Roosevelt University to construct 32 story building. 2nd tallest in United States!

Roosevelt University to Build 32-Story Vertical Campus for Academics, Student Life and Housing

Roosevelt University will begin construction in February on a dramatic skyscraper that will be the second tallest university building in the nation.

The University’s new vertical campus will be sleek and contemporary, featuring a glass exterior, undulating shape, views of Lake Michigan and connections in four locations with the University’s landmark Auditorium Building.  A groundbreaking ceremony for the project is planned for April.

Designed with open spaces that will make the building feel like a series of neighborhoods, the structure will be a “green” building, drawing in natural light and cutting energy costs, and will be one of the few skyscrapers in Chicago that is LEED certified.

The 32-story multi-purpose building will be located at 425 S. Wabash Avenue in Chicago on the site of the University’s old Herman Crown Center, which is currently being demolished.

The structure will have classrooms, lecture halls, state-of-the-art science labs, conference space, a dining center, a student recreation center, residence suites for more than 600 students, offices and space for the Walter E. Heller College of Business Administration.

The new facility is needed for increasing numbers of full-time students who are taking more credit hours than ever before at the Chicago Campus. The University is projecting full-time equivalency enrollments will continue to rise significantly through 2017. The building will increase classroom capacity by 40 percent at the Chicago Campus and will pave the way for centralization of student services and new facilities for growing numbers of student-life organizations.

“This is the most important development in the University’s history since the Auditorium Building was acquired in 1946,” said Roosevelt University President Chuck Middleton. “We are building the quintessential 21st Century university structure and it’s going to give us a dramatic new image on Chicago’s skyline….”

Check out the full article by clicking HERE!  Photos courtesy of Roosevelt University’s website!

 

 

Another Chicago building gets a good cleaning. The Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue.

Wow, I’m naiive…and I guess stupid but why is it that I always think these buildings are supposed to be this dark and grimy color?  First it was the Old Colony building and now it’s the Fine Arts Building that is returning to its original splendor after a nice bath.  The Fine Arts Building, located at 410 S. Michigan Avenue across from Chicago’s Grant Park, has been going through the tedious process of cleaning the facade after decades of filth and grime soaked into the exterior stone.  Look at the pictures, especially the last one, and you’ll notice the change.  A big thanks goes to the ArchitectureChicago Plus website for the post and the photos!

Block 37 stores to open by Thanksgiving. Good news for Chicago’s State Street!

Block 37 signs 13 new tenants, plans to open by Thanksgiving

By Sandra M. Jones

Tribune staff reporter

3:41 p.m. CST, November 3, 2009

Joseph Freed and Associates LLC said it signed leases for 13 new tenants at Block 37, the embattled retail development that has been threatened with foreclosure.

The announcement of the new leases comes as developer Freed fights a move by lead lender Bank of America to put the retail and transit project at 108 N. State Street. into receivership less than a month before the mall’s first shops were set to open.

The new tenants — which include Sephora, Michelle Tan and Comic Vault — are a mix of chains and local shops aimed at satisfying the city’s redevelopment agreement to put unique retail in the famous city block.

Freed, which is contesting the foreclosure lawsuit, said it plans to open the mall by Thanksgiving and complete the project by the end of 2010, “assuming the bank cooperates on necessary funding.”

The banks filed a foreclosure suit last month, claiming that Freed essentially ran out of money to complete construction. .

Among the new tenants:

Sephora, the beauty chain owned by Paris-based LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, will open a 6,000 square foot store on the first floor of the four-story indoor mall with access onto State Street.

L’Occitane en Provence, a body care products chain, will occupy 750 square feet on the first floor.

Michelle Tan, a local women’s clothing designer, agreed to lease 650 square feet on the second level….

 

Check out the full Chicago Tribune article by clicking HERE!  This is great news for the retailers getting ready for the Christmas shopping season and there’s even more information on the new stores going into Block 37 in the article!

No injuries reported in a Chicago residential high rise fire!

Fire breaks out in building on Chicago River

November 3, 2009 3:45 PM

Smoke rises from the roof from a 48-story residential building at 233 E. Wacker Drive. (Andrew L. Wang / Chicago Tribune)

Firefighters responded this afternoon to a fire in a residential building near Columbus and Wacker Drives. A plume of black smoke could be seen coming from the roof of the building before the fire was brought under control.

No injuries were reported at the 48-story building. The fire broke out about 3 p.m. in a cooling tower on the building’s roof, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis. The blaze was confined to the roof, he said.

Crews had the fire under control by about 3:30 p.m., and it was put out by about 3:45 p.m., fire officials said.

– Staff report

Thanks to Chicago Tribune’s Breaking News for this article.  For the article on the Tribune website, click HERE!

GREEN ROOF ALERT! Lush gardens on top of Chicago’s City Hall!

This green roof on top of Chicago’s City Hall has got to be the baby of Mayor Daley’s green roofing binge…and I’m glad he made this his first major one because it turned out great.  Started in 2000, the City Hall rooftop garden was started as  part of the Chicago’s Urban Heat Island Initiative which tests the benefits of green roofs and how they affect air temperature and air quality.  The green roof has around 20,000 plants and 100 species which were selected because of their ability to survive on top of an 11 story building in the middle of Chicago.

