West Loop Archives

150 North Riverside Chicago

150 North Riverside is one of Chicago’s most impressive new skyscrapers situated alongside the Chicago River. The highrise skyscraper building is is 53 stories tall with a height of 747 feet to the roof. This large building only encompasses an impressive twenty-five percent of the lot. Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The building features a stunningly beautiful LED art display designed by Yuge Zhou, Director and Curator of 150 Media Stream

The large building’s Architect, Chicago based Goettsch Partners, www.gpchicago.com utilized an ingenious cantilever design to maximize the amount of office space above the small two-acre lot along side the high demand west bank Chicago river real estate. At the ENR Midwest 2017 Best Projects Awards ceremony Goettsch Partners’ high rise project was presented with multiple awards including the top honor “Project of the Year award”. The masterpiece was also recognized as Best Project in the Office/Retail/Mixed-Use category.

Chicago, Illinois & Bethesda, Maryland based Clark Construction www.clarkconstruction.com completed work on the superstructure in 2017 and won a “Build America Award” for building this 54-story office tower with 1.2 million square feet of leasable space cantilevering off a concrete core enclosed in a curtainwall façade.

The developer for 150 N Riverside was Chicago, IL based John O’Donnell, Riverside Investment and Development Company. 150 North Riverside boasts 1.2 million square foot ofClass A+ office development located in the dynamic West Loop submarket. Located at the confluence of the three branches of the Chicago River, the Project offers a premiere location, convenient access to all major transportation systems, premium view corridors, large open floor plates and lobbies, and state-of-the-art building technology. Situated in between Randolph and Lake St this transit oriented site is steps away from commuter and CTA rail lines. On-site amenities include a conference center, board rooms, a luxury restaurant, a 6,000 Square Foot fitness center as well as 100 valet and reserved parking stalls. The Project delivers an unprecedented 1.5 acre landscaped public park at the base of the building as well as 360 feet of Riverwalk frontage. The modern architectural style utilizes a steel structure, concrete core construction, high performance floor to ceiling glass, 9’-6”clear ceiling height, and high end stone elements at the pedestrian level and lobbies. The iconic design has achieved LEED Gold pre-certification and features the most technologically advanced mechanical and building systems in the market.

Goettsch Partners Chicago Architects

The structural engineer was Seattle, Washington based Magnusson Klemencic Associates. The class A, 150 North Riverside Chicago office tower on an extremely challenging site adjacent to the Chicago River and active Amtrak rail lines.

In response to the multiple site challenges, the building features an innovative, tapered superstructure design to create a footprint equal to just 25% of the tower’s floor area. Reducing the sway in a tall building, the project architects placed very heavy objects to accommodate the building accelerations, managed with 12 liquid mass dampers (giant tanks hidden in the upper floors of the building which holds 160,000 gallons of water. These special tanks of liquid help to dramatically dampen and reduce the building’s sway.) The project includes a number of design innovations and engineering “firsts,” including the development of a thin concrete central building core structural system “spine” that hold the elevator core and transfer the load from the upper floors into the foundation – which was drilled 110 feet below grade level into 5′ deep of Chicago’s bedrock to provide a stable foundation. The building uses the largest rolled steel sections in the world, design of a high-capacity primary foundation system using half as many support pilings, and many more amazing engineering feats.

Building Design Awards include: 2016 Jurors’ Favorite/Most Innovative Structure, Excellence in Structural Engineering, Structural Engineers Association of Illinois, 2017 Building Team Award, Platinum Award, Building Design + Construction, 2017 New Construction Chicago Over $55 Million Finalist, Chicago Building Congress Merit Awards. Learn additional details about the 150 North Riverside’s Chicago architecture & building on the Chicago Architecture Center website.

MILLER+MILLER is a Chicago architectural photographer who specializes in High-rise Skyscraper Buildings Photography and much more.

