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The banks of the Chicago River in the West Loop have long lost the factories that used to define them. The third largest metropolitan area in the United States is witnessing a strong urban renaissance, with industrial lots being gradually replaced by office buildings and residential towers to accommodate the growth of the city. Until recently, sites that were considered too complicated and expensive to develop were left empty, but this has started to change.
In the current real estate climate, areas that were not considered viable for development a few years ago now seem like great spots for new construction, although they may come with constraints. Such is the case for the site located on the west shore of the river between West Randolph and West Lake Streets, currently being developed by O'Donnell Investment Company into a 53-storey tower designed by Goettsch Partners.
The 228-metre office tower known as 150 North Riverside is indeed rising on a site that has historically held only railroad tracks in the prime area where the North and South branches of the river meet, just steps away from the heart of the financial district and public transit. The tower's unique shape, with a lower portion that looks like the bottom of a cargo ship and setbacks at the top are not only an architect's creative expression, they are direct responses to the land where the tower is being built. Indeed, the adjacency of the river to the east and the underground Amtrak rail yard to the west leave limited available space for the base of the tower.
The solution was to conceive a tower whose core would support a floating structure above. Driven by the demand for large and efficient floor plates by tenants in the marketplace, architects and engineers developed a concrete core element which spans almost the entire available space at grade and underground. This supports the whole steel structure above, where the floor plates are much larger than the actual footprint of the tower at ground level. On the east side of the building, the facade will come down to street level with a 30-metre glass wall sealing the space off from the elements, marking the tower's entrance, and providing access to the elevators leading to the 53 2,700-square-foot floors above.
The tower only takes up 25% of the lot, while the remaining 75% will become a 1.5-acre park that provides office workers with an expansive green space and river views. The underground level will consist of a restaurant, fitness centre, and convention centre, all protected from the adjacent Amtrak rail yard by a four-foot-thick concrete crash wall. The river walk will also be extended as part of the project. A recent update by Forum member george1 shows this underground level being built, while the core is about to reach the 20-floor milestone and the supporting steel structure climbing as high as the 11th level.
When completed in 2017, the building is aiming to achieve LEED Gold Certification. In the meantime, additional information and renderings can be found in our dataBase file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.
