The tower portion could turn out decent depending on the facade quality/detailing but the podium is a big yikes. I'd rather they add a floor or two of parking but activate the entire Randolph fronting side with boutique offices or duplex apartments or something other than a bland wall.
Jesus. Definitely worse. Streetwall be damned, this is oppressive. Yes, it has some nice materials and yes, it is articulated but this kind of windowless blank wall is not acceptable for the West Loop's premier boulevard no matter how they pretty it up. This belongs on Lake St, where the L tracks will always be somewhat oppressive.
At least the pocket park reduced the scale of the podium on the street and had the potential to soften it with 1-2 mature trees. Should go back to that version IMO. It is not a good tradeoff just to get a measly retail space.
There's a third option too, which is keeping the L-shaped podium but enclosing the setback area with a glassy atrium. Could be used for a grand lobby or signature restaurant.
1200-1234 W. Randolph St.
(Near West Side, 27th Ward)
Quote:
A proposed amendment to Business Planned Development No. 1458 (PD 1458), submitted by 1234 West Randolph Developer, LLC, for the property generally located at 1200-34 West Randolph Street. The applicant proposes to amend PD 1458 to rezone the site from BPD 1458 to DX-7 (Downtown Mixed-Use District) and then to a Residential-Business Planned Development No. 1458, as amended. The applicant proposes to construct a new 42-story, 460-foot-tall mixed-use building containing 395 dwelling units, ground floor commercial space, 113 parking spaces, and 290 bicycle parking spaces. A 4.50 FAR (Floor Area Ratio) bonus will be taken only off of sub-area A and the resulting FAR of the overall planned development will have a maximum of 8.79.
> The Chicago City Council has approved the mixed-use development at 1234 W Randolph Street in Fulton Market. Located on the intersection with N Elizabeth Street the building replaces a handful of low-slung commercial structures after having originally been proposed as a hotel a few years back. Now after receiving its approval from the Plan Commission and comments from the Committee on Design, developers Azur Holdings, and Golub & Company have cleared some of the last hurdles towards construction for the SCB-designed project.
The Chicago City Council has approved the mixed-use development at 1234 W Randolph Street in Fulton Market. Located on the intersection with N Elizabeth Street the building replaces a handful of low-slung commercial structures after having originally been proposed as a hotel a few years back. Now after receiving its approval from the Plan Commission and comments from the Committee on Design, developers Azur Holdings, and Golub & Company have cleared some of the last hurdles towards construction for the SCB-designed project.
At least those nasty 'quilted' panels over the garage got chopped. They were tickity-tack tacky. But the disco ball offset vertical façade panels somehow survived. Boo. They're such an obvious contrivance of wanting to add some (needless) pizazz. They could have instead alternated vertically and horizontally oriented façade elements for the three distinct vertical volumes; that would have broken up the tower mass and given a nice interplay of vertical and horizontal movement.
They could have instead alternated vertically and horizontally oriented façade elements for the three distinct vertical volumes; that would have broken up the tower mass and given a nice interplay of vertical and horizontal movement.
Do tower masses really need to be broken up? Can't a tall tower just be ...a tower?
At least those nasty 'quilted' panels over the garage got chopped. They were tickity-tack tacky. But the disco ball offset vertical façade panels somehow survived. Boo. They're such an obvious contrivance of wanting to add some (needless) pizazz. They could have instead alternated vertically and horizontally oriented façade elements for the three distinct vertical volumes; that would have broken up the tower mass and given a nice interplay of vertical and horizontal movement.
What's really stupefying is why they felt the need to look to the Disney/Arabesque novelty next door for design inspiration...
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