Home

630 North Franklin from Brininstool & Lynch and Perkins + Will

Expanded ArchitectureChicago Plus posting from December 14th , 2005 

630 North Franklin is the latest development by Brininstool & Lynch (in this case with Perkins + Will) for progressive developer Colin Kihnke's CMK Companies, which also produced Ralph Johnson's striking Contemporaine just a few blocks south. According to Emporis, the 11 story, 165 unit condo building is only the second Illinois high-rise to be built with a precast concrete structure. (The first, Lakeside on the Park, completed a year ago, is a relentlessy mundane structure in the Central Station complex just south of the Loop.)

While not quite up to the standard of the same firm's Vue 20, at 1845 South Michigan - the exterior of the parking floors is more than a little monolithically unarticulated, with the appearance of painted clapboard - the upper floors enhance the streetscape with a light, puzzle-piece rhythm, a standard four-pane window component flipped back and forth horizontally from floor to floor, punctuated by stacks of recessed balconies with solid flat balustrades. The puzzle piece motif is also extended to the way a natural cleft Vermont charcoal slate is used on the facade of the ground floor along Franklin street.

Balconies along that eastern, Franklin street facade provide a unique urban vista, as they rise directly above the Brown Line rapid transit elevated that runs down the middle of the street.

Join a discussion on this story

lynnbecker@lynnbecker.com

© Copyright 2005 Lynn Becker All rights reserved.