Worries about COVID-19 spreading through the vents send Chicago building owners in search of cleaner air. ‘You can’t put a force field around your property.’

There’s an invisible obstacle to reviving Chicago’s economy from the coronavirus pandemic.

Potential transmission of the virus through air conditioning and heating systems is the latest issue employers and building owners are focusing on as they prepare for more people to head back to office towers and other non-residential buildings, whether they’re office workers or school teachers and students.

Research on the coronavirus continues to evolve, and there’s no clear consensus from public health agencies on how great the threat of airborne illness is compared with close personal contact. The World Health Organization only recently acknowledged the potential for airborne transmission.

As a precaution, some building owners are making big investments toward cleaner air. Changes to heating and cooling systems are being made late in construction or soon after a building’s completion.

The pandemic is speeding up the adoption of touchless technologies and fancy air purifying systems, moving air quality from an obscure and unseen issue to one that big corporations and their employees want to know more about. One office building owner recently received six pages of questions related to air quality from a tenant, demonstrating how the issue could become a key factor when companies consider where to lease space.

“There is great concern,” said Sean McCrady of UL, a global safety certification company based in Northbrook. “We get questions over and over about how to navigate this.”

“What we tell people is, you can’t put a force field around your property,” said McCrady, the national service line manager for indoor environmental quality. “You have to know what you can control and what you can’t.”

Efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 primarily have focused on cleaning hands and surfaces, wearing masks and maintaining 6 feet of distance to prevent exposure to large droplets from an infected person’s mouth or nose.

Unlike large droplets, which fall to the ground within a few feet, scientists believe smaller droplets can linger in the air and within indoor ventilation systems.

More than 200 scientists earlier this month signed an open letter warning that public health agencies such as the WHO and U.S. Centers for Disease Control were ignoring the potential risk of the virus spreading through air circulating indoors.

The WHO responded by updating its guidance to acknowledge the possibility of airborne transmission of COVID-19.

“I think improving ventilation and improving air cleaning is one of the few lines of defense that we have,” said Brent Stephens, an engineering professor and chair of Illinois Institute of Technology’s Department of Civil Engineering, who signed the open letter.

“I don’t think we really have a good sense of how important it is,” said Stephens, who specializes in air quality in buildings. “We’re still learning.”

There are several ways to improve air flow and quality, but many virus-fighting technologies are relatively new and difficult to research, experts say.

Costly changes to HVAC systems also can create a false sense of security, said Raj Gupta, executive chairman of ESD, a Chicago-based engineering firm.

Gupta said companies first should focus on three primary goals before addressing air quality: keeping sick people out of their space; enforcing distancing and mask-wearing; and emphasizing cleaning and hygiene.

“It’s important to realize that if we want to throw money at filters and everything, it’s not going to matter if we don’t do those first three things,” Gupta said. “People should not rely on it as a quick fix.”

Ways to improve air quality include humidity control, boosting the amount of outside air flowing into buildings, improving ventilation in areas such as bathrooms and cafeterias, and upgrading air filters to capture smaller particles.

There also are technologies such as ultraviolet light in air ducts, and filtration systems such as bipolar ionization and non-thermal plasma to help capture contaminants.

All add to the cost of building or maintaining a property, and much of the technology still requires more testing, experts say.

“It’s a bit of a wild west landscape out there when it comes to air cleaning,” said IIT’s Stephens. “You don’t know whether you’re buying snake oil or what.

“It’s buyer beware for building engineers. They need to do their due diligence.”

That includes evaluating the cost, said Sudesh Saraf of architecture firm Wight & Co., who leads the firm’s engineering group that focuses on mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

Wight recently invested about $45,000 to add bipolar ionization systems and other improvements in its Darien and downtown Chicago offices, Saraf said.

The firm’s clients include several schools and municipal buildings, as well as private-sector clients. All of them are trying to weather the financial impacts of the pandemic.

“This thing has hit our clients at a time when they can ill afford it, from a money standpoint,” Saraf said.

