Plaza Sweet? Miesian Illinois Center grows Curves

click images for larger view

When last we wrote about Illinois Center, we talked about the the potential of its plaza, one level up, south of Wacker and a half-block behind Michigan Avenue.  It's the public space around Illinois Center One, designed by the Office of Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1970, and Illinois Center Two, designed by the successor firm of Fujikawa, Conterato, Lohan and Associates and completed in 1972.  Both are currently owned by CommonWealth REIT.  In 2011, on the northern half of the plaza, they replaced the crumbling Miesian-grid paving with a continuous herringbone carpet.  Previously, we wrote about proposal from Hicks Architectural Group to enliven the plaza with a restaurant seating space on the riverfront part of the plaza.  That didn't happen.  But we do have this new furniture . . .

. . .black wicker that feels amazingly similar to the outdoor seating at the new Howells and Hood restaurant at Tribune Tower.  I'm told during the day there are cushions.  The furniture looks a bit lost amidst the empty sweep of the north end of the plaza . . .

. . . but along the east, the curved seating groups brings a bit of coziness to the severe grandeur of the glass towers.

Across from those towers, the plaza's eastern boundary is formed by the soaring, back-alley facades of 333 North Michigan and the Old Republic Building, which face Michigan avenue and were built in the 1920s, when the only thing behind them was the Illinois Center railyards.  Last week, the Permit Review committee of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks considered a proposal to mount louvers and decorative grills on 333's eastern elevation. We weren't able to get to the meeting, and our requests for additional information - or renderings - have been declined.

back of Old Republic (left) and 333 North Michigan (right)

Now it's the south end of the plaza's turn to be closed off behind chain-link fencing as another rehab is under way.  Again, ownership is as tight as a clam about providing information, so everything we know comes from the banner spread out on the facade.

seriously - click to see it larger

According to that banner, the project is a collaboration between Goettsch Partners - which recently completed a very handsome redesign of the Wrigley Building Plaza - and Wolff Landscape Architecture.

In 2008, the Chicago Loop Alliance had proposed a Spanish Steps transition at Water Street between Michigan Avenue and Illinois Center's upper plaza.

That didn't happen.  In fact, the gracious original stair . . .

. . . has been closed off for years.

The current rehab re-opens that stair.  As in the riverfront plaza to the north, in the reconstruction of the southern half of the plaza, the Miesian grid of the paving has been expunged, and the base of the right-angled glass boxes enveloped in curving, amoeba-like extrusions of plantings.  At least in the rendering, the monochrome of the structures is set off with bright magenta seating.

We'll have to wait until 2014 to see how it all works out in reality.  Will sacrificing Miesian purity to a looser, softer design succeed in making the place more contemporary?  Will it allow the plaza to finally achieve its potential as a vital civic gateway to the new East Side?

Read More: 

Herringbone floods and the hidden potential of an overlooked Chicago gem.

Three (Small) Chicago Fixes

Fixing Illinois Center:  Another Design Proposal

The $2 Million Bargain: the Restored Wrigley Building Plaza