Olympia Center
Chicago, USA

HEIGHT: 221m/725 feet
FLOORS: 63 floors
COMPLETION: 1986
ARCHITECT: Skidmore, Owings & Merril (SOM)

Olympia Centre is a major multi-use addition to Chicagos Magnificent Mile. Sixty-three stories and 720 feet (219 meters) high, the 1,420,000 sf (132,000 sm) building incorporates 204 luxury condominiums, 327,000 sf (30,400 sm) of rental office space, a four-story Neiman-Marcus Department Store, and a three and one-half level basement parking garage. For the development, SOM provided architectural and engineering services as well as condominium and public interiors design.

The 53,338 sf (5,000 sm) site is located on the east side of Michigan Avenue between Superior Street and Chicago Avenue and wraps around the 777 Michigan Avenue Building. The site has approximately 121 feet (37 meters) of frontage on Michigan Avenue, 235 feet (72 meters) on Superior Street, and 175 feet (54 meters) on Chicago Avenue. Neiman-Marcus occupies most of the grade level and all of levels two, three, and four, containing 198,000 net sf (18,400 sm) of store area. Vertical transportation is provided by pairs of escalators within a skylight atrium in the south portion and two elevators within the tower.

Condominiums make up the top 39 floors of the tower. Level 24 is the Club Level, providing condominium amenities including a lounge, party rooms and catering kitchen, swimming pool, locker rooms, exercise room and a racquetball court. The 430-car self-park garage occupies three levels beneath the tower and four levels beneath the south low-rise portion. The garage is accessed by three shuttle elevators, one for condominium residents and two for office tenants and department store users. A commissary and a valet are located beneath the tower at Lower Level One.

http://www.som.com/resources/projects/4/9/6/olympia_exterior_496.jpg

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/naptown89/chicago0009.jpg

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/3140/103olympia.jpg

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/naptown89/chicago0008.jpg

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/naptown89/chicago0010.jpg

4.5/10

Boring, the windows look bad and the color is bad. The worst of Chicago's top 20.

7.5/10

I love its simple soaring mass, made less boring by the wider base.

And its #179 for now, based on SSC's list;)

nice and tall. But color is bad. 7.5/10

7.5 Another tower that i haven't seen before.
I should be ashamed ;)
I like the colour

It's a slab but it's ok. 6/10.

god this is ugly....I don't know what it is about SOM but it seems like it's hit or miss with their designs....when they're good they
can design some beauties but when they're bad you wind up with crap like this....yuck...4/10.

5.5/10 - More pictures would be nice, but as it is...*Yawn* another box, and a monotonous one, at that - the facade doesn't catch the light, and even the changes in the shape and spacing of the windows don't seem to help. And the curves, unlike those in the Hancock Tower, just make the base look swollen; they're not at all graceful.

Well, the stone has a fairly nice color....Otherwise, this was designed on one of SOM's off days, or years, or whatever....

8/10 I like the color and slope.

Simply awful. The color is doesn't fit. The windows are oddly set apart. It really looks as if some elementary student designed it. I give it a 4.5 just fot it's height.

The apparence of the facade is just horrible.. It looks like some brick skyscraper which is really an eyesore.. Dosent make the cut for me.. :bash: Why couldnt SOM have designed something better?? :? :bleep:

6/10

the color of this building is bad. it alone puts down my rate of it to a 6/10.. change the color it wouldn't have been so bad

the colour isnt that bad to me but it couldve been better. and i dont like its slope. too "modest". better if it was just a plain rectangular box. but the height is impressive. 6/10

A wider base makes it look like the work of gravity. :) So it gets a 0.5 increment over the 4 points i reserve mainly for boxes...

not bad

7.5/10

7.5/10...I like the simpleness, it's interesting color and how it differentiates itself from the rest. Though the curve at the bottom wasn't needed IMO.

Originally posted by savethewtc

7.5/10...I like the simpleness, it's interesting color and how it differentiates itself from the rest. Though the curve at the bottom wasn't needed IMO.
The irony is that it was needed... the top floors are residential and the bottom is offices. The offices need a larger floor area, so the building needed either a setback or a sloping facade.

shape ok, color not. I don''t like red buildings. I think tis tower would look nice when itt was black with bright glass.

7/10

8

A classic "7/10-skyscraper"

Btw, post number 300!! :cheers:

its ok. getting too fat on its bottom though 7/10

a box, but i like it..

only colour goes aginst it...
8/10

facade: ok the middle fits good to the rest
form: boxy but ok
points: 7

a big brown box with a nice facade

4.5/10
I don't like the colour, and the overall design is ugly. From some angles the top floors look better than the rest.

I hate the colour too

6/10

booooooooring 4/10

Very nice and original.....
Good shape/colour combination.

I'd like to see it in real....

8.5/10

4.5/10 ! :)

too boring 5/10

6

Eh.

8/10


Nice tower.

nothing too interesting...the "zipper" doesn't really help. but since i have an attraction toward brown scrapers i'll give it a higher point.

7

tall, shiny ad nice

8/10

5.5/10

8/10
Nice and tall. The facade looks great.

8/10

8.5

the shape of this bldg may be boring but i like its shiny windows. Has a cool touch to it :)

It's alright. 7.

I don't like the colour, or the window treatment. 6.5/10.

