You're not alone. I have noticed little to no action on the façade installation for about a month. I have a nice clear view of The Reed from my apartment.

Supply chain issue?

I just noticed photos from the Urbanize update show workers installing windows. So, you could be correct regarding issues with getting the supply on time.

09.01.22
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/ser...142536/enhance

The rail yard is more attractive than that building's parking garage

Crane is now coming down.

Sooo..they're not gonna cover the parking garage? lol

Sorry if its a repeat question, haven't been on here in some time. Any idea which tower will start up next? Or will this one stand still for awhile?

09.02.22
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1662187053

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1662187185

The renderings appear to show covering.

https://chicagoyimby.com/2022/07/con...outh-loop.html

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!

09.23.22
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1664134635


09.24.22
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1664134649

Looks like they saved the podium on the park side. That looks world's better. Hope they do the same on the river side.

So far, this thing looks just like the renders. Based on that, they are going to put up some sort of screen on the west- and south-facing sections of the parking podium.

https://chicagoyimby.com/wp-content/...2-777x486.jpeg

While there was a lot of griping about "value engineering" over this one, the original (placeholder?) design had a giant blank wall. I view the version being built as a roughly equivalent to the original. It's good/not great.

https://chicagoyimby.com/wp-content/...1629847124.jpg

The Reed at Southbank - 234 W Polk
 

October 4, 2022

Today

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...251c246d_h.jpg

10.15.16

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1665892567

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1665892444

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1665892495

The Reed
 

Taken from 10 S Riverside

http://i.imgur.com/RzL4C63b.jpg

Let's hope the next tower returns to the liner townhouses. Those are really great; I think people would pay nicely for a low-level view of the park instead of just endless buildings.

Of course they don't have to be townhouses... could be regular simplex apartments etc. Maybe give them a separate entrance so they feel exclusive, and certainly direct access from the garage behind.

Did we figure out why they killed the townhouses on Reed? Did the ones on Cooper not perform well, or was it just a snap Covid decision that they needed more parking?

10.25.22
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1666848624

Agreed. The white modern look is very pleasant aesthetically and works well with the overall site plan. I wish Lakeshore East would have gone with a similar design instead of the odd proportioned brick motif that was used.

11.14.22
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1669457271

Not gonna lie, I really like how this turned out.

I'll take a black box over a blue box any day :shrug:

At this point I'm assuming none of the future towers here will look anything like their place holders. Which is kind of exciting.

^Yeah, but I was hoping for the angled support beams on the two towers along the river.

No more boxes of any color, please!

It's not bad, but I do wish they kept the townhomes. I'd hate for this park they are building to be surrounded by parking garages. Even if the remaining buildings don't follow the townhome model that the Reed did, maybe they just skirt the parking garage with active space, like a common room/event room, or the gym, something other than an inactive garage. I'd be ok with the design changing (although I did love those exposed supports) as long as they keep some kind of active face towards the park.

The Reed at Southbank - 234 W Polk
 

October 31, 2022





December 8, 2022

01.07.23
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1673145662

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I think this building is hideous. The black is so out of place and moody to me, especially next to all the brighter white buildings in the same development. I suppose I'm especially biased, since I really do not like the current trend of breaking up the facade of buildings by offsetting windows, seemingly at random.

Maybe I'll warm up to it once I see the finished product.