Driehaus Awards Go to Two Residential Reuse Projects

Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Awards from Landmarks Illinois..." /> Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Awards from Landmarks Illinois..." /> Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Awards from Landmarks Illinois..." />

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In 2003, Enterprise Companies bought six three-story buildings at 15th and Morgan streets; built in 1925, they were once home to the city’s main wholesale produce markets. The developers replaced truck bays with patios, added a fourth floor, and lavishly landscaped the 13-acre site.
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The original architects, Fugard and Knapp, included lots of terra cotta ornamentation, some of which was falling off when Enterprise came in, says Randy Selvaggio, the general superintendent of the company’s properties.
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New triangular balconies give the flat-faced buildings some visual excitement. Below them, old truck bays have been repurposed as broad garden doors with full-height glass.
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Some of the original doors remain as decoration on a parking garage.
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Some truck bays are now raised terraces; the original metal canopies run the length of the buildings and once supported colored fabric covers emblazoned with vendors’ names.
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Lobbies and hallways evoke the structures’ history with fruity colors: lemon, kiwi, blueberry, and orange.
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The view from a University Commons rooftop deck takes in a dramatic skyline view, as well as nearby housing, UIC athletic fields, and a Halsted Street retail strip—evidence of the area’s remarkable residential blossoming.
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The Buckingham, at 59 East Van Buren Street, is a 27-story tower designed by Holabird & Root, which also designed such Art Deco gems as the Board of Trade, 333 North Michigan, and the Palmolive Building (919 North Michigan Avenue). Completed in 1930 as the home of a Mobil Oil subsidiary, the building was vacant by 2002.
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In 2004, a partnership formed by David Dewey and Gerry Curciarello bought the Buckingham and an adjacent parking lot out of bankruptcy for about $8.5 million. They invested another $40 million in renovation costs, Curciarello says.
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The evocative detailing—here, an elevator door panel—suggested to the partners that the building could become luxury condos. “The market told us otherwise,” Dewey says. “The colleges were asking about student housing.” Columbia College now has a master lease for the building’s apartments and re-leases them to students.
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With students in mind, the developers went for a sleek look in all new interiors (the street-level lobby is pictured). This was possible because much of the interior had been trashed.
Photo courtesy of the developers
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Restored interior details include this jazzy stair rail in the lobby.
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A second-floor common lounge has all the vibrancy of new construction.
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The apartments’ interiors are all new, while many details in the elevator lobbies and hallways are restored from the original.
Photo courtesy of the developers
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The east-facing view from a 27th-floor two-bedroom shared by four Columbia students is magnificent. “You can see why we thought condos,” Dewey says.

A walkway surrounded by foliage in front of University Commons

On Saturday, two Chicago residential projects will be among nine recipients of Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Awards from Landmarks Illinois. The 926-unit University Commons, six former produce warehouses near the UIC campus, will get the President’s Award for its reinvention as a condo development. The award for adaptive use will go to the Buckingham Building, the Holabird & Root Art Deco skyscraper in the South Loop that now provides rental housing to more than 450 Columbia College students.

Each of the nine award winners get a short slide show at the Landmark Illinois site. For a closer look at University Commons and the Buckingham, click through my photos below.

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