Riverside Investment & Development, a developer of some of Chicago’s highest-rent office towers, said it has received far more questions about air quality from tenants and prospective tenants in recent months than it ever did before the pandemic.

One tenant submitted six pages of questions, according to Riverside. In response to COVID-19, the firm is making more than $1 million in upgrades to air flow in the trophy office tower at 150 N. Riverside Plaza, a building completed in 2017.

Riverside also is bolstering its ventilation systems at the nearly completed Bank of America Tower at 110 N. Wacker Drive on the Chicago River, and in the recently begun BMO Tower next to Union Station, according to CEO John O’Donnell.

The developer is working with ESD and a spinoff of the company, smart-building technology firm Cohesion, to improve air flow and quality and limit high-touch areas. Using an app, tenants at 150 N. Riverside soon will be able to view measurements of pollutants in the building. The app will show readouts for several aspects of air quality, ranging from specific toxins in the air to ventilation and humidity levels, within a particular floor or room.

“In the post-COVID world, transparency is going to be key,” ESD’s Gupta said.

Cohesion expects its growth to come in part from increased demand for technology in buildings because of COVID-19. The firm recently announced $6.5 million in seed funding from investors including Hyde Park Angels, Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin and GCM Grosvenor CEO and Chairman Michael Sacks.

Cohesion in May conducted a study of more than 1,300 workers throughout the country, mostly in office buildings.

After working from home, 65% of respondents said they wanted to return to their office sooner rather than later, while just 8% hoped to continue remote working indefinitely.

Only 20% of the workers surveyed said they thought regularly about air quality or the overall health of people in their building before the pandemic, but more than 80% said they expected to do so in the future.

Protecting and reassuring office tenants will be one of the biggest tests for office landlords since the 2001 terrorist attacks stoked fears of working in skyscrapers and led to extensive security measures, said Chicago real estate veteran Bob Wislow.

“This is a really big challenge, just like Sept. 11 was a challenge for tall buildings,” Wislow said. “We learned how to secure and manage those buildings in a way that regained the trust of the public.

“As an industry, we have to work our tails off to regain everyone’s confidence during a pandemic. And I think the real estate industry is doing that.”

Wislow is chairman of Parkside Realty, developer of the 12-story Fulton East office building in the Fulton Market district.

The building, which has yet to sign tenants, will be completed in August after making changes in response to the pandemic, including adding non-thermal plasma air cleaning units throughout the property, Wislow said. In such systems, ions attach themselves to pathogens, making them larger and easier to capture and kill.

Other changes included adding elevators that can be operated by foot, rather than by touching buttons with hands.

Wislow also is an owner of the space leased to the Chicago French Market within Ogilvie Transportation Center, where two wall-mounted non-thermal plasma units have been installed.

Another boutique office building, the 20-story structure at 145 S. Wells St., which opened last year, is being upgraded with an ionization and air purification system in response to the pandemic, according to developer Moceri + Roszak.

The firm is installing the same system into the 26-story Parkline Chicago condo and apartment tower, which will open next year near Millennium Park, according to principal Tom Roszak.

“The healthy building idea is going to be prevalent for everybody,” Roszak said. “I think you have to have this.”

Air cleaning also is likely to be emphasized in other types of real estate, such as hotels and retail.

Earlier this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that state regulators would require large shopping malls to have air filters that can trap the virus particles.

James McHugh Construction Co. expects to see more hotel projects designed with outside air flowing directly into each unit, said McHugh executive vice president John Sheridan. “Post-COVID, you’ll see more and more developers pay that extra dollar per square foot to bring air directly to the unit,” he said.

The extra duct work could add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of a high-rise, but such expenses may be part of doing business in 2020 and beyond.

“A lot of it is just giving people comfort that you’re doing everything you can,” said Riverside’s O’Donnell. “This particular virus will go away, but there may be mutations or other pandemics. I think this will continue to be on people’s minds, and we’re committed to keep adapting.”

