Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
This is functionally the same as Jahn's plan to preserve the building. Reclad the building in a high-performance curtain wall and make the atrium open-air like the Sony Center in Berlin.
Jahn proposed adding a highrise too, but that was really just a sweetener to make redevelopment more financially feasible. Apparently it is feasible without the highrise, which means more of the plaza space can be preserved.
I have some issues with the design as rendered... it looks sterile AF and has none of the personality of the original design. The usefulness of the atrium is greatly reduced by making it open-air, especially in winter. And it appears like this will lose a lot of the things that made Thompson Center great. The atrium provided a site for civic participation, and the food court provided some of the few affordable lunch options in the Loop. The replacement looks pretty soulless and corporate. BUT this is also highly schematic. Those huge 50' wide pices of glass will get more detail, and I'm sure the program for the building will be refined as well so there is lots of room for improvement. |
i completely missed that the atrium would now be open air. agree with a lot of what you said. but yeah still too conceptual to really tell what that space would look like in practice. but it does mean we'd lose one of our few indoor public gathering spaces that had useage during winter. i see that being pretty barren most of the year.
but i guess it makes sense. they clearly figured theres no economical way to continue heating/cooling that space.