CHICAGO | Grant Park 3 & 4 | (3) 790' - 73 FLOORS | (4) 900' - 83 FLOORS NEVER BUILT

[VivaLFuego]

^impressive. Very Po-Mo looking, but not in a bad way. Should be incredible from ground-level in the park.

What is the timeline for GP3, and what percentage of OMPW has sold so far?

[bnk]

Someone needs to post the Grant park lollapolza image, photo and render insert, that was posted a while back to give a people perspective from Grant park.

[Norsider]

That south wall of Grant Park is just straight up awesome.

[F1 Tommy]

Great job bvictor1..Great looking building.I am looking forward to seeing the
other buildings final designs.

[Dan in Chicago]

Originally Posted by Alliance

Since Park Michigan apprears to be the first major casualty of the boom....

I don't think it is a casualty, at least not yet. Anyway the first major casualty of the boom was 7SD. ;-)

[Knightwing]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

it was a fun meeting last night. many NIMBY kooks and weirdos, but they didn't have any ammunition for this meeting because all that was on the table was the 10 story height increase for the 2 towers to 790'/73 floors & 900'/83 floors. once the NIMBYs in the room figured out that the project was already fully approved and that they were utterly powerless to stop this building outright, you could sense their frustration setting in when they tried to derail the meeting with any number of off-topic side issues. i love it when these selfish dingleberries lose, hahaha.

after the meeting, victor and i hung around and spoke with the architect for several minutes about the design of GP3. i learned that the maximum horizontal projection of the sail is ~15' and the maximum horizontal projection for the wave element is ~7'. there was also an excellent rendering of OMP, OMPW, GP3, and the ghost place-holder image for GP4, we talked a bit about what direction they might go with for GP4 and i asked if the heights of the setbacks were intentionally lined up with the heights of the other buildings in the south wall and the architect said that was one of the avenues they were exploring right now.

there were some really great images presented and i know victor got good pics of them, so he'll be posting them soon.

Good reporting. Thanks to both you and vic as well as everyone else present who posted.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

...sad

the base of the first two towers are awful to say the least... all four are too big, too similar in height, too shinny... god, how many tall, shinny, boring glass buildings with silly designs are we gonna be graced by before the end of this boom? p/h PLEASE stop competing with scb for the city's ugliest skyscrapers. i mean, is this the alternative to the pre-cast, painted concrete po-mo that ruined river north? why is architecture in this city so predictable? EDIT* ...uninspired would be an understatement.

[cbotnyse]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

One of the final shots from last night.

What the southern streetwall will hopefully look like once built out. Tower 4 has yet to be designed.

perfect, thanks. so building 4 in this pic is just a guess right? what an amazing addition to the skyline.

[alex]

Although GP4 design is far from being completed, the architect told us that they were seriously considering a building desing with a step wise massing that would be topping out toward Michigan Ave. He also told us that the crowns of both OMP and OMPW would be lit up.

[scalziand]

I like the potential massing of GP4. Hopefully it will stay as a boxier concept.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

One of the final shots from last night.

What the southern streetwall will hopefully look like once built out. Tower 4 has yet to be designed.

Look how tiny 1212 S. Michigan is. Three years ago, that was the ONLY high-rise on Roosevelt Road, and the tallest building south of roosevelt, aside from the McCormick Place Hyatt and the tower in Hyde Park across from the Musuem of Science and Industry. Amazing.

[cbotnyse]

would somebody be able to take this rendering and widen it out to include the entire skyline? to see its real impact? thatd be great.

[Jaroslaw]

Good stuff. BTW, did anyone ask about the slow progress on OMPW?

[Rocket1]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

...sad

the base of the first two towers are awful to say the least... all four are too big, too similar in height, too shinny... god, how many tall, shinny, boring glass buildings with silly designs are we gonna be graced by before the end of this boom? p/h PLEASE stop competing with scb for the city's ugliest skyscrapers. i mean, is this the alternative to the pre-cast, painted concrete po-mo that ruined river north? why is architecture in this city so predictable? EDIT* ...uninspired would be an understatement.

It would look better if the buildings weren't so similar in height -- how about making GP4 about 1100' tall to create some diversity.

But, IMHO, these shiny buildings look A LOT better than the painted concrete buildings in River North.

[Alliance]

I kind of agree with Adrian. He's taking it too far, but these towers almost seem homogenous in thier wild attempts at variation. We need some nice retro-looking towers behind them. I'd almost like GP4 to be modeled after Waterview's siding. Glass, but some stone and metalwork too. Lets just avoid looking like (IMO POS) Dubai.

Hear that developers? Build more painted precast sh*t here and NOT in the northside.

However, I think the current state of architecture in Chicago is pretty damn outstanging.

[spyguy]

Originally Posted by alex

He also told us that the crowns of both OMP and OMPW would be lit up.

That's good to hear.

Nice photos BVictor, and great summaries by everyone.

[Alliance]

great news on the crowns. Its good to hear they have some purpose

[Haworthia]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

...sad

the base of the first two towers are awful to say the least... all four are too big, too similar in height, too shinny... god, how many tall, shinny, boring glass buildings with silly designs are we gonna be graced by before the end of this boom? p/h PLEASE stop competing with scb for the city's ugliest skyscrapers. i mean, is this the alternative to the pre-cast, painted concrete po-mo that ruined river north? why is architecture in this city so predictable? EDIT* ...uninspired would be an understatement.

I have to agree with you on one account. I think a tower half the height of OMP would look better and help integrate both towers it into the skyline. A bunch of tall towers in a line lacks something.

As for the building, I think it's ok, I just think it should be done somewhere else in the city.

[Loopy]

Originally Posted by Jaroslaw

Good stuff. BTW, did anyone ask about the slow progress on OMPW?

Yes. Reason given: Top-Down construction of five levels of underground parking.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by alex

They also showed new pictures of the south and east elevations of GP3. They stated that there would be comercial spaces in both GP3 an GP4. They appear to be very serious about marketing GP3 starting next year and GP4 about 2009. They also have the plans to cover the railroad tracks but is up to the city to come up with the money. They apperently have plans to cover the tracks north of Macormick Place and to build highrises over the tracks. All the buildings along the south wall of Grant Park apparently have the blessing of the city, they just want permission to add ten floors to each of them and make them taller.

Wait a second, they want to add ten floors to the present 73 and 83, respectively ?