Special St. Patty’s Day Visitors to 150

Thank you to the Shannon Rovers Irish Pipe Band for stopping by to visit 150 N. Riverside this morning!

Giving voice to coral reefs in crisis

LED panels imagine how the “flow” of human activity impacts the health of the reef

A teeming world of marine life, displayed on 89 giant panels, immerses viewers inside a thriving coral ecosystem. Colorful, undulating creatures dance to a score of celestial harmonies providing a glimpse of an underwater world often overlooked by humans.

Welcome to “Choral,” an installation combining art, architecture and technology. The multidimensional effort was designed and informed by artists and researchers with ties to Northwestern University and is on display at 150 Media Stream through Sept. 30 at 150 North Riverside Plaza in Chicago.

The creators of “Choral” are composer Jay Alan Yim, an associate professor of composition and music technology at the Bienen School of Music, and 3D/video artist Marlena Novak (’83 MFA Weinberg), an adjunct associate professor of film, video, new media and animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The creative partners work under the name localStyle.

150 Media Stream will host a public reception from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Aug. 29 at 150 N. Riverside Plaza with the project artists. More information is available on the 150 Media Stream website.

Yim and Novak’s interest in coral began after personal encounters with reefs — and news coverage about large-scale bleaching of coral.

“At some point it seemed obvious that something seriously problematic was going on with respect to corals worldwide, and that there was a ‘canary in a coal mine’ phenomenon taking place, where non-human species were more sensitive to environmental conditions than people were,” said Novak. “It’s essentially an early warning system that we can benefit from if we pay attention and do something about the situation.”

The wavelike structure and grand scale of the LED panels which stretch 153-feet wide and 22-feet high, inspired Novak to imagine the corals’ environment visually, as well as conceptually, in terms of how the “flow” of human activity impacts the health of the reef.

Rather than focusing on the degradation of coral due to ocean warming and other human-related factors, the work’s narrative follows their “origin myth” from the ascension of polyps to the constellations, through the descension of tetrapods — geometrical shapes scientifically designed to assist baby corals’ survival — and culminates in a celebratory dance, and an effervesence of new gametes.

Yim’s composition envisions an otherworldly choir for the coral polyps, which have mouths but no larynx. The score, which takes as its point of departure a 16th century choral work, creates an uplifting atmosphere for visitors.

By surrounding visitors with larger than life coral and enveloping them in music, localStyle hopes the public will be surprised and engaged by the beauty and charisma of these creatures and that it will lead them to greater involvement in ocean conservation efforts.

“We wanted to create an artwork that engendered hope and fostered public engagement rather than despair and cynicism,” Yim said.

Coral researchers Luisa Marcelino and Timothy Swain from Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering advised Yim and Novak on scientific research that shows the factors impacting coral reef habitats and introduced them to colleagues at Shedd Aquarium involved in coral reef conservation.

150 Media Stream, the curated media art space on the ground floor of 150 North Riverside Plaza, combines art, architecture and technology to celebrate the transformational power of art as collective experience, serving as an international platform for both rising and established Chicago, U.S and global media artists.

localStyle artists Yim and Novak have been creating works focused on understanding the contemporary conditions of non-humans and their environments since 2000. Recent large-scale projects have explored the mating behavior of hermaphroditic marine flatworms, the sonification of electric fish from the Amazon and experimental Eurasian blackbird grammar. Their intermedia works have been presented in festivals, museums, galleries and alternative venues worldwide.

Four Midwest developments named as finalists for ULI Global Awards for Excellence

Of the 19 developments from around the globe that have been selected as finalists for the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) 2019 Global Awards for Excellence competition, four are located in the Midwest. Widely recognized as one of the real estate industry’s most prestigious honors, the Global Awards for Excellence recognize real estate projects that achieve the highest standard of excellence in design, construction, economics, planning and management.

