311 South Wacker Drive, Chicago


[311 South Wacker Drive (1990) Kohn Pedersen Fox, architects /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

There is something missing from this picture. Imagine if you will two 50-story towers running up the angled sides of 311 S. Wacker. That was the plan when the building was designed by architects Kohn Fox & Pedersen in 1990, but the economy and lots of unleased floor space in the completed 65-story structure put the kibosh on a trio-towered skyscraper.


[311 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

One part of the original plan that did eventually see the light of day was the 6-story Winter Garden, an architectural device that was very popular back in those days of post-modernism. The problem of filling the building with tenants didn't have as much to do with too much space, as it did with bad timing. Conceived 5 years prior to its opening in a booming commercial real estate market, new high-end office space was in great demand. Plus the city of Chicago was working hard to revive the downtown core by encouraging new office projects along a stretch of Wacker Drive which was once a vibrant manufacturing and warehousing district that had seen better days, and was in need of revitalization. Unfortunately by the time 311 South Wacker was ready for occupancy, the economy was rocky and renters were hard to come by.


[311 South Wacker /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

But, standing rather isolated at Wacker's southern edge, the 70-foot high drum crowning the top of the building became an instant landmark on the city's skyline, and a dramatic, sometimes derided, compliment to the dark, boxy, 110-story tower next door then known as Sears. Jump to 2010 and Sears has become Willis, and plans are in the works to build a glass tower next to the northwest facing diagonal corner of 311. The southwest facing diagonal will continue to overlook a parking lot for the foreseeable future.

See another Chicago project from the offices of Kohn Pedersen & Fox at: Contextually Curved, and a glimpse of the tower next door: Sky Box.
Posted by designslinger at 8/8/2011 3:19 AM
Categories: Architecture, History
Tags: Kohn commercial architecture Wacker Drive
 

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  • 8/8/2011 8:23 PM Larry S. wrote:
    I wonder if they solved the problem of all the bird collisions caused by the illuminated crown...
    1. 8/9/2011 3:58 AM designslinger wrote:
      Didn't find anything reported in the past few years. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean it still doesn't happen.
  • 8/9/2011 6:17 PM Simply Grand wrote:
    This isn't what I'd call a distinguished building by any means, but I always felt its inflated-looking light-up Postmodern parody of the Tribune Tower's Gothic pinnacle was sort of clever in a sort of Separated-at-Birth way, at least until somebody told me that that wasn't at all the intent. Well, call me dumb. I always thought it was an architectural in-joke.

    What can I say? It doesn't take much to amuse me.
    1. 8/10/2011 3:34 AM designslinger wrote:
      Intended or not, it makes for a great story and helps make the drum a little more palatable, and much more amusing.

      1. 9/27/2011 10:47 AM MR Traska wrote:
        Say what you will: it'll always be the White Castle building to me. That lit-up turret on top always makes me think of sliders. And then smile.
        1. 9/28/2011 4:29 AM designslinger wrote:
          Interesting that White Castle didn't make the building their corporate headquarters. What advertising.

          1. 9/28/2011 11:38 AM MR Traska wrote:
            Perhaps they didn't know about it. The company moved its headquarters from its origins in Wichita, Kansas in 1921 to Columbus, Ohio in 1933 and stayed there. They're pretty much part of the landscape there by now and likely would see no advantage to moving, Columbus having a lower cost of living.

            The company does, however, hold a little piece of Chicago in its heart: the chain's castle-like buildings were deliberately designed to mimic Chicago's own Water Tower pumping station, though the reasoning behind this is obscure and may be lost to history. Still, that castle design goes all the way back to the 1930s, at least.
            1. 9/29/2011 3:18 AM designslinger wrote:

            2. 9/29/2011 3:33 AM designslinger wrote:
              And one of the oldest White Castle stores is in the Chicago area. Chicago may be more expensive, but what a great advert that crenelated, white-topped drum would have been for the makers of that one-of-a-kind castle burger.

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