Lucien Lagrange, principal of Lucien Lagrange Architects, has added his European touch to several Chicago projects, including 65 East Goethe and the high-rise 840 North Lakeshore Drive.
For his latest project, Ten East Delaware, he looked to the 1920s for inspiration. We asked Lagrange to talk about designing the 35-story high-rise made of French limestone with pre-cast cornice. The neo-classical building features ornamented bases and arches, and while those details are a little hard to see from this rendering, we’re eager to see how it turns out.
“We wanted it to be recognized,” he says. “I think we achieved that because the building has more detail. I think it’s a bit more graceful than the surrounding buildings. It has a quality of its own; it’s more classical. The other buildings are pretty bland surrounding it.”
Lagrange says he likes to put detail at eye level so people walking by can see it. “A building has to touch the ground in a very graceful way so as you come down to the ground, there’s a lot of detail,” he says. “You want to design a building so it doesn’t hit the ground, it sits on the ground.”
Construction on the building started in April, and first deliveries of the 121 units are expected in fall 2009.