CHICAGO | River Point - 444 West Lake | 200m | 650ft | 45 fl | U/C

[ChiSkyline]

Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen

Funny you should ask. Spyguy posted these new renderings at SSP. Looks like it may have a second-lease on life.

Hopen hes not messing with our feelings.. How what a beauty! Hope it happens. Thanks for the update

[iloveclassicrock7]

Originally Posted by ChiSkyline

Hopen hes not messing with our feelings.. How what a beauty! Hope it happens. Thanks for the update

He is not they have updated it on their site

[Uaarkson]

This is one of Chicago's best skyscraper proposals in years, I would be thrilled to see it come back to life, even in its reduced-height form.

[iloveclassicrock7]

Originally Posted by Uaarkson

This is one of Chicago's best skyscraper proposals in years, I would be thrilled to see it come back to life, even in its reduced-height form.

It is, they have updated their site, we can probably expect to hear some news regarding when it will be built soon.

http://www.chicagoriverpoint.com/home.html

[iloveclassicrock7]

About to break ground!


Thank You Chicago_Forever from SSP for finding this!

According to Crains Chicago, Financing is in place and Hines is preparing to break ground.

Hines set to kick off 45-story office tower


By: Ryan OriMay 15, 2012


A rendering of the planned River Point tower on the Chicago River. Design and tower rendering: Pickard Chilton. Photography and context rendering: ImageFiction

(Crain's) — Hines Interests L.P. is preparing to break ground on a 45-story office tower on Chicago River without lining up tenants in advance, the first so-called spec office development in downtown Chicago in 14 years.


Read more: http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.co...#ixzz1uzR0rjGP
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[xXFallenXx]

Great news! This guy is an old favorite of mine. Will be fun to watch it rise. Wish it was a bit taller, but I'm not complaining.

[iloveclassicrock7]

Originally Posted by xXFallenXx

Great news! This guy is an old favorite of mine. Will be fun to watch it rise. Wish it was a bit taller, but I'm not complaining.

True, but this style of architectural design will add so much to the river area. It also fills in a an empty lot along the river with a 200m building. This building will make the Chicago River area look magnificent, can't wait for this to rise.

Here are some pictures showing the site






This will really add life to the west loop.

[iloveclassicrock7]

Here is a rundown of 444 West Lake.

The Site













Adding to the skyline








Location : Black - 444 West Lake

Yellow - Wolf Point Towers proposal

[SanMiguel]

IMO the last pic on previous post is showing a wrong location...

compared to the "masterplan" it should be the block which got kinda triangle shape
so it is not the black rectangle, it is just the site east of it...

or am i wrong???

.

[nomarandlee]

Nice. Just an FYI regarding that last map photo. The building will actually be across the street on the east side of Canal st, not the west.


........Also while I'm happy with the design and am excited to see this pup go up I am a bit disappointed it isn't a bit taller given its location. That said perhaps down the road on the parcel to the noth there could be also be a very tall building. Originally Hines had planned to put a 15 floor hotel right on that sport as part of complex to go along with the River Point building.

I am kind of glad he is not adding that hotel though given that I think a successful River point building and river walk could spark another developer to build an ambitious project next to it down the road. The only issues I see is that it would be a slightly smaller lot then River Point and perhaps an even bigger engineering challenge given it has less room to work with. And also a future Wolf Point complex may eat into river corridor views though I think a building there would still have many of its river views (looking east) even with a Wolf Point complex built up to the river.

[iloveclassicrock7]

Originally Posted by SanMiguel

IMO the last pic on previous post is showing a wrong location...

compared to the "masterplan" it should be the block which got kinda triangle shape
so it is not the black rectangle, it is just the site east of it...

or am i wrong???

.

It's the correct location. It runs parallel to Lake Street, and stands on the north side of it.

[iloveclassicrock7]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

Nice. Just an FYI regarding that last map photo. The building will actually be across the street on the east side of Canal st, not the west.

