Three First National Plaza
Chicago, USA

HEIGHT: 234m/767 feet
FLOORS: 57 floors
COMPLETION: 1981
ARCHITECT: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Completed in 1982, the 1.7 million sf mixed-use complex occupies a prime location near the financial center and downtown commercial district of Chicago's Loop. The project includes a 57-story tower, an 11-story element adjacent to an existing private club, and a central nine-story glazed public lobby.

The configuration of the new tower retains a degree of openness along busy Madison Avenue and minimizes the disruption of views from the neighboring 60-story First National Plaza Building. The sawtooth geometry, which provided multiple corner offices, makes a transition on the top six levels to stepped greenhouse offices with views over the city looking toward Lake Michigan. Just as the massing of Three First National Plaza is designed to relate to its neighboring tower, the carnelian granite cladding reinforces this complementary relationship. A second level walkway further links the two structures.

Designed to provide light and views for office tenants, bay windows, a traditional element of Chicago turn-of-the-century architecture, are central features of the tower. Projecting from the structural tube, the bays emphasize the tower's vertical expression. The bronze reflective glass bays, cantilevered from the concrete and steel structural system, are framed in warm gray aluminum spandrels which act as louvers for the decentralized mechanical system.

On three sides, office area and mezzanine balconies look onto the central nine-story public space. A stepped steel truss structure, repeating the sawtooth geometry on a horizontal plane, supports the clear glass enclosure. Connected below-grade both to Chicago's rapid transit system and underground arcade network, the lobby is designed as an indoor plaza in the Chicago tradition of open public spaces. The plaza, which is designed to add street-level animation with its granite paving, bronze detailing, landscaping and specialty shopping area, features a Henry Moore sculpture.

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rotpics01/threefirstnational01.jpeg

http://www.som.com/resources/projects/2/6/0/3fnpext1_677.jpg

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/ssc1819/3first.jpg

http://www.som.com/resources/projects/2/6/0/3fnpext3_679.jpg

http://www.som.com/resources/projects/2/6/0/3fnpext2_678.jpg

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rotpics01/threefirstnational02.jpeg

beautiful! elegant design,
i like this building:cool:

i give it 10 out of 10

7.5/10

Elegant, but a bit bland.

a bit bland and boxy...but ok

6.5/10

mmmm.... nice and tall, but the design is quite plain.... I will give it a 7.

6/10 looks very tall;)

bold and elegant , an 9

8/10

Almost like BoA in San Francisco. It fits in nice with its neighbor, Bank One Plaza.

Boxy but nice enough glasswork. Very much a builiding style of its times.

7.5

7. looks good on some, but not all, angles

The base looks elegant,so does the rest of the tower.
8.0/10

6 An average skyscraper... it's just "there"

I quite like it - the best of the "ordinary" types. 7/10

8/10

7/10...repeated patterns work for some...but not for all...and it gets mentally numbing after seeing too many at a go..

9

It's OK, 7.5/10

i like it 8

looks so common 5/10

facade: good
form: ok
points: 8.5

looks ok
8/10

Nice volumetric shapes of the facade
9/10

Nice one, I really gotta visit Chicago !!!


8/10

8.5/10


Elegant one.

Another one that I rated without making any comments...Well, here goes...

The vertical "folds" are crisp and elegant, and allow for a lot of interplay between light and shadow, putting this tower definitely "outside the box." The bay windows must really be nice for the tenants, and the facade seems to dance with the light.

BUT...

While the "folds" racing skyward give the building a slim, streamlined. soaring feel from some angles, from other angles, it seems chunky; some horizontal set backs would help. The facade could use a little more contrast - metal mullions racing skyward, perhaps? And, once again, a flat roof....SIGH

i like the windows

7/10

i like the facade idea for this one. very original, but the building looks sorta quirky from some angles.

8

9.5/10
Great looking building.

8/10

It's pretty good.

