![]() The tour was insightful and a great addition to our activities in Chicago. The last to the get there will likely have to put their project on hold until demand grows. We were told that the market can likely only support two more projects like this, and with three in the planning stages, it is a race to see who get there first. Moving forward, the company has plans for another office tower on the site across the street. was able to secure tenants and financing for a 2007 construction start. ![]() The hardest part was lining up tenants while also trying to line up capital (a chicken and egg scenario), but John Buck Co. ![]() Bringing a million square foot office building to Chicago in the recovery stage of a recession was no small feat. The tour finished in one of the few vacant spaces, which gave us a chance to hear a little more about the life of this project and future projects that John Buck Co. The center provided members with all the services found in a typical fitness center but with the added convenience of being in the building. On the same floor was another one of the buildings amenities – the fitness center. This was included as an amenity for building tenants, but it is operated in a way that makes it financially self-sustaining. The grand entry and high level of security speak to the building’s Class A position in the market, but the building includes a “checklist” of other amenities that allow it to compete in this sector of Chicago’s office market:Īfter exploring the building’s lobby, we went up a level to the high-tech conference center that was available for tenants to reserve. Runstad Center Board Chair Lisa Stewart joined us on the tour and noted that this is unique to some of the larger office markets in the country. In addition to a full-time security staff monitoring the building’s entries, access cards were needed to enter the elevator lobby. Another notable characteristic of the building was the level of highly visible security. The grand entry is designed to bring the outside in and the inside out, and many of the design elements and materials run through the building to the street. took us behind the scenes of this Class A+ office tower and explained the process of developing this project in the middle of the Great Recession.įrom blocks away, it is apparent that 155 North Wacker is exceptional, as it rises above the structures around it. Read on to hear all about their trip to 155 Wacker, Chicago’s newest office tower.Īs a part of last week’s ULI events, Runstad Students received an exclusive invite to tour Chicago’s newest office tower, 155 North Wacker. It probably would have been possible to erect a self-supporting steel structure of the required height, but there are a number of problems which occur when a building is that tall.MSRE ’13 student Eric Hadden writes in with another report from our students’ recent trip to Chicago for the ULI 2013 Fall Meeting. At the time, the tallest skyscraper in the world was New York's Empire State Building, at less than a quarter the height suggested for the Illinois. Wright believed that it would have been technically possible to construct such a building even at the time it was proposed. The design of the Burj Khalifa tower is said to have been inspired by that of The Illinois. ![]() None of these has ever been viewed as financially feasible. This is arguably the most famous of the semi-serious visionary buildings meant to be an alternative to the increasing urban sprawl occurring in most cities. Had it been built, it would be the tallest building in the world. The design, intended to be built in Chicago, would have included 528 stories, with a gross area of 18.46 million square feet (1.71 million square meters/171 hectares). The Mile High Illinois, Illinois Sky-City, or simply The Illinois was a proposed mile-high (1,609 meters/5,280 feet) skyscraper, envisioned by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956.
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