CHICAGO | Wolf Point - West Tower | 493 FT | 48 FLOORS

[texcolo]

They're lucking out because of the frozen ground and clay.

[harryc]

Outlineing the garage ?


Sheet Pile vibrator.





Nice clay

[wierdaaron]

Sun-Times building is moving out from the apparel building.

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.co...-mulls-hq-move

Think maybe Wolf Point beginning contstruction made Sun-Times consider their current office space unsatisfactory?

[Pilton]

^ Rather, maybe the Sun-Times cannot afford to pay Downtown rent anymore?

[harryc]

[Chi-Sky21]

I really wish now that the Sun Times lease is up that they would just tear down the Apparel Mart and use it as part of this project!

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

I really wish now that the Sun Times lease is up that they would just tear down the Apparel Mart and use it as part of this project!

You'll have to chat to Chris Kennedy about that.

[Notyrview]

i like the idea of the apparel mart next to shiny new glass towers.

[wierdaaron]

I've been wondering how hard Holiday Inn would fight to keep that location once Wolf Point goes up. I guess even without the view it's a good location to have, but the building itself ain't that great. Maybe once WP is totally complete that area of town will be more lively and not feel so remote, and Apparel will be worth renovating or replacing. But until then I can't imagine Kennedy or anybody would want to spend much time thinking about that building or lot.

[BVictor1]

01/23/14

[Chi-Sky21]

I really have to question what they were ever thinking when they designed the Apparel Mart. At the time i believe they owned both properties, Apparel Mart and Wolf Point, why would you ever not only build that ugly building but also just leave the prime riverfront point for a parking lot? They really missed the boat on this spot in my opinion.

[markh9]

@ BVictor1 & wierdaaron, just a heads up that the Kennedy's don't own the Apparel Center anymore. They sold it in 1998 to Vornado, then Shorenstein Properties bought it from Vornado last year.

Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...center-closes#

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by markh9

@ BVictor1 & wierdaaron, just a heads up that the Kennedy's don't own the Apparel Center anymore. They sold it in 1998 to Vornado, then Shorenstein Properties bought it from Vornado last year.

Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...center-closes#

I'm aware.

And the Kennedy's are shareholders in Vornado.

They sold the building to themselves.

[markh9]

Ha, okay then! Gotta love rich people.

[Pilton]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

I'm aware.

And the Kennedy's are shareholders in Vornado.

They sold the building to themselves.

So, essentially, when the Kennedys sold off the view corridors to the Apparel Mart they sold them off to themselves. Sleight of hand - but doesn't matter now.

[harryc]

Great pics B-Vic

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

I really have to question what they were ever thinking when they designed the Apparel Mart. At the time i believe they owned both properties, Apparel Mart and Wolf Point, why would you ever not only build that ugly building but also just leave the prime riverfront point for a parking lot? They really missed the boat on this spot in my opinion.

IIRC "apparel mart" was originally a windowless AT&T switching facility.

[wierdaaron]

Yeah, there were no windows at all, but they knocked some out for the Holiday Inn on the top few floors. Then when Sun Times moved in they added windows to those floors. I think I remember a boat tour guide saying something about the originally windowless offices being some kind of modern/brutalist statement about the needlessness of sunlight in a world with electric lighting. I thought it was originally overflow storage for wares that didn't fit in merch mart.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by harryc

Great pics B-Vic



IIRC "apparel mart" was originally a windowless AT&T switching facility.

As far as I know Apparel Mart was never anything of the sort. It was designed explicitly to be an extension of Merchandise Mart for the eponymous purpose of wholesale Apparel sales. I also believe the hotel has always been up there (and wikipedia corroborates this). The reason the building is windowless is epitomizes the worst mistakes of high modernism where the statement "form follows function" was taken to the extreme and we wound up with architects asking the question "do Apparel wholesalers really need windows"? And the obvious solution, in their minds, being "no of course they don't need windows, let's just build a building without windows".

Of course the great irony of that is that they later signed a deal to "preserve view corridors" which raises the question "Views? From what windows?" I think the answer to that question is probably "From the windows on the shiny new building we are going to build here in the not too distant future"...

They could always punch out the concrete, but when you look at the costs of doing major rehab, structural rehab, on a building of this age especially one built to serve such a specific purpose, I doubt that will ever make financial sense. Though Apparel Mart with the lower floors punched out for windows would not be nearly as much of an abomination as it is today.

[Ned.B]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Yeah, there were no windows at all, but they knocked some out for the Holiday Inn on the top few floors. Then when Sun Times moved in they added windows to those floors. I think I remember a boat tour guide saying something about the originally windowless offices being some kind of modern/brutalist statement about the needlessness of sunlight in a world with electric lighting. I thought it was originally overflow storage for wares that didn't fit in merch mart.

The boat tour guides are funny: always slightly exaggerating mostly true facts. As Mr. VanDerWright said above, it was designed for showrooms. Here's a picture from around the time when it opened:

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/201...0011283643766/

It is kind of cool and striking in that picture, even if it doesn't have the same effect up close in person.

[Mr Downtown]

It wasn't a postulate of modernism. Apparel display and south-facing windows simply don't mix, at least before new window coatings were developed in the last 20 years. You see the same thing in every postwar department store: no exterior windows. Look at Water Tower Place.