CHICAGO | 500 N Lake Shore Drive | 497 FT / 151 M | 47 FLOORS | COM
 

Height: 497 ft / 151 m
Floor count: 47
Location: 500 North Lake Shore Drive
Neighborhood: Steeterville
Architect: Solomon Cordwell Buenz
Developer: Related Midwest
Anticipated Completion: September 2013

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/3525/500nlsd.jpg

Previous design:
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5179/npeshtigo1.jpg

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/4296/npeshtigo4.jpg

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/7...shtigo6abq.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/653...orendering.jpg
~Image originally from Curbed Chicago

500 N LSD is a redesign by SCB of Related Midwest's tower, The Peshtigo, first proposed in 2007 and designed by Perkins + Will. According to the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents website, the new building 465 feet high and 45 floors (down from 645 feet in the original 58-story proposal). The new tower/redesign was unveiled in February 2011.

"The original design was to be called The Peshtigo because of the street on which it was to be built, block-long Peshtigo Court, home for decades to Mundie, Jensen's 1937 streamlined Kraft Cheese Company building. After the corporation fled to the suburbs, the structure was purchased by the Chicago Police Department, and in 2003 it was demolished. It was intended to have 358 condominium units near the top of luxury pricing. The units were larger than usual, the smallest being 882 square feet. The redesigned 500 N LSD will instead have about 500 luxury rental apartments, the smallest being 600 square feet. The new tower, designed for a Chicago market post-2008, is 120 feet shorter, a half million square feet smaller, with as many as 150 more units."

The Chicago Plan Commission signed off on the redesigned 500 North Lake Shore Drive proposal on June 16th, 2011, after SOAR (Streeterville Organization of Active Residents) signed off on a redesign of the buildings' 400 car parking garage that added a year-round living green wall. The building was accepted with criticism, with Gail Spreen, chairwoman of the real estate division of SOAR stating “This is the second best site in Streeterville,” she said, the first in her estimation being the forlorn Chicago Spire hole at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive. “Whatever gets built there will be seen forever. It’s disappointing that the design is so average.” There were also complaints about the building's large parking garage being both unsightly and a potential cause of increased vehicular congestion.

Site prep began in August 2011 and caissons were being drilled as of September 7th, 2011. Official groundbreaking is set for August 14th, 2011. It is expected to be completed in September 2013.

Sources: Lynn Becker, Curbed Chicago, Curbed Chicago, Curbed Chicago, Curbed Chicago, SSP

new base better but old tower better probably.. but all in all good filler

Convenient that they use an old photo without that pesky 600 NLSD south tower in the way... Looks like it's from the good old days, when Spire construction was still a glimmer in the eye.

Another benefit of this tower's E-W orientation is that ParkView East is supposed to be erected directly across Peshtigo from it.

Great to see something finally going up. That site has been empty for as long as I can remember.

Updated rendering of the base courtesy of Curbed

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6...1greenwall.jpg

I don't mind the base.

Streeterville apartment tower lands $100-million loan
Related Midwest has borrowed $100 million from Bank of America to finance construction of a $157-million apartment tower on Lake Shore Drive in Streeterville, according to a mortgage filed with the Cook County Recorder. The developer, a unit of New York-based Related Cos., began preparing the development site at 500 N. Lake Shore Drive a few weeks ago and held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 500-unit project on Wednesday. Related and its equity partner, the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust., are investing $57 million of equity in the 45-story tower.

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.co...lease-bucktown

That the loan is from BOA is a sign that this project will be successful in attracting tenants. BOA has had its share of issues. The acquisition of Countrywide continues to be a drag on its books. AIG recently filed a $10 billion suit against BOA for mortgage fraud. Fortunately, Warren Buffet came to the rescue with a $5 billion investment similar in nature to his investment in Goldman Sachs during the heart of the financial crisis. My point: BOA is being very careful with its capital. It would not lend these funds if it didn't view 500 North LSD as airtight. Hopefully, this bodes well for whatever replaces Waterview, considering that Related is the developer.

Are the colors a permanent thing or is that flowers or what? Kind of weird..

^ The render does really seem like it's trying to convey that the design is composed of plants or some other small elements. But considering that 5 months out of the year the frigid wrath of nature is blowing against that wall, I'm really not so sure. Stone mosaic?

Exactly, with flowers only blooming for 1 month out of the year, seems like an awful lot of work for that little of time if it is flowers. Either way, the base is still pretty ugly to me. It's massive. You can't hid it with pretty colors and trees. Think about that, they have TREES on it!

That's probably midwest sedum. From my apartment I can see 3 rooftops that have it, though you don't have to maintain a horizontal position, it can be used on walls. 900 North has some. You can do some crazy designs and it basically looks the same all year round. I have a sample at my office that I use to show clients. I tend to forget to water it, so they last through some harsh conditions. Some of the colors look a bit extreme in the rendering, but I believe something like that wall can be done easily.

It's really not that far-fetched of an idea. Here's Herzog and de Meuron's CaixaForum Madrid; the "vertical garden" is by Patrick Blanc.

http://www.desmint.com/wp-content/up...cal-garden.jpg
source

^ Madrid. Where it rarely ever even snows.

Cool photo though.

It snows more frequently than one would think; the high altitude gives Madrid colder winters than other continental Mediterranean cities. Not that it even matters. As Hayward pointed out, there are in fact species of plants that 'look good' all year round. Brightly colored flowers aren't necessary-- there are hardly any in the "vertical garden."

This looks nice, very solid infill overall.

Won't all of that greenery just be facing the highway? It seems like the plainest side of the building would be facing that direction.

Also, let's not forget about the fact that there are plentiful native species that look wonderful year-round even if they don't stay lush and green all year. After all, this is a prairie where dozens of interesting grasses used to thrive many of which retain a distinctive texture and color throughout the winter. I could see the green wall looking even more attractive during the winter months if the designers use the right mix of junipers, ever-greens (like certain ivy's), and prairie grasses.

It doesn't matter if it snows. I just explained with midwest sedum it still looks the same all year around.

Indeed. People don't give the prairie enough credit. It's beautiful.

As for my 2 cents, I prefer the old design, but the more buildings like this in Chicago the better for everyone. It's one of the few large cities in the US where someone can get a rental or condo in a downtown area at a reasonable price. I like to think that is part of that prairie mentality. :cool:

Signed, a resident of the Great Plains. :tup:

The thing I liked about the first design of this building was it was tall enough to distract the butt ugliness of the north pier apartments.

it doesnt make sense to build a shorter building than the previous proposal. b/c that black residential tower (dont know thename) would block lakefront views. if they build a taller building, they could sell the top space at a much higher price because of the views, idk, just a thought. ilikethe building and its design, and itll probably turn out great, it just doesnt make sense for it to be so short.

I understood, having seen Hayward's post, that some kind of year-round plant wall would be possible in Chicago. My point was that offering any example from Madrid -- without commenting whether the example would also survive somewhere very cold -- was pretty useless, since Madrid's average low temps are above freezing all months of the year. Chicago has a big fraction of the year with below-freezing nightly temps and of course weeklong stretches below freezing. And then we add the fact of the exposure to the open lake.

Also, a general question, is it more challening for all these vaunted prairie grasses to survive in a vertical installation (which also won't be tended to as carefully as, say, the city does the street planters)? I'm not familiar with how they are planted in that vertical configuration.

I mean, if it hasn't been done long-term before in Chicago (please point out exceptions if that's wrong), isn't it reasonable for one to conclude that this render's exuberance is more property marketing folly than realistic?

Grass will grow on any surface that is stable. That said there are also many creeping plants that are native to the area that could add even more texture to such a wall.

So you're arguing that plants cannot grow along a wall in Chicago but they can in Madrid because of the weather?

^ Just that compared to Madrid, many fewer kinds of plants can grow on a wall in Chicago because of the weather, particularly a wall that faces a windswept arctic space for a fraction of the year (also with no southern exposure). And even fewer if the wall is non-essential eye candy on a residential building, facing a highway and 50 feet above pedestrians, where funds are far less likely to be devoted to periodic upkeep than with a Madrid art gallery's marquee art installation facing a small urban public plaza. (If you look at how the artist, Patrick Blanc, describes his green walls, they involve a piping system soaking a felt-covered wall with a water and nutrients -- which seems like a popsicle waiting to happen here on LSD.) So, it's not that any kind of green wall won't work in Chicago, it's only that this photo isn't helpful in suggesting it will work in Chicago at Peshtigo. Not meant to be a big point; that's why the post was just one line.

Have large green walls been done successfully in Chicago anywhere for any length of time? It would be great, as there are quite a few massive blank walls in various parts of the city.

I wonder if Related added greenery to the parking podium's western facade too -- that faces the park and piergoers who are coming down Illinois, so it would almost make more sense there than on the eastern facade.

Does anybody know who the general contractor is for this building?

I like it well enough, just wish the Peshtigo had already been built instead.

Lend Lease I do believe...

I prefer this new design. It airs up the space between neighboring tower views. It's not such a monolith as The Peshtigo.

Here's an old one of the peshtigo that really makes me wish this one got built instead, but the new One is cool too.

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...N/05b67f83.jpg
The tribe

Oct 20
 

The old P&W design reminds me strongly of the Gropius Pan Am Building (now Met Life) in NYC, even though the massing is different.

^ It was a relatively unique design that would have really added something to Chicago's skyline. Shame that scheme was launched too late in the condo boom.


Back to the plan that is materializing, seems like the foundation work went by fairly quickly, and great to see another tower crane in the sky downtown....

That old design is pretty sharp.

This is a huge disappointment, particularly in light of the great location.

Oct 27
 

Dats one big support.






Now I'll have to come back and see if the outer columns stay outside of the "basement" . Just never thought of big buildings, much less skyscarpers w/o basements.

Nov 8
 

The last days of a surface lot kiosk




and the end of the last sliver of lake from my office.

They're already working on the core, but they left the parking lot kiosk?

^^^ Lol, I'm a little befuddled by that too. You'd think the first thing they'd do would be to raze any and all obstructions. It wouldn't take one of those excavators more than a minute to smash that thing and rip the footings out...

Historic preservation perhaps?

Maybe they're going for LEED certification and can get an adaptive re-use point for saving and incorporating the parking lot kiosk into the new project? :D

All that podium is going to require an attendant.

Nov 21
 

when was this slated for finish?

September 2013, I believe.

Awesome shots!

oh wow! nice surprise. this should look nice!

Dec 1


Dec 14

Dec 14