7/10

This is a good one. 8.

good old 3 first national. I love this building, the sawed roof is very unique and its a very bold combo with bank one plaza. however, the tower is a bit bland from other angles, and i wish it were more like first union in miami where the other angles would be different.

still a nice work of modern architecture, designed by SOM

8.5/10

Edit

7/10

8

This is a nice bldg- and it is different! I guess it must be more impressive in person cuz I couldn't fairly give it anything less than an 8. Soaring, reflective and classy.

6/10

I am a big bay window fan, a little lego-ish but I think it deserves a 7/10.

Good lines and geometry. It seems to soar well. A bit cramped at the base though.

8/10

5/10

This building is ok. 7.0

5/10

sweet!!! 8

Not sure about this one, maby a 7/10

6/10

Very good, but not very original. Also seems out of place in Chicago. I give it an 8/10 anyways.

One good angle won't save it. The color is really too old, and it doesn't manage to escape the boxy look. I would have helped it a bit if it had been built 10 years earlier, but this thing is younger than me, so it won't get any "that-was-normal-at-this-time" bonus.
3.

8.5/10

6/10

The building is nothing special.The brown facade looks a bit dated.

7/10.

6/10

Eeeew

7.5/10.

7/10

8/10

6/10

8.5/10. Wow, Skidmore at its finest! I like 3 1st National Plaza and its facade ala BofA SF, 1100 Lou and Wachovia Miami. But 1 1/2 points off for being "shadowed" in it, but it fits in well with Chi-Town.

7.5/10. Nice, but facade is pretty ugly.

Don't really like it, 6.5/10

Really elegant building. I like the shape and facade. 8/10

bit boxy but elegant 8/10

Chicago is awesome, I never even knew this building existed....9/10

8.5/10

like it 8

5/10

6,5/10

8/10

6/10

8/10.

7/10

7.5/10

7/10 SOM builds a lot of ones like this

not a fan. 4.5/10

7.5/10

The colour just looks awful, i'll give it a 6.5. Nothing special about this one.

7.5/10

7/10

4/10

7/10

6,5/10

i love it: 9/10

7/10

9/10

6/10

5/10

looks uninspiring from afar. but on street level, this one is amazing. 8/10

8.5 nice.

Interesting layering 8/10

6/10

Typifies what is good about Chicago 'scrapers. Elegant, masculine, powerful. It mirrors the city itself. It is possible for a building, even a tall one, to get lost in in the jungle of the loop but not this one.

Superb. 9.5.

Fine by me. 6.5/10.

7/10

8.5/10.

Doesn't really impress me BUT it isn't so bad. 6,5/10

9/10

elegant and nice, but not too interesting or original, 8/10

7/10

8/10

8/10 sweet

3/10

8,5/10

6/10

6/10

elegant 8.5/10

6.5/10

8,5/10

7/10

Actually fits it quite well. 8/10

7/10

8/10 :cool:

a bit bland.

nothing special
6/10

5 ..

4/10

6.5/10

Its classy but dont like what they did with the top section, although its original I think.
7/10

6/10

Giant!!

8/10

7/10:)

8,5/10

7.5/10

7.5/10

6,5/10

8/

pics? :ohno:

7/10

8/10

8.5/10

Reminds me of the Wachovia skyscraper in Miami. I like the design, though.

8/10

6.0/10

8.5/10

any recent pics would be appreciated. :)

I like it. It has its own impact on the skyline.

8/10

Period elegant but boxy. 7

voted 7.5/10

Latest pic/s anyone?

no pics!

from wikipedia

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7683/3firstnational331.jpg

9/10

8/10

8.5

7,5/10

You've rated Three First National Plaza 7.35 on average. Go to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (http://gbuscraper.blogspot.com/2010/07/three-first-national-plaza-chicago.html) to read more.

On this blog, the score of a 'good' building and a 'bad' building from the Rate our Talls section will be revealed every day.

6.5/10

7.5/10 so so

7.5/10

10/10

7.5/10 for the multiple setbacks

8.5/10

7/10

8/10

7/10

5/10

8/10

7/10

7/10

7,5/10

7/10

7.5/10

7/10

6.5/10.

6/10