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  #81  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2021, 4:16 PM
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Originally Posted by gandalf612 View Post
Because it's an incredibly difficult project to get right. Due to Jahn complete incompetence it will cost them $280 million just to fix his idiotic mistakes and make the building habitable.
I'm trying to figure out what this means. . . can you please elaborate on what Jahn did that was incompetent?

. . .
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  #82  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2021, 4:33 PM
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I'm trying to figure out what this means. . . can you please elaborate on what Jahn did that was incompetent?
Don't feed the troll...
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  #83  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2021, 7:54 PM
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Really happy they found a way to save this postmodern icon.
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  #84  
Old Posted Dec 17, 2021, 11:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago View Post
I'm trying to figure out what this means. . . can you please elaborate on what Jahn did that was incompetent?

. . .
Personally I consider designing a public building that's horribly inefficient and completely unsustainable incompetent. Feel free to disagree lmao
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  #85  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2021, 6:08 PM
Via Chicago Via Chicago is offline
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most of the issues the building experienced are due to the fact that the state value engineered Jahns design and didnt use the proper glazing on the panels, right? and in general, they didnt keep up on maintenance.

also, there are lots of designs that are "inefficient" that are considered landmarks in architecture. the definition of sustainable/efficient changes over time. is Union Station's Great Hall an efficient design? well, no. im sure the modern addition with drop ceilings and narrow corridors and no grand spaces is more efficient to heat/cool. you tell me which youd rather have preserved.
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  #86  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2021, 8:47 PM
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Originally Posted by DePaul Bunyan View Post
This is unfortunate and a wasted opportunity. The site is the most transit-friendly in the city and is begging for a supertall. Plus the state has counted the sale of the property towards the budget for the last couple of years. Buildings are meant for people to live and work, not admired by urbanists and architecture hipsters. It should have never been built and the state should have gotten out from under this albatross a long time ago. Now they're going to get roped into contributing towards the redevelopment of a flawed design. Illinois is bordering on insolvency. Vanity projects won't help.
I respectfully disagree at this site. The building steps back from the city and it's low profile allows vistas and relief from the skyscraper canyon. Chicago's varying heights of it's skyscrapers and plazas and river canyon give it a unique feel. You get skyscraper canyons like in Manhattan but you also get expansive vistas and can see past buildings for blocks. I think it's site planning is literally perfect.
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  #87  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2021, 10:34 PM
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Originally Posted by gandalf612 View Post
Personally I consider designing a public building that's horribly inefficient and completely unsustainable incompetent. Feel free to disagree lmao
As Via Chicago suggests, most would argue that he did not design a building that was inefficient or unsustainable; the unsustainable inefficiencies came in when the builder chose to use single-pane glass rather than the double-paned insulated glass Jahn intended.
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  #88  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2021, 5:19 PM
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Making the atrium open-air may reduce the operating costs of the building and improve warm-season comfort for the office workers, but it will remove the enclosure that makes the Thompson Center such an effective year-round gathering space for Chicagoans. Now the atrium will just be another frigid plaza like Daley Plaza or Federal Plaza, which are fine spaces but mostly lifeless in winter.

Quote:
The new design enhances the original concept by opening up to the ground level access to the atrium when weather allows with large multilevel operable doors. The atrium will contain the main lobby for building occupants while also being used for year-round dining, office activities, public events, and cultural programs.
https://www.jahn-us.com/news/thompson-20
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  #89  
Old Posted Dec 19, 2021, 5:24 PM
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Originally Posted by galleyfox View Post
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The new design enhances the original concept by opening up to the ground level access to the atrium when weather allows with large multilevel operable doors . The atrium will contain the main lobby for building occupants while also being used for year-round dining, office activities, public events, and cultural programs.
https://www.jahn-us.com/news/thompson-20"


Perfect. This was exactly the route I hope that they would go. It could up looking clunky if essentially have large door bays, but hopefully, on anything but the coldest days they will be open anyway.
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  #90  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2021, 2:42 PM
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Originally Posted by nomarandlee View Post
Quote:
The new design enhances the original concept by opening up to the ground level access to the atrium when weather allows with large multilevel operable doors . The atrium will contain the main lobby for building occupants while also being used for year-round dining, office activities, public events, and cultural programs.
https://www.jahn-us.com/news/thompson-20"


Perfect. This was exactly the route I hope that they would go. It could up looking clunky if essentially have large door bays, but hopefully, on anything but the coldest days they will be open anyway.
Awesome. With the openings closed and vestibules on the doors, they can probably keep it decently warm with passive heating features (greenhouse effect) but I'm sure some heating/artificial ventilation will be needed to supplement.

I watched a short Helmut Jahn documentary last night (filmed before his death). He was okay with replacing the building envelope/curtain wall of the JRTC and he acknowledged that all the colored panels were a product of the 80s and maybe not fitting for today. I think he would have been fine with this proposed renovation - hell, he probably worked on aspects of it before his death although it falls to his colleagues to finish the design and execute.
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  #91  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2021, 3:43 PM
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I was only a young lady at the time the JRTC opened but I remember absolutely loving the teal/salmon panels. It brought in a nice needed color palette to the Loop. It looked very Miami, but somehow I didn't think it look south Florida tacky.

I don't know if it is because of the maintenance or if the design has not aged as well as hoped, it would be interesting to see if they did a faithful replacement of the panels if it would look as cool as I remember them. Still, in another 25-50 years it is not like the paneling could not be changed if the mood/tastes change again.

