353 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois, River North 60654 United StatesPrint this page   •   Share this page

It's been said that if a new skyscraper isn't at least 80 stories, it goes unnoticed in Chicago. This fine tower may be a victim of that kind of dismissive attitude. It's a nice builting that would be welcomed in just about any other American city, but for some reason failed to make a splash in the birthplace of the skyscraper.

At 45 stories, it's not setting any records; but it does something that few new buildings do these days -- it works with it surroundings. Blue glass always works well in Chicago, and the cladding of this building complements its greener-tinted neighbor at 300 North Clark. Moreover, its scale and proximity to the Chicago River make it a welcome addition to the neighborhood.

But with such high-profile projects as the Trump International Hotel and Tower and the Waterview Tower being erected just blocks away, this building suffers from Jan Brady syndrome. Worse, even the marketing material that the developers put together only shows one full view of the building. Instead, the focus is on what office workers can see from the building. While this is important, people still like to be proud of the building in which they work.

Visually, the building takes the basic glass box pattern and adds a few subtle variations in the form of vertical setbacks. While this could have given the building 18 glassed-in corner offices, it simply didn't happen. The setbacks are too minor to make a difference, and even if they were larger there are support columns at all of the corners except for the four primary ones.

Mechanical floors are not hidden in this building, and are located at a similar height as the ones on the nearby IBM Building and the roof height of several nearby buildings. It's small touches like this that show the architects made an effort to to have the building blend in with its neighbors. On the roof a curved screen hides more mechanical elements.

These attempts to play nice with the other towers in the neighborhood are negated by the fact that the building actually turns its back on the world around it. It desperately wants to be a Clark Street tower on the river even though its mass is located on the corner of Dearborn and Kinzie. But neither Dearborn nor Kinzie sell in Chicago. A Clark Street address is far more valuable so the building takes its address from that boulevard even though the only portion of it fronting Clark is an auditorium and a hundred linear feet of landscaped steps. The main entrance to this building is actually on Carroll Court, which the developer calls a private drive and touts as one of the building's amenities, along with "elegant sophistication" and "convenient restroom access."

Again, these are not criticisms of the building. It's a great skyscraper and certainly 100% more welcome in this location than the surface parking lot and adult bookstores which preceded it. But we can't help but feel that it's getting the fuzzy end of the lollypop when it comes to marketing and promotion.

46:  37-45:  33-36:  23-33:  22:  20-21:  14-19:  13:  4-12:  3:  2:  1:  Riverwalk:  P2-P1:

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  Nice building. I wish it has a twin next door to get rid of the rest of the smut peddlers in the area. Good to see things getting cleared out by good architecture.

Mike Enfield - Sunday, May 25th, 2008 @ 6:03pm