New Residential Skyscraper for the West Loop

This project has been floating around for a short while now, but we're starting to see signs that things are getting serious with 108 North Jefferson Street.

The 34-story apartment block is ready to go before the Chicago Plan Commission.  It's a fairly typical Chicago building:  304 residences sitting on a parking garage podium.  While it's not a stand out building, it's certainly light years better than what's there now:  Yet another surface parking lot.

We first mentioned 108 North Jefferson in September of 2008, and again in February of 2009.  Since then it's been scaled down a little bit -- from 41 stories to 34, and from 311 residences to 304.

I've heard some people complaining that this project doesn't offer any ground floor retail, but I think they're mistaken.  On the planning documents I've seen there are clearly designated retail spaces on Jefferson Street.  Not much, maybe one or two shops could fit in there, but to say there is no retail element is a falsehood.

For you height junkies -- the roof will be at 352 feet and one inch (352.08 feet).  The total building height will be 373 feet, seven inches (373.58 feet).

And because we're all so eco-conscious these days, there will be a 9,200-square-foot green roof, and the entire project is going to basic LEED certification.

Those of you who love reading the nitty-gritty of these sorts of things will enjoy the public documents on it:

Slice of Life: Gargoyles in the Garden

A pair of gargoyles keep watch over the garden in the riverfront plaza at Riverside Plaza (2 North Riverside Plaza) in Chicago's West Loop.

Pepsi's Chicago Wind Farm

There have been a lot of cases lately of private corporations taking over public spaces from the taxpayers.  But in Chicago, one company is doing the opposite.

Chicago is home to a regional office of Pepsico, and it recently located in a new building at 555 West Monroe Street.  One of the features of the building is a public park on the podium's roof.  It's just two stories above the cacophony below, but it is an oasis in an area desperate for greenspace.

Most people don't know it exists.  You enter through a dedicated elevator from an anonymous foyer on Monroe Street.  Once upstairs, there are some patches of grass, a few plantings, and lots of tables and chairs for a picnic.

Most impressive, however, is the rooftop wind and solar energy farm.  Here's a video showing the turbines and panels.  That noise you hear in the video isn't the turbines, it's the sound of nearby construction.




The farm and the green roof are two of the contributing factors that helped this building attain its LEED status.  And for as long as the roof remains a public amenity, we're happy to have Pepsico in the neighborhood.

Status Update: MetraMarket

A lot of people, including us, have a lot of high hopes for the MetraMarket at the Ogilvie Transporatation Center, 500 West Randolph Street.  There have been many announcements made -- most recently, that Lavazza will open there.  But this is the first time we've seen an actual store-specific "coming soon" sign.  In the tiny box at the center of this pic, you can see "CVS/Pharmacy Coming Soon."

Hope springs eternal.

Like Christmas Windows for Architecture Nerds

At Christmastime, families walk along the Loop's sidewalks admiring the wares on offer in department store windows, and children gaze longingly at the things they hope Santa Claus will bring them.  What's going on at a West Loop architecture firm is something like that.

Unlike most architecture firms that retreat to the rarified atmosphere of Chicago's tallest buildings, M+W Zander has its offices on the ground floor of an old West Loop warehouse.  And instead of keeping its models exclusive to clients and museum boards, M+W is proud to showcase what it's working on in its storefront windows.

There are about six large windows which wrap around the corner of this old building and feature Zander projects around around the world.  Both drawings, and the miniature models that architects create for their clients.

While Zander's designs tend toward long, low office buildings and laboratories, the exhibits are compelling enough to make you stare for quite a while.  If you have a few minutes to kill before jumping on the Metra to head home for the evening, it might be worth a quick detour to 549 West Randolph Street to see what this firm is working on.

Chicago's Most Dangerous Machine

This has to be the most dangerous machine in Chicago.  It dispenses Starbucks.  It takes credit cards.

Found in an Amtrak departure lounge in Union Station.

Details on New 41 Story Apartment Tower For West Loop

Elsewhere on this blog someone asked for some information on the surface parking lot at 108 North Jefferson Street.  I answered the question there, but since most people don't spend their time reading all of the comments on this blog, I thought I'd make a separate post for it as well.

These facts are, of course, fluid.  Nothing is concrete until it's built in concrete.  So things may have changed radically, but here's the latest I have on 108 N. Jeff.:

Name: 108 North Jefferson

Stories: 41

Height: 430 feet

Use: Rental apartments

Architect: Solomon Cordwell Bunez

Office space: 93,000 square feet

Retail space: 12,500 square feet

Apartments: 311

Garage: 5 stories

Parking spaces: 246

Naturally a swimming pool and all the usual amenities are planned.

Last I heard this is still in the permitting stage.  Traffic and other studies have to be done first.  If anyone has any better information, post it here.

Quickie: West Loop Office Building May Get Landmark Status

Crain's Chicago Business reports that the office building at 300 West Adams Street might get landmark status.

The 1927 building doesn't look like anything special to us, but maybe some of you out there can explain why it should be landmarked, other than lowering the tax burden to its owners.

The Hen Roosts Backwards Tonight

Convenience stores are a little less convenient in the West Loop these days with the closing of one of the White Hen Pantry shops.  I'm sure in the daylight it made sense to simply flip the old "White Hen" signs around in the pylon outside the store.  This was obviously done by a manager or some other person who only works 9-5 and didn't realize that signs light up at night.  Doh!

Another parking lot bites the dust (we hope)

If there's one thing that doesn't belong in downtown Chicago it's surface parking lots.  They contribute virtually nothing to the economic, social, and visual vitality of the area.  And fortunately, there may be one fewer soon.

According to the Fulton River District e-mail bulletin, the parking lot at 108 North Jefferson could soon make way for a multi-use building.


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That's the lot a block behind the Citigroup Center, northwest of the ABN AMRO Technology Center.


As more and more people move into the area, we can hope that fewer and fewer surface parking lots will survive and the area can become a thriving home to thousand of new Chicagoans.

Metra Market Moving Forward

It's been decades since this was first proposed, but finally some dirt is turning with the Metra Market project.

This will take that bricked-up arcade beneath the Metra rail tracks north of the Ogilvie Transportation Center and turn it into a shopping and restaurant plaza.  Similar projects have been successful from Paris to Evanston, and with the recent spike in residential density in the West Loop it looks like this might actually happen this time.

The lead tenant is supposed to be a "French Market" (not sure if that's a brand or a description) which will be made up of a couple dozen specialty food vendors (cheeses, breads, etc...)  Boutique foods marts have increased in popularity in the last few years in the Loop are with the emergence of Fox & Obel, Pastoral, Lavazza, and others.   Hopefully they will do as well or better in the West Loop location.  However, what downtown really needs is a proper butcher shop.  Abe Froman would blanch at the current state of Chicago's retail meat scene.