FOUR TOP PROJECTS
EARN MERIT AWARDS

The ballroom at the Union League Club was at capacity on May 16th with over 200 of the brightest names in the Chicago Building Industry. That evening, architects, engineers, builders, developers, and other industry professionals assembled to honor excellence in Chicagoland construction at the 51st Annual Merit Awards Program.

Top projects in four categories were all recognized with distinctive cubic CBC granite cornerstones to commemorate their victories.

THE GARY COMER YOUTH CENTER

New Construction Chicago

Project Team: Owner: Comer Science and Education Foundation; Owner’s Rep: Mesirow Stein Development Services; Architect: John Ronan Architects, and Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture; Engineers: ARUP, CCJM Engineers, and Terra Engineering; General Contractor: W. E. O’Neil; Consultant: Schuler & Shook.

Located in one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, the center provides a positive environment for area youths to spend their after-school hours. The center supports the programs of the South Shore Drill Team, a 300-member performance group for children ages eight to eighteen, and provides space for youth educational and recreational programs for disadvantaged children to improve their chances for success in life.

The building’s main space is an adaptable gymnasium that converts to a performance theater. This space serves as practice space for the drill team, and converts to a

Receiving the award (l - r): Guy Comer, Comer Science /Education Foundation; John Ronan, John Ronan Architects; Greg Mooney, Gary Comer Youth Center; and Matt Briedenthal, Arup Engineers.

600-seat performance venue. Wrapping around this main space are programmatically adaptable bars that support a variety of educational and recreational programs, including arts and crafts rooms, computer lab, dance room, recording studio, music room, classrooms, and offices.

Spaces on the third floor overlook a large planted roof garden. The roof garden serves as an outdoor classroom supporting the center’s horticultural programs.

On the exterior, a rainscreen cladding system of brightly colored fiber cement panels speak to the center’s youthful orientation. An 80-foot tall mesh tower with an LED sign dramatically announces upcoming events and programs, and serves as a visual marker for the entire community.

Runners-up included the FBI Chicago Field Office / 2111 West Roosevelt Road Office Complex, the Heritage at Millennium Park, and the UIC Student Recreation Facility.

CALAMOS INVESTMENTS HEADQUARTERS

New Construction Suburbs

Project Team: Owner: Calamos Real Estate; Program Manager: Conopco Realty; Architect: Lohan Anderson; Engineers: ESD, Inc., and CS Associates; General Contractor: Power Construction; Consultants: V3, The Brickman Group, & Clune Construction.

Calamos Investments, located in Naperville, provides money management services. After over a decade of use, Calamos had outgrown its headquarters and was operating from two locations. To manage long-term needs, Calamos decided upon having a new corporate headquarters designed and built.

Using sustainable design principles, the Calamos facility is one of the very first privately developed buildings in Chicago seeking to achieve a LEED-EB Silver Rating. Features include energy-efficient lighting and sun shade controls; stepped chiller sequencing integrated into the temperature control system; reusable interior materials, such as carpet tile and demountable wood wall partitions. A green roof on the 6th floor was installed, and natural wetlands were preserved.

(Left - Right): Andy Heinen, V3; Nick Tsagarris and Peter Danos, CS Assoc.; Michelle Liebling, L/A Studio; Basil Souder, Lohan Anderson (LA); Tim Miller, Calamos Real Estate; Joe Rybka, Power Construction (PC); Pavio Berko, LA, and Jared Laub, PC.

Calamos’ Headquarters has positively impacted the City of Naperville. Not only did it consolidate over 300 jobs into the City, but it also added a beautiful façade along I-88. The heavily-landscaped property includes a natural prairie and provides amenities of over 1,000,000 square feet, known as CityGate Centre.

Runners-up included Hinkston Park, Marionjoy Rehabilitation Hospital, and Sears Centre.

LASALLE BANK THEATRE /
HAMPTON MAJESTIC INN

Rehab Construction

Project Team: Owner: Broadway in Chicago, and the Northern Schubert Hotel Association; Hotel Operator: First Hospitality Group; Architect: Booth Hansen; Engineers: Building Systems Engineering, Nayyar & Nayyar, and Koenigsberg Engineering; General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease.

Extensive construction was necessary for the renovation of the 1906 Schubert / Majestic Building located in the heart of downtown Chicago’s historic Theatre District. The building’s original interiors contained an outdated theatre and adjacent lobbies, inferior sightlines and seating configurations, and did not address ADA requirements. Mechanical systems consistently underperformed the 100-year old roadhouse venue. Phase I of construction restored theatre hall and adjacent concession lobbies, with historic elements restored and refurbished to the original décor; updated and added public restrooms; upgraded the MEP systems, upgraded the back house areas of the theatre, and added a 3rd floor Lounge.

Phase II, the Hampton Majestic Hotel, transformed the 15-story tower to a 4-star, 135-room boutique hotel.

Accepting the award (l - r): Richard Koenigsberg, Koenigsberg Engineering; Tim Harder, Bovis Lend Lease (BLL); George Halik, Booth Hansen; John Miller, Nayyar & Nayyar; Bob Shaw, BLL.

The Majestic Building features an intricate terracotta façade, which is a registered Historic Landmark. Many of the existing interior finishes had been rediscovered, and with the direction of the City’s Historical Landmark Department, age-old finishes long since forgotten were integrated back into the project’s design.

Runners-up included Park National Bank Façade Renovation and Drive-up Facility, S. R. Crown Hall, and Victory Gardens Biograph Theater.

CHICAGO GREENWORKS

Construction Under $10 Million

Project Team: Owner: Christy Webber Landscapes; Architect: Farr Associates; Engineers: Terra Engineering, CCJM Engineers, and Drucker Zajdel; General Contractor: George Sollitt; Consultant: Boyle and Associates.

The 18,500 square-foot building is seeking a LEED-Gold rating and will be the entrance for the Chicago Greenworks Campus Development. The project infrastructure includes innovations that are firsts for the Midwest. Along with an Eco-Industrial Park, it has a storm water retention pond at the center to serve the development. Public lighting on the site uses induction lamp technology.

The Christy Webber Landscapes complex consists of an 8,500 square-foot office building and 10,000 square-foot storage building, organized around a shared courtyard. The rooftop is complete with a vegetative green roof, a greenhouse and five large maple trees.

The building is exceptionally green, and the facility is 55% more energy efficient than other buildings of this type. The building materials all emphasize local production, using

(Left to Right): Jason Kay, Boyle & Assoc.; Roger Post, Christy Webber Landscapes (CWL); Mike O’Brien, George Sollitt (GS); Christy Webber, CWL; Tom Baker, GS, and Jonathan Boyer, Farr Assoc.

healthy materials and recycled content. Its mechanical design integrates both earth and sky systems. This development is a perfect real-life demonstration of sustainable design and construction.

Runners-up included Carthage College Residence Hall, Gold Star Families Memorial and Park, and Rush Copley Medical Center. Runners-up included Carthage College Residence Hall, Gold Star Families Memorial and Park, and Rush Copley Medical Center.