Completion 6: Hyatt Center at 71 S. Wacker Drive
Cost: $225 million*

The Hyatt Center at 71 S. Wacker Drive will house the eponymous hotel chain's headquarters.

Rising on a half block bordered by Wacker, Franklin and Monroe streets, the 1.75-million-sq.-ft. building will soar 49 stories.

Through the sixth floor, Hyatt Center's floor plates measure 50,000 sq. ft., with each of the floors above level six encompassing about 34,000 sq. ft.

A look at a few numbers demonstrates the project's impressive scope.

Covering 1.5 acres, Hyatt Center used about 12,000 tons of structural steel and feature about 65,000 cu. yds. of concrete. The exterior will be made up of about 7,000 unitized curtain wall panels measuring 5 ft. wide by one story - 14 ft., 2 in. - tall.

The site had been home to three buildings, two of which were the Hart Shaffner & Marx manufacturing plant and Kent College of Law. They fell to the wrecking ball in the 1980s, and the parcel had been used as a parking lot in recent years.

Penny's Pick

Penny Pritzker, a member of the family running the Hyatt chain, had stood atop a 50-story Loop high-rise on a bitterly cold day months before the groundbreaking to choose the exterior glass to be used on the Hyatt Center.

Light glass was sought because reflective buildings are not as effective aesthetically.

From a list of 50 glass alternatives, the design team narrowed the search to about a dozen and then a short list of three. A light box - a 3 ft. cube glass panes were slid into - was constructed to compare options. The box's objective was to demonstrate how the glass would look on the side of the building.

It was at this point that the Pritzker family went out on a cold day a block away from the construction site in late 2002.

Owatonna, Minn.-based Viracon was selected as the glass supplier.

A tight timetable was driving the project, and things were done to ensure the schedule was met.

For example, only one crane was required to complete the job, but two cranes were set anyway to ensure the capacity to erect steel.

The delivery and staging of materials benefited from the same careful planning.
Steel, for example, was manufactured in Wolcott, Ind., a two-hour drive from Chicago. When needed, the steel would be loaded on trucks and arrive onsite two hours later, ready for erection.

*Midwest Construction estimate

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