What Drives Contemporary Chicago Architecture

Avi Lothan

Chicago is celebrated as the birthplace of modern architecture, with our first skyscrapers, prairie style homes and mid-century modern structures recognized around the world. We turned to Chicago architect Avi Lothan, creator of such varied buildings as the Alliance Francaise and the Emergency Operating Center in Springfield to tell us more about contemporary architecture and asked him to define some of the challenges faced when executing his own designs.

CCM:  The idea of practicality and craft seemed a part of Chicago architecture from the first.  How do you think that this leads into what contemporary architecture is at its best in Chicago?

AL: There is not much craft left in building construction today. That’s why we call them contractors instead of builders. They bid out and contract the trade work rather than doing it with in-house staff. There are some excellent people in various trades but even if you hire the same contractor again, there’s no guarantee that the same trades will work on the next job unless you make it a condition of the contract.  In the last century, the architect HH Richardson designed something like 78 buildings, over 70 of which were built by the same contractor. Richardson know what to expect from the trades and what kind of documentation is required t get what he wants. This kind of relationship rarely exists today.

At the same time, if you look at the design and construction of most Chicago area residential construction from the end of the 19th century, you’ll see the same details. Mill shops suppling mass-produced carpentry components for residential construction fabricated standardized components, doors, frames windowsills, etc. based on simplified assemblies. For example, if you look at a door frame in a typical Chicago bungalow, you’ll see the door frame and head coming together at a square block, usually with a ring or disc incised on it. This is because its easier to fabricate a 90-degree butt joint that a mitered corner. This is how new industries and crafts people worked together to simplify and align mass production and site construction. What emerged was a new style called carpenter gothic.

CCM: The World’s Fair of 1893 and our airports as examples of marshaling resources to get things done, with pragmatism part of the early and later Chicago style.  How can architects work within this concept of Chicago pragmatism?

AL: Chicago offices were leaders in the beginning of this trend. If you look at Burnham’s Marshall Field Department store on State Street, built in the classical revival style common for era, there is not much to distinguish it from the many office buildings he designed at the same time. Though there are a number of grand spaces and atria within the structure, much of the interior was flexible enough to be replanned with each new wave of merchandising, just like the offices could be re-designed for each new tenant. This reflects the architect’s business orientation and understanding of the dynamics of the life within these structures. Like the office building, the department store was refined through many phases of construction and expansion for the Field’s Building. Then Burnham took it on the road and used it as a template for many other stores, some as far afield as the Selfridges Department Store in London.

CCM:  Today, architecture here is seen more as a business rather than a form of art.  How is that played out in the architecture that Chicago architects are designing around the world?

AL: Chicago was instrumental in developing the corporate design office. From Burnham through SOM, the business of architecture was organized to reflect the kind of corporate organizations found in developers and other corporate clients. This organization also allows the architect to manage greater complexity in buildings and technology, by allowing designers to specialize in various aspects of the design process, such as interiors, exterior walls, programming etc. Chicago architects are great at managing this range of skills.”

CCM:  What is the role today of Project Managers?

AL: The corporatization of the design firm is one of the major trends in design in contemporary design office. Today in most large firms, the client relationship is managed by a project manager, not the designer. I remember coming across this 40 years ago when I was part of a team working on a large corporate headquarters.  Gensler was brought in to do the office interiors. I had never heard of them before. We never met the designers, just the project managers. Today, Gensler is the world’s largest Architecture firm.

CCM: Thinking of all that the Chicago style skyscrapers were able to give in terms of new technology, large windows, steel frames, how do they play in our history

AL: The Chicago fire and the need to rebuild quickly in a fireproof manner provided the incentives to rethink these buildings for a generational way, for the next century. For the most part, these new buildings were machines for business, clad in the Classical revival style of the moment. It took Sullivan to provide a personal and philosophical foundation to these buildings and a unique style of ornamentation to celebrate the design within. For the most part, the architects of the first Chicago School were focused on the city and understood their challenge to create as much value for their clients on a particular site as possible. The outlier to this was Frank Lloyd Wright who had a more Jeffersonian view of things and saw the vast horizons of the mid-west as an opportunity to create spaces for individuality rather than a collective expression. His catalogue of over 600 buildings stands largely as individuals with limited engagement with their neighbors.

We asked Lothan to tell us about some of his projects and challenges that an architect faces in an urban setting, particularly the Alliance Francaise to be expanded by with no floor levels aligning and the needs to meet the ADA requirements that had just gone into place.

Interior of the link showing the circulation

Exterior of linking structure from courtyard

“With the purchase of a century old bank building around the corner from their existing townhouse building, we were asked to develop a plan for the Alliance Francaise that provided expanded, modern educational and social opportunities for the growing French cultural institute. The buildings were stylistically and programmatically different and only touched each other at one corner. The two buildings also lacked any horizontal alignment between the floors, making handicapped accessibility (required by the recently passed ADA) extremely difficult. The differences between the two buildings also provided the seeds for creating a cohesive community campus between the two structures to accommodate the growing programming. 

The former bank required extensive structural and repair work but had higher floor to floor heights to better accommodate the social and educational requirements with an auditorium, classrooms and a salon and social spaces that support regular programming. The original house was refurbished to accommodate offices, a library and large board / conference room.

