Photo by SolarWind
My objection is that [751 S. Dearborn] doesn't use the forms and materials characteristic of the Printing House Row landmark district. It has massing and fenestration dictated by the internal needs of the residence—rather than the more universal rhythm and symmetry of the endlessly adaptable industrial loft buildings that comprise the rest of the district. It uses the strange checkerboard metal screening on the south exposures, which is not a material native to the district at all.
The south end of the Borland Manufacturing Buildings illustrate the proper form for a low building to take here. In my philosophy, when you build in a historic district you have to step up your game; you have to take the forms and materials of that district and make a contemporary building by skillfully deploying or reinterpreting them—not by just ignoring everything other than the brick color.