HONOR |
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| The Office of Ross Barney + Jankowski Inc. Chicago, Illinois |
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| Architect: | Ross Barney + Jankowski Inc. |
| Client/Owner: | Ross Barney + Jankowski Inc. |
| General Contractor: | Ross Barney + Jankowski Inc. |
| Consultants: | Village Woodsmiths (Millwork), Janet Benes Studios (Metal) |
| Photographer: | Hedrich Blessing, Steve Hall |
The landmark Inland Steel Building is divided into two distinct elements: a column free glass office tower, and a separate steel clad tower that contains core elements, such as the elevators. Because of the offset building core, this space did not extend to the elevator lobby, even though it occupies 70 percent of the floor. To solve this problem, an imposing diagonal demising wall signals the office's entrance. This wall stretches from the lobby to the main conference room and emphasizes the narrow floor plate by allowing visitors to look through the entire structure.
This diagonal intervention wall is the only non-orthogonal element within the building grid. The studio is as open as possible, to take advantage of the airy column free space. Where partition spaces were necessary, an integrated Hauserman wall system was refurbished and reinstalled. The $30-per-square-foot budget for construction and furniture was achieved by using simple common materials such as vinyl tile, cork, metal lath and plywood. The diagonal wall, which echoes a similarly scaled granite wall in the building lobby, is black Plexiglas glued to drywall.
