The iconic Morton Salt branding and logo has re-emerged at the former Morton Salt Factory in West Town. This refurbished roof is part of an adaptive re-use scheme by R2 Companies, Blue Star Properties, and Skydeck. These plans at 1357 N Elston Avenue involve the conversion of the facility into a new entertainment and office venue.
Exterior renovations can be seen making progress at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) at 5700 S Lake Shore Drive in Hyde Park. At the northern end of Jackson Park, just northeast of the now-underway Obama Presidential Center, this Beaux-Arts edifice is originally known as The Palace of Fine Arts, built for Chicago’s World Columbian Exposition in 1893. The building was designed by Charles Atwood for the Chicago-based firm D. H. Burnham & Co, originally founded by Daniel Burnham and John Root. Standing as a centerpiece to the original exposition plan, the structure was the only one within the fair grounds to utilize a brick substructure underneath its plaster facade.
The edifice’s story begins almost exactly 100 years ago, when The Chicago Tribune newspaper held a public competition to design its new headquarters. The key guideline was to design the “most beautiful office building” in the world, with over 260 submissions vying for that title and a first prize of $50,000 (roughly $800,000 in 2021). The winning entry was the Neo-Gothic design by New York-based Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, whose dramatic Neo-Gothic design came to fruition with the tower’s completion in 1925. The Chicago Landmark would serve as the Tribune’s headquarters for another 93 years, up until its 2018 relocation to One Prudential Plaza. Upon the departure, the property was sold for $240 million to co-developers CIM Group and Golub & Company.
Number 16 in Chicago YIMBY’s year-end countdown of tallest construction projects is the renovation of the 90-year-old Lawson House, located at 30 W Chicago Avenue. Situated in Near North Side directly across from JDL’s One Chicago megadevelopment, this 24-story edifice was originally designed by Perkins, Chatten & Hammond, and completed in 1931. Today, the Art Deco building holds a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, having until recently housed a YMCA.
Coming in at #26 on YIMBY’s year-end countdown of tallest active projects is the renovation of The Belden Stratford, a hotel-turned-residential building bordering Lincoln Park. Standing 16 stories and 176 feet, this iconic Beaux-Arts-style building was designed by Meyer Fridstein and completed in 1923 at the address 2300 N Lincoln Park West.
