320 South Canal

Congratulations to the team behind 320 South Canal, which was awarded the 2024 ULI Chicago Vision Award last night! Developed by Riverside Investment & Development Company with Convexity Properties - a DRW Company, designed by GP, and built by Clark Construction Group, the 2.2-acre site also features The Green at 320, one of the largest privately owned public parks in Chicago. The 1.5-acre park space was designed by GP in collaboration with landscape architect Confluence. At the heart of The Green at 320 is a 10,000-square-foot oval-shaped lawn designed to foster community gatherings and host a variety of events. From live music and movies in the park to fitness classes and a farmers’ market, arts and cultural performances, this park is a hub of community activity. Surrounding the central lawn are intimate seating alcoves and an amphitheater, enhancing the site's usability and aesthetic appeal. This park is not just a green space; it's a vibrant, active urban hub from May through October and can be creatively adapted in winter months with features like an ice-skating rink.   The Green at 320 South Canal is a testament to visionary urban planning and creative problem-solving. It revitalizes a previously underutilized area and establishes a new paradigm for how urban spaces can serve both office workers and the surrounding community. Through its innovative design, active programming, and strategic partnerships, The Green is not just a development, but a vibrant, sustainable neighborhood crafted for the future.   The ULI Chicago Vision Awards define the standard for real estate development in the Chicagoland area. The Vision Awards recognize the full development process—construction, economic viability, marketing, and management, as well as design—and promote best practices in development, identifying projects and programs that exemplify the policy and practice areas that underpin ULI.

GP is featured prominently in Dezeen’s list of recently completed skyscrapers in Chicago, with 4 of the 9 towers designed by the firm, including 320 South Canal, One Chicago, Bank of America Tower (110 North Wacker) and 150 North Riverside.   Completed in 2022, 320 South Canal is Chicago’s healthiest office tower, a 51-story building located directly south of Chicago Union Station. The majority of the site—approximately 1.5 acres—is set aside as a public park. The building’s folded façade creates an ever-changing texture that reinforces the verticality of the building. At street level, east and west façades express V-shaped structural transfers, which open up the ground floor. In this way, the park becomes an integral part of the building, and the building serves as an extension of the park.   One Chicago, also completed in 2022, is located on a full-block site in Chicago’s River North area. Designed in partnership between GP and Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, the project totals approximately 2,200,000 square feet and includes 812 residential units, 55,000 square feet of office space, parking, and 188,000 square feet of retail, featuring a flagship Whole Foods Market, a premier Life Time fitness and wellness center, a restaurant, and a large roof garden on top of the podium.   Completed in 2020, Bank of America Tower is a state-of-the-art Class A office tower that totals 56 stories and 1,770,000 square feet. Interior space planning is enhanced by the five-foot setbacks along the river, providing the equivalent of 14 corner offices. To satisfy the city’s requirements, the design provides a 45-foot-wide riverwalk that is covered, but effectively open to the sky, 55 feet above. Three large, tree-like structural elements spaced 90 feet apart transfer out the tower columns along the river and further open the site.   150 North Riverside, completed in 2017, is located prominently at the confluence of the three branches of the Chicago River and less than one block away from one of Chicago's busiest commuter train stations. The 54-story office tower has a height-to-base ration of 20:1. The design utilized a unique core-supported structure with a very small footprint at grade and allows the majority of the two-acre site—more than 75%—to be a landscaped public park with pedestrian pathways overlooking the river.   For the full Dezeen list of recent Chicago skyscrapers, see https://lnkd.in/gPHygqTt.

GP is very pleased to share that 320 South Canal has been selected as a finalist in the AIA Chicago People’s Choice Awards, sponsored by Lerch Bates Inc. and presented in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center! We invite you to VOTE for the project in the Tall Building category. Only one vote per email is allowed, so be sure to share the news with family and friends. Voting closes on August 28! https://lnkd.in/gq-Uv5r9  #Designight2024 #AIAChicago #ChiArchitecture

Confluence is all about creating places full of life. Took this short video on a visit to our Green at 320 project during lunch today. The ambiance of live music in the air with perfect weather; folks relaxing, playing bags, reading books from the library cart, eating on the patio of the restaurant, and lounging among the lush plantings….sublime.

