111 West Illinois

Description

“Home to the Erikson Institute, which trains graduate students in childhood development, 111 West Illinois is an unconventional building on an unconventional site. In developer-speak, the steel-framed structure is known as a “vertical subdivision”.

The plaza is displayed, like a jewel within a setting, inside an exposed steel framework that extends beyond the building proper: Further jazzing things up, the architect filled in that framework on the building’s south side with a plane of decorative stainless steel mesh. The plane rises the building’s entire height. The architects extended the corner’s see-through drama with a rooftop trellis that runs along most of the building’s north side.

111 West Illinois’ highly articulated corner captures the eye of the passerby with its play of light and shadow, solid and void, transparency and reflectivity. Look closely, and you can see a moire effect on the mesh. Step inside the recess between the prow and the mesh, and you are treated to an upward look at the trapezoid-shaped metal grates that form platforms for lights that shine on the prow at night.”

Blair Kamin
Architecture Critic
Chicago Tribune