A 40-Story Tower
Law Firm's Needs Rush Dearborn Street Office

by Craig Barner

Law firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP needed a lot of room fast.

And those considerable office space needs are driving the $220 million 1 S. Dearborn St. office project in the Central Loop.

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The firm with more than 500 lawyers in Chicago had been looking at several properties for awhile as it mulled whether to retain its lease in the Bank One Plaza, said Brad Soderwall, project manager in Chicago for Houston-based Hines Interests LP, the project developer. Sidley Austin had rented space in Bank One for 30 years.

"They were looking out 20 years, and they needed the room to grow," he added.

Sidley Austin had already rented space in a second building because of expansion and was considering a lease on a third site if the Bank One Plaza was retained as the head office.

"The only way to grow and stay in [the Bank One] building would have meant there would have been a long period - four to five years - of moving in the building, renovating space and moving back in," he said. "There's a lot of time and effort involved in shifting people around in a building."

The Dearborn Street land that previously held surface parking and a bank was available directly across the street from the Bank One Plaza, and Hines negotiated an option from the previous landowner to acquire the property provided an anchor tenant could be found.

Sidley Austin wanted a floor plate of at least 25,000 sq. ft. to accommodate future growth.

The 1 S. Dearborn property could accommodate the large floor space if the building was a rectangle that extended from the property line on the north along Madison Street to the property line on the south on an alley, said Jim DeStefano, CEO of Chicago-based architectural firm DeStefano and Partners Ltd., which was known as DeStefano Keating Partners Ltd. while the design was under way.

At 26,500 sq. ft., the floor plate met Sidley Austin's requirement, and the firm agreed to the project. The land was purchased, and Sidley Austin signed a lease in May 2003 for 63 percent of the 830,000-sq.-ft., 40-story tower.

The building will hold retail on the first floor, support space on the second level, 160 parking spaces on levels three through six, the offices on floors seven through 38 and penthouse space at the top.

One other office tenant, Elite Business Centers, has been signed, and leases are being negotiated for the three retail spaces, Soderwall said. They likely will go to a financial institution, restaurant and store.

A Quick Timetable

Ground was broken in November 2003.

"From that point, everyone was focused on the date the building had to be up and running," Soderwall said. Sidley Austin's lease in the Bank One Plaza will expire at the end of this year.

DeStefano was commissioned in March 2003 and jumped into the project immediately to make sure the timetable was met.

"We had to go through all the entitlements, plan development, zoning, building permits and have the building complete for [Sidley Austin's] move-in in September 2005," DeStefano said. "That's 30 months from start to finish."

Key decisions were made to accelerate the project's progress.

A conceptual team from Hines' Houston headquarters had already produced a set of drawings that were ready when the project was bid, Soderwall said.

"[The conceptual team] is up on the latest steel and drywall prices - everything you need to know for budgets," he added.

The nearly 6,500 tons of structural steel that frame the tower were ordered well in advance of erection time.

Steel erection has been done all but three or four holidays since June, when the building started to come out of the ground, said Dan Cronin, project manager with Turner Construction Co. in Chicago, the general contractor.

About 10 days have been lost due to rain, excessive wind or temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit. "The weather has been brutal," but Sundays were used to make up the lost time, Cronin added.

The parking was put above grade to save time. Removing all previous obstructions below grade would have consumed a considerable amount of time.

The foundations of several previous buildings - including the Chicago Tribune and the famed McVicker's Theatre - and other obstructions "covered" the site, said Bob Halvorson, president of Chicago-based Halvorson Kaye Structural Engineers. The McVicker, which predated the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and was rebuilt, was on the site's east half and demolished in 1983 to become surface parking. The Tribune left the northwest corner in the 1920s, and the last building on the spot was a bank.

Obstructions included old caissons, steel beams, concrete slabs, bank vault and even a coal tunnel that was plugged and bulkheaded as part of the current project.

"We had to avoid the old caissons, and that gets challenging when you're working off 100-year-old drawings," Cronin added.

Six steel-reinforced concrete transfer beams were installed below grade, including one that is 60 ft. long. Obstructions that were not removed are directly below some column lines, and the beams shift pressure to new caissons.

Belled and rock caissons were installed, Halvorson said. Rock caissons were selected for their sturdiness for areas where the soil appeared to be disturbed from previous foundations.

Making a Visual Treat

Aesthetic elements were incorporated into the building.

The site's context was taken into account, DeStefano said. Architect C.F. Murphy Associates' imposing 60-story Bank One Plaza is to the west, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLC's beautiful 19-story Inland Steel Building is on the south.

A 15,000-sq.-ft. plaza sets back 1 S. Dearborn from the Bank One Plaza and allows pedestrians to see the Inland Steel Building's north facade.

"The [1 S. Dearborn] plaza is also an extension of a series of plazas along Dearborn Street, starting with the federal center, the Bank One Plaza and the Daley Center Plaza," DeStefano added. Another plaza adds open space to the street and keeps it pedestrian oriented and people friendly.

In addition, backlit sky windows will be seen on the One S. Dearborn's east and west facades near the tower's top. The west portal is aligned with the main entry.

The curtain wall was extended straight up on the east and west facades about 35 to 40 ft. above the highest occupied floor to screen the mechanical systems. They provide the design flair that a flat top would not.

Black granite clads the building base, and about 5,000 silver-gray curtain-wall panels dress most of the building, Cronin said

A delay on the fabrication of the curtain-wall panels caused some nerves to fray.

The paint sample that had been approved looked different after it was sprayed on aluminum, Cronin said.

"It was difficult to get a mix to match the paint sample, more difficult than it sounds," he said. "I got way educated in metallic paint, electrostatic painting and even sprayers."

A sample came in that was found acceptable, but the time had to be made up.

The panels were fabricated at plants in Florida and Connecticut, rather than at one plant.

Inside, 2-in.-thick cast glass frames two ends of the lobby, and white and gray marble dresses the remainder.