"Gateway to the Loop": That's the flattering way Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin describes two new towers -- 111 South Wacker and the Hyatt Center -- that face each other across Monroe Street in the Windy City. In fact, these new buildings have more in common than just being neighbors. Both offer prominently curving lines to this right-angled metropolis, one at its street level and the other along its entire shaft. The two are similarly speculative office ventures boasting unusually large, column-free, floor plans -- big, tenant-pleasing "lease spans,"
to use the broker's parlance. Not insignificantly, they are also the first two high-rises in Chicago to meet the city's demanding new energy code and green standards. (And inside, each also happens to have aluminum blinds by Hunter Douglas Contract.) Both have received near-universal praise, for good reason. More > |