Complicated assembly on 320 South Canal Street tower in Chicago Chicago welcomes a new, modern 200m-high office tower. Heavydrive developed a customised solution for the complicated assembly of panes on the lower floors of the 320 South Canal Street tower. Centred behind V-shaped pillars, the panes (weighing up to 3,175kg) also had to be fitted under a deep overhang. This was a challenge too hard for devices available on the international market. With years of experience manoeuvring heavy objects under overhangs, Heavydrive modified an existing glass assembly device to create the VSGB 3500 K MH. This newly developed device with a lifting capacity of 3,500kg allowed all of the glass elements to be fitted behind the pillars without a hitch. Special suction pads were used to ensure no marks were left on the coated panes. The challenge: These panes, weighing more than 3,000 kilograms, had to be placed behind V-shaped columns beneath a deep projection. As the centre of the panes was directly behind the columns, standard equipment was not enough to meet the challenge. The solution: A glass installation systems modified by Heavydrive based on the VSGB 3500 K MH. This newly developed system with a load capacity of 3,500 kilos was able to move the pane behind the column at an angle and set it with precision. #glass #glazing #architecture #glazingsolutions #glassfacade #heavydrive #glazingindustry #320southcanal #boston

Project of The Week: BMO Tower (320 South Canal) This week, we're highlighting the first ever structure in the United States to utilize structural steel sections with a yield strength of 80ksi. This was achieved using A913 which is a structural steel available in Gr50, Gr65, Gr70, and Gr80. In fact, Magnusson Klemencic Associates incorporated all four of these grades into the design, maximizing the efficiency of the steel structure. In traditional steels, strength is increased by adding alloys, which then negatively affect the weldability of the material. Since A913 steels achieves its strength through a quenching and self-tempering process, rather than using additional alloys, even the stronger grades such as A913 Gr80 are still very weldable. With this combination of strength and constructability, this grade has become quite popular in large steel structures since its introduction to ASTM in 2019. Project Team: Owner/Developer: Riverside Architect: Goettsch Partners Engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates Contractor: Clark Construction Group Fabricator: Zalk Josephs Fabricators LLC Photo Credit: Joseph Dardis, P.E.

Seeing my simple sketches on trace paper become living, breathing, places animated with people and activity is my favorite thing as a landscape architect. The Green at 320 hosts a farmers market every Tuesday during the summer…and I got the opportunity to stop by this afternoon with a couple of our Confluence interns. So happy to see this urban oasis steps from Chicago Union Station become all we knew it could be 🌿💚

Conveniently located in downtown Chicago, The Green at 320 is a 1.5-acre LEED Gold and WELL platinum certified public park featuring 10,000 square feet of green space, lush landscaping, seating alcoves, and an amphitheater. This sustainable park hosts a variety of social initiatives, including a weekly farmers market, live music, fitness classes throughout the week, and much more, all of which are free and open to the public. Our property team takes great pride in The Green at 320’s sustainability initiatives that help increase recycling efforts, use over 34% less water than the national standard, and ensure systems are operating efficiently. Learn more: https://cbre.co/4aOijzt

GP principal Joachim Schuessler will be presenting “How Commercial Buildings Contribute to the Vibrancy and Activation of the Public Realm” at the Zak World of Façades conference in Chicago on April 11. Zak World of Façades is a globally recognized conference series focusing on façade design and engineering. The event will be the 1st edition in Chicago and will focus on sustainable innovations and tackle construction industry challenges related to the building envelope. To read more about the upcoming event and register, visit https://lnkd.in/dZ8zZzDp.

I've always been a plant nerd and a sucker for fall (I’m an October baby). I swung by The Green at 320 on my way home yesterday to capture the last embers of autumn color. We at Confluence designed the plant palette with a super simple approach for easy maintenance, but with a focus on texture and seasonal variation to give the space an always-evolving personality. All the firey tones of the maple, hawthorn, and sumac emerge from wheat-colored clouds of feather reed grass and deschampsia, juxtaposed against dark evergreen masses of yew and juniper. By spring, delicate white flowers on the trees and drifts of bold purple allium rising through the just-emerging ornamental grasses will create a new ephemeral tapestry to enjoy. Great working with Goettsch Partners and Riverside Investment & Development Company on this exciting project!