© William Zbaren

Architects: Krueck & Sexton Architects
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Associate architect: VOA Architects
Client: Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
Commissioning agent: U.S. Equities Development
Interior designer: Krueck & Sexton Architects
Engineers: Tylk, Gustafson, Reckers, Wilson, Andrews (Structural), Environmental Systems Design (MEP/Fire Protection/Life Safety)
Landscape consultant: Daniel Weinbach & Partners
Environmental consultant: Atelier Ten
Lighting: ISP Design Inc., Schuler & Shook (Atrium Lighting)
Acoustical: Kirkegaard Associates
General contractor: W.E. O’Neil
Project Area: 13,471 sqm
Budget: US $40,000,000
Project year: 2007
Photographs: William Zbaren

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After our UN Studio’s Burnham Pavilion gallery, many of you wondered how it was built. This photo reveals the woodenstructure for this pavilion, which was later finished with a plastic-like material.

Photo via Construmatica.

© Guillermo Hevia

A couple of days ago we featured Zaha Hadid’s Burham Pavilion at the Millenium Park in Chicago. Some of you asked about the UN Studio pavilion, and I got Guillermo Hevia to share with us a very good set of photos of the project.

If you want to know more about this pavilion’s background read our previous article.

More photos after the break.

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Images courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects © Michelle Litvin

The figure of Daniel Burnham has been very important for the city of Chicago as we currently know it,  as he was one of the authors of the Plan of Chicago, also known as the Burnham Plan,  which reshaped Chicago’s central area starting in 1909.  To celebrate the centennial of this plan several events have been held during this year, such as the Union Station 2020 competition and the Burnham Memorial competition. Also, two pavilions by UN Studio and Zaha Hadid have been temporally  installed at the Millenium Park (read our previous article about this), hosting multimedia exhibits on the future of Chicago. The pavilions will be opened to the public until Oct 31st, 2009.

Zaha Hadid Architects´s pavilion merges new formal concepts with the memory of Burnham’s bold, historic urban planning. Superimpositions of spatial structures with hidden traces of Burnham’s Plan are overlaid and inscribed within the structure to create a dynamic form.

Read Zaha´s statement on the design after the break:

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Chicago Architecture Today announced two competitions currently initiated and concluding in April 2010. The first is student-based Mock Firms International Skyscraper Challenge which focuses on a studio brief for Mexico City. More details here.

The second is a professional competition called The 2010 Chicago Initiative. It has 2 components with one challenging designers to create affordable, sustainable transitional housing in select Western European countries where unsuccessful immigration assimilation has contributed to civic unrest. More details here.

Architect: Studio Gang Architects
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Owner: SOS Children’s Villages
Completion: 2008
Photographs: Steve Hall @ Hedrich Blessing

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In addition to the temporary pavilions by Hadid and UNStudio (As we reported earlier)  the celebration of the 100^th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s Plan for Chicago will also include a permanent memorial.  For the memorial, which will honor the legacy of Burnham and his plan,  Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust and the AIA Chicago Foundation funded and organized, respectively, a small design competition consisting of 20 invited competitors.  The jury unanimously selected Chicago-based architect David Woodhouse’s proposal noting, “it has elegance, simplicity and, in the end, it’s a modern solution. It almost looks evitable. It’s that appropriate to the site.”

More images and more about Woodhouse’s  memorial after the break. read more »

Our friends from Design Crave shared with us these amazing photos of the recently opened public glass balconies for public viewing. The 1.5″ thick glass floor (which resists up to 5 tons) offers amazing views over Chicago, from 1,353 feet in the air.

As you can see on a picture after the break, the balcony cantilevers from the main structure.

More images after the break.

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UNStudio's Pavilion

Zaha Hadid's Pavilion

We introduced the Burnham Plan Pavilions designed by Zaha Hadid and UNStudio a few months ago, and now, both are almost ready to be opened to the public.  Continuing Millenium Park’s tradition of displaying dynamic public art, the pavilions emphasize bettering the future, which echo the ideals of the 1909 Burnham Plan.  Although opening day was June 19th, only UNStudio’s pavilion was complete, as Hadid’s pavilion will require a few more weeks until it will be opened to the public due to its geometric complexities.

More about each pavilion after the break. read more »

© james steinkamp, steinkamp photography

Architects: The Office of James Burnett
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Master Planning: Skidmore Owings and Merrill
Design Landscape Architect: Tha Office of James Burnett
Landscape Architect of Record: Site Design Group Limited
Engineering Services: Epstein
Client: Magellan Group Limited / Loewenberg and Associates
Project Year: 2002-2003
Construction Year: 2004-2005
Constructed Area: 5.2 Acres
Photographs: james steinkamp, steinkamp photography

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Chicago Union Station, by Germany-based Graft Architects will treat the user group as two: the traveler and the inhabitant.

The traveler has a destination, a purpose, a need to get through the process as efficiently as possible. The penetration into the site will be minimal; the tickets purchased en route, the space and time between the city and the outbound areas are optimized. The inhabitant seeks an extended stay; the coffee shop, the sunday morning market, life anchored to the city. The station becomes a rock jutting out of a raging river. The place of the inhabitant is at the center of the chaos, a place to better experience the city, a place to relax, a place to watch the chaos unfold.

The station serves as infrastructure for the city. It’s not a singular building, a place confined by boundaries.
The interface with the city is blurred, inside and outside undefined.

Seen at designboom. More images after the break. read more »

Alderman Brendan Reilly and the Burnham Plan Centennial Committee today unveiled designs for two temporary pavilions that will be installed this June in Millennium Park, symbolizing the forward-looking agenda of the 220 organizations commemorating this year’s 100th anniversary of the Plan of Chicago.

The architects’ rendering of the two recyclable pavilions were released by the Alderman, the Burnham Committee, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Art Institute of Chicago and Friends of Downtown. The pavilions will be open from June 19 through October 31 on the South Chase Promenade of Millennium Park.

Both pavilions-one designed by London-based Zaha Hadid and the other by Amsterdam-based Ben van Berkel of UNStudio-emphasize the importance of boldly imagining a better future for all, as Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett did in 1909 in their Plan of Chicago.

Seen at Bustler. More images after the break. read more »

The “Spire”, the skyscraper designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, was going to be the tallest building in the United States. That title will have to wait, at least until the economic crisis affecting construction all over the world starts having better days.

“We’re exploring all of the financial options with the economy as challenging as it is, but clearly this is long-term,” project spokeswoman Kim Metcalfe said. “We’re working toward the success of the building. We continue to actively market the building. Clearly, the construction of the building is on pause, but nothing else about the building has stopped.”

The break in construction has left a hole 110 feet wide and 76 feet deep at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive, making the Spire a worldwide symbol of the recession and shut-down credit markets.

For more information, read this article on the Chicago Tribune.