Reilly stands up for Wacker & Clark tower

26-Jun-12 – At last week’s meeting of the Chicago Plan Commission, 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly says he offered his “enthusiastic support” for the newly redesigned 59-story apartment building at Wacker Drive and Clark Street. (Left) Rendering dated May 1, 2012, of the new design shows a 630-foot glass and steel tower. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

According to an agenda for the June 21 meeting at City Hall, the commission discussed a proposal by 111 West Wacker Partners, LLC, to modify the partially constructed building, currently little more than a 25-story concrete shell. (Right) Unfinished construction project as it looked in March.

Formerly known as “Waterview Tower,” 111 West Wacker Drive, now owned by Related Midwest and 28 of the building’s contractors, will be a luxury rental tower with 506 apartments, 439 parking spaces, a restaurant, and retail space on the first floor. When completed in 2014, an estimated 800 people will live there.

“Extraordinary care has been taken to create a new building with an appropriate bulk and massing, contextual with the surrounding buildings along this prominent river corridor,” wrote Reilly in his weekly report to constituents on Monday. “111 West Wacker Drive will also provide substantial public benefits to Chicago’s downtown.”

Benefits, says Reilly (left), would include getting rid of a blighted corner on the riverfront, increasing the population of residents downtown, creating 850 construction jobs and 120 permanent jobs.

 Related story: New name, new look for slow-track Waterview project