CHICAGO | Boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v5

[wrab]

Originally Posted by honte

^ Yep.

I know we've touched on this before, but I've got to bring it up again: SCB is starting to really get on my nerves. Who's responsible for all of these designs looking so damn similar? Is Wolf so convinced that he's a superstar, and that he has exactly the right solution, that he wants to pollute the whole city with the same kind of design? Is Buenz preventing others from becoming designers? Or, is it simply that the developers are saying "you have three weeks to give us a preliminary design," and SCB takes the bait?

I know for a fact that they have the talent and the strength to produce something a wee bit different. Even somone like Al Shaw would at least change the colors and materials when he "rehashed" designs.

The catch here, of course, is that the design quality is usually a lot better than standard fare in Chicago. Hence, little complaining about this issue from any of the critics or public. But really, Mies could get away with this because he was the genius. SCB? Not so much.

I'm not a fan of the paradigm, either, and its ubiquity rankles. They've been using it elsewhere, too - eg, the Rincon Hill project in SF. I can't see any evolution or refinement as the design replicates, either. But then there is the oddball maverick design, like the Streeter, which gives one some hope...

[budman]

Originally Posted by museumparktom

Technically, the 200 - 218 lot is outside the Loop, it's not inside the elevated tracks it on the border of the loop. I'm out of town today or I would walk it and look at lunch. I don't think there are any purely surface lots within the Loop. There are still quite a few with in the Wacker, Congress Michigan boundaries though. In fact most of them are on Wabash and Wells

^I think this is in the Loop, although outside of the el tracks mentioned by museumparktom. I know the historical reason for saying this is outside the loop, but really the loop has grown to extend outside of those historical boundaries. I think the loop is bound by Michigan Avenue to the East, the river to the north and west, and roosevelt to the south (although the south border is more difficult to pinpoint, and I think there is some overlap between what we call the Loop and what we call the South Loop). I know I will get some shit for this, but those are my boundaries

[BorisMolotov]

^ Thats more of what I meant. Thanks Budman.

[Tom Servo]

there is a big surface lot at the northwest corner of van buren and wabash that is just inside the loop. by the way...

[GregBear24]

^^^I think congress is a better south barrier for the loop, and everything south of that would be the south loop. I could be wrong, but I thought that was the unofficial reference point- someone chime in if you know otherwise.

[Steely Dan]

^ yeah, congress is defintiely my mental cut-off for the southern border of the loop. everything south of congress is south loop.

[Marvel 33]

Here is a different angle and a larger image of the Lake and Wells building.

[TransitEngr]

Originally Posted by Lukecuj

nice, never thought I'd see the day, especially remembering back to those early days in the North Loop Redevelopment saga. This, Waterview,and B37 look like the final chapters of that urban renewal book.

I agree that this is nice...VERY nice indeed.

But... I don't think it's the final chapter.

I have a feeling that things pick up "pedestrian" or "residential momentum".... Certain parts of downtown have gone WAY beyond this momentum tip over point (River North, West Loop, South Loop, Streeterville, Gold Coast...).... but I think the Loop is just starting to get to that momentum tip over point, hence I can't see this being the final chapter... I think it's the beginning for the loop.

Each time I see plans for tearing down these horrible old parking decks... and I see their mixed use replacements I come a little closer to nirvana.

Rock on Chicago... ROCK FUCK'N ON.

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by Marvel 33

Here is a different angle and a larger image of the Lake and Wells building.

Thanks Marvel - I like the west facade a lot - less typical SCB...

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by TransitEngr

I agree that this is nice...VERY nice indeed.

But... I don't think it's the final chapter.

I have a feeling that things pick up "pedestrian" or "residential momentum".... Certain parts of downtown have gone WAY beyond this momentum tip over point (River North, West Loop, South Loop, Streeterville, Gold Coast...).... but I think the Loop is just starting to get to that momentum tip over point, hence I can't see this being the final chapter... I think it's the beginning for the loop.

Each time I see plans for tearing down these horrible old parking decks... and I see their mixed use replacements I come a little closer to nirvana.

Rock on Chicago... ROCK FUCK'N ON.

Couldn't agree with you more re: the Loop's incredible potential for continued development. Another factor supporting this trend will be less blatant Nimbyism (or at least the dillution of Nimby influence due to the vast majority of existing buildings being commercial). There is a wonderful mixed-use future that lies directly ahead for the Loop....

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by honte

^ Yep.

I know we've touched on this before, but I've got to bring it up again: SCB is starting to really get on my nerves. Who's responsible for all of these designs looking so damn similar? Is Wolf so convinced that he's a superstar, and that he has exactly the right solution, that he wants to pollute the whole city with the same kind of design? Is Buenz preventing others from becoming designers? Or, is it simply that the developers are saying "you have three weeks to give us a preliminary design," and SCB takes the bait?

I know for a fact that they have the talent and the strength to produce something a wee bit different. Even somone like Al Shaw would at least change the colors and materials when he "rehashed" designs.

The catch here, of course, is that the design quality is usually a lot better than standard fare in Chicago. Hence, little complaining about this issue from any of the critics or public. But really, Mies could get away with this because he was the genius. SCB? Not so much.

I definitely share your frustration. I think it's a great question you ask about the cause of these similar designs - I have no idea which is the right answer.
One thing I do know is (at least in my personal case) why the general lack of criticism, - that is, why does SCB get off the hook so easily....It's because there are still much, much bigger fish to fry. As long as P/H fails to retire its "contemporary deco" motif and Lagrange continues to dabble in his silly sentimental pomo and the city is littered with design/build hacks, not that many eyebrows will be raised by SCB's repetitive tendencies...

[SamInTheLoop]

Two design firms that have been rumored to be working on Chicago high-rises - Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill and there old firm SOM. Does anybody know anything regarding these projects? (I vaguely remember the locagion of one - along the River in the South Loop...) Smith and Gill's full website is still not up yet - that's a little surprising given it's almost June already...I can't wait to see what those two are working on (I'd love to see a super environmentally-advanced tower)........and I'm interested to see what design direction SOM takes in Chicago given the change in leadership........

[Pandemonious]

^The direction is at the very least different, I assure you. They are utilizing something new in the design that the engineers randomly discovered in a wind tunnel test and brought up for the first time less than a year ago when we were trying to come up with a new design idea for the Shanghai Center project. We ended up not doing anything with it back then, as clearly we drew inspiration from something else..


I think I remember hearing a rumor that the smith-gill project will somehow be incorporating wind turbines and a marina?

[aaron38]

I can't tell from that Lake-Wells rendering how the base of the tower is at the pedestrian level. Does it form an integrated streetwall with the neighboring buildings, or is it isolated in a plaza?
I don't think we're getting the dense urban fabric we want when the buildings all stand apart from eachother.

[ardecila]

No, there's no plaza... the parking podium fills the lot lines, and the tower rises from the podium. It does not physically touch the building next to it because it is surrounded on 3 sides by streets and on the 4th side by an alley. There is a street between Franklin and Wells connecting Lake with Lower Wacker, which effectively divides the block in two.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by aaron38

I can't tell from that Lake-Wells rendering how the base of the tower is at the pedestrian level. Does it form an integrated streetwall with the neighboring buildings, or is it isolated in a plaza?
I don't think we're getting the dense urban fabric we want when the buildings all stand apart from eachother.

i don't understand what your concern is... dense urban fabric? this building does exactly that.

[Tom Servo]

I was walking down washington this morning, and i saw an open lot with some kind of rig on it over around... i don't know, on the west side of the loop... was that 215 West Washington?

[HK Chicago]

Sidewalk canopy has been going up at Staybridge over the last 2 days.

[museumparktom]

I agree that the Central Core of the city has expanded far beyond the "Loop". For purest is will always be within the El tracks.

The South and East Borders are fairly defined by Congress and Michigan. The West still is the River but What about the North. Will or has the Central Core boundary jumped the River?

AdrianXsands - Your right I couldn't see that lot across from CNA in my head.

[Chicago3rd]

Originally Posted by itsnotrequired

Correct so it is technically not within the loop of the Wells-Van Buren-Wabash-Lake L tracks.

I work in the Boeing building...when people ask me where I work I say the loop. When I got temp work here.....it was the loop.

So perhaps we can do this:

If you work inside the el tracks we call it "within the loop"
If you work downtown it is called "the loop"?

I know Crains calls it westloop, central loop, east loop....