CHICAGO | One Bennett Park | 837 FT | 68 FLOORS

[HomrQT]

Originally Posted by Notyrview

Yeah that's a shame, Chase probably could have been built a block over. If I could wave a wand I'd resurrect the Chicago Federal Building and Prentice too.

Absolutely. I agree.

[viewguysf]

Sorry to go further off topic, but having grown up around Chicago, sadly remembering the demolition of the Morrison Hotel (not the most beautiful, but imposing and definitely historic), though loving the First National Bank tower, and sickened by continuing tragic demolitions, I highly recommend the book Lost Chicago. It's definitely worth looking back as you continue to move forward.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...3.Lost_Chicago

[patriotizzy]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Eh, still not that into it, if anything it's mishmash of styles and size were it's greatest fault. It just doesn't have correct proportions. I don't hate the Morrison hotel, but it just wasn't better than what replaced it nor was it better than many many other buildings we lost. Buildings are going to be torn down and replaced in a big dynamic city like Chicago, we just need to concentrate on making sure it's happening to the Morrison Hotels of the world and not the Garrick Theaters, Chicago Stock Exchanges, or Masonic Temples. In the pantheon of lost Chicago architecture, Morrison Hotel barely registers.

I was literally just thinking about this the other day. It's such a shame that the Garrick was lost while the Cadillac Palace was saved. The entire Cadillac block exterior is a bland mess and the interior is garish neoclassical crap which was hardly notable among Chicago movie palaces. I would trade that entire block a dozen times over in exchange for the Garrick to still be standing. I mean yeah, would it be better if every single old building from Chicago's past was saved? Possibly, but you have to thin out the forest to allow new trees to grow. The problem is not the removal of some of the old stock, it's the removal of old stock without taking into account the relative value of such buildings.

Morrison Hotel is way down on the list of things that should have been saved. It's not even an example of one cohesive style and the two major stylistic elements aren't even great examples of their kind. The deco tower is fat and clunky when compared to true great examples of that style (i.e. Carbide and Carbon, Mather Tower, CBOT, LaSalle Wacker, Pittsfield, etc) and the neo-classical commercial block making up the base also pales in comparison to it's peers (Railroad Exchange Building, Burnham Center, People's Gas Buiding, 175 W Jackson, or basically literally anything else built during this period in the style). I mean come on, the entire Morrison Hotel was built out of the cheapest material of it's day, basic red face brick. Not terra cotta, not limestone, not granite, not glazed brick, just like 50 floors of red brick with almost no defining features.

Sorry guys, barely a good building and certainly not a great building like its replacement.

PS, I will say a few of the older bits of the building were nice, but still, they just contribute to the hodgepodge.

You literally lost any weight of opinion you may have had with this nonsense.

[harryc]

April 17





April 23





April 17

[Steely Dan]

i haven't seen this angle before in construction pics:



April 21, 2018

20180421_123345 by Raul-305, on Flickr

[J_M_Tungsten]

Great angle. It also shows our currently useless flyover bike path. Maybe 2019? I won’t hold my breath..

[vandelay]

That is a great angle, the setbacks seem to have the greatest effect from the water.

[Citizen]

Looks pretty good to me, regardless of the VE discussions. Gotta believe the views from the mid to upper floors will be protected for quite some time. Hard to complain about a slender 800+ foot addition to the Lakefront Skyline.

[left of center]

The set backs definitely do look good from this angle, as vandelay has said. I really hope the crown comes out good. Really the only remaining saving grace for this tower after everything else has been VE'd to oblivion. I'm partially expecting them to screw this up to and give us another 55 E Erie...

[donnie]

How cool would the crown look in clad as an homage to Chrysler in N.Y?

Just thinking out loud......

[HomrQT]

Originally Posted by donnie

How cool would the crown look in clad as an homage to Chrysler in N.Y?

Just thinking out loud......

Like an all aluminum or maybe copper cladding?

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Citizen

Looks pretty good to me, regardless of the VE discussions. Gotta believe the views from the mid to upper floors will be protected for quite some time. Hard to complain about a slender 800+ foot addition to the Lakefront Skyline.

Is this really all that slender? The N-S sides of this building are pretty wide

[donnie]

Originally Posted by HomrQT

Like an all aluminum or maybe copper cladding?

I was thinking aluminum but now that you said copper im really liking it!

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by patriotizzy

You literally lost any weight of opinion you may have had with this nonsense.

No, I agree. The Morrison Hotel was one more massive block in a city filled with massive blocks. Looking at that photo, I can see why a lot of people thought downtown Chicago was unpleasant back in the day. The details on the tower were very typical for the period, nothing unique. It was just big and bulky. Compare that to the form of Chase Tower, which is not only soaring and dramatic but powerful and derived from form<function.

Chase Tower is not only a Modernist masterpiece itself, but also provides much-needed breathing space in the heart of the Loop, along with Daley Plaza and the Federal Center. Without it, the Loop would be just as unpleasant as Midtown Manhattan. If you show up at noon on a weekday, you see countless office drones getting a chance to take a breath, catch some sun and enjoy their lunch. The other two plazas don't have that human dimension, maybe because they provide very little seating. Daley Plaza is getting better, with the food truck program, but Federal Plaza is still a sterile, over-policed space, beautiful but cold and abstract. And no, please don't throw Grant Park into this. Grant Park isn't a useful open space for somebody in an office on Franklin or LaSalle, and it can't function as a replacement for open spaces within the Loop.

I don't get this notion that old=better as a tautology, it's just a pessimistic outlook and is not helpful in planning our cities. We can't build new old buildings, why spend so much time wrapped in nostalgia? Preservation has to be a balancing act.

[Kumdogmillionaire]

Originally Posted by Investing In Chicago

Is this really all that slender? The N-S sides of this building are pretty wide

Go see it in person, it's super slender, even on the wider ends it looks thin

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Kumdogmillionaire

Go see it in person, it's super slender, even on the wider ends it looks thin

I see it in person multiple times per day.

[Rooster slayer]

Originally Posted by ardecila

No, I agree. The Morrison Hotel was one more massive block in a city filled with massive blocks. Looking at that photo, I can see why a lot of people thought downtown Chicago was unpleasant back in the day. The details on the tower were very typical for the period, nothing unique. It was just big and bulky. Compare that to the form of Chase Tower, which is not only soaring and dramatic but powerful and derived from form<function.

Chase Tower is not only a Modernist masterpiece itself, but also provides much-needed breathing space in the heart of the Loop, along with Daley Plaza and the Federal Center. Without it, the Loop would be just as unpleasant as Midtown Manhattan. If you show up at noon on a weekday, you see countless office drones getting a chance to take a breath, catch some sun and enjoy their lunch. The other two plazas don't have that human dimension, maybe because they provide very little seating. Daley Plaza is getting better, with the food truck program, but Federal Plaza is still a sterile, over-policed space, beautiful but cold and abstract. And no, please don't throw Grant Park into this. Grant Park isn't a useful open space for somebody in an office on Franklin or LaSalle, and it can't function as a replacement for open spaces within the Loop.

I don't get this notion that old=better as a tautology, it's just a pessimistic outlook and is not helpful in planning our cities. We can't build new old buildings, why spend so much time wrapped in nostalgia? Preservation has to be a balancing act.

[Kumdogmillionaire]

Originally Posted by Investing In Chicago

I see it in person multiple times per day.

Then I'm not sure how you find it to be wide lol

I mean it's north/south sides are comparatively wide to it's east/west sides, but for an 850 footer its slender across the board...

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Kumdogmillionaire

Then I'm not sure how you find it to be wide lol

I mean it's north/south sides are comparatively wide to it's east/west sides, but for an 850 footer its slender across the board...

I suppose you could say it slender for a Chicago 850 footer, but when I look at this building, slender isn't the word that pops in my head. I'm from Manhattan where, for better or worse, the majority of new highrises are much thinner than this, so that just may be my POV.

Even among RAMSA skyscrapers, this one is noticeably wider than his 3 under construction/just completed in Manhattan.

[Kumdogmillionaire]

30 Park Place... what a dog of a building. yuck

I guess in a game of relativity it isn't thin, but for Chicago it is extremely thin across the board.