CHICAGO | Boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v5

[harryc]

Sept 19 - from Clark


Sept 22

[honte]

^ I think Silver Tower gets my vote for "Looks least like what I was expecting" of the Boom.

I never went to the sales center to see the model, so the form of the tower is a surprise to me. The final finish takes me by surprise too.

[Chicago3rd]

Originally Posted by denizen467

That's not the lobby. That will be an exterior sidewalk arcade open to pedestrians.

I still like what he does at the base of a building, not to be confused with the basement of the building. The pedestrian presentation....the approach upto and into a building. At that point where the building meets the sidewalk and people enter into it......always seems to be a treat....at least in his last few buildings.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by Chicago3rd

pretty sweet... but i'd rather see that whole area cantilevered and completely open, sans columns... that'd be really sweet

when are developers going to start investing a little more money in some architecture that's a little more extreme and less typical?

...oh yeah, never...

oh well, that curtain wall is really beautiful at least.

[Pandemonious]

Yeah that would be really cool, but what does a 40' cantilever do to make their office floors any more leasable? Im not saying I want mediocre architecture, but this tower isn't in a particularly visible location like say the CCTV building and I don't think needs to do really expensive structural acrobatics to make a statement. Overall I think this will turn out to be a fairly quality office tower, with an elegant facade and I assume a beautifully finished lobby. The pedestrian arcade is a nice touch with the columns (which I think will actually help define the space in the end, that is if they ever are able to create the plaza to the east by tearing down that other building (for better or worse)).

[Alliance]

Originally Posted by denizen467

That's not the lobby. That will be an exterior sidewalk arcade open to pedestrians.

Really? I thought it was a lobby from the render...



And thanks for the shots Chicago3rd...but now I must go update this things diagram AGAIN! Gah.

[honte]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

pretty sweet... but i'd rather see that whole area cantilevered and completely open, sans columns... that'd be really sweet

Oops, I guess I forgot to post the page with all of the alternate base designs for this tower. I'll try to remember later... suffice it to say, you're not going to be happy.

[ardecila]

They already did the cantilever with 111 South Wacker, where the corners are cantilevered.

I like the arcade, I guess, but I still don't approve of the demolition of those corner buildings. There's already a small plaza in front of the SBC building, caddy-corner across the intersection, to provide breathing room in this part of the Loop, and the wide sidewalks and landscaping on Wacker make additional public space seem unnecessary. If anything, a new plaza should go on the site of the old Merc building, since it wouldn't require the further loss of historic buildings, or perhaps on the site of the Walgreens, which I would not mourn if demolished.

If the corner buildings are not demolished, then the exposed common-brick wall at the end of 155's arcade could create a really cool space - if treated properly. A sculpture would look good with the brick as a backdrop, as well.

[wrab]

[harryc]

More forms were coming off of 355 N Clark today.

Forms seem to be totally off of the core at 155 N Wacker.

Crane dissasembly (sp?) is proceeding at 300 N LaSalle.

A CASE mobile crane has been moved from 400 N LSD (spire) to 421 N Clark (parking structure). Rebar for the caissons was delivered today and one cage assembled by the end of the day.

Photos later.

[cityofblindinglights]

Silver Tower and 155 N. Wacker....and maybe K station projects in the distance



orleans

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by Pandemonious

Yeah that would be really cool, but what does a 40' cantilever do to make their office floors any more leasable? Im not saying I want mediocre architecture, but this tower isn't in a particularly visible location like say the CCTV building and I don't think needs to do really expensive structural acrobatics to make a statement. Overall I think this will turn out to be a fairly quality office tower, with an elegant facade and I assume a beautifully finished lobby. The pedestrian arcade is a nice touch with the columns (which I think will actually help define the space in the end, that is if they ever are able to create the plaza to the east by tearing down that other building (for better or worse)).

no argument here... but i just can't help being a fan of the extreme... and until we can find that elusive money tree, i have no argument against anything you just said!

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by honte

Oops, I guess I forgot to post the page with all of the alternate base designs for this tower. I'll try to remember later... suffice it to say, you're not going to be happy.

haha, yeah, i know what you're talking about... i've seen some earlier drawings, and i think i remember a cantilevered version of this tower... but if you some renderings or something else awesome, please pm me them.

[honte]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

haha, yeah, i know what you're talking about... i've seen some earlier drawings, and i think i remember a cantilevered version of this tower... but if you some renderings or something else awesome, please pm me them.

Why not share? Anything look familiar?

The boring one in the bottom-right is what's being built

Also notice that the earlier versions, which I presume were what the architects preferred, included the retention of neighboring buildings and an effort to relate to them.

[Tom Servo]

ahhh, the process of great architecture being chicagofied... what a shame...

yeah, thanks honte, i remember seeing that first one a while back... never seen those others ones though... do you know someone at the office? because it'd seem strange to me that those made it out of the office...

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ How is that great architecture? I'll never understand that about your opinions Adrian. For such a modernist you seem to be awfully in love with exuberant embellishments that often seem reminiscent of the embellishments that made neo-classicism so disgusting to the early modernists.

As far as I am concerned gigantic cantilevers that serve no productive purpose and are completely unnecessary for the location and function go in the same category as gigantic pre-cast Greek columns that don't hold anything up. They are both worthless and excessive and indicative of poor architecture.

To see what I feel is the proper use of a cantilever see 191 N. Wacker just down the street that retains its rectangular (thus efficient) floor plate by cantilevering over the curving sidewalk. That is a functional use of the cantilever, not a ridiculous wasteful splurging like the above bases for 155. Yeah, its not as stunning or dramatic, but it serves a purpose. Unfortunately for fans of extreme architecture and fortunately for fans of efficiency, Chicago has a near perfect grid and flat terrain making ridiculous opulent design functions utterly unnecessary in 99% of situations. Older cities with complex street systems are much friendlier to such designs since cantilevers may be needed to maintain efficient shapes in a weird ass Boston style street system.

I guess I just wonder how such designs can possibly fit into your philosophically modernist belief system.

[wrab]

Lest we forget, the original cantilevered design for 111 S Wacker:



http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=137673

[honte]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

ahhh, the process of great architecture being chicagofied... what a shame...

yeah, thanks honte, i remember seeing that first one a while back... never seen those others ones though... do you know someone at the office? because it'd seem strange to me that those made it out of the office...

This was published information, not classified in any manner.

Nowhereman, I can you see you are a business-logic type of guy. But there are other legitimate functions to architecture, such as enhancement of the public realm, framing of views and vistas, accessibility of open space, creating character, etc. Otherwise, even Mies's boxes wouldn't make the cut of "rational" design.

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

ahhh, the process of great architecture being chicagofied...

Right, every other city in the country builds far more impressive architecture

[Tom In Chicago]

Yeah. . . I don't find any of those previous examples as especially noteworthy. . . kinda weird, but not architecturally "great" by any means. . .