Slice of Life: Assumption Church

Until recently, Holy Name Cathedral was both my home parish and my favorite church in Chicago.  Now, it has competition for "favorite church" title.

I've been to Assumption Church (323 West Illinois Street) about five times, and each time it just gets better, for a lot of reasons.  But in keeping with this blog's theme, we'll concentrate on its physical structure.  The church is based on traditional Italian churches.  While the outside is fairly plain, the inside decorations equal any church of similar size I've been to in Italy.  It's a slice of forgotten old school Chicago, and great place to explore if you get a chance.

Slice of Life: Slippery When Wet

Have you ever fallen down on the street?  Lots of people have.  I saw one woman slip on the fancy decorative inlay in front of the Four Seasons Hotel (120 East Delaware Place).  It appears the people who own the building at 223 West Erie Street are aware that brass inlays can be hazardous.  Some time ago someone covered most of the building's logo with textured tape.  Much of the tape has rubbed off over the years, but it's still doing the job.

Recently I've noticed that when people get fancy with sidewalk patterns, the flourishes are more grippy than the regular sidewalk.  Probably a good idea people should have thought of a long time ago, especially when you think of the dozens of brass inlays in front of buildings in The Loop.

300 North LaSalle Gets Environmental Status

Good news for Hines, and the environment.  Hines sent over a press release today touting the new LEED status for its skyscraper at 300 North LaSalle.  The tower, which opened in 2009, has been awarded LEED Core and Shell Gold status.

Full release follows:

Donald Trump's Electric Snail

Back in the early days of the internet, back when e-mail addresses were just starting to get "@" symbols in them, I heard something quite remarkable.

I was told that the French don't have an equivalency for the @ symbol, so instead of calling it "at" they call it "snail."

I'm reminded of that every time I walk past the Trump International Hotel and Tower (401 North Wabash Street) and gaze upon its adjacent parking garage ramp.  Like a giant electric snail it sidles up to the glass building and threatens to climb up the side.

It's function is utilitarian, but the vehicular helix is a nice design element.  From afar, you can't see it -- only the building as a whole.  And when you're near the building, you can't appreciate it as a whole, but you get to see this element instead.  Something for everyone.

Status Update: Hotel Palomar Chicago

The signs for the new Hotel Paolmar Chicago (505 North State Street) are up, but you may have missed them amid the construction mayhem that is the CTA's Grand subway station redevelopment.  The lobby is still a work in progress, but the outside looks pretty nice.  The company's web site won't take reservations before April 8, 2010 so it looks like we have an idea when it will open.

Chicago Brick of the Day: Alphabet City

We're not showcasing just one, but 26 bricks today.  These alphabet bricks are embedded in the facade at the newish office building at 405 West Superior Street.  They start with "A" at the roof, and progress down to "Z" at knee level.

The letter "Q" is unusually large, and echoed in the building's address plate as "4Q5."  It's the same style of Q used in the logo of the Quarasan company, an education company which is a tenant in the building, but the building's official name is still 405 West Superior.

Status Update: The Parc Huron

The Parc Huron (469 West Huron Street) continues to climb into the sky in the burgeoning former warehouse district that is River North.  Interesting use of balconies as texture.  Hopefully they won't end up festooned with tacky out-of-season Christmas lights like some trailer park in the sky.  You'd be surprised which brand new buildings that's already happened to.

Clark and Grand Hotels Plan Revised

A couple of days ago we told you that the plan to build three hotels on half a block in River North had been revised.

Well, we finally got our hands on the latest revision made by HOK, and it looks like it does indeed address a number of concerns local residents and businesses had.

In this first diagram we see how the western alley would be transformed from a regular alley into a place where hotel guests could be picked up and dropped off and a valet, area.  This would keep most of the hotel traffic off of Grand, Clark, and Illinois Streets.  Illuminated glass awnings, signage, and bollards would make the alley more inviting and help direct clueless tourists.

Deliveries get moved to a loading zone off of the eastern alley, adjacent to the proposed Fairfield Inn.

Trees and planters installed along the sidewalk designate pedestrian entrances to the buildings, but discourage cars from stopping along the street.

I don't know if we got to see this last time, but here is the green roof plan.  It shows that around 10,555 square feet of roof would be "green" (9,500 square feet of plants and 1,055 square feet of hardscape)  That's about 50% of the total roof space.

