I really liked the idea behind the aggregate seattle thread... so im starting one for chicago. I suggest people start them for their own towns as it could be a great way to organize local knowledge a bit.
Alright Chicagoans... lets create the best spot for real life, anecdotal, possibly factual information for chicago on the interweb!

ill start...


Lynn Becker is saying the solstice condo's by Studio Gang is set to begin construction this summer.
Im really excited about this project and am really interesting to see if it translates from image to full scale. That seems to be the biggest issue i see.

The Solstice




I may be what some refer to as a 'homer' but there are a lot of fantastic buildings going up right now. There is definitely the highest concentration of good work under construction or recently completed now than at any other time in my years here...

wow, great... my image didnt post... oh well follow the link

i should'nt post these, but maybe I should -

I was at the model shop checking on our building when I saw this in the corner






backside...

i think you'll be alright, it doesnt look that dissimilar to the renderings... if i could get it to show up...

in other gang news...

aqua is coming along quickly!

whoa - those slabs look way to thin for that kind of canteliever - they got tempature bars in them? Way to much thermal diff for them not to crack - maybe the scale is making them look thin - anyone? 6" or less?

studio gang actually builds things?

the slabs are post tensioned i believe...
like the crazy thin slabs on murphy/jahn's 600N Fairbanks





which are a bit under 8" thick.

So my guess is they are close to that thickness.

Were doing 22 story midrise with 6" slabs but much much closer column spacing on exterior

heres a peak -

that murphy jahn project is awesome.we don't get the good stuff here in seattle. we get nasty sh*t.

that helmut jahn glazing - I want to fly into it and Im not even a bird

i bet those helmut jahn slabs are thinner like 6"

yeah, the M/J apartment tower turned out beautifully, the glazing is amazingly clear and the structure nearly invisible. When you compare it to other buildings in the city which are skimping so badly on their facades, it stands out clearly. It has a lot of depth,
here are a couple more images









evil, where is that tower you guys are doing? any better images?

actually the slabs in the M/J building are 8" at their thinnest and actually increase in depth farther up the tower

ours will be off LSD at Montrose Harbour - caisons are supposed to start in March - First new Hich rise in 25 years up there - its amazing the pockets of demand that are still left.

oh wow thats way north... a lot of really nice old towers up that way though! look forward to seeing some images

I can send you some images email - we really dont want to get too much out there - you know how once caissons are drilling theres always that bleeding that starts - contractor get'n hurt in the dirt - then your window wall becomes the cheaper mfr, then your glass gets the cheap tint, then your slab covers go - you know how it goes

whats the coloumn spacing on the M/J perimeter?

I <3 this thread, already. I wish I had taken more photographs while I was in Chicago at Christmas time... but it was really, really cold!

We stayed at the Fairmont overlooking Lakeshore East / 6 Acre Park. (I believe the same project that lletdownl posted?) These are photos from December 24th - wow, they are flying! It looks like better than a floor per week. Did I mention that I <3 PT, too?

woah how do you make the image links???
and mrs... im sad to see you didnt pick my DFA name change... but i respect your decision... and you great pictures

Old Lynns been busy over there on architecturechicago plus!

Check it out - Preservation Chicago to list top buildings to watchdog this year - including Bruce Grahm's Naval Base building

link

uh shit, it's freakin cold today!

btw, i thought the CTA funding meltdown thread was all there was to know about this town.

anybody go to this?

I think Clam Fan posted to that - Dam I missed it I actually thought that looked cool - too bad I forgot about it. If it was at I-Space it may still be up. I might go see Clive Barker show in west loop - I can inquire.

Am I the only one who thinks Murphy/Jahn is a bit....tired?

Much of Murphy/Jahn's work from the 80's looks very dated, IMO. The Thompson Center looks especially tired, but that can be blamed on cost-cutting measures during construction and not on the original design intent.

The happy exception would be their United terminal at O'Hare, which I consider to be timeless and on par with Saarinen's work at JFK and Dulles.

Their newer projects, including the renovations of Terminals 2 and 3 at O'Hare, may not be considered particularly cutting-edge a la Rem or Zaha, but I think it shows a great deal of maturity since Jahn's early "Flash Gordon" days, and possesses a very refined, quiet dignity in keeping with the ideals of the Chicago School.

I am a bit confused. How exactly does Jahn practice within the ideals of the Chicago school? Surely in cannot be only because his office is located in Chicago?

Google is your friend.

First Chicago School

Second Chicago School

thank you. (and I don't mean to be a dick here) but I still don't see how Jahn (today) fits into the Chicago School....maybe I'm just missing it

Loewenberg Architects is the architect-of-record firm doing the construction drawings for all the Lakeshore East high-rise projects, including those designed by Studio Gang. Loewenberg is also a development partner for Lakeshore East campus development.

lletdownl: to make an image a link, you need to embed the image syntax into the url syntax. So where you would normally put the link "text" you just enter the image syntax. I link my images because I think somewhere on flickr's terms of use it allows hotlinking if you link back to the source. MR. tells me it's not stealing that way...

again - thanks the the architecture chicago plus site - one of the new choose chicago print ads to appear in trade journals touting the culinary appeal of the city to possible conventions

dam - we should just permalink Lynn Becker- from his blog

hahaha, yeah his blog is great... i read it every day, and hes been doing really well updating it pretty much daily in the past week or two...

Lynn Becker, Architecture Critic for the Chicago Reader

courtesy of Pimpanzee



link

Lynn Becker is more publicist than critic. That's fine. He should do away with the pretension and proudly call himself "publicist". He'd probably make more money too.

though that is largely true, he often has pretty harsh criticisms...
though they are generally socially based arguments against certain city actions relating to architecture, rather than the buildings himself.

I still very much enjoy his blogs though...


and kamin's article is a good one... i like that hes calling out the offices producing some of the worst of it...

I'd love for Blair Kamin to just once shut the fuck up - he should instead say yes, the latest building boom has been average, but its above average compared to a lot of other places and thank god we have the industry and economics to support a 160 high rise boom. All his Chicago bashing just serves to drive more Chicago developers to find NYC or European architects who just come in and do the same shit anyways. You know what? North Lakeshore Drive looks like godam Beiruit, but he thinks its elegant - and lakeshore east and Museum Park are a smash hit with the market place. Could it be better? Yes, Is it successful? Yes. Say what you will about P/H but they do have a classical urban sense of scale in most of their projects. Museum Park has a cartoon feel, but at the same time its like a brand new subdivision - it needs time to get that lived in feel. I suspect that over time people will come around.

PS - Soldier field is frigg'n dope! Kamins an ass and doesnt know what he says anymore. He should go suck off Tigerman's Daisy

im afraid to click that at work

evil-

Tell us how you REALLY feel about Blair! ;-)

The only thing I get from David and George is the stench of selling out in a really bad way. They once did some really nice work. "Classical urban sense of scale" Where? I don't see it. I see clumsy money making machines for pension funds.

"We make products for pension funds."

That's much different than making architecture.

im afraid to click that at work

It's Steve Allen talking about Kerouac. Allen was great.

i dont agree with you at all, and even if Kamin does have a classical leaning, hes by no means a post modernist by any stretch... im not actually sure where you would get that idea...
As for the quality of the boom... i disagree that somehow 150 ok buildings and 10 good buildings are something to be proud of. Chicago has a responsibility to respect its heritage... that doesnt mean it needs to be stagnant, but it does mean I completely agree it should be held to a higher standard, and thats what Kamin is saying.
The south loop crap could be built in any city, on any highway, at any time. They have absolutely no character, and are offensive in the fact that they CLEARLY DONT CARE that they dont care... if that makes sense.

The market might be eating them up, but to ascribe their love of some of those condo's to the way they look on the outside is just not the case...

In the end though i agree with you... give the south loop 10-20 years and we'll see if any of those condo's age gracefully...
though my guess is in 20 years, several of them will be dilapidated messes, or on the slate for demo... its an incredibly short sighted area of the city, which missed the mark on creating what could have been an incredibly interesting urban area. i really wish the city council would continue to grow a pair and stop letting things like this




get built...

that was @ evil, not MA

These buildings are like fast food.

If they were restaurants, they would be an endless string of Arby's and Pizza Huts.

I agree - the coupla building is terrible - but I disagree that it could be built anywhere. Anywhere else doesnt have the Eastern European Mob washing its money in Chicago Real Estate.

Anywhere else doesnt have the Eastern European Mob washing its money in Chicago Real Estate.

There's a lot of Thai drug money in Chicago too. There's a place on Rush street where they sell dinners at $9.95 apiece and they own a $3 million building.

Go figure!

Really its a residentail development on old railyards with serious grading issues - the site lends itself to mega towers and boxlike bases to the east

Plus its over exuberance is fairly typical of the era we are in - I think Kamin touched on that - all around the world this is happening - buildings with "flair"

Anyways - it doesnt bug me too much because this to shall pass - the museum park is little Dubai, in all its gaudi splendor. However 2 or 3 blocks west are some great modernist retro buildings going up. And the era that produced the 2nd Chicago school with its focus on efficient use of materials and engineering based architecture is waiting in the wings to repeat itself - possibly an economic nessessitated reality? I still think soldier field is awesome.

Cupola? Is that what that is? All along I thought it was a memorial to stubby un-circumcized penises with a bad Lake Michigan Shriv.

The Chicago Preservation Society released it's list of endangered Chicago structures for 2008:



preservationchicago

so, in the Urban campus design thread that evil started before, i mentioned my favorite spot on IIT's campus in the defense that its anything but static.
Well i was down there yesterday to finally pick up my diploma and officially graduate (1 1/2 years after actually doing so) and saw that Wishnick hall's renovation has been completed. If anyone is interested, here is a picture from my camera phone.
It looks absolutely amazing.
So, here is my favorite place on campus... wishnick on the left, perlstein on the right, alumni in the back... when all three are renovated this will be a truly beautiful place...




and here are some other images of the renovated wishnick.

Wow, that's pretty sharp... It will look spectacular in the spring when the grass and trees are green.

Nice to see IIT being restored to its former luster. Hopefully a new generation will see it and develop an appreciation for what Mies did down there.

FOOTLIK?
Sounds like a bad IKEA floormat concept.
That campus really is all about the trees that never really were.

LiG, i hadnt been there in about 6 months, and the transformation is mind blowing. With crown completely restored and gorgeous, Wishnik now looks amazing, and both Alumni and Perlstein are set for major renovations.
Plus, the south side of campus has been transformed into small incubator labortories for tech startups, so those buildings have all been renovated (all mies buildings as well) and look fantastic as well.

THEN, the new mixed income development on the sw corner of 35th and state has been completed. And for all my ranting and raving about the demons withing single developments of that size, it really adds a lot to the strip, and the buildings, though not masterpieces, are at least thoughtfully varied... at least they look like several people COULD have participated.
It really is remarkable how much an impact IIT is having on the surrounding area... and its about time its a positive one

the renovations are truly mindblowing... it's is amazing what some heavy scraping and black paint can do to those bldg's.

i remember vividly the day i came home from work and saw crown's bare shoulder peaking out from the white sheets and scaffolding. i was affected deeply. I had no idea what a difference it would make. I'm happy that the other buildings on campus are getting the same treatment with similar results. If you haven't seen renovated Crown, it's worth the visit. (but with jahn and rem nearby, i'm sure you've all been good boy and girl architects and visited since it happened, right?)

Last time I was down there, Crown was a mess and the McCormick Center was a big hole in the ground. Hopefully I'll get back down there soon and check out what's been happening.

wow lig, yeah youve missed a lot...

thought id post some more images of aqua... its looking really impressive and i can not wait to see it completed

I don't get what is so impressive about aqua? The slabs have curves, but then everything else is orthogonal...

what about this?

Nice article... I'm working on three transitional housing projects here in NYC that have very similar programs and goals as the prize winner. I think I'll forward the article to a few people in my office.

Landon Bone Baker does a lot of that sort of work. I admire them greatly as they are one of very, very few TRULY socially conscious firms. They were my ideal firm when i graduated, unfortunately they weren't hiring at the time... but i still think they are great, even though i dont always agree with their aesthetic...

as for aqua, how are those beautiful curves set against the strict grid glass not impressive!

Well, if you ever feel like coming to NYC, my own firm does tons of non-profit work similar to the Landon Bone Baker project (in addition to a lot of educational, transit, and infrastructure projects), and we can't hire people fast enough right now.

haha thanks for the heads up LiG!

I dont have any images of it but Studio/Gang recently completed a building for the SOS Children's Village I think on Chicago's southside but not for sure. If you go to their website (www.studiogang.net), they have recently updated images of that project being completed in September of last year. It's a very interesting little building. But like I said, I'm not sure of the project's exact location. Anyone know any more of the bldg. I'm talkin about?

man i really like this thing... did i mention that yet?

Aqua Kinda looks like Milton Schwartz's 320 West Oakdale Building after being gnawed-on by a giant bad architecture-hating Street Rat.

i always loved that building from LSD Poz - aqua is a modern more dynamic version simply because we can do it now, Schwartz might have if he had the budgets and ability to.

lletdown - do you know if Aqua is going to do anything at street level, whereever that may be, to enliving the area? Its so depressing back there. i used to work in Illinois Center - It was like working in the Death Star with a TGI Fridays in it.

UPDATE COURTESY OF ARCHIDOSE

lakeshore east development plan - hard to believe this is built out already - 10 years ago I saw it in college and thought, my ass, that will take 20 years.



link

since i posted an aqua tower construction update... heres one for the spire.

looks like they have reached the bottom the bottom of the basement level excavation...
the scale of this is already ridiculous...

yeah, the ground floor will almost have to be all elevators. besides, being so narrow it will fall over.

btw what do you guys think is the most interesting office in chicago right now? don't say studio gang or garafalo, and please don't ask me to search the archives.

Garafalo has never been interesting. I'd say by far Bryninstool Lynch or Kreuk & Sexton. Theres another Brynenstool firm over by Franklin and Chicago - cant rember.

BTW im dislexic and a lazy typer so i dont want to hear about my spelling. i had enough trouble in 5th grade with it. You want to talk math punk?

Lletdown - until you stand on the bridge the scale is elusive even in photo with ref objects. Thats a big crane down in that there hole.

absolutely ep, i totally agree... it really is mind blowing how huge that hole is. its almost 100' deep as well... i think about 75'?

as for most interesting offices in chicago, i have to disagree... B/Lynch and K/S are good, but not nearly as interesting or progressive in my mind as Gang. Studio gang gets a lot of talk because they are actually doing the most interesting buildings in the city... i believe they deserve the respect.
John Ronan's recent work is also really good. Those two would duke it out for top spot in my mind.

But thats not to slight either of the firms mentioned, they are both doing great stuff too. Especially K/S. I really, really like the new spertus institute.

some would say Murphy/Jhan does some pretty good buildings as well...
if you like the techy type stuff

no mention of this monster?
(i'm not responsible for any of that by the way)

I think its Teng Associates - The Waterview. I know this has been advertised since 2001. Even before the Trump tower.














top down construction - note the bracing

This is by Brininstool Lynch - The St. Clair - Its such a simple clean elegant modernist building.











I know theyre not earth shattering but as a firm, to have been a reletively new upstart some 15 years or so ago, to crawl into the marketplace and execute some good modernist design on a large scale is comendable given the recent penchant for coupolas and such.

Also- A. Epstein has an architecture design division - annex 5

They do some interesting stuff, although I dont know if it gets built. A. Epstein is a large construction services and design conglomerate

[url=http://www.annex5.net/#
]annex 5[/url]

A.Epstein

annex 5

brininstool lynch is surprisingly good. and i know about john ronan; they do interesting work. any design/build firms? i'll have to check these annex 5 guys out.

Lletdown - thats the core excavation - there will be 9 perimeter mega columns - theyve been poured last fall

I like Ronin's work as well but the southside drum corp building is way, way, way over rated imho.

i don't want earth shattering...

You wont get it in Chicago Vado. Ronin, Gang et al all have the Tigerman connection going for them. Its a bizzare network of publicity and acedemics hyping each other up while securing teaching posts so they can subliment their incomes. Yes they do good work, and it's very novel in Gang's case, but I still see Chicago as a relatively clanish group of architects who need to get out there beyond Cook County more often. Some of it's the clients here to who only believe a good architect is the one Blair Kamin or Tigerman says so - thats the single biggest problem in my opinion because when big time developers decide to spend, the local avante garde cant usually deliver so they turn to NY, LA or the EU for designers they know about. I really think theres a tremendous lack of opportunity in this city despite so many commissions flying around.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if the Epstiens, Lowenbergs and McDonaughs - huge firms doing airports, intermodel facilities ets - had razar sharp design divisions - could that be a return to the big organization required to do big things? Currently firms like these are sort of the people behind the scenes making it happen, the repositories of the accumlated institutional knoweldge

Maybe the $$ isnt there for high design. I mean if its such a hot market shouldnt there be more hot designers?

Being a Chicago outsider (but finding this thread really interesting) I'm kind of surprised to hear that S. Tigerman still has that much sway in Chicago. I knew he started ArcheWorks but other than that I thought he kind of dropped off the map (at least internationally speaking) quite some time ago, other than a few recent(ish) projects by Tigerman McCurry Architects. Apparently this isn't the case though for the Chicago area?

Its not that he does any work or his firm is influential its that He personally is like a socialite that seems to have a big say in what firms or designers are promoted - this is a big deal because you have a lot of the high design client pool listening to this man. Its really creepy.

thanks again lynn becker...

Im starting to think Chicago needs an architecture blog besides Lynn Becker.

Anyone read Curbed.Com? Good NYC architecture and real estate blog.

right on evil...
get it going, ill contribute

curbed is pretty good i agree... they have a curbed la and sf site too.

dude i dont even have the internet

how exactly would one do that... just scan the local papers every morning? if you find something interesting post it?
ive always found blogs difficult to understand from an ethical/moral standpoint. If we merely report on whats being reported, we generate no new information and no original content... would one be able to site lynn beckers blog as a source? tis a conundrum...
and if so, do we comment on lynn becker commenting on blair kamin's comments on the architect's comments on the desire to do blah blah blah? and then, after that, does someone comment on our comments on lynn beckers comments on blair kamin's comments on the architect's comments? when does the madness end!?

ya know... we pretty much have here the makings of a rival to lynn becker...

we just gotta keep posting news worthy events here and it serves the same purpose...

Its called the myth of the new media - good at disseminating information but not generating it. Most news still comes from newspapers, of which there are less and less reporting sources. The dilema is even on TV, where cble news still gets most of it's sources from print - theres more media outlets than ever, yet less news reporting sources than ever.

Perspective - in WW1 there was a forign corespondant from every major city paper in America, many had whole staffs. In Iraqu only the Washington Post has a full time staff, the NYT has a rotating group, not perminant. But I can see Geraldo holding a gun in Mosul seemingly every other week.

Damn You MLB!!!!

I hope the Sox bring back the 80s jersey

evil, the sox will be wearing the infamous '83 for a game this year... 25th anniversary or something...



...everyone i see wearing the "XRT" knock-off, I want to punch in the face...