Project Manager/Associate Principal 917 W Fulton Market, FitzGerald Associates Architects, Chicago, IL. 11/21 to 1/24

Shell and core commercial office in Fulton Market historical district with full basement, parking, exterior terraces, amenity floor, 4 public entries interconnected with skylit pedestrian walkway, and bridges interconnecting with renovation of adjacent historic loft building,

500 ksf combined, 11 story new construction, 6 story historic renovation.

Located in the Fulton Market historic district, the allowable height was capped, leading to the unusual decision to build a new office building with a post tensioned concrete structure, including 50’ spans, with a window wall facade rather than the typical structural steel with curtainwall solution for offices. The reduced floor to floor height of the post tensioned solution achieved an extra floor of rentable space below the height cap, and 50’ spans decreased the number of columns on the floor plates, resulting in more open rentable office spaces. Additional unusual nods to multi-family construction include exterior balconies on most floors, an entire floor of shared amenities at the top of the building, and a Variable Refrigeration Flow (VRF) hydronic MEP plant which contributes to making the lower floor to floor heights feasible while at the same time realizing an unusually energy efficient office building. The existing building shares this plant as well. The masonry facade on the base is a nod to the surrounding historic district.

Part of the complicated entitlement negotiations included the requirement to interconnect the existing historic Lake Street Lofts building with the new office building in as many meaningful ways as possible in the interest of discouraging separation of the two in the future. In other words, treating the project as one property to the greatest extent possible, resulting in a project that addresses all four surrounding city streets. This led to the decision to create a glass covered pedestrian walkway between the old and the new buildings which interconnects with lobbies on Fulton Market, Sangamon, Lake and Peoria in addition to adding bridges interconnecting the buildings as well as celebrating the east-west alley between the new building and Peoria Street to the east on the north side of the existing Lake Street Lofts building. The interconnected lobbies route occupants and visitors from the surrounding streets past internally accessible retail through security to the central elevator core. The glass roof is cantilevered off of the new building to avoid damaging or adding to the loading imposed on the existing historic loft building. The buildings also share the VRF MEP plant on top of the new building next door.