Who knows, maybe this more conventional version will look stellar and most everyone will be happy with it.
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  #92  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2021, 4:10 PM
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the colors really sun faded and have taken on a ton of grime thats never been washed off. and decades of salt has absolutely chewed away at the base of the exterior. im sure if it looked sparkling new and glossy lot of the complaints wouldnt be quite as negative.
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  #93  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2021, 4:42 PM
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Originally Posted by Via Chicago View Post
the colors really sun faded and have taken on a ton of grime thats never been washed off. and decades of salt has absolutely chewed away at the base of the exterior. im sure if it looked sparkling new and glossy lot of the complaints wouldnt be quite as negative.
This is true, but to point out there’s a discipline in architecture that is only sometimes taught in school and professionally to assume the client won’t be maintaining the building. No clear glass canopies, or ledges for birds, or smooth metal panels. At the opposite, there’s this thought that a maintenance crew will be out there power washing the facades every couple of years. It rarely happens. I’m personally biased toward masonry and stone facades that patina rather than stain or all glass systems that demand to be cleaned by tenants. The Thompson center has a ton of glass spandrel panels with projected mullions. It’s just wrong. It shouldn’t have been done. And just look at the Joffrey ballet building. Same issue, though more a failure in material than maintenance.

I like the overall design concept of the Thompson center with its shape and atrium. But the original facade system is terrible. It is to not be repeated or restored, fortunately for the right reasons. I’m glad it’s being taken down and redone.
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  #94  
Old Posted Dec 20, 2021, 5:18 PM
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thats a really good point and fair criticism. im with you in that anything that can be designed to "age gracefully" with the minimal amount of upkeep is far preferable to something trendy, high maintenance, and thats going to look like crap in 20 years.
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  #95  
Old Posted Dec 21, 2021, 5:50 PM
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Originally Posted by nomarandlee View Post
Quote:
The new design enhances the original concept by opening up to the ground level access to the atrium when weather allows with large multilevel operable doors . The atrium will contain the main lobby for building occupants while also being used for year-round dining, office activities, public events, and cultural programs.
https://www.jahn-us.com/news/thompson-20"


Perfect. This was exactly the route I hope that they would go. It could up looking clunky if essentially have large door bays, but hopefully, on anything but the coldest days they will be open anyway.
Yeah this should keep the space fairly warm (or at least warmer than the outside temperature) in the winter, but I wonder how they plan to keep the temperatures cool in the summer, which was the biggest problem overall with the Thompson Center IIRC. The offices will now be able to remain cool due to the new curtain wall installation between them and the lobby, but the lobby itself will still have that problem. The same greenhouse effect that will help keep the lobby warm in the winter will be a problem in the summer. I wonder if they can add exhaust vents or openable windows on the glass roof in order to create a cooling draft, with cooler outside air entering from the open vestibules on the main level and the warmer air escaping from the roof?
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  #96  
Old Posted Dec 21, 2021, 7:46 PM
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Yeah this should keep the space fairly warm (or at least warmer than the outside temperature) in the winter, but I wonder how they plan to keep the temperatures cool in the summer, which was the biggest problem overall with the Thompson Center IIRC. The offices will now be able to remain cool due to the new curtain wall installation between them and the lobby, but the lobby itself will still have that problem. The same greenhouse effect that will help keep the lobby warm in the winter will be a problem in the summer. I wonder if they can add exhaust vents or openable windows on the glass roof in order to create a cooling draft, with cooler outside air entering from the open vestibules on the main level and the warmer air escaping from the roof?
Just like a greenhouse, you would have open or operable vents at the roof to circulate air up and out through the top of the building. Similar principle of those double glazed facades with empty plenums to move air warmed by the sun out of the building. The alternative is highly reflective glass, but vast expanses of glass always make well conditioned spaces futile. That’s why the outdoor atrium makes sense
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  #97  
Old Posted Dec 24, 2021, 11:06 AM
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I guess this is as good a place as any to put this:

Helmut Jahn: In a Flash

My 20-minute documentary on Jahn, comprised of unused footage from my 2016 interview with Helmut for what became Starship Chicago, and new footage shot this fall across three continents showcasing his life's work.

We had the world premiere in Chicago on December 1 as part of a retrospective of my work--Helmut's family was in attendance, giving me the chance to meet many of them for the first time.

It was a very emotional experience, and I am pleased to share the film with all of you here.
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  #98  
Old Posted Dec 24, 2021, 4:20 PM
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Originally Posted by dropdeaded209 View Post
I guess this is as good a place as any to put this:

Helmut Jahn: In a Flash

My 20-minute documentary on Jahn, comprised of unused footage from my 2016 interview with Helmut for what became Starship Chicago, and new footage shot this fall across three continents showcasing his life's work.

We had the world premiere in Chicago on December 1 as part of a retrospective of my work--Helmut's family was in attendance, giving me the chance to meet many of them for the first time.

It was a very emotional experience, and I am pleased to share the film with all of you here.
Thank you very much for all you've done and are doing to save this building.
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  #99  
Old Posted Dec 25, 2021, 5:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dropdeaded209 View Post
I guess this is as good a place as any to put this:

Helmut Jahn: In a Flash

My 20-minute documentary on Jahn, comprised of unused footage from my 2016 interview with Helmut for what became Starship Chicago, and new footage shot this fall across three continents showcasing his life's work.

We had the world premiere in Chicago on December 1 as part of a retrospective of my work--Helmut's family was in attendance, giving me the chance to meet many of them for the first time.

It was a very emotional experience, and I am pleased to share the film with all of you here.
Thank you for sharing this, I found it interesting and insightful. I'm glad you were able to premiere this with his family.
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  #100  
Old Posted Dec 25, 2021, 6:11 AM
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Also shout out to AJ LaTrace, former editor of Curbed Chicago, who founded the Thompson Center Historical Society and played a huge part in getting this on the National Register.

Lots of people involved in this good work, only so many of them were out there day to day giving tours of the building and hustling to raise awareness like he was.

Huge thanks to everyone involved!
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