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CHICAGO | Wolf Point | 204m | 668ft | 60 fl | 148m | 485ft | 48 fl | Com

217K views 516 replies 155 participants last post by  Hudson11 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Height: 950ft+, 750ft, 625ft
Floor count: 80, 60, 50
Location: Wolf Point (confluence of South, North, and Main Branches of the Chicago River)
Neighborhood: River North
Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli; bKL Architecture
Developer: Hines Interests LP
Website: Wolf Point Chicago

Note: A recent design revision is hinting towards a tallest tower of over 1,000 ft.











View from Wolf Point: (taken by i_am_hydrogen)



West Tower:


http://www.di.net/almanac/firms/bkl-architecture-llc/
 
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#153 ·
#154 · (Edited)
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune...omplex-that-includes-900-foot-skyscraper.html

Wolf Point plan deserves scrutiny; Kennedy family and architect Pelli plan complex that includes 900-foot skyscraper

May 10, 2012
Blair Kamin

.......As the story is playing out in the press, it is all about height measurements and the usual NIMBY concerns: blocked views, predictions of nightmarish traffic tie-ups and so forth. What is little-discussed are the essential matters of urban character and architectural quality. How these towers meet the ground — and the riverfront — will be as important as how they shape the skyline. Will the public spaces around them memorably evoke the site’s past and craft a future that weaves the now-isolated site into the fabric of downtown life?.......

There are broader urban design concerns: Has Pelli fulfilled the Central Area Plan’s aim of emphasizing the river’s natural character, creating a soft-edged counterpoint to the hard-edged properties nearby? How do the developers propose to route vehicles through their tightly constricted site without aggravating rush-hour traffic jams? How will the rest of the site be treated in the potentially years-long interval between the building of the first tower and the construction of the other high-rises?

Then there are design issues that only drawings can answer: Has Pelli realized the goal of a signature skyline statement? Will his three towers work together? Can his firm skirt the danger inherent in the planned apartment high-rise. Such buildings, typically low-budget, rarely offer the chance for the sort of top-drawer architecture required by this site...........
More in story
 
#157 ·
We should get the designs May 29th. Also, this is the Kennedy family we are talking about. Unless they lose all their money, these buildings are going up. So, these will be built, lets just hope Cesar Pelli does a good job. Anyways May 29th will be exciting.
 
#159 ·
Here is a quick image I made of the future site. Nothing great, just something I made real quick to get an idea of what it could look like. Since they haven't released any renders I just designed it. The building in the back left is called river point and is currently proposed

 
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#164 ·
^^

That's a great picture. If it was more zoomed out, I would take a 900-1000 foot building and add it to the picture, to see what it might look like.

btw, 13 days left till we get a design, considering it's Cesar Pelli, I am pretty excited.
 
#166 ·
The massing gives a good visual to imagine the buildings. I'm thinking the artist errored on the shorter side though given that the Apparel Center to the north is 325 ft., 333 Wacker is 489 ft. (the concave faced building), and 300 North LaSalle is 785 ft (building just east of the Merchandise Mart).

From the looks of those massing's it would almost seem the tallest building doesn't go much higher then 700 ft.
 
#173 ·
We will probably get renders of wolf point on the 29th of may. Also I have heard that the number 900 is a number they used to get the ball rolling, it could easily be a supertall.
 
#175 ·
Here is a somewhat bad attempt to guess what this could look like, but it's something.:lol:

Thanks to Desert Punk for the original picture


@ Desert Punk, if you could send me the original version of this pic without the gray boxes, this would look much better


 
#176 ·
Thanks to Brave New World from SSP for finding this

http://www.marinacityonline.com/news/wolf0523.htm


23-May-12 – A plan to build three mixed-use towers southwest of Merchandise Mart was acknowledged at last night’s River North Residents Association meeting but no one is commenting yet.

