Citadel Center

Citadel Center
  1. About the Citadel Center in Chicago
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectural style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The Citadel Center is a Contemporary skyscraper designed by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, and built between 2000 and 2003, for a reported $185 million dollars, in Chicago, IL.

Citadel Center is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Dearborn Center.

Its precise street address is 131 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL. You can also find it on the map here.

A limited edition of one of the most famous sculptures in the world, "Winged Victory of Samothrace", was exhibit on the lobby for many years, until 2018.

At the time of its completion in 2003 the Citadel Center incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included the use of an elevated-floor pressurized plenum system, enabling effective underfloor air circulation and personalized climate control through diffusers mounted on the floor. It was the first time that this innovative approach, which enhances the well-being of occupants by ensuring a continuous supply of fresh air throughout the entire vertical space, was used in Chicago.

Research indicates that such measures contribute to a healthier and more conducive working environment, and also, contributed to the building getting the Energy Star certification and the LEED Gold award.

The building underwent a major restoration in 2018.

Building's timeline

Construction begins
2000
24
Construction completed
2003
21
a
Restoration
2018
6
years ago
2024
  1. 2018 - The $100M renovation included the creation of a new conference center where 182 people could be seated, and a roof deck and a new amenities area that included a huge fitness center and a luxury lounge on the 12th floor.

Architect and team

Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura 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 at the very least we know that there was one other part involved, that was Paul Beitler development co. as the Main Developer.

Architectural Style

The Citadel Center 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 Citadel Center is inspired by the postmodernism style.

Spaces & Uses

The Citadel Center reaches an architectural height of 581ft (177m). It has a total of 39 floors, 37 above ground and 2 basements. In total, it has a built-up area of 1,926,168 sqf (178,947m2) offering 1,536,547 sqf (142,750m2) of usable space.

In regards to parking space, the building has a total of 211 spots available, which roughly equals 6 spots per floor (above ground), or one parking spot per every 7,287 sqf (677m2) of usable space.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 2003, the Citadel Center has mainly been used as Commercial space.

581ft (177m)
2 basements

Materials & Structure

The Citadel Center uses a frame structure made of steel columns and reinforced concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade is non-load bearing either, as it is common in frame structure type buildings.

This project was designed with sustainability in mind, and following that idea the architects and engineers decided to reuse part of the foundations of the building that previously stood on the site

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a blue-colored, all glass, curtain wall that mirrors its surroundings.

Although the building is roughly a square prism, the facades are slightly curved and the corners are inverted, creating two edges on each corner.

The lobby is quite monumental, with super high 9-meter ceilings.

Sources

  • structurae.net
  • citadelcenter.info
  • www.spanish-architects.com
  • www.gbig.org
  • dbpedia.org
  • en.wikipedia.org
  • www.loopnet.com