Whitehead-Elniski Residence
Location
1313 W. Ohio, Chicago Map
Owner
Frances Whitehead and James Elniski
Architect
James & Kutyla Architecture
RTKL Studio
Location
200 S. Michigan, Chicago Map
Owner
RTKL Associates
Architect
RTKL Associates
RTKL, an international architecture, engineering, and planning firm, has relocated their Chicago office to the Borg-Warner building, one the few modern-style high-rises in the historic Michigan Avenue streetwall. The 25,000 sf architectural studio space is seeking LEED-CI Silver certification with the usual interiors emphasis on high-efficiency lighting and green materials.
ICG Offices
Location
210 S. Clark, Chicago Map
Owner
Interior Construction Group, Inc.
Architect
Gary Lee Partners
ICG, a general contractor specializing in commercial interiors, is relocating their offices to the 13th floor of 210 S. Clark. This relatively small project (8,000 sf) is seeking LEED-CI Gold certification and presents some unusual opportunities because it is actually in the same building as the company's current offices. It's a great demonstration that you don't have to be a huge company (like Exelon) or always go all-out (like Exelon) in order to think green on something as seemingly routine as a commercial office. Our construction photo shows an often-overlooked indoor air quality construction process detail - protection of open ends of ductwork being installed.
Blackhawk/Halsted
Location
1460 N. Halsted, Chicago Map
Developer
Structured Development
Architect
Valerio Dewalt Train
Blackhawk/Halsted is a new 150,00 sf four story speculative retail and office buiding (two floors of each) with an adjacent seven level parking garage. The project is in the already-crazy North/Halsted/Clbyourn corridor, just north of the new British School and across the street from the soon-to-be-razed (or deconstructed?) New City YMCA. The project is seeking basic LEED certification, and although the green features are fairly basic, it's nice to see another entrant in a fairly empty field - Southgate Market may be the only other green speculative (mass-market) retail project in Chicago.
353 N. Clark
Location
353 N. Clark Map
Developer
Mesirow Financial
Architect
Lohan Anderson (Design)
Epstein (Architect of Record)
353 N. Clark is a new 45-story, 1.1 million sf speculative office tower anchored by Mesirow Financial and law firm Jenner & Block. The project is LEED for Core and Shell precertified for Silver certification. As I've indicated before, I expect that most major office towers downtown will now earn LEED certification, as evidenced by the growing list of peers to this project.
Flashpoint Academy
Location 
28 N. Clark Map
Owner
Flashpoint Academy
Architect
Valerio Dewalt Train Associates
Flashpoint Academy is a new media arts and sciences school occupying 58,000 sf on two floors (plus a small storefront street-level space) in the Burnham Center (aka 111 W. Washington). The two-year school will offer four areas of study: cinema, recording arts, gaming and animation - their new space includes classrooms, computer labs, recording facilities, a directing stage, a screening room, an information commons, a motion-capture studio, and student lounges to support these studies. The project is seeking LEED-CI Silver certification, and similar to the Spertus Institute, demonstrates that a sleek, contemporary design can still be green - you don't have to live and work in a hobbit hole to be green.
Millennium Park Bike Station
Location
239 E. Randolph Map
Owner
City of Chicago
Architect
Muller & Muller
The Millennium Park Bike Station was completed in 2003, and although it is not LEED certified, it does warrant brief coverage as a green project. This is mostly because of the inherently green use of the 3-story building, as one of the nation's only centers dedicated to bicycle commuting and recreation. The building includes storage space for 300 bikes, showers, toilets, lockers, bike rentals, a bike repair station, a small summer time cafe, and houses the Chicago Lake Front Bike Police headquarters. Note that naming rights have finally been sold, so the official name is McDonald's Cycle Center (which this author considers an oxymoron).
900 S. Clark
Location
900 S. Clark Map
Owner
AMLI Residential
Architect
Solomon Cordwell Buenz
900 S. Clark is a 24-story, 440 unit apartment tower currently under construction just north of the Target along Roosevelt Road. This is the first high-rise apartment building (instead of condos) to seek LEED certification in Chicago. It is also AMLI's first project of any sort within the Chicago city limits, although they have many walk-up rental properties in the suburbs.
Access Living
Location
115 W. Chicago Map
Owner
Access Living
Architect
LCM Architects
Access Living has moved into their new 4-story, 50,000 sf headquarters housing open plan and private offices and meeting rooms. As a non-profit providing support and services to the disabled, it's to be expected that their headquarters is a model of universal design. That the project is seeking LEED Silver certification is icing on the cake, and leads to some interesting parallels between these rapidly growing movements.
