353 North Clark St Building

353 North Clark
  1. About the 353 North Clark St Building in Chicago
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectural style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The 353 North Clark St Building is a Contemporary skyscraper designed by Lohan Anderson, with Dirk Lohan as lead architect, and built between 2006 and 2009 in Chicago, IL.

Its precise street address is 353 North Clark St, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

Building's timeline

Design begins
2004
20
Construction begins
2006
18
Construction completed
2009
15
years ago
2024

Architect and team

Lohan Anderson, with Dirk Lohan as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the 353 North Clark St Building a reality:

  • Environmental Systems Design, Inc. in charge of Structural Engineering
  • Bovis Lend Lease as the Main Contractor
  • Mesirow Financial Real Estate as the Main Developer
  • Epstein in charge of MEP Engineering

Architectural Style

The 353 North Clark St Building can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

Contemporary style architecture builds on top of the principles of Modernism and Postmodernism, but incorporates other variables which might not have been that important in the past, but certainly are today, such as technology, sustainability, inclusivity, and others.

From a historical point of view, it is hard to categorize things from a not-so-distant time, and therefore we choose to categorize most buildings built after the year 2000 as "Contemporary". It is possible that as time goes by and we, as a society, gain perspective on the things happening today, we'll be able to look back and recategorize all these buildings into more concrete subsections, some of which might not even exist today.

That being said, and even thought being a contemporary building, probably taking advantage of modern materials, construction techniques, and technology, the design of the 353 North Clark St Building is inspired by the international-style style.

Spaces & Uses

The 353 North Clark St Building reaches an architectural height of 623ft (190m). It has a total of 46 floors, 45 above ground and 1 basements, served by 22 elevators. In total, it has a built-up area of 1,200,003 sqf (111,484m2) offering 1,173,642 sqf (109,035m2) of usable space.

In regards to parking space, the building has a total of 180 spots available, which roughly equals 4 spots per floor (above ground), or one parking spot per every 6,523 sqf (606m2) of usable space.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 2009, the 353 North Clark St Building has mainly been used as Commercial space.

623ft (190m)
1 basements

Materials & Structure

The 353 North Clark St Building uses a framed tube-in-tube structure , with Steel columns and slabs.

A framed tube-in-tube structure uses a central core, known as inner tube, which usually holds stairs, lifts and installations, and a perimeter of columns around it, which form the exterior tube. The interior tube is tipically more massive (often made of reinforced concrete), and the exterior tube is "lighter" (made of steel or concrete columns). Both tubes are conencted via horizontal elements which make up the floors and also transmit any horizontal froces from the facade to the core.

The facade employs a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame at the edges of the floor slabs. The perimeter columns are set back slightly from the facade, allowing them to remain independent of the curtain wall system.

This configuration enables a completely free design of the curtain wall, unencumbered by structural elements, thus providing greater flexibility in aesthetic choices and maximizing the visual impact of the exterior.

Non-structural Curtain Wall Facade
Non-structural Curtain Wall Facade

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a continuous blue-tinted glass curtain wall. The curtain wall is designed as three overlayed panels, creating small setbacks that create vertical shadow lines from the bottom to the tip of the building.

The curtain wall also features steel horizontal details that match the position of the slabs behind the curtain wall.

At ground level the facade retracts, leaving the structural columns exposed and creating a transitional space between the exterior and the interior.

Sources

  • www.353nclark.com
  • en.wikipedia.org
  • aviewoncities.com
  • www.epsteinglobal.com