Greenfire hitches Woolworth site project to Chicago architect's rising star, wins Historic Comm. approval

A hat tip to the N&O's Jim Wise, who seems to be everywhere these days covering this story or that for the paper's western Triangle newsroom. (Perhaps Jim's discovered Mike Woodard's secret robo-clone machine, allowing a simulacrum of the City Councilman to appear at every civic event in town?)

Jim appears to have been the only man-on-the-scene reporting on yesterday's Historic Preservation Commission meeting, where Greenfire's revised project plan for the old Woolworth site at Corcoran, Main and Parrish Sts. downtown got a unanimous seal of approval from the commission.

One big piece of news: Carl Webb's statement during the hearing that the project is moving forward with possible tenants as the wind behind the developers' back:

Greenfire needs to finish the building in two years, Webb said.

"We have prospective tenants," he said. "That's part of the reason we're trying to move as aggressively as we can. ... We have opportunities sooner than later."

Wise's reporting also reveals the name of the architect who designed the project (a source of much curiosity around the well-received design) -- Robert Bistry.

Bistry, it turns out, is a Chicago-based architect described in one profile as a "talented young architect" formerly with DeStefano & Partners, a major firm in the Windy City. Bistry left the firm earlier this decade to form Built Form Architecture as a founding partner and one of six principals there.

According to his profile:

[While at DeStafano h]e oversaw construction, renovation and development for award-winning projects including Chicago's Residences at Riverbend, Fernwood Park Natatorium and Sears Tower renovation. While at DeStefano, Bistry also worked on other high-profile Chicago projects such as The Regetta at Lakeshore East, 200 N. Riverside and the City Hall renovation.

Bistry received the 2002 Presidential award from the Association of Licensed Architects for his work on the Residence at River Bend, described by the Chicago Reader thusly:

Yet the graceless concrete towers rising today all fall into the category of commodity buildings, architectural fill. This is what most buildings are, and always have been--structures of little distinction that serve their limited purpose. In the past the trophy buildings of the day, the buildings with personality and consequence, always overshadowed the fill. But now new trophy buildings are rare....

Are we dead yet? No, but the damage done is now a part of us, suppressing our sense of what is good and what is important. A transfusion of new blood is the only antidote. Three current projects--two recently completed, one proposed--point toward a possible recovery.

The new 37-story RiverBend, the first major building for 34-year-old architect Robert Bistry, adds a visual anchor to the Chicago River where it splits north and south, just west of Wolf Point. Because the site is extremely shallow, Bistry abolishes the standard central hallway; all units face east, overlooking the river. Corridors run the length of the western wall, and above them windows let additional natural light into the apartments. The eastern facade is light and elegant, pulled forward from the building's bulk. Sets of windows alternate with recessed balconies--as in Magellan's One Superior Place and Grand Plaza--but here the proportions are well considered, with the extended floor slabs creating ornamental notches up the building's sides.

Interestingly, "Durham Master Plan" is listed as one of Bistry's featured projects on the Built Form Architecture web site. A plan that's not Durham's downtown master plan, mind you, but Greenfire's -- it looks like Bistry and company were the team that put together Greenfire's plan for the city center unveiled last year.

Photos on the Built Form web site show some interesting concepts that didn't make it into the final proposal, including one plan that would have added two towers along the Main/Parrish/Corcoran corridor -- and an apparently-abandoned proposal to redevelop the surface parking lot to the west of the Corcoran St. deck, the surface parking near Teaser's and Toast. (A proposal to redevelop the surface lot to the deck's east, behind Revolution, Pinkhook and the Baldwin Lofts, survived.)

Comments

[Bass]

This is great news. Especially since Carl Webb is saying the building needs to be finished in 2 years. I'll still feel more comfortable once they break ground.

[bennc]

Yuck. I like the green park instead.