At the southwest corner of Grand Avenue and the lesser known Peshtigo Court, site preparations continue on One Bennett Park, a combined condominium and rental tower expected to rise 67 stories and approximately 850 feet above the streets of southeastern Streeterville. The new tower will rank in as roughly the 13th tallest building in Chicago, pending the exact height of the final construction and the expected completions of both Wanda Vista and the Rafael Viñoly-designed project fronting onto Grant Park at Roosevelt and Indiana. One Bennett Park is being developed by Related Midwest and was designed by the New York based firm of Robert A.M. Stern with a postmodern aesthetic standing in contrast to the modern, Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) designed 500-unit apartment tower Related recently built across the street to the east at 500 North Lake Shore Drive.
Work crews have spent much of March stripping the existing park which spans the block between Grand Avenue and Illinois Street. The park was constructed on top of a multi-story subterranean parking garage completed in 2008 in conjunction with the 49-story Parkview West Tower at the west end of the block. The east end of the block also had foundations put into place to support a second tower while the remainder of the underground garage was covered with an extensive green roof serving as a publicly accessible space between the planned buildings.
While the second tower was never built with the onset of the recession, a single story access point for the garage was opened at the east end of the block near Illinois Street and Peshtigo Court. This access point will then be incorporated into the base of the new tower which stretches along Peshtigo Court with a dedicated entrance for the rental portion of the tower. The condominiums will then have a separate entrance located to the north along Grand Avenue.
The tower will not have any above grade parking levels, as the existing garage below will be utilized for all anticipated parking needs. The existing garage thus provides for a more slender design without a clunky parking podium at the base, as is common with newer high-rise buildings in Chicago. The remaining spaces within the existing garage not used by residents of either tower on the block will remain open for public use.
As part of the development agreement to construct a larger tower than what was originally approved for the east end of the block, Related is paying to reconstruct the entire park space with a new design from landscape architecture firm Michael van Valkenburgh who also played the key role in designing Maggie Daley Park and the 606 trail, both of which opened last year.
Meanwhile, across Grand Avenue, a second new tower to surround the park space is topped out and approaching the finishing stages of construction. Moment, an SCB-designed, 45-story, 490-unit apartment tower now has a glass curtain wall facade enclosing 30 of its 45 floors. The 290-space above-grade parking garage is sandwiched between the apartment tower and a 50-unit, six-story rental mid-rise known as Sienna Flats to the north, thus concealing much of the garage while taking advantage of the adjacent park for views from south facing residences overlooking the park across Grand Avenue to the south.
- Site Prep for Robert A.M. Stern's One Bennett Park Tower Closes Streeterville Park [Curbed Chicago]
- One Bennett Park [Related Midwest]
- Here's the Latest Streeterville Tower Construction Round-Up [Curbed Chicago]
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