Follow-up: Roosevelt University's New Skyscraper

Over the last three weeks or so, several readers have asked if the new Roosevelt University skyscraper (421 South Wabash Street) we wrote about is going to be LEED certified.

Today I heard back from a PR person at Roosevelt, and yes the building is going for LEED certification.  I don't know what level yet; she's supposed to get back to me with specifics.

You can read more about the new building here: More Details About the New Roosevelt University Skyscraper.

More Details About the New Roosevelt University Skyscraper

A meeting was held today to provide the public with more information about the new skyscraper that Roosevelt University is building in the Loop (421 South Wabash Street).  You can read more about the new Roosevelt University "vertical campus" building here.

Nothing earth-shattering came out of the information session, but there was one thing that came up that we failed to notice before -- the building is only shiny happy glass on three sides.

The north side of the building is mostly a concrete-clad service core.  It's similar to the design of 30 West Monroe, the building that architects continue to refer to as the Inland Steel building.

In the main publicity rendering distributed about Roosevelt University's still unnamed building, the service core is not visible.  But it is visible in a couple of the supplemental computer drawings, especially this one:

The facade is dark granite to match the base of the Auditorium Building (430 South Michigan Avenue) next door.  It runs the entire height of the north side of the building for two reasons.

1. To consolidate mechanical services in one place so that the rest of the floorspace can be made a more open space.
2. The university doesn't own the plot of land next door, so it is assumed that eventually a building will go up there that will be tall enough to block the view to the north anyway.

Naturally, the new skyscraper, described as a "vertical campus," is going for LEED certification.  It replaces the old Herman Crown Center, which opened in 1971 with 364 beds.  New city safety codes made the Crown building obsolete, so it is being torn down right now.  The new building will be able to house 40% more students. 

Other information that came out today:

• Cost: $118 million
• Scheduled opening: January, 2012
• Site size: 17,000 square feet
• Will be the second-tallest university building in the United States.
• Will be the sixth-tallest university building in the world.
• Inspired by Chicago's Inland Steel Building.
• Inspired by Constantin Brâncuşi's Endless Column
• Designed to look good from the El
• Facade will be made of various shades of tinted glass

Northern Illinois Food Bank Needs a New Building

With the economy squeezing many families tighter and tighter, more and more people are turning to food banks for help.

The demand has gotten so great that the Northern Illinois Food Bank is raising money to build an entire new building to help meet the needs of 287,000 poor people in the 13 counties of northern Illinois.

T-60 Productions, run by Emmy award-winning journalist Tony Gnau (my former colleague),  has put together a promotional video about the new building.



If you're in the market for a corporate video, check out his web site, or give him a call at 312/218-6060.

Status Update: Almost Done at 930 North Rush

We've been following the lot at the corner of Rush and Walton streets for a while  here, here, here and here) as it was transformed from a condemned Gino's East pizza restaurant into what is almost but not quite yet the district's latest retail boutique.

Today 930 North Rush Street looks pretty good, and went up in what felt like record time once construction finally began. The wood, glass, and steel exterior which faces the main shopping drag works well with the Urban Outfitters across the street, and even makes the Diesel store's facade look slightly less like a Tim Burton film.

Our big worry as this corner was being filled out was the Walton Street side, which is mostly just a brick wall.  But planters have been installed with climbing frames for vines and a wide swatch of exterior wood panelling make it seem less industrial and more warm.  It looks good right now, but it also remains to be seen what a couple of good Chicago winters will do to it.

Status Update: 930 North Rush

it's hard to tell from this CrappyCameraPhone™ picture, but there's a welder working on the steel beams that form the third floor of the new 930 North Rush Street.  The former Gino's East location, shut down by the city's health department years ago, is finally being replaced by something.

It's supposed to be upscale retail, of the sort that has fled the mallification of Michigan Avenue for the side streets.  Last we read (in Crain's) was that Varvatos, the men's clothier, is going in that location.

