Building on the Drive
530 N. Lake Shore has a design worthy of its address
 

The architecture firm of Pappageorge Haymes faced both a rare chance and a challenge in designing its latest highrise, at 530 N. Lake Shore Drive. Chicago is wildly protective of its lakefront, and the chance to build a highrise not only with lake views, but actually on the Drive, a stone’s throw from Navy Pier and Ohio Street Beach, is more of an event than an opportunity.

Neighbors and city committees scrutinized every detail of the project. It’s a testament to the experience of development partners, Sandz Development and Belgravia Group, that they were able to negotiate their way through the approval process and produce what promises to be a new landmark on Chicago’s skyline.

The 29-story highrise is slender and elegant with an art deco flair. Architect Brian Kidd, of Pappageorge Haymes, says that he wanted to emphasize the vertical in the building’s design.

“There’s such a mixture of architectural styles along the lakefront – NBC Tower has a deco look; 680 Lake Shore Drive has a gothic feel; you have the Miesian towers farther north,” Kidd says. “We wanted to be somewhat more contemporary since it’s done in concrete, and express the verticality of the building.”

The most striking statement of that verticality comes through three rectangular elements on the building’s southern face, and like all great architecture, they are as practical as they are ornamental. Because of the positioning of the site – on Lake Shore Drive at the Grand Avenue exit ramp – the architects had no alleys and only one street, Grand Avenue, from which to provide building services. But as Louis Sullivan said, Every problem contains its own solution.

“Part of what we did was create a driving court, so all the garage doors and loading dock doors are pushed into the building, with a kind of porte cochere, which conceals all those things back into the building,” Kidd says.

The three arch-like elements that facilitate this setup rise six stories, creating simple, powerful lines, and both the parking entrance, in the middle, and the exit, on the left, stand on four columns, like pieces of sculpture both integral to and independent of the building. The third arch-like element, to the right is the lobby entrance. This theme is continued with strong vertical piers, which continue above the roofline to frame views from the sun deck.

The porte cochere solution is practical and addresses another flaw in many highrises – a parking base that isn’t adequately integrated into the structure. The first seven floors are a mixture of limestone, granite and pre-cast concrete, while the residential floors, beginning on the eighth level, will be concrete painted to resemble limestone.

The 196 units promise to be as unusual and elegant as the exterior architecture. Each has its own marble-floored foyer, a private balcony, nine-foot ceilings and large windows to take in the unobstructed lake views. The building is recessed, widening as it moves west, so virtually every unit has a lake view.

“The granite and limestone face has a nice curve and some setbacks, which allow more units to have lake views,” says Alan Lev, of Belgravia Group, one of the developers. “The views are spectacular, and nothing can get built east of us.”

The building sits kitty corner to Lake Point Tower, overlooking the lake and Navy Pier. Although it’s hard to beat the prestige of its Lake Shore Drive address and the long list of amenities, 530 N. Lake Shore Drive prices start in the low $300s for one-bedrooms of more than 1,000 square feet (prices at the only other new building with a Lake Shore address begin around $1.5 million).

Two-bedrooms start in the $450s and three-bedroom units begin around $500,000. At press time, all of the “super three-bedrooms,” starting at $800,000, were sold out. The building overall is more than 40 percent sold, according to John Supera, of Sandz Development, one of the development partners.
“We’ve tried to position ourselves somewhere in between other product in terms of size and price – both per square foot and gross price – so you don’t have to spend $1 million to have a two-bedroom condo, which other buildings in the area are approaching,” Lev says.

But a low end around $300,000 is not exactly cheap, and the building is fully loaded with all of the amenities and services you would expect from a new luxury Lake Shore Drive highrise. Features include a state-of-the-art exercise room, a community room with kitchen, a common roof deck, valet service, 24-hour door staff, a fulltime resident engineer, private storage, four high-speed elevators and heated indoor parking. Units have top-notch finishes, from Kohler tubs to Woodmode cabinets.
The developers have a strong record of building luxury housing in Chicago. For examples of their work, take a look at The Whitney, Beekman Place, Eugenie Terrace, Tamerlane, Belgravia Terrace, Schiller Place, Fulton Station and other projects, in neighborhoods ranging from the Gold Coast to River West.

Construction on the building, www.530lakeshoredrive.com, is expected to start in June, with first occupancy near the end of 2002. A sales center is open down the street, at 432 E. Grand, and at press time, a two-bedroom model was under construction.