John ODonnell Chicago Developer

Magnusson Klemencic Associates Structural Engineer

Goettsch Partners Chicago Architect

Clark Construction Company Chicago Builder

Harold Washington Social Security Government Building Renovation

Chicago Harold Washington Social Security Building Renovation

Government Federal city building renovation photos

Renovation construction government building architecture

Today’s post features sample architectural exterior building photos of The Harold Washington Social Security Government Building Renovation in Chicago. Our client, an architectural commercial construction company, requested building photography at multiple project locations of commercial buildings around Chicago and the suburbs showcasing past projects for the client’s marketing and construction portfolio of images for business.

The Harold Washington Social Security Center is located in the West Loop of Chicago. The headquarters for SSA’s Chicago regional office was built in 1975. The government building recently underwent a renovation. The 10-story building is made of composite steel, a reinforced concrete structural frame clad in pre-cast concrete panels, and a glass and spandrel curtain wall. The construction team in charge of the concrete building with new modern glass renovation Chicago construction project are Jacobs Ryan Associates Landscape Architects, Bergland Construction, and Harmon Inc.

The modernized, new Harold Washington Social Security Government Building occupies one city block of Chicago’s West Loop. City of Chicago Harold Washington Social Security Government building features public art at the building’s entrance. A giant, 101-foot-tall, outdoor steel sculpture baseball bat named Batcolumn (or Bat Column) by artist Claes Oldenburg.

Batcolumn Chicago Sculpture Art by Artist Claes Oldenburg Bat Column

Chicago’s skyscrapers, chimney stacks, neoclassical columns, steel bridge cross-bracing and construction cranes inspired the design of Claes Oldenburg’s heroic- scaled, lattice-shell baseball bat. On observing Chicago’s flat terrain, the Swedish-born artist once commented, “the real art here is architecture, or anything that really stands up.” Oldenburg’s Batcolumn demonstrates the artist’s fascination with scale and the changes in the significance of everyday objects when they are enlarged to monumental proportions. Like all of Oldenburg’s monuments, Batcolumn combines a humorous and irreverent attitude toward popular objects with meticulous construction details and handling of scale and proportion. It can alternately be seen as a reference to historical monumental columns, a salute to the American institution of baseball or a tribute to the steel industry. Source, The Chicago Public Art Guide

Chicago architectural photographer modern government facilities

Chicago government architect buildings photography

The Harold Washington Social Security Administration Center in Chicago is an LEED Federal Government Project. “The renovation features rooftop solar panels, energy-efficient lighting and water features, and new heating and cooling systems, earned LEED Gold certification back in July. The center currently operates with a 20 percent reduction in energy use and a 2-million-gallon reduction in water use yearly.” Source, everblue

Contact Chicago Architectural Photographers Miller + Miller Architectural Photography about exterior photography for architect pictures of social, government, security, municipality, libraries, federal, state county, city, court house, civic, township, village, administration, buildings and facilities new construction, expansion, or building renovation property marketing images and photos. Visit our Commercial Architectural Photography Portfolio and About Us sections for more about our services and additional photo examples. We are photographers who travel the Midwest and Nationwide, so contact us about government or commercial building photography in any city and at any location.

Our photography company are photographers of buildings in Illinois, Chicago, St. Louis, Springfield, Peoria, Champaign, Decatur, & Rockford. Covering property photography in Wisconsin, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Northern WI. Also available in Minnesota MN Minneapolis Saint Paul, the Twin Cities, Duluth, Rochester, Indiana, Indianapolis, Merrillville, Crown Point, South Bend, Valparaiso, Elkhart, Fort Wayne, Muncie, Lafayette, Terre Haute, Bloomington, and Evansville. In Iowa, Miller + Miller has photographed exterior photos and buildings in the Quad Cities, Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island, Moline, Des Moines, Iowa City, Dubuque, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Sioux City IA. Commercial photographer serving Michigan cities of Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, and Traverse City MI. Also covering Missouri, Nebraska, Omaha, Lincoln NE, Arkansas, Little Rock, Kentucky, Louisville KY, Ohio, Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, and Cleveland. International photography shoots flying to Canadian cities or driving into Canada to Toronto or Winnipeg is always an option. And many more locations! Consider Miller + Miller as your architectural photographer of choice for any Midwest or Nationwide buildings photography assignment.