We also hear that the remaining stores on that stretch of Walton Place may not be long for this world.

There's a shoe repair shop and a subterranean jazz club frequently mentioned on WDCB.  Someone from the club is telling people that in 2011 the brownstones between 930 and the brand new Walgreen's may be demolished.  To make way for what, we haven't heard.

And apropos of nothing -- Since we mentioned WDCB/Glen Ellyn, there's good news for Chicago jazz fans.  90.9 is no longer the only jazz station in town.  Clear Channel has moved the smooth jazz music formerly heard on Mega95.5 to WNUA-HD2/Chicago.  It's not much, but we'll take whatever we can get.

Stony Silence in Streeterville

It was with minor hoopla last year that a surface parking lot and a beloved neighborhood hot dog stand were razed to make way for a residential condominium project at 560 North Fairbanks.  Since then, some dirt was trucked away, some bright yellow machinery moved some dirt around, and then it was covered with stones and apparently forgotten.

The stones remained silent for so long that the chain link fence was taken down and a nicer fence erected.

Then, the day after we took this picture, bulldozers showed up and started moving dirt again.  What does this mean?  We're not sure.  If we were optimists we'd say it means there's hope once again for the 58-story, 787-foot-tall building.  But we're not.

Kiosks Vanish in the Gold Coast

Editor's note:  This article was scheduled to run on Monday, but since Crain's moved its version tonight, I pushed this up as well.----------------
One of the few 24-hour stores in downtown Chicago is gone.  Not just closed -- but actually GONE.

This past Wednesday (July 15th), city crews dismantled the newspaper kiosk on the corner of Michigan and Chicago Avenues next to the Walgreen's, dug up the foundation and poured a blanket of fresh new concrete.  The only evidence that there ever was a newsstand at this location is a paper sign taped to a nearby pole promising that the newsstand will return by July 20th.

The same thing (pictured above) happened a day earlier to the newsstand at the corner of State and Division Streets, in front of the Washington Mutual.

Neither newsstand was very pretty, but they were at least reliable.  The main one on Chicago Avenue was open 365 days a year, and I've personally purchase copies of British Vogue there at 3am.  For a city the size of Chicago, 24-hour shopping and dining opportunities are remarkably rare.

Similar newsstands on Randolph Street and other places in The Loop have been replaced by new French street furniture by JCDecaux in recent years.  The new newsstands are expected to be the same style, as will the news kiosk on Chicago and State when it returns after the construction of Loyola University's latest building.

Sticking Bricks Together at the Old Gino's East

After nearly a year as one of Chicago's most prominent vacant lot, workers are plowing ahead with earnest on 930 North Rush.

The retail development on the corner of Rush and Walton was formerly the location of Gino's East Pizza, which was torn down several years ago.  After that it was used as a storage lot for construction equipment from the Elysian Chicago skyscraper going up across the street.

Now that the Elysian is almost done, construction is finally starting.  The result is expected to be a row of faux brownstones fitted out for retail.

So, who's coming?  It's hard to say at this point.  Every time we hear a name we hear another name, too.

Latest word from Crain's Chicago Business is that it's going to be Varvatos, the men's clothier.

The Loop Getting a New Pocket Park

An area of Chicago's Loop that has been rapidly changing from 19th century storefronts to 21st century skyscrapers is going to have a touch of green.

An agreement has been reached with the developers of 155 North Wacker Drive to also develop a park adjacent to the nearly completed skyscraper.

