman seems to have realized that access to the WP peninsula is limited and the total density granted for the project might be too much for 3 buildings plus nearly 1,500 parking spaces.

Better to allow WPW and WPE to be built out, determine how serious the traffic problem is and then determine how much more density can safely be added to the peninsula. If WPS doesn't overburden the property, it could still be a supertall.

There's literally one way in and out of Wolf Point so yes there will be traffic.

Technically there are 2 ways if you include Lower N Orleans.

And more if you have, you know, feet.

Traffic in the loop and river north sucks at rush and has for a looong time now. The idea that Reily just suddenly realized this is laughable.

People seem to drive more chaotically in River North than the Loop, I noticed while walking through River North last night. It seems people drive into the Loop at least knowing they'll be stuck in gridlock, while people drive into River North from Naperville thinking they can cruise right up to Grand Plaza from the Kennedy. They get frustrated when there's traffic and take out their anger by cutting off some pedestrians on an aggressive turn.

Most of the worst drivers I've seen, or folks doing the craziest maneuvers, are usually Uber/Lyft drivers. Folks from the suburbs, with limited experience driving in the city, who aren't used to driving in confined spaces while trying to read a map on a phone and locate customers on crowded sidewalks.

Because it might sink?

Or people can walk instead of drive.

There, I've solved the traffic problem you've suggested my be an issue.

I think that the planners who gave the okay in the first place know more about it than the alderman.

Not to get too far OT, but Black SUVs with livery plates are by far downtown's most dangerous drivers in my experience.

Those guys are just taxi drivers in Uber Black cars. And yes, horrible.

In general, Chicago has some very bad and dangerous drivers; they're usually in cars with out of state plates. Also, never trust a car without a city sticker.

What planners? All Chicago has are people with a rubber stamp. If the mayor, the alderman, and a powerful developer want something, it'll get approved. Usually you only need two of the three.

The development team paid for a traffic study and hired KLOA to do it. The study recommended new signals on Kinzie and some other modest changes in the neighborhood, which are being implemented. Of course, KLOA aren't urban designers. They just tell you how to get the streets moving at a certain level of efficiency given a certain level of traffic, they wouldn't recommend visionary things like a new street or new river crossings.

As for the height reduction - not sure there even was a reduction, since the plans were kept intentionally vague for so long. Architecturally, these buildings are so slender that they will have pretty much the same visual impact as a supertall. I'm very happy with the appearance of these towers (even if the floorplans are crazy inefficient). The stupid dick-measuring contest of numerical height doesn't really interest me. This forum only encourages that kind of lizard-brain thinking by separating supertalls into a whole other forum....

I'm assessing from all angles, but thanks for you less than insightful input.

^ Damn Ardecila, you've taken a strong anti-height turn these days. Did you recently have a nightmare about falling out of a tall building or something? ;)

Anyhow, I agree but I will say that this site deserves something bold and prominent, and that should hopefully be delivered by the south tower

Landlocked? It's on the river!