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Renewable

Why don't you just ask Demetri @RTKL now....he designed it.

Jul 29, 08 8:16 am  · 
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Synergy

The structural was done by a former co worker while he was with Samartano & Company.

Jul 29, 08 8:39 am  · 
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Renewable

I'm going to guess and say it's a purely compositional way to break the facade into smaller parts, much like (exactly like) 340 East Randolph from a few years earlier. The rhythm works well on both buildings.

Jul 29, 08 8:51 am  · 
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Renewable

600 is every fourth floor, 340 is every sixth floor.

Jul 29, 08 8:53 am  · 
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evilplatypus

I never worked on it while at PH - I only seen it going up last couple years

Jul 29, 08 3:27 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

I was Townhome man, back by the shitters

Jul 29, 08 3:28 pm  · 
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Synergy

Yeah we do a fair number of projects with Papa George, everybody is really critical of them, but hey.... with this crowd, that seems to be the norm.

Jul 29, 08 3:37 pm  · 
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blah

Synergy, I think the real estate crowd is the one you should talk to. ;-)

Jul 29, 08 5:11 pm  · 
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Synergy

O I get it, you think I should only talk to the people who buy and sell homes because I don't share you're belief that only 5 buildings built in Chicago in the last 10 years are "interesting", nor do I consider "interesting" to be an especially relevant criterion when discussing buildings. Good one Make, you really got me.

Keep asking people about where they went to school too, that is another nice touch.



Jul 29, 08 7:27 pm  · 
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blah

Synergy,

First, you know very little about architecture. Second, you don't know the difference between product and architecture. Open your mind and you'll learn something. Making distinctions and having some criteria about buildings is what criticism is all about. Hannah Arendt talked about "thought objects." What sort of thoughts, efforts and intentions went into making these buildings?

That's all. You're an engineer and I defer to you on that but don't mistake real estate speculation for architecture. That's one of the funnier things that Herbert Muschamp used to say about his predecessor at the Ny Times. He called Paul Goldberger's column, the "real estate page." But open your mind and you'll find a new world.

Jul 30, 08 12:52 am  · 
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Synergy

Power up ya'll.

link

Jul 30, 08 8:13 am  · 
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Renewable
"BUILD, DON'T TALK"

Jul 30, 08 8:33 am  · 
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lletdownl

no real new information in this article about the Spire, but at least it seems that 30% figure on the sales is being used more regularly... giving it some validity in my mind.

Aug 8, 08 2:15 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Lletdown - every single building ever built by a developer has achieved 30% sales. Its the old minimum standard of sales option contracts. Typicaly 5% or so down. Many people just walk from them if it seems like a loser. I havent seen any activity on that site in a month.

Aug 8, 08 6:10 pm  · 
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TedTedTed

i am guessing that if you keep an eye on this flickr account...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarwind-chicago/

you will be able to see any kind of change in the spire. they seem to check on the status of it once a month or so.

Aug 8, 08 7:10 pm  · 
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lletdownl

maybe some of you already saw this, but here is the CAC's Burnham Prize brief for this year...

Union Station 2020

pretty interesting project this year... pretty impressive list of judges as well... and 80$ to enter... maybe ill actually do something for this... good resume builder it would seem.

Aug 12, 08 11:14 am  · 
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Synergy

Do you want Chicago to win the Olympics bid for the 2016 games? why/why not?

Aug 15, 08 10:49 pm  · 
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Synergy

Anybody familiar with this building at Lasalle and Division? Can I assume the consensus on this fake facade via a painted image is a terrible practice, or am I missing something?

Aug 17, 08 7:34 pm  · 
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Ea™e

I personally dont see it as a Practice, but rather a very beautiful Mural on a windowless party wall. There was once a building there, demolished. The mural is an amalgam of lost architecture, meant to communicate with /memorialize Louis Sullivan and the lost Stock Exchange Buidling at the south end of the same street, LaSalle.
Eventually this murla may be the only remaining evidence of Sullivan's work....
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04EEDE1138F93BA25752C1A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Aug 17, 08 7:59 pm  · 
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Synergy

Does that include the East Facade which also has painted on Chicago style window boxes mixed in with the real windows? Do you know if the painting on the East facade is original or was it added at the same time as the mural?

Aug 17, 08 8:03 pm  · 
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Ea™e

...besides, the LaSalle elevation is actually a decent terra-cotta composition. That three sides were built featurless is pretty typical in chicago.
They weren't really considering the fact that this neighborhood would eventually become a Ghetto surrounded with housing projects (urban renewal) with all of its neighbors on either side demolished or never built to the grandeur that LaSalle street was expected.

Aug 17, 08 8:04 pm  · 
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Ea™e

the east facade is the back of the building. The north and south sides are party walls which had other high rises built against=no windows.
There are plenty of 60's high rises on Clark / LaSalle / Wells which have featurless north and south walls in preparation for neighboring high-rises. The only drawback of the mural is, had it not become a landmark itself, the condo owners would have had to pay for it's recent repainting...it was rather expensive. Another building like it was on congres, near uic - it was beautiful - I think Tigerman hired Richard Haas to do it to - it was recently painted-over by a devolper / UIC?