Update: Exelon Headquarters
Chicago now has three LEED Platinum projects, which we believe is the most of any municipality in the nation. Added to the long-complete LEED-NC Platinum Chicago Center for Green Technology and Center for Neighborhood Technology (which we'll cover soon) is the new LEED-CI Platinum Exelon Headquarters, which we previously covered here. Exelon has a press release on the certification here. Congratulations to the entire project team!
Hannah's Bretzel Zwei
Location
233 N. Michigan Map
Owner
Hannah's Bretzel
Architect
UrbanLab
Photo courtesy Michelle Litvin
Hannah's Bretzel, the outrageously popular organic lunch spot, has opened a second location in the Illinois Center (don't confuse this with the State of IL building, aka Thompson Center). This time, the 1,750 sf space is organic as well, seeking LEED for Commercial Interiors certification. As a frequent customer of the original location (down the street from my office), I'll admit an undue bias on this one.
Lexington Park
Location
2138 S. Indiana Map
Owner
Chieftain Construction
Architect
VOA
Wieboldt Hall
Location
339 E. Chicago Map
Owner
Northwestern University
Architect
SmithGroup
Exelon Headquarters
Location
10 S. Dearborn Map
Owner
Exelon Corporation
Architect
Interior Space International
AIA Chicago Offices
Location
35 E. Wacker Map
Owner
AIA Chicago
Design Architects
Daimian Hines
Andrew M. Senderak
Natalie Banaszak
Architect of Record
HOK
The Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects is moving from their current home at the Merchandise Mart to a new office in the historic Jeweler's Building, also home to Helmut Jahn's office. They are seeking LEED for Commercial Interiors certification for this small interior build-out. The chapter held a design competition for young architects which was won by the folks listed above, who completed the project design with the assistance of HOK.
Westhaven Park Phase IIB
Location
Lake/Wood/Washington/Wolcott Map
Owner
Brinshore Development
Michaels Development Co.
Architect
Landon Bone Baker Architects Ltd.
Brook Architecture Inc.
Westhaven Park Phase IIB is a mixed-income, 213-unit, 30 building portion of the Chicago Housing Authority's redevelopment of the former Henry Horner Homes. 127 rental units in 18 buildings are currently under construction; the remainder are for-sale units to be constructed as a second phase. The buildings vary in size from 4 to 12 units per building. Every unit will be Energy Star rated.
Farr Associates Office
Location
53 W. Jackson Map
Owner
Farr Associates
Architect
Farr Associates
Farr's 3,200 square foot office space in the historic Monadnock Building is another example of historic preservation and green design working together. The space was a LEED for Commercial Interiors pilot project and is currently applying for the final certification.
Whole Foods Market - South Loop
Location
1101 S. Canal Map
Owner
Whole Foods Market Group, Inc.
Architect
Heights Venture Architects, LLP
The South Loop Whole Foods Market is a 53,000 sf organic foods grocery store located within the new Southgate Market development. This will be Whole Foods' largest store in Chicago and is seeking a Certified rating under LEED for Commercial Interiors. There are a handful of other grocery stores in the U.S. that have pursued LEED certification (including Whole Foods in Sarasota, Florida and Austin, Texas), and consequently the design team has invested significant effort in exploring the relationship between LEED and food stores.
Southgate Market
Location
1101 S. Canal Map
Owner
JPS Interests
Architect
Eckenhoff Saunders Architects
Southgate Market is a five-story 'mall' housing several big-box type retailers, including Whole Foods Market, Office Depot, and Linens and Things. The project is seeking a LEED for Core and Shell Certified rating. The developer has publicly questioned the value of the certification, so hopefully his experience on this project will be positive and lead to other green (and LEED) projects.
Pacific Garden Mission
Location
1458 S. Canal Map
Owner
Pacific Garden Mission
Architect
Tigerman McCurry Architects
Image produced by Built Light
Pacific Garden Mission is a 3-story, 156,000 sf rescue mission serving homeless men and women. The new building at 14th Place and Canal is a replacement (not without controversy) for the organization's two existing locations that serve men and women separately, including the location at 646 S. State with the iconic sign (which is planned to be relocated). The new facility will house nearly 1,000 beds, serve 180,000 meals a month, and include gymnasiums, classrooms, library spaces, and all of the food and laundry services required to support such a massive operation.
