Here’s a sneak preview of the first precast panel off the assembly line at the manufacturing facility. Installation of the precast panels for The Ritz-Carlton Residences on the Magnificent Mile is scheduled for October.
"Moon Over Chicago" by Ken Ilio
Chicago has a long history of architecture preservation. Even before the city was decimated by its famous fire, people embraced the physical beauty of architecture and worked to keep historic buildings from feeling the hot kiss of a flying wrecking ball.
But, eventually, every building will outlive its usefulness. In a few of these cases, the spirit of the original building can be preserved through what’s colloquially known as a “facadectomy.”
The best example of this in Chicago is the McGraw-Hill Building.
McGraw-Hill Building by Gerald Figal
Built in 1929 at 520 North Michigan Avenue, it was one of the signature structures of a boulevard that would quickly become a source of regional pride and a national shopping destination. But as the 20th century drew to a close, the fate of the historic building became fuzzy. It stood in the way of the construction of a billion-dollar retail, office, and hotel complex.
Those who stood by the McGraw-Hill Building pushed the city of Chicago to protect it by naming it a historic landmark. Their wish was granted in 1997… sort of. The building’s facade was landmarked. The building itself was not.
As a result, the outer skin of the 70-year-old high rise was cut into pieces, labeled, catalogued, and stored in a warehouse while a new hotel was built in its place. When the hotel was finished, the historic facade was pieced together and affixed to the outside of the new building.
Visually, the average person sees no difference. As far as John and Jane Public are concerned, it’s a lovely 80-year-old building. To hardcore preservationists, it’s Hannibal Lecter in an architecturally hideous mask.
Critics had good reason to worry when preservation of McGraw-Hill was first suggested. Just a decade earlier, a Loop building underwent a facadectomy that, to this day, is widely regarded as a visual disaster.
Photo Credit: Brian Boyer
The Otis building was a four-story office building with intricate terra cotta ornamentation and an architecturally pleasing look. But a four-story building makes no sense on the Midwest’s version of Wall Street. So in 1986, the 37-story 10 South LaSalle Street Building was erected. The architects essentially shoved a massive cobalt blue skyscraper into the skin of the old Otis building, with the top 33 floors sticking out of the roof.
Although some semblance of the original building was retained, it’s hard not to miss the enormous blue monster looming above, completely failing to match the limestone elegance of its neighbors.
The later success of the McGraw-Hill transplant seems to have proven that such an operation can be successfully done. Since then, a row of historic storefront facades along Wabash Street have been preserved while The Legacy at Millennium Park, a residential skyscraper, went up behind them.
The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago, now under construction, is following the same route as the successful McGraw-Hill Building down the street. The developers for the luxury condominiums have removed the facade of the old Farwell Building. It is being restored and will be affixed to the podium portion of the new condo block.
While there will always be die-hard naysayers who complain that such procedures violate the historical integrity of a property, others point out that sometimes it’s unavoidable. Sometimes old buildings have to die so that others may be born in their place.
Someday, the Empire State Building and the Willis Tower will meet their ends, too. And while it’s sad to think that such icons will one day see the same fate, it cannot be denied that since the beginning of time, destruction has been the necessary predecessor of creation. Time changes all things and between a photograph or a facade, the transplant may very well be the better architectural heritage to leave for the next generation.
Wayne Lorentz writes The Chicago Architecture Blog for the Artefaqs Corporation.
Photo Credits: Brian Boyer, Ken Ilio, Gerald Figal
This is where we start, when we begin to discuss the architectural inspiration for The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago. And it’s something that should be discussed. After all, this is not your common luxury condominium development. It’s an architectural milestone for Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and a highly anticipated addition to a skyline already revered for its style and diversity.
So, let’s take a step back to The Residences’ design inspiration, way back to the elegant apartment buildings of the 1920s.
The scale is grand, with an atmosphere of a quiet, luxury residential feel.
From the first step inside the intimate lobby, you know you’re in a special place.
The materials, details and service of the space are refined and civilized.
It’s inspired. It’s true luxury.
Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago's Illuminated Roof Design Detail- Lucien Lagrange
And it’s our future.
Heather Weed is a Principal with Lucien Lagrange Architects.
Paris 1900 Photo Credit: Robert Bonnin
A touch of old world grace is returning to the heart of Chicago. With the construction of The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago the retail hub of the city reaches back in time to an era when the city’s goal was to have Michigan Avenue mimic the Champs Elysees. Long before Daniel Burnham gave Chicago the nickname “Paris on the Prairie” in 1909, the people who were the driving force behind the development of the city pined for a metropolis that would rival Europe’s City of Light.
In the 1800′s, before Chicago had beaches or even its first public library, there were already calls for Michigan Avenue in The Loop to be shaped in Parisian style. When Pine Street, north of the river, became an extension of Michigan Avenue, notions of Parisian elegance flowed northward. The former industrial area was transformed into a neighborhood of limestone mansions flanking a boulevard lined by cream colored mid-rise apartment buildings sporting elegant mansard roofs at the top and chic cafes and boutiques at the bottom.
"Samuel Nickerson House 1883" Photograph courtesy of the Driehaus Museum
It took only a matter of decades for this transformation to happen. A June 28, 1868 editorial in the Tribune lamented, “Chicago Not Yet A Metropolis.” Less than 50 years later the area had transformed itself and an editorial on October 5, 1913, talking specifically about Michigan Avenue, began with the line, “This town is right smart metropolitan.” The “Boul Mich” was born. Some people in Chicago today still talk about the “Boul Mich,” though they are far too young to have ever experienced it. It was a time when North Michigan Avenue was humming with well-dressed women shopping for fancy hats and bohemian artists from around the world plying their trade. Chicago was a city of life and optimism and ever-forward expansion. At a time before the internet, before the modern telephone network, Chicago was a city known around the world as a center of commerce and innovation.
A hundred years after that first editorial, a one-hundred story building would change the shape of Michigan Avenue forever. By then “Boul Mich” had become the “Magnificent Mile” and as skyscrapers turned the boulevard into a canyon, the boutiques moved into the side streets like Oak, Walton, and Rush to make room for chain stores and vertical malls.
But in the neighborhood’s architectural undergrowth there are still plenty of signs of the old architecture that once dominated. A hair salon on East Erie. The Ukrianian Consulate on East Huron. The Ransom Cable House on Wabash and the new Driehaus Museum on the opposite corner. Even the buildings housing the Chase Bank branch and Niketown are artifacts of an age when Michigan Avenue was more Paris than it was Palos Park.
One of the newest projects to go up on the street is bringing back the old style — The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago. It’s a visual hybrid of new-fangled skyscraper and old-fashioned apartment house. With a mansard roof capping its podium it preserves the bygone era of Michigan Avenue, while at the same time contributing to the visual excitement of the north side skyscraper forest that stretches ever upward.
Wayne Lorentz runs the Chicago Architecture Blog for the Artefaqs Corporation.
The design and development teams of the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago have finalized a name for the private residence club — The Landmark Club. The Landmark Club, which will occupy the entire 10th floor of the building, will provide a long list of services available only to residents and their guests. Bruce Schultz, Principal of Prism Development stated that “there will simply be no comparison to the style and ambience exhibited in our Landmark Club, from the Billiards Room that will have individual, conditioned wine bins to the luxurious Dining Room, to the state-of-the-art Screening Room.” The Landmark Club will represent the ultimate in amenities and service.
For more info about the Landmark Club, click here.
The Lankmark Club Floorplan
The preservation of the historic Farwell Building has been a primary goal in the development of the Ritz-Carlton Residences. The 1920’s structure features Art Deco design and was one of the first buildings that helped revamp the area into the “Magnificent Mile.”
The original goal was to successfully preserve 90% of the limestone slabs that make up the façade. After a 10 month removal process, 99.9% of them were preserved successfully.
The preserved façade will be reinstalled onto the new building, with a new foundation and structure. Missing tiles will be replaced by replicas and a new roof will be constructed in the original style.
The Old Farwell building
