A first look at the plans for our new Chicago office | Hacker News Reader

A first look at the plans for our new Chicago office

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36 pointsmattas40 comments

better than demolition but many are concerned about preservation:

https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2023/12/08/thompson-cent...

https://www.reddit.com/r/architecture/comments/17ahso9/demol...

It's good to respect and appreciate existing quality buildings, but this must be weighed against the risk of a city becoming a museum.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens-Theyre/dp...

Is there a lot of that risk for the City of Chicago?

Preservation as it was was not a feasible option for this building...

The Thompson Center has been dilapidated for a long time and used a tremendous amount of energy to heat and cool. It needs to be replaced.

Why are they investing in more office space?

There’s a national glut, and this building could be put to better use.

> Why are they investing in more office space?

Buy low, sell high. They've done the same strategy in New York.

> this building could be put to better use

Such as?

It’s at the intersection of a bunch of train stations. Retail? Residential? Commercial for people other than knowledge workers?

They’re not building new office space. They’re converting an office building into… an office building. At worst this is neutral for the glut.

And it’s actually a bit better than that, because IMU the glut is in lower quality buildings while demand for higher quality offices is still high.

If you've been over there lately, it's more like they're converting a zombie-apocalypse mall into a Googler campus.

It was already dirty and decaying pre-pandemic, but now it looks exactly like something out of 'The Last of Us'.

What will happen to Jean Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast[1]?

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_with_Standing_Beast

It is being donated to the Art Institute.

For government buildings it actually looks good. Compare that to Boston's government center abomination, this is refreshing. I'm glad Google is refreshing it and at least doing something to maintain it.

Boston City Hall is pretty much the nadir of Soviet-looking Brutalism.

No reason a government building should be anything but functional. Expensive, hard-to-build, difficult-to-maintain design is tax money spent for no benefit.

Should the US Capitol look like a Wal-Mart?

It did on January 6th, 2021.

Are brutalist buildings less expensive, easier to build, and easier to maintain?

I can't answer that, but I think governments should use standard office buildings like everyone else. No need to spend extra money on appearances.

In many cases they do. The local IRS office, Social Security office, state governent offices etc. are located here in standard office park type buildings. It's fine.

The city offices on the other hand are in some historic rehabbed 19th century space that was expensive to refit as it was never meant to be an office building, it's terrible from a heating/cooling efficiency standpoint because it wasn't built with that in mind, it has a much larger footprint than necessary because it's a two-story, sprawling complex, and it's on land that would otherwise be very valuable for other business or residential properties, so there is a tremendous opportunity cost in terms of property tax that could be collected from that location. But it looks nice.

Brutalism started in the UK (usually attributed to Alison and Peter Smithson). I suppose you could argue that Le Corbusier invented most of its characteristics earlier. But in any case, USSR had nothing to do with it.

A lot of folks conflate brutalist with Soviet constructivist. They do look a lot alike, but come from completely different origins.

Almost. I give you…

https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/gsa-regions/region-5-great-lake...

which, while not visible in the photo, sacrifices the courtyard from the Boston design in favor of more, windowless floor space.

Wait they bought and are hyping up the State of Illinois building, that everyone use to call a giant glass toilet? Now I've seen everything.

That building was a laughingstock of design when I was a kid, I had family members that worked there. If I recall correctly it also had a habit of popping glass panes out of the upper levels and having them rain down terror on unsuspecting pedestrians in the atrium.

> That building was a laughingstock of design when I was a kid, I had family members that worked there.

What did they think about working in that building?

I'll admit it's not the prettiest thing I've seen (and I can appreciate even brutalist buildings) but I don't see what's wrong with it. I imagine there'd be a lot more natural light

Completely unworkable climate control and wild temperature swings. Blinding light at certain times of day that made it impossible to work. And of course the previously mentioned glass issue. I think it killed a couple people while under construction as well. It's got quite the history.

It does seem odd to build a building out of that much glass in a climate like Chicago’s.

Weird, I've always thought the Thompson center was a beautiful building and one of the best downtown. Many people I know also think the same.

If you're looking down on it from one of the surrounding hi-rise office buildings it's indistinguishable from a toilet.

It's definitely a very polarizing building among people (not so much among architects... with a few exceptions)

Here's a good documentary: https://vimeo.com/241413433

Sadly Jahn was killed a few years ago in a bicycle accident.

I wonder if the DMV will still have a presence there.

They already closed that office. You have to go to the Secretary of State facility over on Lasalle and Randolph.

This is funded by advertising dollars and hijacking the attention of humans. I'm sorry but I can't admire or celebrate this. It's all dirty money.

I am genuinely curious - what is it that you do for a living that lets you have this judgement?

EG, I've been a non-advertising customer of Google for literally decades and from Search to Chrome to Gmail to Maps to Docs to Android it's given me great value.

Something not funded by the adtech that is devouring the world.

I don't think that's even necessary. Most of us are forced to survive under conditions we have almost no control over, so it's natural to not admire/celebrate those who do have the control and prioritize shareholder profits instead of everyone's quality of life.

That sounds like a double standard - you feel entitled to judge the work of other people according to your morality but you're not willing to expose to us why your own labor is virtuous.

Parent poster didn't submit a link talking about their work like it should be the focus of the entire world.

Release your work for scrutiny and then it will be scrutinized. If you're publicizing it then you've asked for scrutiny, and the people doing the scrutiny aren't required to be scrutinized in return.

If trying to get someone’s attention is dirty, what moneymaking enterprise is clean?

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