300 N. LaSalle
Location
300 N. LaSalle Map
Owner
Hines
Architect
Pickard Chilton (Design)
Kendall/Heaton Associates (Architect of Record)
300 N. LaSalle is a 60-story, 1.3 million square foot office tower with 3 levels of underground parking and street and river level restaurant space. The project has earned LEED Gold pre-certification under the LEED for Core and Shell program. Construction began in July 2006 and is scheduled for completion in 2009.
Essentially all of the green features found in One South Dearborn, Hines' first LEED project in Chicago, are included here and need not be reiterated. One major, but not ground-breaking, addition is a green roof.
Near North SRO
Location
1244 N. Clybourn Map
Owner
Mercy Housing Lakefront
Architect
Murphy/Jahn Architects
Near North SRO is a 5-story, 96 unit single room occupancy that will be home to those on the CHA waiting list or at risk of homelessness. The average unit is only 300 square feet, but like many modern SROs, includes a private kitchen and bath. Social services are housed on the first floor. The project is under construction and targeting LEED Certification.
340 On the Park
Location
340 E. Randolph Map
Owner
LR Development Company
Architect
Solomon Cordwell Buenz
Image courtesy of ImageFiction
340 On the Park is a 62-story, 344 unit condominium tower located on the last available site along Randolph Street between Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue. If you've been to Millennium Park this summer and looked north, you've had a fabulous view of this building being closed in. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2007.
111 S. Wacker
Location
111 S. Wacker Map
Developer
The John Buck Company
Architect
Goettsch Partners
111 S. Wacker is a 53-story, 1.46 million sf speculative office tower completed in 2005 and was the first building ever to receive LEED for Core and Shell Gold certification. The project has won several awards and been the subject of varied media coverage. The building was sold earlier this year to a German investment fund, reportedly for a Chicago record-breaking $400/sf. Although the green building community would like to tout the building's greenness as contributing to this sales prices, Buck has stated they do not believe this is the case. Rather, the developer sees LEED certification here as a test case for future projects.
Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse
Location
555 W. Harrison Map
Owner
Cook County, IL
Architect
Campbell Tiu Campbell
(Architect of Record)
Booth Hansen (Design)
Photo: Mark Ballogg
The Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse is a 4-story, 169,000 sf building housing 10 courtrooms, social services, childcare facilities, and public agency office space. The building opened in October 2005 and is seeking LEED Silver certification. It is a replacement for the previous courthouse building at 13th and Michigan with woefully inadequate facilities. The building is the first constructed under Cook County's ordinance requiring LEED certification for all new county-owned buildings and won the 2006 Chicago Building Congress Merit Award for Rehab Construction.
Continue reading "Cook County Domestic Violence Courthouse" »
One South Dearborn
Location
1 S. Dearborn Map
Owner
Hines
Architect
Richard Keating (Design)
DeStefano + Partners (Architect of Record)
One South Dearborn is a 40-story, 820,000 sf office tower that has earned LEED for Core and Shell Silver certification. The building was completed in late 2005 and like any new loop high-rise has been extensively reviewed and discussed (e.g. general information here, Blair Kamin's review here {fee}, and construction discussion here).
Clybourn Point
Location
1322 N. Clybourn 
Map
Owner
Rada Development
Architect
Rada Architects
Clybourn Point is a four-story mixed-use building with six residential units and a first-floor commercial space. This is one of the smallest projects currently seeking LEED certification (goal of LEED Silver) in Chicago, and is owned by a first-time developer. Many smaller green residential projects are owned by new developers who recognize green building as a way to differentiate their product, and Clybourn Point is certainly in that group. The project is also just up the street from Near North SRO (to be discussed in a future post) and City Farm, making this stretch of Clybourn one of the greenest areas in the city.
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
Location
610 S Michigan Map
Owner
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
Architect
Krueck + Sexton Architects
The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies is a 10-story, 155,000 sf mixed-use building located in the landmark South Michigan Avenue streetwall. This project doesn't boldly announce its green qualities to the world, but rather meets many competing and complex demands of the site, client, program, and an innovative design. I like that this shows that not all green projects have to have a primary focus on being green. The building is a replacement for the institute's current building, which is adjacent to the new site. The institute has more detailed information on the project here. The project has received a fair amount of publicity, including Blair Kamin's article on approval of the design.
