North Kingsbury

North Kingsbury LLC
North Avenue & Kingsbury St.
Chicago, Illinois

This two-component retail complex juxtaposes traditional and modern design approaches. The single-tenant building reflects the needs of a particular national retailer and strives to stylistically blend with the neighboring traditional warehouse buildings adjacent to the site. The second, multi-tenanted building was designed to be delicate, bright and visually inviting through the use of a material palette that consisted of steel, glass, and structural precast concrete. The north façade and northeast corner consist of a row of steel tube columns supporting a precast concrete signage spandrel sandwiched by a continuous glass base and a back-lit, butt-glazed clerestory. The most visible façades thus extend an inviting transparency by allowing the identities of the interior functions, as well as the structure, to penetrate the envelope, thus, activating the façade with visual interest.