CHICAGO | St. Regis Chicago (Vista) | 1,191 FT | 101 FLOORS

[wierdaaron]

This might be my naïveté shining through, but I've been surprised by how most new buildings with a good views that are split into hotel/residential seem to have all of the hotel rooms down at the bottom where they'll get none of the views.

With the Loews tower it makes sense because it's apartments, so they can jack the lease rates up as the value of the market goes up, but in this building's case it seems like you might want to have at least a few of the hotel rooms up higher in the tower so they could offer better lake and park views and charge sky-high (literally) rates for them as long as the building is standing.

With condos, you make your money once when everybody gobbles up the highest units and then you stop making money off of them, unless there's a lot of profit built into the assessments. Magellan of all entities should know how heavily the balance is starting to lean toward apartments over condos in preference by the younger monied, as well as how annoying and entitled condo residents can be in downtown.

[the urban politician]

^ my guess is that views command a much higher premium for condos
than for hotel rooms, hence nearly every mixed use tower putting condos at the top.

[ardecila]

^ Exactly. Nobody gives a crap about the views from hotel rooms, you just want them to be spacious and close to attractions with plenty of amenities.

[BVictor1]

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#sectio.../p2p-83328226/

I don't see how the political donations are relevant, but he felt the need to mention them.

Jeanne Gang does better in second version of new skyscraper

7:36 pm, April 17, 2015


Blair Kamin
CITYSCAPES
Recent Columns

It's a good thing that the Jeanne Gang-designed Wanda Vista Tower has improved considerably since it was shown last year. In classic Chicago fashion, the public review process for the proposed riverfront hotel and condominium skyscraper is anything but squeaky clean.

As the Tribune disclosed in February, executives, employees and other people associated with the project's co-developer, Magellan Development Group, have donated more than $63,000 to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. And Ald. Brendan Reilly, in whose 42nd ward the tower would be built, has received at least $50,000 from Magellan sources, campaign finance records show.

The donations raise the question of how Emanuel and Reilly can faithfully represent the public interest in this case. Whatever their disavowals, they look compromised. Nothing unusual there. This is the way the real estate game is played in Chicago: soaring design aspirations often go hand in hand with campaign cash.

[chiphile]

Originally Posted by modkris

Arbitrary arbitrary arbitrary...it's all I ever hear from you stick-up-the-ass armchair critics about EVERYTHING that is designed in this town. Curves are arbitrary. Color is arbitrary. Any shape other than a box is arbitrary. You have the right to complain but seriously do you really think you could come up with something better? Form follows function, yes, to a point. After that what happens? An endless stream of blank boxes. No need for creative designers. This isn't going to turn Chicago into Shanghai or Dubai or whatever the fuck. This will be a great building, if it is built. If it is not we have missed yet another opportunity to enhance our great city.

I'll have to co-sign this. The frustums are awesome, the design is awesome, build it as-is and quit the fake intellectual masturbation. The frustums, though a simple shape, have yet to be seen in a major development. If you google Frustum shaped building all that shows up is this Wanda proposal.
Most other skyscrapers are related to other designs in some way or another, or you'll find their cousin in China.

For the form-follows-function intellectual masturbaters, the function here isn't hampered by the form--some floor plates will be slightly smaller, others just slightly larger, every square foot can be used in a traditional hotel/condo (even office if they wanted to) layout.

This is excellent for Chicago. Let's not Lucas-Museum this thing with fake sophistication or concern for design, parking lots, or whatever the hell.

My only wish-list item would be its use, I wish it could be truly mix-use which is often lacking in Chicago. The shortest one could be office/retail, the middle hotel, the tallest condo with a nice restaurant on top.

[Mr Downtown]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

I don't see how the political donations are relevant

Maybe because

The proposed height will require city approval because it is more than 500 feet taller than the ceiling allowed by the Lakeshore East master plan.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Maybe because

The proposed height will require city approval because it is more than 500 feet taller than the ceiling allowed by the Lakeshore East master plan.

Or maybe because these plans are never written in stone nor blood, they're plans, guidelines that are designed to be changed and reconfigured, just like the South Loop plan, with its arbitrary 400' threshold for high-rises along Roosevelt.

[wierdaaron]

I felt bad for that guy at the meeting last Monday who thought he had a zinger of a prepared speech about Reilly's campaign promises and accepting money from developers during Q&A time, and when halfway through his diatribe bored audience members started shouting, "what's the question?!"