In the way of the park are a grouping of serviceable, if unremarkable, buildings:

• 300 West Randolph - Built in 1875, and formerly known as the Sherman House of the Showmen's League of America, which was founded in Chicago and had Buffalo Bill Cody as its first president.
• 304 West Randolph - Built in 1938.  It replaced a speakeasy which federal agents busted in 1933 for buying illegal whiskey from footmen for Hymie Levine, who was in charge of selling bootleg beer in The Loop for Al Capone.
• 308 West Randolph - Built in 1929.
• 310 West Randolph - Built in 1927 for N.K. Aranoff and Associates at a cost of $250,000.  It was built as a factory disguised as an office building and replaced a house on the site.  The building was one of many in Chicago designed to be vertically extended if necessary.  Its design can support several extra stories.  The building was designed by Albert Anis of the architecture firm Sanders & Anis.

These days, office workers, and the few residents of the immediate area, know this block for a couple of quick-serve restaurants and lots of itinerant office space.

The park will have a little under 10,000 square feet of grass, 23 trees, and places to sit and park your bicycle.

The new park will follow the same public-private model as The Park at Lakeshore East.  It will be built  by the Buck Company, but turned over to the City of Chicago's Park Department when it's done.  Yet Buck will still be responsible for maintenance.

Laying Out the Inside on the Outside

Google's aerial photographs of different nooks and crannies of the world have occasionally turned up some peculiar things. One of them is in Chicago.

In the Illinois Medical District, on the northwest corner of Ashland and Harrison -- the site where Rush University is putting up a new hospital is a life-sized blueprint showing offices, hallways, columns, and stairwells.

We don't know if this was for a training exercise, or for actually laying out the real building.  But it's still a local curiosity revealed by the all-seeing eye of the Google bird.

Status Update: The Rush Starfish

A couple of weeks ago we started seeing blinking lights in the distance and at dusk the outline of unfamiliar cranes, so it was time for a little Pink Line field trip.

What we found is the construction site of a new hospital at Rush.  Everything we've been able to find on the interweb, in newspapers, and even on the sign outside the construction site calls this simply "New Hospital."  That will change eventually, but until it does, we're referring to it as "The Rush Starfish" because it's shaped something like a starfish with one of its appendages crammed into the medical center' atrium.

The design is actually pretty good looking, not that you can tell from these craptastic camera phone shots.  But it's all horizontal stripes and rounded corners and as long as it's kept clean, it could be nice.  But considering how dense and cramped the campus is getting these days it would be nice to see a little more thought put into public green spaces and a pedestrian's perspective on the buildings.  I'm sure a few patients wouldn't mind spending some of their recovery time in a park instead of a Buck Rogers dormitory.

Status Update: The Ritz-Carlton Residences

Things certainly are loud in Streeterville these days.  Just blocks away from where jackhammers have been tearing apart the old Lakeside Veterans Administration Hospital , another demolition crew has been busy turning the Farwell Building, the Terra Museum of American Art , a popcorn joint, and an old Starbucks into dust.

Taking its place is the Ritz-Carlton Residences (664 North Michigan Avenue, 60611).  40 stories and nearly 500 feet of swish for several dozen lucky homeowners.

But cry not for Philip Maher.  His Farwell creation will come back to life.  Sort of.

Remember that French lady who got her face torn off by a dog so surgeons put someone else's face on her?  Yeah.  They're doing that here.  The Farwell facade is in storage and will be stitched back together to mask the Ritz's parking garage.

It's been done before -- just down the street, in fact.  The old McGraw Hill building's facade was removed and stored while the building was demolished to make way for what is now the Conrad Hotel.  Then the Michigan Avenue side restore to look just like old.  Most people don't even know it happened.

And because the internet's not clogged up enough with video, here's one for the Ritz-Carlton Residences .  Strangely, there aren't any honking taxis on the street, or bucket boys banging and begging on the sidewalk.

Status Update: Children's Memorial Hospital

Things are moving along quickly at the new Children's Memorial Hospital on Chicago Avenue.  Since the tower crane went up a few weeks ago.  The elevator core is now up to about the fifth floor and the rest of the building can't be too far behind.

Homeowners Fall Off A Cliff

Last week while sitting in an airport lounge on the other side of the world, CNN Asia ran a Breaking News banner reading, "Economy 'Falls Off A Cliff.'"  Some homeowners in the Gold Coast might feel the same way.