American Book Company Historic Industrial Building

american-book-company-chicago-building

This post features a few photographs of the Historic American Book Company Building Chicago – a preserved, reinvestment and rehabilitation building in Chicago’s South Loop located within McCormick Square’s new development. We first stumbled upon this beautiful restored vintage Chicago industrial building unexpectedly after parking and preparing for our client’s new construction project and architectural hotel building photo shoot at the Marriott Marquis Chicago located right next door. The historic American Book Company building was beautifully illuminated by the sun and it couldn’t resist standing out and making its way into our shoot’s photo composition. The two buildings, standing side by side, presented a new vs vintage juxtaposition example of differing architecture. The new glass and metal construction, 40 story modern skyscraper tower of Marriott Marquis stands towering to the next door 5-story, brick and stone vintage contrasting historic renovated construction of the American Book Company Building.

mccormick-square-development-chicago-south-loop

Before doing research, we predicted this salvaged building must be of historical significance, perhaps with a story to tell. Turns out it does and has been repurposed as a part of the Marriott Marquis hotel. This post showcases a few exterior photos we captured of the historic American Book Company building in Chicago. Photographs of the relic building’s exterior red brick and stone façade photos. Researching the history of American Book Company building, the property became a Chicago historical building landmark in 2009. Recently renovated, the 5-story industrial building has now become a part of the Marriott Marquis hotel set of properties. The 1912 built landmark, warehouse loft industrial American Book Company Building is a Chicago industrial property landmark with historical significance. According to a Crain Chicago Business’s article, the building built in 1912 originally served as the American Book Company’s Midwest warehouse and distribution center. Later, R.R. Donnelly and Sons Co. bought the property, where it printed Time magazine and Sears Holding Corporation’s catalogs. The Marriott hotel’s neighbor ABC Building is a five-story, historic industrial Midwest warehouse distribution vintage building. Former home and warehouse for the American Book Company.

The ABC Building, now a Chicago relic, stands today as an iconic vintage building standing amongst a grouping of modern skyscrapers, hotels and new developments within the McCormick Court development zone. The historic Landmark American Book Company building has been salvaged and plans are already in place for repurposing the vintage building. It was during the planning and design building process for the New Community called McCormick Square, the entertainment district near McCormick place planned on incorporating a few existing properties, undergoing redevelopment, or new construction of buildings into the community.

historic-american-book-company-building-chicago-rehab-photographs-photos

As a neighbor to new Marriott Marquis hotel, the 1912 built Amercian Book Company historic building stood vacant and in decay for a few years. Although eventually it was determined to preserve and save the building to be renovated, preserved, and set for restoration during the community development process… early on, preliminary concept plans were considering demolishing the historic building. Original plans for the corner of Cermak and Prairie included a high-rise hotel on the 3.7 acre site with space for a future Casino in the South Loop. These early on development concepts, had no original mention of rehabilitation of the American Book Company building. The Preservation Chicago succeeding in preserving the American Book Company Building saving the building from demolition, opening a new chapter for the American Book Company property’s survival. Located near the redevelopment blocks and area by the McCormick Place Convention Center within the new McCormick Square development, the building has now been repurposed and salvaged. A part of Chicago’s historical building & history has successfully been kept within the South Loop neighborhood.

The American Book Co. building is a South Loop Chicago landmark building. The brick loft warehouse structural with vintage skybridge walkway and industrial property incorporates today converted modernized room functions. Retail, restaurants, hotel meeting space, and back of the house rooms for the Chicago Marriott Marquis Hotel are within the American Book Company. The ABC building is located at 320-330 East Cermak Road next door to Marriott Marquis hotel, McCormick Place & Convention Center, Wintrust Area, Motor Row, Motor Row Brewery, the Hyatt Regency McCormick Hotel, and more in the new South Loop.

Miller + Miller, Chicago Architectural photographers photograph a variety of building styles. Whether industrial, residential, commercial, new construction, modern, renovated vintage, or old historic properties in Chicago building photography, our capabilities and list of clientele is diverse. Visit our Portfolio, About Us section, and Contact Us for a quote or to discuss your business’s property photography photo needs.