Archinect - News

Chicago announces next phase of $6 billion Lincoln Yards development

2023-05-03T16:54:00-04:00

The next phase of Chicago’s sprawling $6 billion Lincoln Yards development is set to break ground by the end of the year, according to an update from developer Sterling Bay recently published by Urbanize Chicago.

As of now, the project’s 280,000-square-foot 1229 W. Concord life sciences building designed by Gensler is complete, along with the slate of site improvements and riverwalk extension that surround it.

Image courtesy Sterling Bay

Progress is now moving forward on The Steelyard, a two-building plot located to the north of 1229 W. Concord. It will eventually include Gensler’s 15-story 1665 N. Throop office structure and the 19-story mixed-use 1687 N. Throop from Hartshorne Plunkard. Site Design Group will complete the segment with a new park, which will itself be constructed in multiple phases.

1687 N. Throop from Hartshorne Plunkard. Image courtesy Hartshorne Plunkard

SOM and CBT Architects are responsible for the master plan of Lincoln Yards, which was finally approved in Marc...

DLR Group and Hines collaborate on Chicago's first mass timber office building

2022-09-29T15:41:00-04:00

DLR Group and real estate developer Hines have announced that they are planning to deliver their T3 (Timber, Transit, and Technology) office concept to Chicago.

It will be the city’s first mass timber office building and, as noted in its press release, one of the first timber buildings since the Great Chicago Fire. The site is located along the Chicago River in the city’s North Branch Framework corridor. According to DLR Group, it will support the redevelopment of Chicago’s Goose Island, a 160-acre artificial island in the city’s northwest side.

Image courtesy DLR Group/Hines.

The structure will span six stories and 270,000 square feet, including spaces for work/life balance through common lounges, bike storage, a fitness center, and ground-floor retail. The building will also include private balconies and a communal rooftop deck.

A T3 building and residential space in Austin, Texas. Image courtesy DLR Group.

“T3 Goose Island will help turn the neighborhood into a top destination f...

Work begins on first building of $6 billion Lincoln Yards development in Chicago

2021-11-02T09:00:00-04:00

As the first part of a projected $6 billion residential and commercial development, the construction start was a kickoff for Lincoln Yards itself, in the planning stages for more than five years. Investors and city planners see it as a revival of riverfront land that will connect prosperous areas of the Near North Side, Bucktown and Lincoln Park.

Located on Chicago's North Side, the multibillion-dollar mixed-use Lincoln Yards master plan was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, CBT Architects, and landscape architects James Corner Field Operations.

The first building of the scheme breaking ground at 1229 West Concord is the eight-story, 320,000-square-foot life sciences center ALLY designed by Gensler.

Here we go! Site prep for the first property at @sterlingbay's huge @LincolnYards development - ALLY, an 8 story life sciences office building. pic.twitter.com/QGfN5Jkm9Q

— Curtis Waltz (@aerialscapes) October 25, 2021

Extreme shifts in Lake Michigan water levels due to climate change are putting Chicago at increased risk

2021-10-27T17:33:00-04:00

The Great Lakes are often called the nation’s third coast, and the past five years in the region have been the wettest on record. While the lakes don’t exactly correlate to rising sea levels, Chicago now sits in just as precarious a position as oceanfront cities. Heavier rainfall and more frequent droughts are now causing extreme swings in the water levels of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, wreaking havoc on the city and prompting urgent action to find a fix.

Climate change is having an increasingly marked effect on Chicago, which sits right along Lake Michigan and is dissected by the Chicago River. CNBC highlights the growing risks the city faces as one that is so vulnerable to its surrounding water bodies. In the winter of 2020, Lake Michigan reached a record high in water level due to intense rains that caused the Chicago River to overflow into downtown. The rainfall was so severe that the city’s system for reversing flooding didn’t work because the water level of the lake was higher than that of the river. Experts say this wasn’t an isolated event.

On the other end of the spectrum, seven years before the storm, the water in Lake Michigan hit a record low due to a prolonged drought. This threatened Chicago’s water supply as well as shipping.