According to the City of Chicago website:  “The City Hall rooftop garden improves air quality, helps conserve energy, reduces stormwater runoff and helps lessen the urban heat island effect.  The plants reflect heat, provide shade and help cool the surrounding air through evapotranspiration, which occurs when plants secrete or “transpire” water through pores in their leaves.  The water draws heat as it evaporates, cooling the air in the process.  Plants also filter the air, which improves air quality by using excess carbon dioxide to produce oxygen.”

The green roof also replaced the traditional black tar roof with green plants, plants that absorb much less heat from the sun than the tar roof would.  This keeps the building cooler in summer which means less energy for air conditioning.  The roof can also retain 75% of a 1 inch rainfall before stormwater runs off into the sewers.

Unfortunately, the City Hall green roof isn’t open for public tours but if you’re lucky enough to work in neighboring buildings, that’s probably your best bet of seeing the roof.  If you want to view the garden from the Department Of Environment’s offices, contact Larry Merritt at (312) 744-5716 for an appointment.

What do you all think of it?

Photo courtesy of World Business Chicago

The Old Chicago Post Office is going back on the auction block!

Oh jeez.  I had naïve hopes that the auctioning off of the Old Chicago Post Office would have been a good thing.  After all, the people bought it for $40MM!  Usually, if I spend more than $20 on something, I”m pretty serious about it…  But now, according to this Chicago Tribune article, the post office is going back on the auction block.

Old post office building back on the block

Post office hopes to strike a deal with runner-up bidders

By Melissa Harris, Tribune reporter

6:00 p.m. CDT, October 13, 2009

The U.S. Postal Service will turn to other bidders from its August auction of the city’s old post office in the hopes of finding a buyer for the behemoth building, a spokesman for the government agency said late Tuesday.

Mark Reynolds, the spokesman, said that British developer Bill Davies, who had won the auction with a bid of $40 million, is no longer a potential buyer. Asked whether the postal service would return Davies’ $4 million deposit, Reynolds said, “It does not look that way.”

Reynolds said the post office hopes to announce a buyer by the end of October.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Davies said, “I’m on the other line. No comment.”

The runner-up bidder at the August auction was Nathaniel Hsieh, a Chicago attorney, who said he wanted to use the purchase of the building to help his foreign investors obtain visas through a federal program.

Hsieh said Tuesday that rather than exercise the back-up contract he had on the property, the postal service is mailing a letter to all of the auction participants to solicit new bids.

“It’s an outrage,” he said. “We’re filing a complaint in morning. It’s unfair.”

To check out the full Chicago Tribune article, click HERE!

Block 37 filling up the retail space for its upcoming opening!

Block 37 close to deal with dinner-theater troupe

REAL ESTATE | Dinner-theater troupe close to signing lease, but space configurations remain

October 13, 2009

BY DAVID ROEDER droeder@suntimes.com

Block 37’s developers are close to leasing prime top-floor space along State Street to a dinner-theater troupe with elements of vaudeville and circus acts.

Teatro ZinZanni, based in Seattle, would take over around 40,000 square feet, sources close to the project said.  It would be on the fourth floor of the retail base being built on the block between the Daley Center and Macy’s.

The sources said an agreement could be signed by next week.  But ceiling heights and space configurations might be issues.  The troupe’s shows are under a vast tent said to be central to the performance.

Block 37, due to open this fall, is a project of Joseph Freed & Associates LLC.  Freed executives did not return calls and the firm’s spokeswoman, Jayne Thompson, would not discuss Teatro ZinZanni…

To read the full Sun Times article, CLICK HERE!

GREEN ROOF ALERT! Way up in the air at 111 S. Wacker Drive.

 If you work in the Loop or if you’re just walking along Wacker Drive, you probably wont even look twice at 111 S. Wacker Drive.  I will because I’m pretty much in love with the lobby.   But over 50 stories above the ground, and visible from the Willis Tower Skydeck, is one of the highest green roofs in the world.  111 S. Wacker, developed by The John Buck Company and was designed by Goettsch Partners, was completed in 2005 and is the first high rise office building in the world to achieve Gold-level certification.

  

GREEN ROOF ALERT in Chicago’s Theatre District! Joffrey Tower!

When walking on State Street, in downtown Chicago, I have seen the trees that peek above the roof line of Joffrey Tower, located at 151 N State Street.  At the base of the condo building, formally known as MoMo, is retail space and the home of the Joffrey Ballet.  Above the base is a major opening that flows straight through Joffrey Tower and as you can see from the picture below, an awesome green roof.

GREEN ROOF ALERT! The most famous Chicago green roof: Millennium Park!

A lot of people have no idea that Millennium Park is one of the world’s largest green roof.  Under the park is a major parking garage, a train station with dozens of retail spaces, and rail lines that service the South Side of Chicago.  Millennium Park started construction in October 1998 and officially opened July 16th, 2004 with 24.5 acres of new parkland for downtown Chicago.

Now, of course something this big in Chicago can’t come without some controversy.  Millennium Park was finished four years behind schedule and cost approximately three times as much as the inthe initial budget of $150MM really came out to be $475MM with a brunt of the money paid from taxpayers and donors.  Without Millennium Park, I really wonder what the area would look like today.  I know the park had at least some sort of influence on the many residential buildings that have been built.  I’m sure the different cultural centers surrounding it have seen at least some sort of increase in traffic.  Block 37 and other new State Street retail spaces could also have been influenced by the proximity to Millennium Park.  Thoughts?