When Miami-based developer Crescent Heights unveiled plans for a 76-story, 829-foot-tall skyscraper with 792 apartments, that building could lay claim to be the tallest in Chicago’s South Loop. This Rafael Viñoly-designed tower is the first of three that Crescent Heights is planning just south of Grant Park, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
But only few days after Crescent’s plans became public, details surfaced about an even taller 86-story glass residential tower on 1000 S. Michigan Avenue, about a block from Crescent Heights’ proposed skyscrapers.
Last April that high rise’s developer, a joint venture between New York real estate firms JK Equities and Time Equities, paid $10.5 million for the 111-year-old eight-story Lighter Building, which is adjacent to their proposed tower. According to the JV’s application, the Lighter Building will continue to serve as office space. If the city approves 1000 S. Michigan, the joint venture intends to purchase a portion of the site for their tower from its current owner, First American Bank, according to Crain’s.
Architect Helmut Jahn designed this 506-unit tower, to be situated on a little more than an acre, to resemble four stacked boxes on its South façade. The 75-year-old Jahn has used this multi-step design approach before on a 41-story residential high rise in Chicago that was completed in 2008. The new tower proposal calls for condos on its top 60 floors and apartments on 21 floors. A parking garage with 598 slots would be in an 11-story rear extension to the tower.
Including its rooftop terrace, this tower would soar 1,030 feet, making it the Windy City’s fifth-tallest building. However, such claims are always transitory: Studio Gang’s architect Jeanne Gang has proposed a 1,140-foot-tall Vista Residences in Chicago, which would feature a trio of glass towers arranged in a row, with heights of 47, 71, and 93 stories. Gang told Dezeen magazine that she was inspired to mass the buildings by a formation called “frustum,” which resembles a pyramid without a pointy peak.
Helmut Jahn's proposed 506-unit tower. Rendering courtesy Hahn (via Chicagoist)
Jeanne Gang has proposed a 1,140-foot-tall Vista Residences. Rendering courtesy Jeanne Gang
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Polshek Partnership unveils design for University of North Texas business building
New York-based architect Polshek Partnership today unveiled its design scheme for the $70 million Business Leadership Building at the University of North Texas in Denton. Designed to provide UNT’s 5,400-plus business majors the highest level of academic instruction and professional training, the 180,000-sf facility will include an open atrium, an internet café, and numerous study and tutoring rooms—all designed to help develop a spirit of collaboration and team-oriented focus.
| Aug 11, 2010
University of Florida aiming for nation’s first LEED Platinum parking garage
If all goes as planned, the University of Florida’s new $20 million Southwest Parking Garage Complex in Gainesville will soon become the first parking facility in the country to earn LEED Platinum status. Designed by the Boca Raton office of PGAL to meet criteria for the highest LEED certification category, the garage complex includes a six-level, 313,000-sf parking garage (927 spaces) and an attached, 10,000-sf, two-story transportation and parking services office building.
| Aug 11, 2010
Draft NIST report on Cowboys practice facility collapse released for public comment
A fabric-covered, steel frame practice facility owned by the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys collapsed under wind loads significantly less than those required under applicable design standards, according to a report released today for public comment by the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
| Aug 11, 2010
Callison, MulvannyG2 among nation's largest retail design firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 75 Retail Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
USGBC honors Brad Pitt's Make It Right New Orleans as the ‘largest and greenest single-family community in the world’
U.S. Green Building Council President, CEO and Founding Chair Rick Fedrizzi today declared that the neighborhood being built by Make It Right New Orleans, the post-Katrina housing initiative launched by actor Brad Pitt, is the “largest and greenest community of single-family homes in the world” at the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York.
| Aug 11, 2010
AIA report estimates up to 270,000 construction industry jobs could be created if the American Clean Energy Security Act is passed
With the encouragement of Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) conducted a study to determine how many jobs in the design and construction industry could be created if the American Clean Energy Security Act (H.R. 2454; also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill) is enacted.
| Aug 11, 2010
Architect Michael Graves to be inducted into the N.J. Hall of Fame
Architect Michael Graves of Princeton, N.J., being inducted into the N.J. Hall of Fame.
| Aug 11, 2010
Modest rebound in Architecture Billings Index
Following a drop of nearly three points, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) nudged up almost two points in February. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending.