From Saturday's Trib:
Sharon Stangenes
Second banana offers opulence along the river
Published December 16, 2006
The hole at the corner of Wacker Drive and Clark Street across the street from the Chicago River may well be the start of what is stacking up as the Avis of luxury condominiums, compared with the Hertz--Trump International Hotel & Tower.
Construction is under way for the 90-story Waterview Tower, second only in size and certainly in publicity to the Trump project just up the river.
Though not nearly as well-known as Trump, the Waterview is no slouch in impressive credentials. It will be the city's third-tallest residential tower--only the Hancock Center and Trump Tower will be taller--and it will be the fifth-tallest building in the city when completed in 2009.
The Waterview will have 233 condominiums on floors 30 to 88. The 200-room Shangri-La Hotel Chicago, the first in the U.S. for the Hong Kong-based chain, will be on the lower floors.
This is a home-grown project, designed by Thomas Hoepf of Chicago's Teng & Associates, the city's second-largest architecture firm and the developer of the building. In addition to design and development, the company does engineering, interiors and construction management and is tapping many of those resources for this project.
Just why there isn't more public buzz about the building is hard to say. Perhaps it is because the site is several blocks west of Michigan Avenue, away from the narrow strip of shopping and lakefront sights that define Chicago for many people.
Maybe it is because it is part of a wall of mostly commercial towers along the south side of Wacker Drive. Maybe it is because the Shangri-La name is new to the U.S.
Maybe, it is just a matter of a name.
"Teng is well-known in architecture but is not a household word like Trump" admitted Cody Lassen, marketing and public relations for the project. While his name may not be familiar, Teng's work on the G Concourse at O'Hare International Airport and the Lake Shore Drive Relocation and Museum Campus is familiar to most Chicagoans, he said.
Nevertheless, the project is among a handful competing for buyers willing to pay $700 or more a square foot for a new home.
About 60 percent of the condos are sold and first move-ins are projected for summer 2009, Lassen said.
"Everything is double," he said, describing what makes this building different from the competition.Where other projects hope to lure residents by piggy-backing the services and amenities of a luxury hotel, the residents of this building will have their own separate pool, whirlpool, sauna, massage room, concierge and door staff. What's more, they will able to call the hotel's room service for a late-night snack.
Many of those resident facilities will be on the 29th floor, so homeowners won't be bumping into hotel guests.
Lassen said this is a building where all units will have a water view (the river or the lake, sometimes both), the highest balconies in the city (all but one floor plan has a balcony) and no more than five condos on a floor. Some of the top floors are full-floor residences with 360-degree views.
Buyers will have deeded parking separate from the hotel parking and, for those willing to pay the $150,000 price tag, there are private two-car garages with storage space.
As in many luxury condo projects, the sales office is high in the sky--in this case the 35th floor of the building next to the site--to give potential buyers a taste of the vistas from the future condos and a bird's-eye view of the building's construction.
Unlike the sales office for Trump at the IBM Building, which has the hushed ambience of stepping into a tony Oak Street boutique, this sales office is more like stepping into an architect's office. The look is spare, but businesslike.
With windows overlooking the Chicago River on the north, east over the construction site and south toward the cityscape, with glimpses of the lake around the Adler Planetarium, the space suffers when comparison to Trump's in the IBM Building. That's because the windows are those of an older office building and not the floor-to-ceiling wall of windows buyers can expect in their new homes.
The partial model of the three-bedroom 01 plan gives buyers a sense of the standard finishes, particularly the kitchen and bath, along with the basic condo configuration.
But this is only a portion of the actual 3,200 square feet of living space promised in the plan.
Two secondary bedrooms, two baths, the study and a powder room are not represented, but would-be buyers will get a good sense of the master bedroom and bath and walk-in closet, the kitchen, and something of the future living and dining room.
The unit, which is on a corner with north, east and south views, is part of the nearly triangular residential section of the building, which sits atop the lower part of the tower.
The front door of the condo opens to a foyer from which a gallery leads to the living and dining rooms. Most of the rooms are accessed from the gallery.
The two most impressive rooms in the model are the master bath, roughly actual size, about 130 square feet, with floors and walls of Carrera marble, and the sleek, contemporary kitchen.
In the bath, the door opens to the whirlpool/tub in the center with alcoves to the right and left for shower and stool. Just inside the door, there is a sink to the right and to the left.
The kitchen is reached from the gallery through a generous butler's pantry with sink. Outfitted with lacquer European-style cabinetry and appliances, the room has a large center island and is big enough for serious cooking. There is space for a small kitchen table and chairs in a small bay jutting out from the floor-to-ceiling windows.
I wish I could be as enthusiastic about the model's living room and dining rooms. Poorly lighted and scaled down, the spaces felt constricted for entertaining. And it was hard to imagine the natural light that surely will pour in from the walls of floor-to-ceiling windows.
Some 21st Century technology is standard, which it should be for this kind of money. Radiant-heat floors will allow true floor-to-ceiling glass, eliminating the need for baseboards, which could impede views.
All units will come with a touchpad universal control in the foyer to control lighting and temperature. The system can be upgraded to control window treatments, security options and digitally store collections of CDs and DVDs.
Furthermore, unlike the competition down the river, which offers a limited number of interior options to keep the "brand" look consistent, buyers are offered a variety of interior options. Because the builder does interiors as well as architecture and development, buyers are welcome to ask about customization.
"We are flexible," Lassen said. "We are getting buyers who have their own designers and architects."
- - -
Waterview Tower, Chicago
Base-price range: $726,000 to $7,505,000
FACTS AND FIGURES
- One-, two-, three-bedroom condominiums to full-floor penthouses.
- Self-park deeded space, $50,500. Self-park two-car private garage with storage, $150,000.
Unit size: 1,087 to 8,070 square feet.
Monthly assessment: $525 to $5,731.
Developer: Waterview, LLC
Web site:
www.waterviewtower.com
AMENITIES
- Nine-foot and 11-foot ceilings; radiant-heated floors; 3-inch- wide oak plank flooring.
- Poliform kitchen cabinets, granite countertops and backsplash, Sub-Zero refrigerators, Miele gas stoves.
- Marble tile floors in bathrooms, Kallista and Kohler fixtures including whirlpool tub in master bath, marble vanity countertop in master bath.
GETTING THERE
Sales center 121 W. Wacker Dr.
Phone: 312-558-9100
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sstangenes@tribune.com
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