Quote:
Originally Posted by BuildThemTaller
It's a parking garage, but am I crazy to think this gets a lot of things right? There are a couple of floors of active uses, big sidewalks, and the tower itself sits to the side of it rather than on top.
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I think the secret sauce is elevating the parking levels on pilotis above the sidewalk. By providing two levels of active use (office? amenities? hotel meeting space?) above the ground floor retail, it doesn't have the same dead River North feeling you get when the second floor is all blank. You don't really see blank walls (or cars) until the fourth floor, and you have to crane your neck to even see it.
MiLa had some similar moves, building a tall glassy "chandelier atrium" on the Michigan Ave side in front of the podium. 111 S Wacker did it too, in more dramatic fashion.
Architects know how to solve the podium problem, and the answer is not "stick the parking underground". But it usually comes with extra cost to the developer. I'd like to see an optional design review process that developers could undertake that would encourage these types of architectural solutions, with the carrot of density bonuses. Unfortunately Rahm decided it was better to just charge developers in cash rather than in better architecture.