This is true

[SanMiguel]

erm, THAT is exactly what i meant as well ... just 4 min before nomarandlee ...



.

[iloveclassicrock7]

Originally Posted by SanMiguel

erm, THAT is exactly what i meant as well ... just 4 min before nomarandlee ...



.

Oh, I thought you mean't it was on the wrong side of lake street

my bad....

[ThatOneGuy]

Wow, this will look great! A much needed modern addition to the skyline.

[iloveclassicrock7]

More Good NEWS!!! - Thanks to Spy Guy for finding this

Official Statement -

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iva...ago-2012-05-16

Ivanhoe Cambridge and Hines to Develop Sculptural Office Tower in Chicago

Ivanhoe Cambridge, one of the 10 largest real estate companies in the world, announced today its planned investment of US $300 million to build a 45-story office tower in the West Loop in downtown Chicago. The tower, River Point, is being developed by co-investor and international real estate firm Hines, on land co-owned by local business leader Larry Levy. The investment is expected to close by the end of May 2012 (upon finalization of documentation and subject to usual conditions) with construction to commence before year-end, and tenant occupancy to begin in early 2016.

A world-class office tower, River Point was designed by noted architectural firm Pickard Chilton and will be built at 444 West Lake Street on the western bank of the Chicago River near two rail hubs in the West Loop, overlooking the river towards Lake Michigan. Containing approximately 900,000 square feet of leasable space, the project also calls for construction of a majestic 1.5-acre public park atop the existing rail infrastructure that will connect the tower and its 450-linear feet of newly landscaped walkway to the Chicago Riverwalk. The tower is pre-certified LEED(R) Gold.

[Patrick Highrise]

this is good news for Chicago!

[HK999]

Nice, but this doesn't belong to the skyscraper section since 650ft = 198m. Thread should be moved to the highrise forums.

[desertpunk]

^
This was originally a 52 story skyscraper but has been trimmed down to 45 stories:

Developers Tells Economy To STFU; Will Build Lake Street Tower Anyway

For the first time in 14 years, an office tower is going up in Chicago without already having a raft of tenants lined up.

Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Hines, Ivanhoe Cambridge, and Chicago’s own Larry Levy are moving forward with their new Fulton River District skyscraper at 444 West Lake Street called River Point.

We wrote about this building at least as far back as 2008 when we heard it was going to be scaled back. Now that the tower is closer to fruition we know by how much — 45 stories, instead of the 52 stories, and down to 900,000 square feet instead of 1.2 million as originally planned. But if the drawing published by Crain’s is the revised Pickard Chilton Architects design, it remains is largely the same.

[desertpunk]

Chicago Architecture

More on River Point and its Possible Hotel
May 17, 2012



Just a few hours after we published our article about River Point (444 West Lake Street), the new office tower expected to break ground soon at the confluence of the Chicago River and its north branch, Hines sent along a press release about the project.

Here are the juicy bits:

Construction start: Before the end of the year.
Construction finish: 2016
Architect: Pickard Chilton
Size: 850,000 square feet
Environmental: It was pre-certified LEED Gold back in 2008

There’s a couple of other things worth noting. First, this is Fulton River District, not West Loop. North of Lake street up to Ohio Street is FRD. The West Loop is south of there. See our handy dandy article for more information.
...

And then there’s something not mentioned in the press release. In the drawings released by Hines so far, you may have noticed that the tower is offset to the south on the property. That’s not because its avoiding the train tracks or air rights or anything complicated like that. It’s simply that once the tower is built, Hines wants to squeeze in a hotel next door, to the north of the tower.

The plan calls for 200 rooms, and it will be linked to the River Point tower. In this rendering from Pickard Chilton you can see the base of the hotel next to River Point. We’ve circled the hotel portion in a thick red line, and in the thin red line you can see the reflection of the building in the river to give you a sense of its ultimate height (click to enlarge). The hotel is absent from all of the other renderings.

[...]