To mitigate the impacts of heightened water levels, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, following the 2020 flooding, installed concrete barriers along parts of Chicago’s shoreline. Additionally, a...

Chicago City Council approves $6 billion Lincoln Yards development

2019-03-18T13:40:00-04:00

With a 33-15 vote, the Chicago City Council [...] approved the Lincoln Yards planned development, clearing the way for Sterling Bay to move ahead with its $6 billion plan. The developer faces a final hurdle next month when the City Council considers the creation of the Cortland/Chicago River tax-increment financing district, which would be used to subsidize infrastructure projects that would make Lincoln Yards more accessible.

Lincoln Yards previously in the Archinect news.

Image: Lincoln Yards/Sterling Bay

Chicago's Lincoln Yards megadevelopment receives Plan Commission blessing

2019-01-28T15:27:00-05:00

Lincoln Yards, one of the most ambitious real estate projects ever proposed for the city’s North Side, was approved Thursday by the Chicago Plan Commission, an important step toward reshaping the city’s skyline and a large swath of land along the Chicago River. Sterling Bay’s $6 billion plan for about 55 acres of riverfront land was approved during the commission’s monthly meeting.

The $6 billion master plan for Chicago's North Side, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, CBT Architects, and James Corner Field Operations, was unveiled to the public last summer.

Image: Lincoln Yards/Sterling Bay

View the entire master plan in detail here (PDF, 7 MB).

$5B Lincoln Yards megadevelopment unveiled for Chicago’s North Side

2018-07-20T16:10:00-04:00

Skyscrapers as tall as 70 stories are part of a developer’s ambitious plan to bring 23,000 jobs and 5,000 homes to the Chicago River on the city’s North Side. Those are among new details that Chicago developer Sterling Bay unveiled Wednesday night during the long-anticipated first public meeting for its planned Lincoln Yards project, a more-than-$5 billion development planned for at least 70 acres along the river between Lincoln Park and Bucktown [...].

The master plan was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and CBT Architects with James Corner Field Operations as the landscape design contributor.

Image: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

62-acre site along Chicago River to be developed with potential for Amazon's HQ2

2018-05-14T15:13:00-04:00

A hardscrabble half-mile stretch along the Chicago River's South Branch would become a vibrant neighborhood of cutting-edge architecture, parks and a riverwalk in the plans a developer unveiled Thursday for the last big piece of empty land near downtown. Developer Related Midwest plans a transformation of the vacant, relatively isolated 62-acre site into a vibrant neighborhood of homes, restaurants, cultural institutions and businesses...

The currently undeveloped site along Chicago's river has been named "The 78", declaring its scale large enough to add to the city's official number of 77 neighborhoods. The site is also rumored to be a contender for Amazon's HQ2 if the city is chosen, which would require reworking current plans.

Current 62-acre riverfront site in Chicago. Image: Mark Segal/Related Midwest.

Plans for the massive development include 13 million square feet of building space for residential, office, educational and other uses. 12 acres would be dedicated to parkland or public riverwalk with a performance venue. Related Midwest stated that affordable housing was an important part of its housing development.

Rendering of the education hub and riverwalk. Image: Related Midwest.

The new site would also extend three existing city streets through the property to create through routes for bikes. A metro stop would be added to the Red Line, as well as potentially adding a Water Taxi stop.

...

A look at some cities revitalizing their blighted rivers

2016-08-24T13:52:00-04:00

Los Angeles wants to rethink its river. [...] And LA isn’t the only metropolis looking to reclaim its once-mocked waterway. Cities around the world are realizing that water can be a cultural and recreational asset, not something to hide or pillage, and it seems no waterway will be wasted for long.

