The front plates do look flat. But look at the back half of the roofline. It approaches the north face of the main tower a full floor above the front half. A garage doesn't need sloped floors on all sides, just on one.

I could be wrong - none of us really know what's going on there - but if it's parking, it looks like several other older buildings downtown - it wouldn't be some radically new design to do it that way.

Yeah. Same architecture firm.

I see what you mean. To me, it looks like the roof is flat (it might have some sort of hilly landform on top, but essentially flat) and the main tower has a cut into it facing the alley, like a reveal joint that visually separates the tower from the annex. My guess is that the cut in the tower is where the access to the roof deck is, and it's set back to form some sort of overhang at the door.

Love it, a great addition to this corner of downtown... the Spertus Institute on steroids.

The cars that are in the glass are reflection, if you see closely you'll see it is!
By the way any updates about this project..?

Just read an article on curbed stating that the original design is still a go for 130 N Franklin and that the "new" rendering was a mistake on Tishman's website. The old, correct (and IMO better) rendering is still on Krueck + Sexton's site.

http://www.ksarch.com/projects/130NF...es/image_1.jpg

^ Thank God. Chicago needs this.

It does, but it won't come to market for a long time if ever. With the exception of River Point, none of these projects seem to be moving forward.

Duplicating here a recent post from the Highrise thread:

Thanks for that. I just cross-posted your post into the dedicated thread for this project, which hadn't been bumped in over eight months.

Well, vintage office buildings in the east loop continue to be converted into other uses (apartments, dorms, hotels), including an announcement in today's Crains that yet another one (which is nearly 100% occupied) will be converted into a Hyatt Place.

While those were probably all Class C, still the conditions for a few new office towers seem to be brewing. Once vancancies reach that magic number and the lenders loosen up a bit more, perhaps we'll see 2 or 3 new towers over the next 4-5 years?

SamintheLoop?

^Only time will tell.

I'm not quite so bullish. A lot of the new tech firms are squeezing people in at tables, not even cubicles, much less perimeter offices. Average square footage per worker has been declining steeply over the last decade. So I think the existing stock will absorb a lot of employment growth for a while, with only one new tower every three years or so, financed by churning the big law or accounting firms.

Oh thank god! This building is much much better IMO. The "new rendering" was such a boring box. Lord knows we didn't need another one of those.

Part of this has to do with the age of the workforce. The number of "senior" workers at firms is declining and they are usually the ones who demand and want their own office. Meanwhile every space planner's goal seems to be "how many Millenials can I fit in a cubic yard" and they are packing and stacking them in. In fact, most Tenant's are not limited by their ability to pack more people into a space, but by the fact that most Class A office buildings are wary of deals that have more than 5, maybe 6, people per 1,000 square feet of space. Most Landlords do not want the massive overcrowding and resulting wear and tear that accompany's a 6 per 1,000 SF tenant. You have to go to Class B or C space to find someone who will allow it because, frankly, other class A Tenants don't like being located in the same building as a 5 or 6 per 1,000 SF Tenant.

So, to me, the same question in office applies to housing: What happens when the Millenials hit? This generation is facing 30-40% under/unemployment and huge numbers of them are living at home or with a roommate. What happens when they all finally get a good job and want to form their own household? You will see a RE boom. Same goes for the office; what happens when the economy recovers enough that Millenials start getting hired in droves? There is going to be a boom in demand for office space. That raises a further question, the average age of the workforce is dropping, what happens when that starts increasing again and suddenly you have a lot more "senior" workers in the workplace? You are going to see office plan densities drop and the number of SF required to house the workforce increase again. This won't be a return to 1970's style build outs, but it will have a noticeable impact over the next 20-30 years or so on office demand, IMO.

Yeah, I have three friends currently downtown who have said their offices have been recently reconfigured to get rid of large cubes and offices and are now open floorplans for almost everyone in the company. One of them even has senior management in the new open designed plan with people sitting at desks with very little cutoff between people. It has allowed them to fit MANY more people into the area. They now have open windows throughout the floor and have increased greatly the number of conference rooms so people can still pow-wow and have privacy.

Our company just announced last week that we're also going towards the open-floor design. Our CEO was stating how it's been a HUGE push overall the past few years and will really increase going-forward. It apparently helps get the creative juices flowing and lets people interact much more. They're doing away with all offices along two sides of the building and increasing the number of conference rooms. Our offices are currently at capacity with people sitting in hallways since we're growing so fast - but this route will let the company increase workforce another 20% and not have to take on a single square foot above what we already have.

It's definitely a trend. It's occurring in my office too. from my cubicle I now have North, South and East views of downtown :tup:

Office space planning has really evolved. My office on N Michigan Ave in the 90's had the corner private offices and private offices infilled the perimeter window walls. The low rent district consisted of large desks, adjustable drafting tables with credenzas separated by wall dividers. All ran along the floor to ceiling window wall. That was old school.

Tall Cubicles are so old school. Most major office system manfuctures show open plan seating with low dividers. (Bench or table seating). Bosses are usually in their own clustered glass enclosures away from windows and the edges of the floorplan are left open for circulation for everyone to enjoy the view

I work in a very bright and airy open office where you can see everyone. I love it. Even better when you can look 150' down over the desks and out the window to a sweeping view of the lake.

Recent studies have shown these new plans to be horribly inefficient due to the number of visual and auditory distractions. It may be good for creative work, but for insurance and the like, not so much.