The Midwest developments include 150 North Riverside in Chicago, developed by Riverside Investment and Development and designed by Goettsch Partners; The Scioto Peninsula Cultural District in Columbus, developed by The Columbus Downtown Development Corporation and Capitol South Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation and designed by MKSK, Jerome Scott Architects, Allied Works Architecture, The Olin Studio and Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, developed by Crosstown LLC and designed by Looney Ricks Kiss and DIALOG and finally Gathering Place in Tulsa, developed by George Kaiser Family Foundation and designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects.

The finalists were selected by a jury made up of ULI members representing a multidisciplinary collection of real estate development expertise, including finance, land planning, development, public affairs, design and other professional services.

“What distinguished the 19 finalists is the way they have significantly improved the communities in which they are located,” said ULI member Jacinta McCann, jury chairman and design advisor to AECOM. “These projects have brought new life to these places and are creating a spillover effect in their cities. They are unlocking the public realm for use by residents and visitors in a way that hasn’t been available before. Through their long-lasting impact, they are demonstrating the best leadership globally in the responsible use of land.”

In addition to McCann, the 2019 ULI Global Awards for Excellence jury members are Stuart Ackerberg, chief executive officer, Ackerberg; Amy Coburn, university architect/director of planning design and construction, University of New Mexico; Antonio Fiol-Silva, founding principal, SITIO architecture + urbanism; Michael Grove, chair of landscape architecture, civil engineering, and ecology principal, Sasaki Associates; Blake Olafson, managing partner, Asia Capital Real Estate Pte Ltd.; Gayle Starr, managing director, Prologis and Becky Zimmerman, president, Design Workshop.

The Awards for Excellence program was established in 1979 and subsequently expanded to a global program. The program is viewed as the centerpiece of ULI’s efforts to identify and promote best practices in all types of real estate development. The winners of the competition will be recognized at the 2019 ULI Fall Meeting, to be held September 18-21 in Washington, D.C.

Chicago Leads The Way In Skyscraper Innovation

As the birthplace of the skyscraper, Chicago’s love affair with tall buildings and innovative architecture is world-renowned. We’ve illustrated 20 of the city’s most iconic skyscrapers to celebrate the groundbreaking and revolutionary changes of sky-high architecture. https://www.orbitz.com/features/chicago-skyscrapers/#/

Chicago’s 150 North Riverside Drive tower wins a 2018 IDEAS2 National Steel Award

As one of 12 winners of the AISC’s 2018 IDEAS2 National Steel Design Awards, the 150 N. Riverside office tower in Chicago is quite an engineering feat. Placed on an elevated perch along the edge of the Chicago River, the 54-story tower spans seven active Amtrak lines and has one of the largest steel sections in the world.

Chicago-based Goettsch Partners was the architect, while Magnusson Klemencic Associates served as the structural engineer. Members of the design team will be presented with their award during a ceremony at the building on Monday, July 9.

Last month, the new ProMedica Corporate headquarters in Toledo also received a National Steel Award for its innovative adaptive reuse.

The 1.25 million square-foot building’s unique shape features a very narrow structure at its base and a compact footprint that gradually extends diagonally to highly efficient, column-free floors above.

150 N Riverside Integrates Tenant-Focused Technology

Developers of the state-of-the-art 150 N Riverside office building in Chicago’s West Loop had one goal in mind—to be the best. “We wanted to quite literally build the absolute best building not only in the city of Chicago but in the country,” says Tony Scacco, executive vice president of Riverside Investment & Development, developer of the LEED Gold property.

They had their work cut out for them. The two-acre property, while one of the most sought after in Chicago, posed many challenges. To the east of the property is the Chicago River, which comes with a requirement for a 30-foot wide river walk, and to the west are the exposed rails for seven active train lines coming into the busiest commuter station in the city, Union Station.

Developers worked with architects at Goettsch Partners to design a high-tech, sustainable, core-supported building with a narrow footprint to fit the site. Only 25% of the site is occupied by enclosed structure. “It is a building in a park,” says Joachim Schuessler, design principal at Goettsch Partners. “Its iconic shape and urban experience is not just a feat for the building but for the city at large.”