Aerial cable cars proposed for Chicago

2016-05-05T21:03:00-04:00

London Eye designers Marks Barfield Architects and Davis Brody Bond have created a new aerial cable car for Chicago. The plans, which are being sponsored by Lou Raizin and Laurence Geller CBE, have yet to gain approval from any official city agency, but in the meantime here are a few renderings of the gleaming cars gliding to and fro across the cityscape:

By cruising over the Navy Pier, the Chicago Lakefront, the Riverwalk running alongside the Chicago River, and downtown Chicago, the cable cars would "showcase an aerial vista of Chicago and its architectural heritage to the eyes of the world." The full video can be seen at the 26:42 mark of this much longer tourism presentation spiel:

Studio Gang Architects selected to design new U.S. Embassy in Brazil

2016-03-09T12:55:00-05:00

Out of a shortlist of six firms, The Department of State's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations has chosen Studio Gang Architects, run by MacArthur fellow and winner of 2016's Architect of the Year from the Women in Architecture Awards, Jeanne Gang, to design a multi-building campus for the new U.S. Embassy based in Brasilia, Brazil. Studio Gang Architects, which has tackled such easy breezy projects in the past as a proposal to reverse the flow of the Chicago River, was chosen in part for its "more than 20 years of collaborative experience executing projects with complex constraints at challenging sites," according to a press release. The new embassy, which will rebuild the existing compound on its 12 acre site, will feature a Marine Security Guard Residence, a Chancery, and various support facilities.

For more on what the Gang has been up to:

Prairie futurism: designs revealed for the new Chicago Apple store

2015-11-18T14:16:00-05:00

The long-rumored Apple store at the gateway to the North Michigan Avenue shopping district won't be a 2.0 version of the famous glass cube that forms an iconic entry into the retailer's Fifth Avenue flagship in Manhattan. It will be more like a high-tech version of Frank Lloyd Wright's quintessentially Midwestern Prairie Style homes, with river views to boot.

The Chicago Tribune obtained a draft report from Chicago's Department of Planning and Development that details plans for a new Apple store alongside the river and adjacent to the Michigan Avenue bridge. Moving away from the iconic minimalism of its flagship Manhattan store, the Foster + Partners-designed building incorporates Frank Lloyd Wrightian influences, in a nod to its particular regional importance.

Specifically, the 20,000 sq. ft. retail space will stand about 14 ft high – about half the height of the Fifth Avenue store – capped by a large, flat, carbon-fiber-reinforced roof with rounded corners. A significant overhang recalls the horizontal lines of the Prairie school, and is intended to provide relief during the sweltering Mid-Western summers. The walls will still be glazed, in typical Apple fashion, enabling sweeping river views.

Similar to the Manhattan Apple store, the most-visible architectural element is in fact an entry pavilion leading down to a subterranean – or, tec...

Old Guy Fight! Tribune’s Blair Kamin vs. Donald Trump

2014-11-20T17:14:00-05:00

Watching two grown men in a social media hissy fit over a building sign is actually a lot more amusing than one might think. In this corner, Donald Trump, rich guy, who, in the view of one esteemed newspaper critic, has defiled our fine city by slapping his name on the side of his silvery, shiny building. In the other corner, Blair Kamin, decorated architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune and defender of building aesthetics.

Luftwerk's FLOW/Im Fluss to illuminate Chicago's Couch Place alley with screens made of water

2014-09-11T17:06:00-04:00

Crafty space manipulator Luftwerk will showcase FLOW/Im Fluss, a nightly light and water installation at Chicago's Couch Place alley on September 17-20 from 5 p.m. to midnight. Luftwerk, the Chicago-based collaborative established by Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, is best known for their signature medium of site-specific light and projected video installations.

Presented by the Chicago Loop Alliance, the Goethe-Institute Chicago, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, Luftwerk's FLOW/Im Fluss celebrates the 20th Anniversary of Sister Cities Chicago and Hamburg. As a nod to each city's river locations, the installation visualizes the characteristics of the Chicago River and Hamburg's River Elbe through video compositions that will be projected on "screens" made of water.

Having lived in both cities, Luftwerk is based on the encompassing, connective nature of water in FLOW as people gather to get a closer look at the flow of data readings collected from both rivers. Adding sound ...