Blue Sky Thinking

After the economy soured in 2008, Capital began to scale back its goals for Inland Steel. “You can call it a master plan or call it a menu of things that were possible in the building,” Cohen says. “It was not only for us to determine what was feasible or not feasible economically. One of the big issues in landmarks is combining technology with the desire to preserve the uniqueness and originality of the building.”

The idea of replacing the historic curtain wall with a new, double-glass, energy-efficient one had already been rejected by the Chicago landmarks commission, which was insistent that the outward look of the building not be altered. “We came up with a double-wall system that would in every way keep the appearance the same from the outside”—including five different samples of low-emissivity (or low-e) glass—“but they were not convinced,” Apking says. In addition, because Cohen submitted Inland Steel to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and then applied for a federal historic-preservation tax credit, all renovations had to pass the Register’s strict code. “They require that you maintain as much of the character-defining features as possible,” says Allen Johnson, a consultant on Inland Steel and the director of the Chicago office of MacRostie Historic Advisors.

The owner was also reluctant to embark on the kind of full-scale interior renovation that would have emptied the building, preferring instead to improve its efficiency and amenities while getting new tenants into the vacant floors. (The building is currently only 50 percent leased.) New bathrooms and elevator cabs were necessary to make the building handicapped-accessible, and energy-efficient HVAC systems were needed for the empty floors. In April, the City Council approved a $5 million Class L tax incentive for Inland Steel, a property-tax break that can be applied after a building is rehabilitated. Capital has decided to go ahead with two exterior green features, a green roof on the annex (a two-story building that originally housed the loading dock and mechanical plant) and a pocket park tucked between the annex and the office tower. The Richard Lippold sculpture in the lobby, Radiant I, will be refurbished, and the ceiling’s acrylic panels cleaned and realigned.

The ceiling on the mezzanine, one level above the lobby, will also be restored. “When originally designed, the mezzanine lighting was a continuous pattern of square light fixtures, with an exterior overhang on the north and south ends of the building,” says Emily Ramsey, an associate at MacRostie. “The effect was supposed to be of the office portion of the building floating above that recessed space.” At some point, the interior mezzanine lighting was removed and replaced with an acoustic dropped ceiling. The plan is now to replace that ceiling with reproductions of the original lights, based on those still extant on the overhang.

On the upper floors, some of the original white, perforated-steel ceil-ing panels still exist, and since the pattern of lights is visible from the street, they also count as character-defining features. Whether or not Capital can replace some or all of these ceilings, and in what manner, is currently under discussion. A number of original E.F. Hauserman panels, from an early demountable system, are also still in the building, and Capital may refurbish them and put them back in use. The Park Service, which administers National Register properties, “is interested in maintaining as much of the original interior as possible,” Johnson says. “One floor has the original furniture—a real Mad Men set design—along with the frosted-glass Hauserman panels.”

A combination of relatively small moves—better indoor-outdoor seals, energy-efficient lighting, and variable-air-volume systems (which allow for localized temperature control)—should increase the building’s efficiency, but it remains to be seen whether Capital will even get LEED certification for the existing building, let alone Platinum. Apking is understandably disappointed that more of the plan is not being implemented, but he believes that the master plan can serve as a blueprint in its particulars and as a topic for debate. He thinks Inland has fallen victim to a gap in the education of building owners and preservationists. “The focus on sustainability has fallen mostly to new construction,” he says. “But there is nothing more sustainable than using existing buildings.” Given the current economy, we will only be seeing more owners with 1960s and ’70s structures too expensive to tear down but unappealing in their current state. “It’s akin to the discussion over the last twenty-five years on accessibility,” Apking adds. “There was an emerging common understanding that landmark and historic buildings must be accessible, and everyone came together and developed a series of methods.”

That hasn’t happened yet around sustainability. This master plan suggests a method for making an old building as efficient as any new one, without altering its appearance. Inland’s new double-layer facade would have fit within the window frame of the old one, fulfilling Netsch’s original idea. The new ceiling would have replicated the striped light-ing pattern on the office floors, but it trumped the old SOM at integrating systems into a single sandwiched surface. “There has to be new technology that allows us to do that, or at least an understanding that there are technologies that can be layered into historic buildings later,” Apking insists.

SOM wanted to create new potential for Inland Steel (and new value for its owner) by making a landmark as innovative now as when it was new. The preservationists feel they must keep all the material that, incredibly, still remains, 52 years after its construction. So Inland Steel remains an icon of the past, when we have the ability, technology, and design skills to make it Platinum in the present. “Working through this process, we learned you can create a holistic approach for retrofits that is accessible and tangible,” Apking says. “It should be possible to create that product.”