It's alright. 8/10

6.5/10

and i might be rating it too harsh, this always seems to get lost on the magnificent mile and it doesnt get too much attention. i dont care for the window patterns,but at least they didnt cover it with repetitive squares. the slope makes up for it. the facade is relativly bland, and i dont care too much for the base.

7

Sorta bland but not every bldg is gonna "wow" everybody. Not bad for a slim filler-type scraper. Like the color and at least there's some variation to the windows at the top. Shoot, it's 63 floors too!

7,5/10 - Classic skyscraper

It is pretty good...

7

5.5

An average box with no redeeming features.

6.5

6/10

This box is not so bad. 7.0

boxy 7

Not bad for a box, 7.5/10

6/10

6/10 - nothing too interesting except for the changing sizes of the windows in the middle and at the top. Otherwise, pretty bland.

This building is hideous :runaway: :eek2:

I have never notice, that this tower was so huge, I thought it was only about 100 foot, guess I was wrong. The Nemian Marcus as a base, blend in with the color of the building.. I like the color.. 9/10

8/10

5.5/10.

Hehe, this one's pretty nice. Simple, yet elegant. I give it an 8/10. :okay:

I doesnt like it! 5!

It is a very simple shape, but the window layouts makes it look cool! Nice facade too!
8/10

8/10

7.5/10

I like the facade.The tower looks taller that what really is.

6.5/10.

7.5/10

7/ Nothin special, if at least it would not have this strange shape and would be totally boxy it would be better.

well...nothing weird, but nice, couriously, is as tall as south america's tallest towers, and is so dwarfed by big john and their mates :(

8/10

Bad color. A box. 5/10

8/10

7/10

It's alright, 7.5/10

7/10

5! :( I don't like it!

8/10

It's not very nice but at least it's very tall and slim ;)
Overall: good box = 7,5/10

6.5/10

5/10

not that amazing
but it gets 8 for its hight

7/10

6/10

The cladding's a bit weird. But that's OK.
I've never noticed this one before in Chicago's skyline so I suppose it's neither very beautiful or very ugly. A filler.
5.

it looks wierd somehow, 6/10

7/10

7/10

5.5/10

I really dont know how I feel about it. Mixed emotions at best. Average i guess
6.5/10

I like the top, and the slanted bottom. The tower is kind of dark. 5/10

5/10

7/10

Very average design 5.5/10

7/10

6.5/10

5/10 ugly, boring

3,5/10

6/10

Somehow I like this building even though it's not as impressive as, say, the John Hancock Center. Is it because of its simplicity or its weird color? I don't know, but I give it a 7.5

8.5/10

6/10

a box, but a good 8.5/10

7.

7/10

8/10

tall and slim enough for being a nice box, but colour is not my taste 6.5/10

5/10

7/10

I would have to say...

Change the color and change the window shades

6/10.

8/10 nice and tall

6.5/10, strangely interesting

5/10. Boxy.

4/10 Pretty darn ugly.

5/10

Facade - average to below average.

Roof - you just have to cover the ugly structure up

6/10

7/10

It's part of that immense cluster along the Mag Mile and is up against competition from 900 Mich, The Hancock and the elegant Park Tower all of which are better buildings. it is however more attractive than the Water place Tower which is arguably Chi's worst megatall.

this is OK. No more no less. 7

7/10

Not bad

7/10

Nah too easy, a 6 out of 10.

it's okay except for the strange windows and bad color. It's not too bad though...at least from a distance. sorry. 6/10

6.5/10

like it, mainly cause it is the same size as the Ren Cen in Detroit.

5/10.

6.5/10

Just a slab of concrete with square holes in it.
5/10 for the height.

5/10

5/10

5/10

6/10

9/10

yuck.

^yea yuck! 2/10

5.5

not bad 6

5/10

7/10:)

Boig box and weird!

5/10

Ugly.

5/10

7/

6/10

7/10

Boring :/
6.5/10

10/10

9/10

4.5/10

Boring, the windows look bad and the color is bad. The worst of Chicago's top 20.

Agree. The only thing to be said for it is it extends further south that line of true talls starting at One Mag Mile. It is a plain unattractive part of the skyline.

5.

looks ok...

6.0/10

6,5/10

8.5/10

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6844/44200413503pm1.jpg

8/10

Nothing weird. I don't like much the color 6/10

7/10

Dreary box. 6

8/10

Color reminds me of Scotia Plaza in Toronto. The height works well being so close to Hancock.

9/10

8/10

:D

From http://www.emporis.com/ :

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2004/06/270394.jpg

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2001/06/106652.jpg

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2004/05/267353.jpg

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2004/09/301995.jpg

http://www.emporis.com/img/6/2004/06/270397.jpg

8/10

9.5

love a flat of big box tower :) 8/10

voted 6.5/10

i don't like the color.
tall box, that's all.
6/10

7/10

10/10

8/10

Great colour, sleek look. 9/10

5.5/10 Like the color but all boxes get 5/10 from me because they're neither ugly nor sexy in most cases...

6/10

6/10

5.5

7/10

6/10

7.5/10

7/10

6/10 Top is horrible.

Another interesting tall box.. 7.5/10

6/10

7.5/10

8/10

7,5/10

5.5/10

7/10

pics????

5/10

6/10

...
1/10