Aug 17, 08 8:08 pm  · 
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Ea™e

Richard Haas Murals:
http://www.richardhaas.com/zmuralfr.html

Aug 17, 08 8:11 pm  · 
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Ea™e

East (Rear) Facade before Mural:

Aug 17, 08 8:12 pm  · 
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Synergy

Thanks for the article, So it seems this was done as an economic way to salvage some aesthetic from otherwise pretty terrible buildings?

I'm familiar with another building like this somewhere on Lake shore drive, near McCormick Place I believe, but can't really recall the exact location.

Aug 17, 08 8:12 pm  · 
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mantaray

I love trompe-l'oeil murals. If you can't have windows on a facade, why not paint it? I find blank walls boring. More walls should be painted in my opinion, however anyone likes them to be painted.

I was happy to see murals alllll over Seattle recently on my first trip out there. Great commitment to community art and design!

Aug 17, 08 8:13 pm  · 
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Ea™e
Aug 17, 08 8:13 pm  · 
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Ea™e

This is the one which was painted-over near UIC:

Aug 17, 08 8:15 pm  · 
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Synergy

whoa, his work is much more extensive then I thought, great link!

Aug 17, 08 8:16 pm  · 
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Ea™e
Aug 17, 08 8:16 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

^I miss that mural - I recall in the late 90's they were going to put an indoor paintball range in that building - then around 2001-2002 they just sold the sides as ad space - shame. Theres also a little guy painted into a window looking at 290

Aug 17, 08 9:43 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Im surprised this proposal has slipped under the radar - its approved by the planning commission and expected to break ground shortly - its about as high profile a spot in the city you could build - its expected to connect to the future clinton st. subway and redefine the whole tangle of rail tracks and transition to Kinzie station - the puke development destroying the near west side - a great oppurtunity lost - again.

This would be huge for the development of the west loop to ultimately connect to river north.

Is it me or is the design like something out of houston ca. 1993? Well concidering its Heinz Devl Co. that makes sense actualy



Aug 17, 08 9:58 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

^ The William Blair Company will be the anchor tenant - i hear it may be named Blair tower or river point - of which theres already one of those - the exact address is 444 W Lake St.

Aug 17, 08 10:00 pm  · 
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Synergy

It's hard for me to get a sense of the form from this rendering, it looks like something set in a desert.

Aug 17, 08 10:05 pm  · 
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mantaray

Wait a minute, isn't there already that super-slim condo mid-rise there? I'm lost. Also, what's the clinton street subway proposal? curious.

Aug 17, 08 10:06 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Pickard Chilton Architects Inc. of New Haven, CT

Aug 17, 08 10:14 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Clinton St subway has been on the boards for years - its supposed to connect the sears tower, metra stations area to river north then express up to the brown line or something - west loop bypass

Aug 17, 08 10:16 pm  · 
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mantaray

Hmm that's interesting. That actually would be pretty helpful. Especially since the ex-Cabrini Green area is going to be an explosion of high-density yuppie living soon and the sedgwick stop ain't gonna cut it.

Aug 17, 08 10:35 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

from the architect's web site - look at image 2 - no more shark bare or cassidy tire factory

link

Aug 18, 08 12:51 am  · 
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Synergy

These are renderings, but the actual building, which appears to be nearing completion, looks very similar:



Aug 27, 08 8:52 am  · 
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Synergy

Sorry, I ment to say that is the Erikson Institute at Lasalle and Illinois.

Aug 27, 08 8:52 am  · 
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evilplatypus

one of the reasons I like going up by Loyola besides cheap beer at hamiltons is to see this brut of a tower. Its captivating in all it's shagadelic earth toned glory


Sep 4, 08 4:49 pm  · 
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Synergy

I visited the Marquette building earlier this week, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the lobby.



Sep 4, 08 10:28 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

We recently moved from by there - I miss walking past it every day. The corner piers are just perfectly proportioned as towers in their own right with the strong horizontal banding

Sep 4, 08 10:35 pm  · 
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lletdownl

thought i would post a few images of 2 almost finished projects at Univ. of Chicago by Murphy/Jahn

They are power generation plants... definitely utilitarian buildings, but i like them very much.












Sep 8, 08 3:53 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

thats cool - in the 3rd one down - is that Lucas oil stadium in the background?

Sep 8, 08 4:19 pm  · 
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lletdownl

hahahaha alllllmost

Sep 8, 08 4:32 pm  · 
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vado retro

lucas stadium looks like a blimp factory circa 1927, anywaze the immediate problem with that stadium is that the twelth man ie the deafening crowd that was so important at the rca dome was nowhere to be found in the opening night asskicking they received at the hands of da bears...

Sep 8, 08 9:46 pm  · 
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evilplatypus


what would you do if this was going up accross the street from your office?


Sep 9, 08 11:38 am  · 
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Synergy

Obviously we would all hijack bulldozers and plow through the site, razing to the ground this awful attempt to decieve the american public.

Sep 9, 08 12:39 pm  · 
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