The Aloft hotel is now more glass and less brick.  Compare the old and new designs:

The glass facade is really more in line with the direction the neighborhood is going than the old brick.  Recent examples include 353 North Clark Street and 300 North LaSalle Drive, as well as venerable buildings like 321 North Clark Street.

For your further edification, here are the edifices' façades (changes noted in red):

This project is going by the address of 501 North Clark, but at this point retains the "Clark and Grand Hotels" name.

You can see our older posts on the project here:

• August 4, 2009: Three New Hotels Planned for River North
• October 27, 2009: Plan for Three New River North Hotels Revised

Plan for Three New River North Hotels Revised

Back in August we told you about a plan to put three new hotels on half of the block bounded by Clark Street, Grand Avenue, Dearborn Street, and Illinois Street.  Well, those plans have been revised.

There was concern about the kind of parking needed for a project of this size.  621 hotel rooms mean hundreds of extra cars.  Under the revised plan, the new hotels would use the new parking garage opening December 1st a couple of blocks away at 601 West Kinzie Street.

As usual, traffic is a concern, so the alleyway has been redesigned to not only handle deliveries, but to also serve as a valet area and a guest loading and unloading zone.

42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly's office issued a press release Tuesday night stating that the architects, "[redesigned] key portions of the facades that better contemplates the architectural language of the broader River North community."  What exactly that means, we don't know because the link to the detailed documents that the alderman's office sent out doesn't work.

But what we do know is that the project also now has a proper address.  It's now going by "501 North Clark Street."  It's not known yet if the former name "Clark and Grand Hotels" still sticks.

When Alderman Reilly's office gets the link thing straightened out, we'll post an update.

Slice of Life: Bubble Wrapping Cars

OK, so it's not exactly bubble wrap, but it looks like construction crews working on a new residential building at the corner of North Kingsbury Street and West Huron Street in River North were nice enough to cover a group of parked cars, presumably to protect them from dust and bits of concrete from the work zone.

Of course, for all we know, those cars could belong to the construction workers and they're just taking advantage of restricted parking spaces.

Three New Hotels Planned for River North

The City of Chicago is considering a plan to open three new hotels in River North.

The project, known collectively as the "Clark and Grand Hotels" has been designed by HOK Architects, and would be located on the western third of the block bounded by Clark Street, Grand Avenue, Dearborn Street, and Illinois Street.

Image from a presentation by HOK Architects

One would be a 181-room Fairfield Inn and Suites at 56 West Illinois Street.  Currently, this location is a surface parking lot. The new building would be 16 stories, and 159 feet tall.  The architect's drawings label it 17 stories, but they're skipping 13.

Second is an 18-story, 168-room Hyatt Place on the corner of Clark and Illinois.  It currently has the puzzling address of 520 North Dearborn Street, but the front door of the new building would be moved to Illinois Street.  The height to the roof is about at 155 feet, 173.5 feet to the top of the mechanical penthouse, and 182.5 feet to the maximum height of the structure.  Right now it's an old bank building from 1947.

Third is also 18 stories.  It is expected to be a 272-room Aloft hotel, at approximately 511 North Clark Street.  Right now this is surface parking.  In addition to the hotel, space has been left in the building for some ground-floor retail facing Grand Avenue.  Its main distinction from the other buildings is the inclusion of a decorative cornice which shades the roof and extends down the Grand Avenue side of the building.  Roof height of this building is pegged at 171 feet, while the cornice gives it an overall height of 187 feet.

Image from a presentation by HOK Architects

The project isn't too much taller than Boyce Building, with which it will share the block.  But it's somewhat larger and taller than its neighboring buildings.  However, a number of those buildings are older and municipal in nature (fire station, post office, etc...) so they are out of scale with the rest of this mid-rise zone.

Image from a presentation by HOK Architects

In addition to the Boyce Building, the other buildings that remain on the block are the shuttered Blue Water Grill, and a mixed use building at 57 West Grand that is home to a restaurant and a jazz bar.

