Triple Fantasy: Chicago Architectural Club makes Obama Library focus of 2014 Chicago Prize competition

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The Chicago Architectural Club, originally founded as a sketch club all the way back in 1885, continues to be active in the city's architectural discourse over a century later.  In announcing on Saturday the topic of its 14th Chicago Prize architectural competition, it's also proven that it's not short on ambition.   The new competition seeks proposals for the Barack Obama Presidential Library . . .

. . .  to initiate a debate in order to rethink and redefine this particular building typology. Within the context of the city, is this institution a stand-alone monument or rather a forum of social-urban interaction and an active extension of a President�s legacy? Would it be considered as one of the civic components of Chicago�s public library system or does it remain autonomous? At its best this is a cultural institution providing a place for the exchange of knowledge, the creation of dialogue and debate, and last but not least an urban niche to read and write.

Many Chicago locations have been proposed for the library, including even Pullman and the old Michael Reese Site, both nothing so bold as the one chosen by the CAC - a prime riverfront site right across from Wolf Point.  And while architectural competitions are often unmoored speculations to let the creative mind roam free, the Obama Library competition is a triple fantasy.

In September, the Barack Obama Foundation narrowed down potential sites to four - one at New York City's Columbia University, one at the University of Hawaii, and two in Chicago, at the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.  CAC's riverfront site was not among them.

The competition's bare-bones brief includes three maps of the site, and five photographs, all of which show it as a parking lot.   Nowhere does the brief mention that the site is crossed by Metra mail tracks, or, more importantly, that a large structure has just been constructed on the site, covering those tracks, and forming the surface of a new 1.5 acre riverfront park that the city has already spent a large part of the $29.5 million it has committed to the project. 

Looming larger still is that behind that park, River Point, a 52-story-high skyscraper, is now rising.

So while the idea of a riverfront Obama Library is certainly a stimulating one, it's not just divorced from reality, but in a parallel universe, unless you could build it at the tip of Wolf Point where an even taller skyscraper is planned.  Or maybe the Library could be tucked next to lower Wacker to serve as one of the monetizing engines that the City of Chicago has put out to bid to pay back the loans that have funded construction of the new Riverwalk.  Other than that, the Chicago Prize competition is less of a "What-If . . ." than a "Hey, wouldn't it be really cool . . ." proposition.

Registration - $90.00, $50.00 for students - is now open, along with the opportunity to submit questions.  Submissions are due by noon CST on January 10th, with winners announced February 3rd.  First prize is $1,500, 2nd $1,000, with $750 for third with the possibility of non-cash honorable mentions.

Get all the details and download the brief here.

Along Chicago's New Skyscraper Row: One Rises, One Descends, and One Just Spreads it Around

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Saturday seemed a good day to check out the progress and three large construction projects that have made the bend of the Chicago River big development central.

See the complete photo-essay, after the break . . .

Wolf Point West

At the former service parking lot at Wolf Point, construction crews were hard a work (does everyone get time-and-a-half for Saturdays?). Cranes were in place, and rising from the ground was the concrete service core for Wolf Point West, the river-hugging, 493-foot high, 510 unit residential tower from bKL Architecture that's the first three projected skyscrapers for the site

The concrete structure that's the support a long driveway and entrance to what will eventually be a large below-grade garage looks already to be in place.

Wolf Point West will also include a tight stub of parkland to the east and west, while the far larger park that supposed to separate the three towers will continue to be the truncated remnant of the original surface parking lot until funding is in place for the other two towers.

River Point

On the opposite bank of the river, a bit to the south, the concrete structure that covers the Metra tracks and will provide the surface for the new 1.5 acre park that's being financing by $29 million in Chicago TIF funds.  Nonetheless, that park is not scheduled for another two years, upon the completion of the 52-story River Point office Tower at 444 West Lake Street, designed by Pickard Chilton and scheduled to open early in 2017

Right now, not only is there little visible above ground, but they're digging a deeper hole.  The week's torrential rains had left the site a soggy mess, but that didn't an industrious shovel operator from continuing to excavate soil.

