Ugh. The top section and the bottom section are speaking a completely different language. This is like Helmut Jahn throwing a huge middle finger at the new landmark district provisions.

Funnily enough, there were no negative comments to be had this evening about the redesign. No bitching about height, scale, traffic, views... Nothing :shrug:

Not even with 100 less parking spaces being mentioned was their griping and it was a fairly full room.

IIRC, the original had parking protruding from the rear of the base and residential to the front of the base. Has that now changed?

The more renderings I see and the more I visualize the building, the more I dislike it.

WTF?!

Wow. What a huge let down. Such an awful disappointment! The original design was bold and daring. This look like recycled Jahn scraps with a confused split between the upper and lower sections. Awful! Really discouraging when arguably this city's best architecture firm drops the ball this bad. God dammit! :yuck:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/apps/...20150924122157

What a sad shame.

https://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a...D720/ry%3D480/

This is just sloppy and bad. I hate this.

The original design had such a strong and contextual design at its base, or the lower portion of the tower. This is just painfully out of place and just goofy looking.

Fuck. Are we sure this new design isn't an April Fool's joke or something??? Jesus.

What a let down. The tower looks like some generic crap you'd see on the outskirts of a European city circa 2004. And it doesn't complement the base...at all.

I'd much rather have seen the original building with 3 stories cut off from each floor.

Yeah, I was shocked that there weren't speakers lined up bitching and moaning about the usual issues. For what it's worth, completely anecdotally, there were some folks sitting near me quietly griping, but I heard a few times comments like "it's a done deal", "the fix is in", "it will be approved"......so at least some friendly neighborhood NIMBYs were of the mind that it is a fait accompli, so no need to bother going down kicking and screaming......

^^ ^^^ Although I completely disagree about the overall quality of the new design and think it's a definite improvement from the initial, the one thing I will say is that on further review, I think there could be better integration between the lower portion of the tower and the upper....I have a strong feeling there will be further refinements over the design phase to accomplish just that.....

I agree. I really liked the first design, but I think with some refinement on how the tower meets the base/streetwall portion (particularly removing the angled wall on the south, and extending the curved glass lower) this will be great as well. I believe they mentioned 12-15 months until the anticipated start of this project, so there's plenty of time to refine.

This along with the new Essex Hotel expansion will fill in that section of the skyline nicely. I like this version better. Round off some of those corners where the base meets the tower and it will look just fine.

more elegant. It's like a refined version of London's walkie talkie

don't love the height reduction but I assume they overproposed to get it down to something "tolerable" for the neighbors

not really shipping the re-design. the original was a Masterpiece. This is just dull:hell:

Assuming no problem with approvals, is the next major hurdle pre-sales?
Can anyone comment on if the mix of rental/condo has changed and whether the lower base has become primarily parking?

There's still a mix of condos and apartments – roughly 3:1 condos, if I'm remembering correctly.

The parking still extends to the back of the lot, in a ten-story structure. I believe the eastern wall is still all active use.

^ Yeah, I believe the #s are something like ~140 rental units wit the balance (~360?) condos. It's an interesting ratio indeed, and while a project of this scale and mix breaking ground this year might be expected to have almost the inverse ratio, thinking further about how the residential market may evolve over the next year or so, I think something planned to break ground in spring/summer 2017, with presumably delivery by ~autumn 2019 this might actually be right on the money.........I think the rentals are all planned to be within the lower 'streetwall' section. Makes sense - those will still cary very expensive rents for Chicago (and I'm sure at the very top of the overall South Loop market) no doubt due to the incredible location alone, but then as the condo market continues to strengthen over the next 12-18 months, they can start to get really nice condo showpiece view unit premiums (and hopefully in part use these attractive economics to pay for really nice facade materials/details).....

this is...not a flattering angle. and its a pretty prominent one too.

and yea, the base is perplexing.

This is excruciatingly disappointing. The prior design was outstanding. This iteration is supremely inelegant. I really wish they could have approved the height for the old one. Damn, damn, damn...

Is it the height or the design that's irking you?

This is a definite downgrade over the previous design. I certainly hope there are future revisions because the base looks horrid and ruins the whole building. I don't understand how anyone can like this iteration over the previous. :shrug: