Mesa Development plans to preserve facades on a classic Chicago block as it builds The Legacy at Millennium Park, a strikingly modern 73-story tower planned for 60 E Monroe St. “The base building will be on Wabash, and on the second through fourth buildings as you’re heading down Wabash, we’ll save the facades,” said Andy Warner, of Equity Marketing Services, which is selling the planned highrise. “The first is the Champlain Building, which will remain, except that we’re taking over the back part of it to be our lobby.”
None of the older buildings are landmarks, Warner said, though they are “historically significant,” like those incorporated into another Mesa project a couple of blocks north. “The facades will be maintained, as we did at The Heritage,” Warner said. “That was an additional expense to the tune of a couple of million dollars for the developer, but it really paid off. If you walk down Wabash, it looks great.”
The project’s 353 condos are tentatively priced from the mid-$300s for one-bedrooms to $4 million for a penthouse. The Legacy’s most unusual feature might be what are currently being called “sky lobbies.” Three of these green areas within the building will be located on floors in the 40s and 60s. They’ll include two-story atriums with gardens and terraces.
Some preservationists have complained that the new tower will be out of scale in a landmark district, while others have argued that saving the facades on these buildings is the imperative. How would you rate Mesa’s incorporation of the old Wabash facades into The Heritage? What do you think of the developer’s similar plans for The Legacy? We’d love to hear what people think of this and other pastiche projects, including University Village’s inclusion of historic Maxwell Street facades in its new construction. Bad cosmetics or a good compromise? As always, if you can send photos to make your point, we’ll post them.