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North Shore Chicago

poiuy

Hi -

Can anyone recommend good firms to work at on the North Shore of Chicago?

-poiuy

 
Aug 5, 07 5:35 pm
vado retro

no, but there's a theatre in wilmette that has dollar movies on monday. you got to share with the people that they bus in from the nursing home though.

Aug 5, 07 6:12 pm  · 
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rabbits

the good firms are all in the city proper

Aug 5, 07 6:50 pm  · 
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dsc_arch

Pooh on you Rabbits…

Poiuy,

It depends on how far north and what you are looking to do and how far north.

There are super custom homes in Lake Forest. Orren Pickell Builders has their own resident architecture firm of 20. Ruggles in Lake Bluff does monster houses to incredible detail.

There is our own bread and butter firm, Design Studio C, Ltd, in Waukegan. We are a jack of all trades doing design/build as well as restaurants, offices and housing.

There is a municipal firm in Gurnee (Dan Robison Architects) as well as a Development firm, Swanson + Donahue Architects,
in Lake Forest. Lastly, there is Design Construction Concepts, Ltd in Northbrook that is primarily does residential Design Build.

Aug 5, 07 7:20 pm  · 
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vado retro

i interviewed with swanson/donahue and they wanted me at the time but i couldn't manage the commute from where i was livin at the time. they seemed like good guys. dsc, did you ever fill that position?

Aug 5, 07 8:00 pm  · 
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dsc_arch

We hired last year and it was a bust. We had a great summer intern however, read my end of summer lament…

http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=62184_0_42_0_C

Aug 5, 07 8:06 pm  · 
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dsc_arch

Bump to add more firms...

Aug 6, 07 10:24 pm  · 
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poiuy

How about www.sasarch.com in Northbrook? Anyone heard of them?

Or any medium sized good firms in Evanston, Roger's Park...Northside? No Starchitects, SOM, Perkins, etc.

Aug 7, 07 2:50 pm  · 
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poiuy

Bump?

Aug 7, 07 2:52 pm  · 
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_MLD

Never heard of SAS pouiy, but based on their website do you really appreciate the work that they show on thier website? maybe i didn't look at it long enough but it gave a headache. good luck on your search though.

Aug 7, 07 3:00 pm  · 
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vado retro

two of my friends got ticketed for drinkin beer at the lake in rogers park last week.

Aug 7, 07 3:03 pm  · 
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vado retro

cohen and hacker are pretty damn good. in evanston.

Aug 7, 07 3:06 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Cohen was my professor for 3rd yr studio, good design sense yet pragmatic as well. Nice character too. Dont let the stylized residential work fool you, he could prob do anything anyone wanted him to do.

Aug 7, 07 3:23 pm  · 
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work for idle hands

I sent a resume to SAS once out of desperation. Even got a call back and set up an interview (also out of desperation). As it happens a couple of days later i got a job offer from another firm i liked a lot and took it, so I courteously called SAS up and thanked them and cancelled my interview.

About 6 months later i got a form rejection letter from them. "Thank you for interviewing, your not what we're looking for, etc. etc."

my evil twin strikes again i guess

Aug 7, 07 3:30 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

It must be hard to retain employees under 35, no kids etc. The suburbs of Chicago are great but it may as well be Orange county. Nothing going on except for old time money suburbs, and new gated faux look a like old money suburbs next to them. The flip side, if you can handle the monotony, is plenty of work "out there".

DSC I dont know how you get employees. I interviewed out of school at some suburban shops - leave them nameless - and I wanted to get out the min I walked into the doors of those places, it seemed like the absolute most horrible places to work, Owners who talk about how they worked on this or that in the 60's, bad pants and golf shirts, horrible Prarie style knock offs everywhere, I think Im going to be sick...

Aug 7, 07 4:36 pm  · 
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vado retro

i might also add that there is no shortage of shitty architecture firms in chicago proper.

Aug 7, 07 4:43 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

thats true Vado. I got the best experiance in the burbs with a builder - We did real deal old world construction, post and beam, solid wythe masonry walls, sometimes in factories on oldschool bow string trusses - that was cool. But jobs involving profesional architects tended to be boring. Not shitty per se, just boring.

Aug 7, 07 4:54 pm  · 
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lletdownl

just out of curiosity, neither evanston nor rogers park are far from downtown... both are accessible by train, either CTA or Metra... why are you limiting your search to firms on the north shore?

I work with people who take the cta in from rogers park, and evanston... its maybe an hour commute some days, but its a train ride, so you get to read, work, listen to music etc...

Aug 7, 07 5:11 pm  · 
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vado retro

if you wanna do residential, you may wanna pick up a copy of the chicago homebook, which has pictures of architects who pay to be in there. if you're in chitown they are easily found at barnes and nobles or borders.

Aug 7, 07 7:51 pm  · 
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dsc_arch

should be online too.

Aug 7, 07 8:50 pm  · 
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WtfWtfWtf™

NY firm doing work on North Shore: See Winnetka House on Bluff (Residential, In Progress) - It's Unbelievably cool:
Peter L. Gluck

I blew an opportunity to work on that project...

Aug 8, 07 11:11 am  · 
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WtfWtfWtf™

Also, See Optimaweb.com...I personally think they are doing the best stuff on NorthSide...Old Orchard project is an instant Modern Classic.

Aug 8, 07 11:21 am  · 
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vado retro

yeah optima has plenty of shtuff in evanston.

Aug 8, 07 11:27 am  · 
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poiuy

Ok....let's move further south to widen the range

- Evanston down to Gold Coast and Streeterville, Loop, Printer's Row....near mass transportation/Ogilve Transit Center.....Don't want extended multi-connect commutes coming home late at night....

Hotels, Restaurants, Residential, Retail and maybe some corporate - Don't want to design cubicle farms!

Aug 8, 07 5:44 pm  · 
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vado retro

where do you live dude?

Aug 8, 07 5:53 pm  · 
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poiuy

I live in South Gnarrvak on the plant yKor, and am looking to move in the next six months or so.

Please don't start in with how great South Gnarrvak is, I have to get out of here for relationship reasons, and this is the best way to deal with it at the time. Nasty and I keep crossing paths and that's not a good thing.

Just brings it all back.

I also am open to any interior design firm suggestions. Thanks!

Aug 8, 07 5:59 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Do you realize your covering about a 30 mile spread? Have you looked at a map of the are and employed the use of a graphic scale?

Aug 8, 07 6:47 pm  · 
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vado retro

i'm listening to via chicago right now!

Aug 9, 07 8:27 am  · 
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vado retro

actually there's a firm in andersonville that i freelanced for that is hiring. i may give them a call...

Aug 9, 07 8:28 am  · 
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