CHICAGO | Boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v5

[Chicago Shawn]

6001 posts in the boom rundown

Mediaman, welcome to the forum, and great skyline shot!

One more, a bonus photo, cleaning a classic...

[Alliance]

whatever it is mediaman, can we get it larger?

And Shawn, excellent shot. I love seeing people on buildings.

[Nowhereman1280]

Not really news, but today I confirmed that Loyola University is seriously considering stacking condos on top of its next building which is supposed to be "huge" regardless of the condos being added or not.

Apparently they plan to move the entire business library (which takes up 6 full office floors at about 1/2 a block) and all of the undergraduate classes out of 25. East Pearson. The undergraduate classes will move into low-rise 1 E. Pearson while the library will move into the new tower next to the residence hall. The new tower will also house Loyola's entire graduate business school as well as additional student housing and amenities (possibly a full size dining hall). For the bussiness library alone we are looking at 8 or more floors of office space since this building will likely have a smaller footprint than 25 E. Pearson and they will probably want to make the library bigger than it is now. This building could easily end up being 50 stories and 600-700'. Its still a couple years off, but I'm just letting you know its being planned.



On another note, I heard something really interesting about a bizzare expansion Loyola might be doing this year. 25 Pearson forms an L around the building to the south of it which is owned by someone outside of the university. This building currently has a dunken in it and an empty store front. Its next to the famous Chicago and state waste of space McDonalds.

Anyhow, apparently Loyola is getting the guy who owns this to add several stories to the top of this currently one story, very small, building. However, these floors will not be accessible from Chicago Ave. They will be built with hallways going across the alley or over the small gap between the buildings and into 25 E Pearson. They plan to add "10 classrooms" above this building, which is really strange since its footprint in quite small. Its supposed to be done next year, which is really quickly for such a bizzare plan. This may have BCBS beat for strangest addition.

Its funny since 25 E Pearson already has the worst floorplan ever. They have a plan to remedy that by actually completely moving the elevators from the "wing" of the building to the center of the building after they finish the Clare. Which I find to be another extremely bizzare rennovation. Have fun moving the elevators in today's buildings with concrete cores...


In conclusion, Loyola has many ambitious and large plans in its future as well as some wild, crazy, strange plans. It will be interesting to see how they pan out.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

this is turning out a lot better than i thought it would. that glass looks really nice. and the yellow balconies are nice too. i'm still really not sure about that park though... or the second tower either...

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

modern architecture at its finest.

[Dr. Taco]

^ thanks, nowhere, that sounds very interesting

wouldn't that be nice if the maybe 700 footer was designed with... i don't know, creativity and beauty and quality and stuff like that? phat chance

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Not really news, but today I confirmed that Loyola University is seriously considering stacking condos on top of its next building which is supposed to be "huge" regardless of the condos being added or not.

Apparently they plan to move the entire business library (which takes up 6 full office floors at about 1/2 a block) and all of the undergraduate classes out of 25. East Pearson. The undergraduate classes will move into low-rise 1 E. Pearson while the library will move into the new tower next to the residence hall. The new tower will also house Loyola's entire graduate business school as well as additional student housing and amenities (possibly a full size dining hall). For the bussiness library alone we are looking at 8 or more floors of office space since this building will likely have a smaller footprint than 25 E. Pearson and they will probably want to make the library bigger than it is now. This building could easily end up being 50 stories and 600-700'. Its still a couple years off, but I'm just letting you know its being planned.



On another note, I heard something really interesting about a bizzare expansion Loyola might be doing this year. 25 Pearson forms an L around the building to the south of it which is owned by someone outside of the university. This building currently has a dunken in it and an empty store front. Its next to the famous Chicago and state waste of space McDonalds.

Anyhow, apparently Loyola is getting the guy who owns this to add several stories to the top of this currently one story, very small, building. However, these floors will not be accessible from Chicago Ave. They will be built with hallways going across the alley or over the small gap between the buildings and into 25 E Pearson. They plan to add "10 classrooms" above this building, which is really strange since its footprint in quite small. Its supposed to be done next year, which is really quickly for such a bizzare plan. This may have BCBS beat for strangest addition.

