I like this a lot. Also about what I was expecting. Base looks very nice. I like how the top of the tower (residential) is slightly wider than the bottom (hotel).

Nice work from bKL.

What's up with Skyguy? He just pulled a total Spyguy!! :)

It's also a bit taller than I was thinking (thought it might be more in the 550'-600' range)......and finally, very nice to see Magellan getting some religion finally on ceiling heights - BVic, you did in fact nail this one!!

Not bad. I thought it would be taller to be honest, but its a good filler nevertheless if we are talking strictly fillers. Design wise I think its a little bland, but thats just my opinion. I think its a missed opportunity given the site location, and I think it falls a little short on the design. I'm digging the base, but thats about it. :)

Looks pretty nice, thanks Skyguy - any word on who the Hotel operator might be? I would assume it might end up being a high-end, 4-5 star flag - since the Radisson BLU is literally 40' to the north, I would think Magellan might want to market to a higher-end market/traveler/visitor so as not to compete with the Radisson - maybe Mandarin will be resurrected? St. Regis?

^ Don't quote me on this, but it might be of the Commune Hotel brand family, which gave us Hotel Lincoln. In other words; Jackpot!

Mods: Height to top of parapet is 642'

Walked by the site today, two rigs where on site presumably taking soil samples.

^ Damn this is moving fast.

^ Pardon my pickiness here, but I have always found that little concrete edge at the southwest corner of the circular drive (see the NE corner of the podium of the BCBS building) awkward.

One can't tell from the renderings, but I've always wondered if the developers plan to do anything to mitigate it...

thanks. do you know how many floors?

^^ Well, I can say that you don't see that concrete edge I think you're talking about in the rendering above (the one that Sentinel reposted)......


Commune? Hmmmm.........are they all individual, boutiquey hotels? Are we sure SLS isn't still in the mix here? This is A LOT of hotel rooms.........

Steely- The top floor is shown as Level 55, but there are 5 levels below the plaza.. So 60 from Lower Columbus. You had it right.

Being discreet here, but somebody who I just talked to that was very surprised to see this images leaked wanted me to be very clear about the fact that the podium is not a parking podium and is all active-use. It seems that the parking podium hate has made its way to the, uh, type of people I'm talking about.

^^I like the Thompson and the Lincoln hotels in Chicago, but now with the newly opened Soho House, I'm really getting tired of the 'hipster-thriftstore-look-but-thrice-as-expensive' design philosophy, where everything is custom-designed by professionals but made to look as if everything about the interior decor is a compilation of found dumpster objects. I long for the days of streamlined, contemporary (even slightly futuristic) hospitality design, where the design philosophy was more holistic and unified and not a weird pastiche of patterns, colors, mismatched furniture. Bleh.

That's just fashion. Pottery Barn has been plucking that chicken for ages.

They might spin up a new brand for this one. Not sure if they'd want two boutique hotels with the same name in the same town.

Here's a shot of the site I took today with trucks present.

http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...site-o-now.jpg

From the Curbed Post: Say Hello to the New bKL-Designed Tower for Lakeshore East

Soil samples, right? I imagine they'll have to test for thorium too eventually.

I had pictured the tower at the west end against Columbus instead of against the park, but this does make sense. From Aqua, it only blocks views of 340 OTP, and leaves the view corridor down Columbus to Grant Park open. It's shorter than both 340 and BCBS, so won't block the expensive Aqua units that see over them. I have a friend who lives in Aqua and I don't think she'll mind this. She looked worried when I showed her the Gang proposal.

As for the design, it looks like the little brother of BCBS, with the two part design and open columns at the transition.
And from the render the base at park level looks to go right to the edge of the sidewalk. Should cover that wall TUP is talking about.

The only thing that I don't like is that they've made the area at the south edge of Aqua into an active driveway for the hotel. Whereas now it just sees some delivery trucks, that's going to have a lot more traffic now coming and going. I guess a hotel kinda needs auto access from upper Columbus, but that's a shame.

Kerwin and Co.?

If so, didn't he/they have similar reaction when 645 W Madison renderings popped-up?

All I would offer to them: Be realistic. This is 2014. If it's not your own Chinese partner mistakenly 'leaking' your rendering and project (perhaps some mis-) information to the world - in an 'official' press release (wtf), you need to assume Spyguy and/or Skyguy are looking over your shoulder. Then there's the NSA. You really need to be at home, sitting in the corner of a near pitch-black locked closet, hand-sketching for your designs not to show up on the internet....


About the parking: I think your rationale is probably right they are likely concerned about the urban design and perception of it - but there is another reason they might be extra sensitive about anything related to parking at 201 Columbus - and that has to do with all the legal fiascos related to the Grant Park garages the city sold off with the stipulation that they not allow any additional public parking to be built within (I forget precisely how close) a few blocks (this site included). Remember the controversy related to this issue with Aqua? Any additional parking here would need to be strictly for hotel guests and apartment residents....

I'm with you here. That is a fad - and I think a niche one at that. Don't worry, though, it will pass and/or just be a small, quirky segment..........just like Civil War-era mustaches......

This is a developer problem I'd say. Designers would love to release ultra high res assets the second they make them, and go on record explaining every decision. The clients are the ones that make them keep a lid on it, and say "no comment" even when I show them leaked plans and renders, because they have some poorly conceived idea of an announcement timeline culminating in a cocktail party or a groundbreaking gala featuring Rahm and Alderman OReally.

The industry could use a bump up in their PR game, realizing that renders will always leak and that there's a huge market of people who want to see them ASAP, and that once the word is out there's no point being coy anymore. They should get ahead of the game and release their renders as soon as they're ready for bids, so they can start curating some interest and maybe some public support to help cary them through the approval process.

Are there going to be two separate hotels in the building? "Hotel Lobby A" and "Hotel Lobby B" suggests that there may be two separate hotels.

The building looks good. Definitely has a close resemblance to the BCBS building. But I don't know that is a bad thing. This will complete the west side of LSE. Only tow more sides to go.

^^ Agreed.

^ Yes, two distinct hotels was always my understanding with this project.....