Tenant-Focused Technology

The 54-story building has 1.25 million rentable square feet, an extensive green roof system, and some of the most advanced technology systems available. It has a destination dispatch elevator system, unlike any in Chicago, Scacco says. 150 N Riverside also has a state-of-the-art fiber-optic system for tenants and carrier-neutral vaults to greatly increase multiple provider presence. “We wanted to substantially reduce the build cost for tenants as well as increase provider competition in the building to result in lower costs to the tenants when procuring telecommunication service,” Scacco says. Currently there are 12 telecommunication providers onsite, with room for up to 20.

The building has Bluetooth-enabled access control and security, so tenants can use their mobile devices to get in and out. Because of its proximity to the train station, the building was constructed with the highest performing acoustically enhanced glass available. And Scacco says its shape was achieved by using a structural steel that has never been used before on the Western Hemisphere.

The 150 N Riverside office has fully integrated building management systems that are unique to the property, allowing for all systems to be remotely controlled, and 360 feedback that gives building managers the ability to control and respond to utility performance outputs as efficiently as possible. “What is really interesting about technology infrastructure is you only notice it by its omission,” Scacco says. “What we are really trying to do is provide enhancements to our tenants and their employees’ day-to-day lives without them noticing it.”

A Building in a Park

To make tenants and employees even happier, secure Wi-Fi is available throughout the property—even in the acre-and-a-half of park space outside. Meetings don’t have to be held at a desk or in an conference room; the building is designed so employees can work anywhere, including the on-site restaurant and fitness areas. “We understand people spend a lot of time at the office and wanted to support a comprehensive work-life balance,” Scacco says.

While it’s common for architects to focus on how the building meets the sky, Schuessler and his partners put much of their focus on how the Riverside building meets the ground. “It is important that we make the interior and exterior come together in some way—for them to interconnect and intermingle,” he says. “We feel, especially in urban environments, that it is important for there to be public and private spaces and for the public spaces to activate the private space. It makes it much more interesting.”

The transparent, glass fin hung walls, described by Schuessler as a “shower curtain made of glass,” that make up the structure’s lobby are one of the tallest in North America, at 77 feet. The walls allow people passing by to see into the lobby, and those in the building can take in the river view. You’ll also find various art installations in the lobby, adding to the awe.

The Loop’s Latest Happy Hour Destination With River Views Launches Today

Happy Hour lovers should take note: Porter Kitchen & Deck, a new 260-seat restaurant with a 75-seat patio off the Chicago River, opens today in The Loop at 150 N. Riverside, a 54-story office tower that opened in April. The after-work crowd should make it a popular spot to gather on weeknights, and hungry diners will have a menu of elevated American cuisine to peruse. It’s the latest restaurant from Four Corners Tavern Group, the owners of establishments including SteakBar in Old Town, Federales in West Loop, and 20 East in Gold Coast.

Porter will stay open only on the weekdays, serving lunch and dinner, plus a bar bites menu. The outdoor space will close during the colder months. The restaurant hopes it can cater office functions, and the space also features a 24-seat private dining room.

Peek at the dinner menu, here. The restaurant offers reliable favorites likes salads and a burger. But there are a few items designed to challenge the average diners including charred octopus and a short rib pappardelle with fennel-crusted beef. The lunch menu is nearly identical.

The drinks feature a selection of craft beer. But the bar is banking hard that Loop workers will want to enact Mad Men cocktails fantasies. The menu clearly explains the different variations of a martini, in case some guests didn’t know that James Bond enjoyed his shaken, not stirred. There’s also a trio of mocktails without alcohol.

Real estate is all about location, and Four Corners certainly has a gem with Porter. Hopefully the weather holds up through the fall and customers can enjoy the outdoor space for a few more weeks. Porter debuts at 11 a.m. today in The Loop.