Its funny since 25 E Pearson already has the worst floorplan ever. They have a plan to remedy that by actually completely moving the elevators from the "wing" of the building to the center of the building after they finish the Clare. Which I find to be another extremely bizzare rennovation. Have fun moving the elevators in today's buildings with concrete cores...


In conclusion, Loyola has many ambitious and large plans in its future as well as some wild, crazy, strange plans. It will be interesting to see how they pan out.

Wow, awesome update. Thanks for the continued inside scoop. Do you know if the rendering with the to additional floors in the window of the abandoned storefront is accurate and up to date?

I for one love all of these institutional expansions in downtown. We already have the largest college town in the state right here, and its expanding rapidly.
Here is one more new educational expansion underway: the 7th floor of 1 North State is being converted into a chartered High School.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ You're welcome guys, you'll be the first to see it as soon as renders or massings or other plans are available and I am allowed to post them. There are some floating around at the moment, but I don't have them and don't have permission to post them anyhow.

@ Shawn, I know exactly what render you are talking about and I'm fairly certain that is no longer accurate seeing as how it does not show any floors on top. Maybe they will be setback from the store front or something and they don't feel the need to show anymore than what they are renting out, the storefront.

Interesting tidbit about that Charter school BTW.

I am being nominated to officially be on the school planning board for next year so I'll have even better scoop then. I am currently just passing on what I hear from my friend who is currently on the committee and what I see at the committee meetings that are open to Student Government members and other groups. I'm really excited for this new building though if you can't tell...

[lalucedm]

That charter school at 1 North State is going to be pretty big. Apparently 1 North State is actually two buildings with varying floor heights so in one part of the building it will be the 7th, the other part is 7th & 8th with stairwells at the juncture. The renovation is being done by Wheeler Kearns Architects, which has some talent and a good record.

[honte]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

^^^ You're welcome guys, you'll be the first to see it as soon as renders or massings or other plans are available and I am allowed to post them. There are some floating around at the moment, but I don't have them and don't have permission to post them anyhow.

Are you at liberty to tell us if it sucks or not so far?

Also, may I suggest that we assemble some of the better-designed projects from colleges around the country (and Canada), and then put those together with some stats on how these improved enrollment? These could "end up" in the hands of the school via your committee; who knows, they might hire a great architect once they see what it can do for them. If you are interested in this project and want a hand, PM me.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

On another note, I heard something really interesting about a bizzare expansion Loyola might be doing this year. 25 Pearson forms an L around the building to the south of it which is owned by someone outside of the university. This building currently has a dunken in it and an empty store front. Its next to the famous Chicago and state waste of space McDonalds.

Anyhow, apparently Loyola is getting the guy who owns this to add several stories to the top of this currently one story, very small, building. However, these floors will not be accessible from Chicago Ave. They will be built with hallways going across the alley or over the small gap between the buildings and into 25 E Pearson. They plan to add "10 classrooms" above this building, which is really strange since its footprint in quite small. Its supposed to be done next year, which is really quickly for such a bizzare plan. This may have BCBS beat for strangest addition.

Its funny since 25 E Pearson already has the worst floorplan ever. They have a plan to remedy that by actually completely moving the elevators from the "wing" of the building to the center of the building after they finish the Clare. Which I find to be another extremely bizzare rennovation. Have fun moving the elevators in today's buildings with concrete cores...

I hope they also plan to do a re-cladding on 25 East Pearson - to me, it represents the worst in Postmodernism - all the superfluousness of classicism with all the cold impersonal qualities of the harshest modernism. Every time I see this building, I pretty much think "Ewwww".

