Open House Chicago 2023

The Chicago Architecture Center's annual Open House Chicago takes place this weekend, giving fans of various stunning architecture styles the opportunity to view the architecturally-significant buildings spread throughout the city of Chicago. The event runs both Friday and Saturday, although a large portion of the sites are closed on Sunday, and features multiple Epstein-designed and/or engineered buildings, including 150 N. Riverside, 200 S. Michigan (The Cliff Dwellers Club, Suite 200) and 600 W. Fulton, our Chicago headquarters.

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150 N. Riverside

At 150 N. Riverside, Epstein provided civil engineering services to Riverside Investment & Development for this 54-story commercial high-rise building. 150 N. Riverside is located near the confluence of the three branches of the Chicago River as well as existing passenger rail lines and therefore the civil design was more challenging than a typical high-rise tower site. Only the building core could touch down onto the tiny 1/2 acre parcel in order to fit between Amtrak tracks to the west and the Chicago River to the east. A public plaza was created from an overbuild over the Amtrak tracks at the level of the two roadway viaducts north and south. What used to be an inaccessible gravel covered site with 100 percent runoff was transformed into a public plaza with 56 percent landscaped area. And, stormwater from the overbuild plaza and the building green roof is routed by pipe to the east edge of the site where it is filtered before discharging into the Chicago River.

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200 S. Michigan Avenue (The Cliff Dwellers Club)

Built in 1958, 200 S. Michigan is a modernist 22-story, 350,000 square foot high-rise office building designed by Epstein, and helped introduce the "international" style of architecture to Chicago. This new style got its name from an architectural exhibit curated by Phillip Johnson at the Museum of Modern Art in New York that featured the work of Gropius, Mies and Corbusier. The international style embraced technology, thereby allowing a steel-framed building to reach heights unheard of with masonry structures. These buildings also featured square or rectangular footprints, a simple cubic form, windows running in broken horizontal rows forming a grid and façade 90 degree angles. 200 S. Michigan was also one of the first buildings in Chicago to employ true curtainwall construction and also the first on Michigan Avenue to break away from the limestone and bronze look, using blue porcelain enamel and glass instead.

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600 W. Fulton

Epstein provided architectural and lighting design services for the renovation of the exterior façade, entry atrium and interior lobby of 600 West Fulton, a historic 9-story brick office building located in Chicago’s West Loop, a structure that Epstein has been proud to call our home since 1983.

Owned and managed by Parkside Realty, 600 West Fulton was built in 1895. From 1896 through 1905, the building served as the headquarters and distribution center for Sears, Roebuck and Company.

Epstein’s design team developed design concepts and approaches for this renovation by researching trends in commercial entrances and entry amenities in the nearby Fulton Market District. Those findings were presented to Parkside and the incorporated in the final design solution.

This renovation featured the removal of heavy metal ornamentation on the exterior façade that was replaced by new glass-filled spandrels, new exterior and interior lighting, decorative exterior landscape planters, new paint colors for the lobby that enhanced the improved lighting, an eye-catching moss installation behind the reception desk, as well as an exterior wall accent featuring a Chicago-map from 1901 at the entry atrium.

The exterior map is roughly 24’ x 24’ and comprised of 16 die-cut metal panels showing an outline of Chicago’s streets, rivers, rail lines and lakefront from the early 1900s - an installation that connects 600 West Fulton's significance to its historic past.

For a full list of the buildings participating in Open House Chicago and view how to register, please visit: https://openhousechicago.org/