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PROJECT REPORT: TALL BUILDINGS
HIGH-WAISTED Due to the building’s core being offset to maximise floor space, it lacked lateral support – the solution was external, high-waisted steel X-braced frames
commercial clients, tenants so far lured to this fashionable new district of the city include healthcare provider The Aspen Group, and farming equipment giant John Deere.
Background Thor Equities, based in New York, had “recently had quite a bit of success with a recently completed renovation project of a historic building right down the street,” 905 West Fulton Market, says project architect on the new scheme, Kevin Rodenkirch. “They were able to attract a large snack manufacturer, Mondelez, to move their headquarters there,” adds the architect, who has experience in very competitive commercial schemes with tough energy targets, like Broadgate in the City of London, and 100 Mount Street in North Sydney, Australia.
The developer then turned its attention to the site of what is now 800 Fulton Market, buoyed by having sold the completed building for a price per square foot that was a record at the time in the city, and a construction boom since McDonalds moved their headquarters to Chicago in 2018.
Rodenkirch says that while SOM’s architects were working from home during the pandemic, and city administration was
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supporting nearby restaurants under threat by pedestrianising parts of Fulton Market, “construction was going crazy in the area.” SOM revisited some aspects of the new scheme, having finished their design just before the pandemic hit in 2020. Covid has added further impetus to the previously muted attempts in commercial buildings to offer staff generous access to exterior spaces, on staff wellness grounds. Kevin says clients now see it as an essential differentiator to give their workers outside space and fresh air, and the new scheme is a great example: “Access to the exterior wasn’t always a big thing in the office market, but now it is.”
Site With the area having been a meat packing district, the historic vernacular is characterful three to five storey brick warehouses, many being former cold storage, as a result, many are being renovated. The result is a “preservation of a massive amount of the character, and a lot of schemes have been renovations with small additions. In 2016, Chicago planners decided they wanted to expand the downtown area in a “very direct way,” creating three ‘expansion zones’; here in Fulton Market, as well as two to the south and the north west. This
ADF JUNE 2022
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