CHICAGO | 400 N Lake Shore Drive | 851 FT & 765 FT | 73 & ? FLOORS

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by ardecila

It's still a great design, with homage to the Chicago bay windows and an interesting massing. The terra cotta was a nice touch but it was never the core of the design.

I agree that it's a nice design with good massing and historical references, but even those features are actually a regurgitation of an existing SOM design:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thre...National_Plaza

[ardecila]

^ Harry Weese did several towers with a similar bay-window scheme as well (55 W. Chestnut, 227 E. Walton, the former Pierce Tower at UChicago). It's a great local design language that spans from the Victorian era all the way through Modernism, and certainly seems appropriate for a tower on the Spire site at the gateway to the city.

I'm disappointed about the terra cotta as well, but it looks like the metal substitute will have the same profile (kinda looks like a big chair rail turned vertical).

[Steely Dan]

^ 100% agreed.

The terra cotta would have been nice, but the VE switch to metal panels (not at all surprising) certainly doesn't kill the overall elegance of this design, IMO.

[Zapatan]

Value engineering, so 21st century America

[pianowizard]

Chicago has been building quite a few generic-looking blue boxes lately. We should at least be thankful that this isn't yet another blue box.

[chris08876]

I like it the way it looks in Steely's rendering. Looks fresh, crisp, and something that works along the waterfront. Just has that waterfront look to it. Looks very Gold Coast aka Queensland (Australia) worthy.

[bhawk66]

you wouldn't even have really noticed the terra-cotta in those proportions. Sure, maybe at ground level (eye-level), but this building is 85% glass. Terra-cotta is more appropriate as a larger percentage material, like, say, One Bennett. Here? Not so much.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by Fvn

^^^that timeline has been gone for a while now; most likely another year or so until the first tower breaks ground...

Where did you hear that? I guess it could be cool to have this and Tribune rise together

Don't they lose zoning, or did they arrange an extension?

[Fvn]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

Where did you hear that? I guess it could be cool to have this and Tribune rise together

Don't they lose zoning, or did they arrange an extension?

It was reported by places like Curbed in early March that construction is set to start in 2021

Related aims to begin construction at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive in 2021 and anticipates a three to three-and-a-half-year construction timeline for the first tower.

https://chicago.curbed.com/2020/2/28...on-related-som

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by Fvn

It was reported by places like Curbed in early March that construction is set to start in 2021


https://chicago.curbed.com/2020/2/28...on-related-som

Thanks, and three and a half years for the first tower, WTF

[CrazyCres]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

Three and a half years for the first tower, WTF

Its gonna take a long time for this entire project to be completed.

Apparently, alderman Reilly said that there's gonna be a wait between the two-towers for a study to be done to determine the impact the first tower had on traffic before putting up the second building. so if things don't go very well traffic-wise, then we could see changes for the second tower better or worse.

So really, this project including dusable park won't be done until at least 2029 without changes to the current proposal.

This is if everything goes to plan:
2021-Break Ground on first tower
2024-First tower completed
2024/2025-Traffic Study
2025-Traffic Study Review
2025/2026-Second Tower Breaks ground without any changes
2029/2030-Second Tower completed along with dusable park

[Kumdogmillionaire]

The renderings may look nice, but I think we should all be aware the metal paneling is unlikely to turn out nearly as crisp as these pictures imply... My prediction is by the time they start building and continuing to VE, the metal paneling will be extremely cheap stuff, although I suppose that will fit quite well in to Streeterville, no?

[Chi-Sky21]

Originally Posted by CrazyCres

Its gonna take a long time for this entire project to be completed.

Apparently, alderman Reilly said that there's gonna be a wait between the two-towers for a study to be done to determine the impact the first tower had on traffic before putting up the second building. so if things don't go very well traffic-wise, then we could see changes for the second tower better or worse.

So really, this project including dusable park won't be done until at least 2029 without changes to the current proposal.

This is if everything goes to plan:
2021-Break Ground on first tower
2024-First tower completed
2024/2025-Traffic Study
2025-Traffic Study Review
2025/2026-Second Tower Breaks ground without any changes
2029/2030-Second Tower completed along with dusable park

WOW, if i were a developer not so sure i would want that hanging over my head that they will have conditions for tower 2.

[Steely Dan]

^ don't worry. Reilly won't stop them from building the 2nd tower, this is just his way of ensuring that Related continues to generously donate to his reelection campaign fund for years to come.

[Zapatan]

I had no idea this project was supposed to take 10 years, that'd be okay if it were 2000 feet tall (or hell even 1600 feet tall), but man, that just adds weight to the intense disappointment.

Traffic study aside (which would be after Tower 1 is complete it seems) why would such relatively small buildings take so long to complete? The f'ing Empire State Building was build in a third of the time nearly a century ago.

[chris08876]

That is an absurd time table for this project. Are they really causing such absurd time tables due to traffic considerations? Seems like the NIMBYS have really put a whip to this project.

2024/2025-Traffic Study
2025-Traffic Study Review ...

What a waste. Both towers should rise IMO at the same time. Traffic studies are just delays.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

WOW, if i were a developer not so sure i would want that hanging over my head that they will have conditions for tower 2.

Tower 1 isn't going to cause a carmageddon traffic problem. Related knows that and Reilly knows that. Chances are that a good percentage of units in the building will end up being occupied only sometimes - maybe as second homes/pied-a-terres, maybe as company-owned units for housing guests.

The people who do live here, either full-time or part-time, will likely walk a lot, like other downtown residents... 1/4 mi to Target, 1/2 mi to Whole Foods, Mariano's or Bockwinkels. Rail transit is not convenient at all, so expect a lot of Uber/Lyft trips or private car trips... but the building is set up to load passengers from Lake Shore Drive and LSD only, so it wouldn't affect the neighborhood one bit.

[skysoar]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Tower 1 isn't going to cause a carmageddon traffic problem. Related knows that and Reilly knows that. Chances are that a good percentage of units in the building will end up being occupied only sometimes - maybe as second homes/pied-a-terres, maybe as company-owned units for housing guests.

The people who do live here, either full-time or part-time, will likely walk a lot, like other downtown residents... 1/4 mi to Target, 1/2 mi to Whole Foods, Mariano's or Bockwinkels. Rail transit is not convenient at all, so expect a lot of Uber/Lyft trips or private car trips... but the building is set up to load passengers from Lake Shore Drive and LSD only, so it wouldn't affect the neighborhood one bit.

I tell you with Reilly in the details this whole project is becoming more speculative each day.It seems like everytime you settle in to the adjustments, another shoe drops. With his micro-managing of 400 N. Lake Shore Drive its becoming more of a journey to nowhere than a done deal. I believe if Related didn't have so much invested, time/land they would probably be tempted to walk away from this project. Yes surely I may be overreacting as I sometime do but it seems this development is so far from the enthusiasm it first gendered.

[HomrQT]

Originally Posted by skysoar

I tell you with Reilly in the details this whole project is becoming more speculative each day.It seems like everytime you settle in to the adjustments, another shoe drops. With his micro-managing of 400 N. Lake Shore Drive its becoming more of a journey to nowhere than a done deal. I believe if Related didn't have so much invested, time/land they would probably be tempted to walk away from this project. Yes surely I may be overreacting as I sometime do but it seems this development is so far from the enthusiasm it first gendered.

Clearly the alderman has done a lot to mute the potential of this site as far as this project is concerned. Aldermen simply should not have this much power.

[Zapatan]

+1 to all of that, what are the odds they just cancel this project and sell the land to someone else who would likely build something better?