“The test of a great building is in the marketplace. The Marketplace recognizes the value of quality architecture and endorses it in the sales price it is able to achieve.” — Jon Pickard, Principal, Pickard Chilton
Building high in the Windy City is not a charge to be taken lightly. New Haven–based Pickard Chilton has risen to the challenge with this 1.3 million-square-foot, 60-story tower on the north bank of the Chicago River that emphatically states its presence.
In devising the scheme, the architects worked closely with Chicago developer Hines and anticipated anchor tenant, the international law firm of Kirkland & Ellis (K&E), which previously occupied Edward Durell Stone and Perkins and Will’s Aon Center. With a new home for K&E, the team hoped to create a visible identity as well as a high-performance transparent building that connected with the waterfront, attracted talent, and enabled K&E to use less square footage more efficiently while maximizing perimeter offices.
“The design of 300 North LaSalle was instrumental in securing the anchor tenant K&E,” says Hines vice president Jim Walsh. “The building needed to create an image of quality. Pickard Chilton’s selection of materials, from the curtain wall’s stainless steel to material choices in the lobby and the public plazas, as well as their detail in the overall design, achieved that goal.” This and flexible, efficient floor plans were also instrumental in attracting tenants for the 25,000-square-foot rentable floor plates. “In many cases,” points out Walsh, “these tenants will be paying more per square foot but taking less square footage.”
To maximize daylighting and views, the team raised the ceilings to about 10 feet and employed floor-to-ceiling low-E glass (with stainless steel shade fins). And to achieve LEED Gold CS certification and an Energy Star rating, they diverted 98 percent of demolition and construction waste and specified a green roof and condenser water supplied by the river, among other things.
“The building opened 90 percent leased in a tough leasing market and quickly leased to over 96 percent,” says Walsh. As a further testament to the building’s success, Hines sold it in 2010 for a record $655 million — at $503 per square foot, the highest price ever paid for a downtown Chicago office building, claim the architects. “You can achieve your business objectives by simply doing a box,” says Pickard Chilton principal Jon Pickard. “However, 300 North LaSalle transcends that. It contributes to the city at many levels — it has a dignity that goes beyond a bottom-line commercial focus and a refinement that is consistent with the history of Chicago.”
Architect:
Pickard Chilton
980 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT 06510
203.786.8600 T / 203.786.8610 F
Completion Date: May 2009
Total construction cost: $480 million
Gross square footage: 1.3 million sq.ft.
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