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

I felt bad for that guy at the meeting last Monday who thought he had a zinger of a prepared speech about Reilly's campaign promises and accepting money from developers during Q&A time, and when halfway through his diatribe bored audience members started shouting, "what's the question?!"

Awesome! Hope he felt like a dick.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Maybe because

The proposed height will require city approval because it is more than 500 feet taller than the ceiling allowed by the Lakeshore East master plan.

LSE Master plan called for 75 story office towers fronting Columbus and as currently planned is less dense then the original concepts for PD 70 which covers all of Illinois Center, which of course was supposed to go all the way to Lake shore Drive. Not really sure where this "500 ft ceiling" comes in as the building envelopes in the master plan also had a range of heights envisioned, varying by geographic location.

[CHI -21c]

Any huge, shiny skyscraper will always look cool and we'll always say "build it!" But don't you agree that Studio Gang is getting paid to look at the design a few layers deeper than the average person?
I do like when form has a function. I think the Hancock has more prestige than buildings that use Xs for decoration. But that's not what I mean by arbitrary.

I think Wanda's whole look is arbitrary. Our skyline is symbolic of Chicago's identity, but Wanda doesn't symbolize any characteristics of America, Downtown Chicago, or a super-tall skyscraper. I'm not saying we can't be different (I'm not even saying you can't have zig-zags) but "different" still needs to symbolize certain characteristics. What does Wanda symbolize? And any design for this site would have been robust and tall, so don't credit that to Gang.

She gave us squiggly lines, a checkered pattern, and a design program that's too easy to figure out.

I would have liked if it wasn't all frustums, emphasized the width, had some facade details, and ditched those cages at the base. They look like something from a girls college dorm.

[wrab]

Kudos to S/G for identifying LSE's disconnect from downtown as a site challenge & for conducting some great circulation research in response.

[Domer2019]

IMO, this pic really shows why this tower deserves its full height, regardless of where cars drive.


- Chicago Architecture [Editor] http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2...a-magic-wanda/
Also, credit to rlw777 for posting this on skyscrapercity


In other news, I think the Wanda will be an excellent perpendicular compliment to Lake Point Tower across the river.

[Zapatan]

^^^ Thanks for the picture, can't wait for this to rise!

Originally Posted by Domer2019

In other news, I think the Wanda will be an excellent perpendicular compliment to Lake Point Tower across the river.

I think it's way better looking that Lake Point Tower honestly. It'll complement whatever rises at the Spire site even better since that's more likely to be of a similar height.

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

^^^ Thanks for the picture, can't wait for this to rise!



I think it's way better looking that Lake Point Tower honestly. It'll complement whatever rises at the Spire site even better since that's more likely to be of a similar height.

Lake Point tower is almost 50 years old. What did Asia and Dubai look like then

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by F1 Tommy

Lake Point tower is almost 50 years old. What did Asia and Dubai look like then

I think the lakepoint tower is definitely unique and cool in it's own right (I like the shape), but part of me thinks it's kind of ugly, maybe it's the facade.

[Onn]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

I think it's way better looking that Lake Point Tower honestly. It'll complement whatever rises at the Spire site even better since that's more likely to be of a similar height.

The Related Spire project site tower could be taller. I'm guessing its going to be at least 1,200 feet, but could go as high as 1,500 feet. Just because I don't think Related is going to waste the site on something shorter. But we'll see!

[wierdaaron]

I don't think it's worthwhile to frame the design of this building in our minds as being rounded down from civicly significant buildings that speak to the core of what it means to be in Chicago and get included in skyline keychains and postcards. This is a residential building inside a weird pocket universe that exists right next to the loop where a bunch of ornamental buildings are scattered around a walled-off secret garden. You should be thinking of any new LSE building design as being rounded up from "The Chandler".

Frame it in your mind as if you woke up after a long nap and someone said guess what, Magellan just shit out another condo tower in Lakeshore East. You'd wince, and ask what it looks like. Then imagine you saw the most recent renders of this building. You'd kiss whomever you were talking to, and skip all the way home.

[sentinel]

The hatred towards this design is...whatever.

[chiphile]

Let me put the whole Frustum thing to rest.

the entire Hancock is one fucking frustum.

OK. talk about something else now folks.

I wonder, if the hancock were proposed today, how much "arbitrary" bullshit we would hear about the necessity of the higher floor plates being smaller than the lower floors? The only reason no one is questioning the Hancock's shape is because it's old and considered the classic symbol of Chicago. Build wanda in 1960 and it would've been, perhaps not the best skyscraper, but it would've been considered classic Chicago.