A couple of Division Street tear-down two-flats went up at the wrong time -- just when the economy went all pear-shaped.  They were completed in the Fall of 2008, but nobody has moved in yet.  And by "completed" we mean not quite completed.  As you can see in the above photo, the necessary finishing touches haven't been put on the upstairs portion of the building, so that it would take an act of levitation to make this home sweet home.

If you're into internet cliches, you could call it a "Fail" photo.  Or if you're a thinking person it's a sad reminder of the state of the real estate market in Chicago.

Status Update: The still unnamed new Loyola building

Only a couple of weeks after we posted our article about Loyola University planning to tear down a grungy strip of retail stores on Chicago Avenue it actually happened.

Though Crain's Chicago Business and others predicted that demolition wouldn't happen until spring or even summer, if you blinked, you missed it.    Dunkin' Donuts, Tony's and the random vacant space are all gone and the newsstand has been closed up tight.  Look for that to disappear soon.  It will be stored in a city warehouse until the project is finished.

Soon to come -- a Loyola University building with offices, classrooms, and street-level retail.  Since the economy has made us new fans of McDonald's dollar menu, we'll keep a close eye on this for you.

Status Update: The Ritz-Carlton Residences

Things are chugging along at the heart of North Michigan Avenue where the Ritz-Carlton Residences are going up.  The building in this photo is actually not part of the project.  It is being protected while the ritzy digs go up all around it.

Garrett's Popcorn, Starbucks, and the Terra Museum of American Art were all torn down to make way for the new high rise which will have just 33 homes in it.  Hanig's Footwear had to move to the John Hancock Center where it appears to be doing very well.

With those buildings gone, we can see a glimpse into the city's architectural history.  The demolition has allowed sunlight to once again penetrate the eastern wall of the building which abuts this property to the west (Sanitary District or Railroad Pension building or something).  Those office workers better not put any plants on the window sills, though because the new building going in is going to be huge.

At 500 feet tall, the Ritz-Carlton Residences is going to reach even higher than its neighbor, City Place which will suddenly be plunged into shadow for much of the day.

Worse off is the Express store on the ground floor.  It's already struggling to lure in foot traffic by putting up giant "Open During Construction" signs.  What happens when Chicago Place across the street goes under construction to convert it into an office building?  Will anyone even see the Express behind all the Jersey barriers?

Children's Hospital Gets Its Crane On

If you follow our Twitter tweet feed , then you got the alert on February 5th when the crane went up at the new Children's Memorial Hospital on Chicago Avenue.  Now that it's in place, construction is really starting to move along.

Up to this point, virtually all of the construction work had been going on underground.  Now that the crane is in place, things are starting to spring up.

As of this writing, just a couple of days after the photo above was taken, the elevator shaft has already risen a couple of stories above the construction fence.  It shouldn't be too much longer before the exterior starts to take shape.

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.

New Barney's New York New Update

We have a few more details about the April 2nd opening of the new Barney's New York store on Rush Street.

• The first floor will be all accessories, meaning scarfs, wallets, handbags, and things like that.  
• The cosmetics area which is normally on the first floor of department stores in the Midwest is going into the basement, like in Bergdorf Goodman and Barney's in New York.  "Basement" probably isn't the best word to describe it.  It's actually an inviting, light, airy space that just happens to be subterranean.  
• Chelsea Passage is getting smaller and will share the top floor with Fred's, the new restaurant (Get it?  Fred's at Barney's?). 
  

Quickie: Chicago Spire update

The Irish newspaper The Independent has published an article updating us on what's going on with the Chicago Spire.  In a word -- nothing.  The paper lifted a couple of quotes from a New York Times article and tried to present it as something new, but it told us nothing we didn't already know -- 1, that the Spire needs money to be built; and 2, that the banks aren't willing to part with any money right now.