France Langan, the new chairman of the River North Business Association and also director of sales and marketing at the Holiday Inn at Chicago Mart Plaza – the view of which would be blocked by the towers – told a small crowd at Skoozi in River North that he would not “tell you how we feel at the Holiday Inn about the project necessarily.”

(Right) Langan speaks at Tuesday’s RNRA meeting.
He did point out that many photographs in National Geographic are of places no longer in existence. “I invite everyone up to the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza,” said Langan. “Take a look at the view that we have outside the windows. Who knows how long it will be there?”

River North Residents Association and the Fulton River District Association are hosting a community meeting on May 29 at which representatives of Hines Development Corporation will answer questions about the proposal. The complex will include 900-foot and 750-foot residential/commercial towers and a 525-foot residential building on land owned by the Kennedy family.

With support for the Wolf Point project from River North residents far from certain, former 42nd ward alderman Burton Natarus cautioned anyone planning to stop the project.

“It’s all right for the community to go in and for the alderman to go in and stop the project,” said Natarus, alderman from 1971 to 2007, “but then you got to stop and consider who it is, and whether they have money and whether they will go to court. I’ve been in the courthouse several times and when you’re in the courthouse you’re in a different ballgame altogether.”

(Left) Natarus at his last city council meeting on May 9, 2007.
The Kennedy family, he assured the crowd, has money and “probably the finest zoning lawyers in the city of Chicago.”

Natarus says he has tried to convey the message to current alderman Brendan Reilly, who is organizing the May 29 meeting, “but our communication isn’t good.”

Andrew Schaefer, chairman of the River North Resident Association’s development committee, agreed with Natarus. “None of us is interested in winning a pyrrhic victory where we successfully shoot down one thing only to have something even worse rammed down our throats.”

Schaefer called it “inevitable” that something would eventually be built at Wolf Point. “It’s a parking lot in some of the most valuable real estate in the city of Chicago. And it’s not going to stay that way forever, just as any other parking lot in downtown Chicago doesn’t stay a parking lot forever.”

The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the Wolf Point Ballroom at the Holiday Inn, 350 West Mart Center.

Toni Preckwinkle was scheduled to be the special guest speaker at Tuesday’s meeting but according to RNRA president Mike Riordan, the Cook County Board president cancelled over the weekend.
 
#177 ·
Chicago Skyscraper Development Map

Excluding the building with a green border, all buildings are over 650 feet/200m.


From Left to Right

One South Halsted - 50 stories, Post office Redevelopment - (400-610m) - 120 stories, River Point - 650 feet - 45 floors, 400 West Randolph - 213 meters - 50 floors, Wolf Point Tower 1 - 270m+ - 80 floors - Wolf Point Tower 2 - 228 meters + - 60 floors - Wolf Point Tower 3 - 160 meters - 50 floors,130 North Franklin - 213m, Clark & Wacker - 200m+ - 65 floors, 435 N Park(Undecided) - 193 meters - 54 floors, 375 Wacker Drive - 256 meters - 76 floors

 
#179 · (Edited)
You are thinking of 375 Wacker Drive, it was proposed during the boom, but they held off when the recession started, and here is the latest update, there is a more recent article, but I am having trouble finding it

This one is still alive:

Quote:
Originally Posted by spyguy
http://www.chicagomag.com/Radar/Deal...-the-Downturn/

Magellan's James Loewenberg on Aqua and Surviving the Downturn
By Jeff Bailey

...Post-Aqua, is it back to standard-issue buildings at Lakeshore East?

No. It’s going to be tough to top that building. But we hired Arquitectonica, the Miami firm, and they designed a building that straddles the street. We were ready to go. Thank God we never started. A great market opportunity, in the next two or three years, after you get through the overhanging inventory.
 
#183 ·
Correct, Although I am very happy with this design, it wasn't even designed by Cesar Pelli. This is just a early massing model. Cesar Pelli is designing the towers, but his designs haven't been released yet. This is a simple design, that is meant to show the plans they have. They hope to start construction of the first tower this fall.
 
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