Tying it together was a glazed link at the rear garden that tied the two buildings together with stairs and a ramp providing access to all levels of the project. The link faces a small garden used extensively in warmer weather. The project’s design not only provides for the requirements of the programmatic expansion of the AFC, but also does so in a way that captures a uniquely French approach to reconciling the past and the present in an engaging, unified whole.

  In the end, this seemingly Rube Goldbergian scheme works well for providing convenient access from any part of the complex to any other part.

Exterior of the SEOC showing the lightweight cladding

Exterior of front facade with overlapping panels for Security

The State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Springfield was another of Lothan’s projects with a big challenge.

“This project for a high-performance building needed to be built quickly and inexpensively as a requirement of the funding grant that enabled the project. Both the design and the delivery approach needed to start with a clear idea about expediting the process to realize the time frame commitments assigned to the project. We were able to compress the schedule by creatively addressing the bureaucratic hurdles for a public project in Illinois. The project was broken up into multiple bid-packages (common in private sector construction) to get started quickly. We were also able to secure a waiver from the state general assembly to a allow for a single prime contractor to manage the construction.

The design strategy was to make the project as simple as possible, a simple box with a light-weight cladding. The key to this approach was to design the box structure to be water-proofed quickly and then the interior construction could be completed as the exterior cladding was added simultaneously. The interior of the project was way more complex that the exterior, so by creating the simplest possible form for the structure and cutting the bureaucracy behind getting it built, we were able to organize the construction schedule to get us into the building to start the interior work well before the exterior cladding was completed. Beyond this construction sequencing, the exterior design relied on using a perforated metal scrim as cladding. This allowed us to move forward on the detailing for the exterior even as the plans were still being set. The design approach allowed us to move windows around as the plans changed without having to revise the exterior. The design process was conceived to save time at both the design and construction phases of the project.”

Bramble lobby from east showing the Light Fall

Light Fall from west lobby

 

“The Bramble Theater Arts Loft, a complex of three performance spaces was inserted into the second floor of a historic 1920’s era parking garage in Andersonville. The dramatic space, distinguished by Chicago style, bow-string timber trusses and a continuous ridge skylight make for an attractive but difficult space to put a theater into. The main stage space alone required the theater plan to project directly beneath the skylight. 

Main stage theater facing underside of light fall

“We developed the project using the metaphor of a ‘Light Fall’, a sloped, rippled surface below the skylight that reflected the daylight into the space. This approach allows the theater and skylight to coexist in a mutually supportive manner. Much of the iron fittings from the original skylights were retained giving the project a steam-punk sort of character, looking forwards and backwards for inspiration at the same time.

“The theater spaces are dense but designed to be used simultaneously with multiple events happening at the same time. The project works as a theatrical community center with things going on throughout the day and the week.”

A final project Lothan showed us is the Kresge Hall, Northwestern University

Kresge Hall Front showing three generations of building

The renovation of Kresge Hall with two phases of additions we designed 15 years prior, was conceived to consolidate as much of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences as possible under one roof. The original building, built in 1954, was often described as ‘4 floors of basement’ for its utilitarian interiors. The renovations were designed to accommodate a wide range of facilities reflecting the range of departments within the College. Art studios, classrooms, faculty offices and research centers were all brought together in a facility for over 20 academic departments. Originally not even air conditioned, the renovated structure was planned to feature a high degree of sustainability performance and LEED certification. 

Kresge Interior showing lobby and circulation

“Our approach was to take advantage of the traditional aspects of the building’s design for their inherent efficiency and respond to the building’s limitations to realize a uniquely efficient project. The most difficult issue the building presented was the low floor to floor height, given that there was originally no ductwork, just piping for radiators. This made it difficult to use ductwork for heating and air-conditioning. Given this limitation, we used “chilled sails”‘ really, horizontal radiators, for both heating and cooling. This water-based type of system is much more efficient than an air-based system and can work with the lower ceiling heights. The system uses waste heat from the Universities central plant further amplifies the energy efficiency. A photo-voltaic array was added on the roof during construction provides a renewable energy source as well. These features and more allowed the new Kresge to become Northwestern’s first LEED Platinum building project when it was completed.

Kresge Classroom Interior showing exposed mechanical systems

“Very little use of wiz-bang technology here, just a careful balancing of traditional and modern systems to create a project that provides comfort, efficiency and social connectedness in a densely used complex.”

CCM:  Tell us more about systems and project delivery.

AL: My earlier comments reflect the design thinking for projects with very specific problems to solve and unique solutions organized around them. It’s equally possible to design a system around a building type, (think pre-manufactured housing for example) and create a kit of parts for that building type that then use the limits the system imposes to help accelerate the design of any project you use the system with. This would allow you to accelerate the design of an individual project while also using the accrued knowledge of previous applications of the system (costs, material quantities, schedule) to inform the next project’s progress. Many building types lend themselves to this type of systems approach, think, office buildings schools, hospitals, laboratories, anything with repetitive components and program elements. The real value in this approach is that it limits the number of questions that clients need to think through to get the project started. Some clients and project types require more client engagement to get to an understanding of the design requirements, and others less. The more complex the world and its buildings become, the more we need to pre-cook our design strategies so we can arrive at adequate building designs with a reasonable amount of time and effort.