150 North Riverside

Perhaps the most interesting goings-on were at the site for 150 North Riverside, a 1.2 million square-foot, 53 story, Goettsch Partners designed tower that's been competing for tenants with River Point, moving towards a scheduled 4th-quarter 2016 completion.  Last week, Crain's Chicago Business was reporting that developer John O'Donnell has just nailed down almost $300 million to complete financing for the half-billion dollar building, which he claims is already 28% leased.

Like River Point, 150 North is also to be set within a 1.5 acre park, also covering the Metra tracks, but the key difference is this time the city didn't get stuck with the bill - the developer is picking up the costs.  

photograph: Bob Johnson

A new river edge has been put into place to protect the site during construction, and while there's barges (I suspect that at the time of its commercial zenith many decades  ago, the entire Chicago River was of this kind of green sludgy consistency). . .

. . .  but the main activity on Saturday was a power shovel slowly spreading a carpet of rubble across the entire surface of the site.

 

So that's it for now.  It's like what Groucho said in Animal Crackers . . .

We took some pictures of the native girls, but they weren't developed.  But we're going back again in a couple of weeks

Read More:

Hour of the Wolf: The Transformation of the Pivot Point of Chicago

The Park at River Point Makes Train Tracks Disappear

 Giant Punch Stamp on the River? First Renderings for 150 North Riverside

 The Art of the Pitch: Selling 150 North Riverside to the Neighbors

(Architectural) Scenes from the City

We continue to work on several pieces, from 740 North Rush to Jones College Prep.  To hold you over for the moment, here's some shots from the city over the last few days.

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Chicago Under Construction (or not) - Seven Sites Along the River to Fulton Market

111 West Wacker (click images for larger view)

3D Printing Experience

River Point

Wells Street Bridge

The Catalyst, Washington and Desplaines

abandoned construction site, Morgan and Kinzie

Soho House Hotel (Allis Building, Green Street)

1K Fulton (former Fulton Market Cold Storage)

Chicago Under Construction: The Park at River Point Makes Train Tracks Disappear

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For the better part of the past century, north from Lake Street was where the Chicago River began to again show its natural roots.  To the east and south, the river had long before a constructed ditch with towers on either bank often coming right to the edge.

At Wolf Point, however, and along the western bank, the river retained what at least appeared to be a natural shoreline, hugged by trees, shrubs and plants that arose free from the guiding hand of any landscape architect.  For those long decades, this assuming structure, just north of Lake Street, was the most ambitious building on the site . . .

All that's history now.  There are big plans for all those last empty sites along the river in the Loop.  No fewer than three buildings are planned for Wolf Point, and renderings of a new office tower at 150 North Riverside were unveiled just last month.

That brick Metra building - and the ramshackle wooden stairway leading down to the river -  is now only a memory, as another massive tower, River Point, is about to go up in their place.  It's been designed for Hines Interests by Pickard-Chilton, architects of the 60-story 300 North LaSalle, completed in 2009.  The actual building, to be set back from the river along Canal Street, has yet to break ground.

First the developer is creating a 1.5 acre riverfront park, for which they've shook down the city for a $29.5 million TIF subsidy.  (150 North Riverside, to be constructed on the other side of Lake, is also making a riverfront park part of their project, but without recourse to TIF money.)  The park at River Point is being built over the existing train tracks leading into Union Station.

On a chilly day back in April, a painter was already documenting the vanishing surface tracks clinging to the river.

Soon, the construction equipment was rolling into place.

Things begin, slowly and deliberately . . .

. . . cranes flew in on barges . .  .

. . . basic contours began to reveal themselves . . .

. . . and by July, there was no longer any mistaking but that this was the start of something big.

By August, there was enough green rebar in sight it might as well been St. Patrick's Day.

 The irregular riverbank has already been replaced with a new river wall . . .

 

. . . even as concrete walls quickly began to rise to support the surface of the new park, and swallow up the accustomed, almost lullaby sound of locomotive bells forever . . .

 

When it's all done, it will look something like this . . . 

Read More:

Hour of the Wolf: The Transformation of the Pivot Point of Chicago

First Renderings for 150 North Riverside office tower and park