Speaking of large institutional expansions, has anyone heard anything recently about the Federal Center expansion? I just realized today that that project will be really complex for any architect that tries it, if the historic high-rises along State are to be preserved. The only land that can be used is the quarter-block at State/Jackson with the little modernist Amalgamated Bank building and the vaguely-Deco McDonalds, and "Pritzker Park" at State/Van Buren. Thomas Beeby led an interesting studio class at Yale on the project, with the results posted on the internet.

[SolarWind]

February 15, 2008

Hotel Palomar


Superior 110

[SamInTheLoop]

Awesome news Nowhereman about a possible large new Loyola tower.
This is one type of high-rise that has a chance of letting our boom continue as new condo towers will slow substantially over the next few years.
I'll put in an early vote for letting Ralph Johnson take a second crack at a Loyola campus-area tower, without the potential for watering down the design due to the perceived design preferences and comfort levels of Octogenerians (for the record I do actually like the The Clare we're getting as well as our more experienced segment of the populace - I'd just like to see what P&W could come up with for an institutional tower without such a "dumbing down")...

[honte]

^ By the way, Ralph didn't design the Clare. I believe he was working on the initial design / concept, but it was handed off to a different P+W office altogether that had more experience in "senior living" - probably because his design looked too radical, whatever. This is what I heard.

Agreed, P+W's educational buildings have been quite excellent, and I wouldn't mind that. However, colleges are some of the few clients really eager to experiment with groundbreaking design these days, and I wouldn't mind seeing them hire someone we haven't seen in Chicago yet.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by honte

^ By the way, Ralph didn't design the Clare. I believe he was working on the initial design / concept, but it was handed off to a different P+W office altogether that had more experience in "senior living" - probably because his design looked too radical, whatever. This is what I heard.

Agreed, P+W's educational buildings have been quite excellent, and I wouldn't mind that. However, colleges are some of the few clients really eager to experiment with groundbreaking design these days, and I wouldn't mind seeing them hire someone we haven't seen in Chicago yet.

The senior housing comes out of Dallas, TX. I am pretty sure they did they Clare, but I know for sure that they designed The Admiral.

The Chicago office has designed a really cool university campus which is under construction in Angola. I would really love to see something like that India House in Mumbai built here in Chicago.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by honte

^ By the way, Ralph didn't design the Clare. I believe he was working on the initial design / concept, but it was handed off to a different P+W office altogether that had more experience in "senior living" - probably because his design looked too radical, whatever. This is what I heard.

Agreed, P+W's educational buildings have been quite excellent, and I wouldn't mind that. However, colleges are some of the few clients really eager to experiment with groundbreaking design these days, and I wouldn't mind seeing them hire someone we haven't seen in Chicago yet.

awww, you beat me to it.
you know about the clare: i actually think it's great. the painting of the concrete is its downfall, but over-all i kind of like it.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by honte

Are you at liberty to tell us if it sucks or not so far?

Well of course I can tell you whether it looks like crap or not. The problem is there are more than one design right now. They range from like 25 floors to 50 floors and they are primarily massing models at this point that just show where it would sit on site and the likes.

I think P+W is still our architect so I think Ralph may be getting another shot at this.

I'll PM you in a bit Honte.

[Chicago Shawn]

Hmm, so at the very least, the campus expansion will be 25 stories. Sweet.


757 North Orleans, 02-05-2008

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

Hmm, so at the very least, the campus expansion will be 25 stories. Sweet.

Hey, don't pin my name on it, because this is Loyola, you never know what weird shit they'll pull, so take that with a grain of salt. In all honesty though, I would be very, very suprised if it were anything shorter than Baumhart. I would be quite surprised if it weren't 30+ stories... and wouldn't be surprised at all if it were 50...

[Alliance]

Nowhere, were your impression of the designs correlated with height? or were the better designs the shorter plans?

[photoLith]

I have had a burning question thats been on my mind forever, what is going in on the land that is on the far right of this photo? Its just vacant land and it looks perfect for some highrises and apartment building? Is there anything planned, I sure hope so! photo by newstl 2020