Image from a presentation by HOK Architects

• The alley running north-to-south from Illinois Street to Grand Avenue would be used for loading dock access, but would be capped by the Hyatt Place hotel structure.
• Total project floor space: 379,000 square feet
• Total hotel rooms: 621

Slice of Life: Godless Communists Secret Headquarters

OK, so it's not exactly secret.  But this building and its occupants certainly aren't drawing any attention to themselves.  The bunker-like structure is the consulate of the People's Republic of China.  Of course it makes sense that a city the size of Chicago would have a Chinese consulate.  But you wouldn't expect it to be across the street from the Walgreen's next to the Flagship McDonald's .

The strange location probably made sense back when this building opened.  River north was a far more tourist- and resident-hostile area back then.  And if you were going to build a bunker, plopping it amid the working warehouses and light industry of the area was a pretty good way to not draw attention to one's self.

The only way you can tell what this building is these days is by the Chinese flag flying from the roof, the crowd control barriers that sometimes pop up around it, and the paper notes in Chinese that are often taped to the front door glass listing times and days that visa applications are taken.

(Oh, and before anyone gets their undies in a bundle about the "Godless Communist" quip in the title, by law everyone in China is a member of the Communist party, and China is officially an atheist state.  So "Godless Communist" is factual.  And yes, I've been there.  I've got four stamps in my passport from China.  Don't bother hassling me unless you have more.)

Returning the Power to LaSalle Street

If you've been around Chicago for a while, you might remember that Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan once had a restaurant.  You might have even wondered, "What ever happened to that?"  Well, it's gone.  Long gone.  Replaced by Lalo's, a Mexican restaurant.

Now Lalo's is gone.  Being replaced by something called LaSalle Power Co.  The logo's tagline reads, "Rock Bar • Stage • Retro Kitchen."  A sign near the door promises it will be an "exciting new concept."

For those of you more interested in the building than its occupants, you'll remember that this brick pile on LaSalle Street was once the LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse.  Massive engines inside dragged trolleys through a tunnel underneath the Chicago River to move 100,000 people a day from one side of the river to the other.

Today, it's still a nice looking building, and we're glad to see it being put to use and not left to deteriorate and implode into yet another River North surface parking lot.

Slice of Life: Attack of the 16-Story Pillow Monster

Well, OK... it's not a pillow monster.  But it sure looks like one.  If you squint.

It's actually the new Staybridge Suites under construction on West Huron Street in River North.  This photo was taken on a particularly windy day.

Progress Report:

There's something about walking around Chicago when it's snowing.  It just seems right.  In winter we like to walk in the snow.  In the summer, we like to walk down steamy alleys.  What gives?

Back on topic: the latest round of snowycam pictures shows the progress of the Hotel Palomar at 505 North State Street.  To us it looks like it's up to about the 17th story, and chugging along toward its goal of 36.

As much as we're fans of density in River North, it's a shame that the old park is gone.  Not many people used it, but it was nice to see a patch of green in the area, especially considering the number of surface parking lots just begging for vertical development.

Progress Report: Mark 300 North LaSalle "Done"

It's been a long time coming, but it's finally time to mark 300 North LaSalle "done."  At least on the outside.

As evidenced by the construction lights visible across the city at night, the entire building won't be completed until some time in 2009.  But with the removal of the exterior elevator and the installation of the final glass panes on the northwest side.  The snowy-day picture above doesn't do it justice.  We can't wait for the first warm blue-sky day so we can go out and take a batch of stunning photographs of this one.

From a distance, it does a good job of working with its neighbors.  But because so many of its immediate neighbors are small it stands out, without overwhelming the area.

So kudos to Hines and Pickard Chilton Associates on a building well done.

River North gets a new tower, and a new park

In these days when skyscrapers from Denver to Dubai are hitting the skids, it's worth noting when something new actually moves forward.

According to the River North Residents Association, developers have actually managed to get financing to build the Parc Huron.  This will be built at 469 West Huron in the booming area known for the Grand Kingsbury, Erie on the Park, and hundreds of new townhomes.

It's been amazing over the last five years to watch the area transform itself from warehouses and vacant lots into a thriving residential neighborhood.  With the addition of the 21-story Parc Huron comes four more townhomes, and more importantly a 15,000 square foot semi-public park.   After the fiasco with the Park at Lakeshore East we're skeptical about any of these quasi-public parks, but at the same time any greenspace in the Loop or Near North Side is welcome.