Would Have Been Wednesday – Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago Renovation

Our weekly journey through the Epstein Would Have Been portfolio takes us to Chicago 2003 for a proposed renovation of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago Headquarters. For this project Epstein was retained to provide full-service architectural, interior and engineering services for a renovation of a building originally designed by Epstein in the 1950s. For this proposed renovation, Epstein provided design options for retrofitting the building to improve its appearance, security, lobby/reception, circulation, interior workspace organization, and related mechanical systems.

A new one-story lobby pavilion was proposed to be added to the east side of the existing building. To mediate between the modest scale of the new lobby and the high-rise scale of the existing building, a number of urban design elements, such as, a large public art mural and a stainless steel mesh screen would have been incorporated into the design.

Another major program issue driving our design scheme was the provision of a secure building. This resulted in the design of the new entrance and the development of an architecture which would have provided a significant degree of blast resistance for the buildings occupants.

This extra security was proposed to be provided for by the implementation of two major strategic decisions. The first decision related to a comprehensive program hardening of the building structure and envelope. This included designs for structural upgrades as well as the projected replacement of all existing glazing with new energy efficient, blast-resistant windows.

The second major decision involved the suggested creation of stand off distance between the building and potential threats within the urban environment. This was provided for by incorporating crash-barrier/plates around the entire perimeter of the building.

But perhaps the most significant security design decision was the plan to construct a new entry pavilion on a vacant lot adjacent to the east pantry wall of the existing building. The existing lobby was to be converted to ADA accessible washrooms while the new entry pavilion would provide the required area for security equipment and the necessary queuing space.

Sadly, after much deliberation, the JFMC decided that moving their headquarters to a new building and selling their existing facility would make the most fiscal sense for their organization. Therefore, our design scheme was scrapped, but not all was lost. Shortly after this project fell through, the new owners of this building asked Epstein to design an adaptive re-use of this office building into a new La Quinta Inns & Suites - A project which we completed in June 2009!