Lincoln Park Centre, Chicago
Retrofit Team
Panel Fabricator: Sobotec Ltd., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Panel Installer: Architectural Panel Systems Inc., Naperville, Ill.
General Contractor: Ernie Loberg Construction, Rolling Meadows, Ill.
Architect: Weiss Architects LLC, Chicago
Design Schematics: Sayigh + Duman Architects, New York
Materials
The renovated façade was clad in a combination of uniquely ribbed-and-curved aluminum composite material (ACM) wall-panel sections, U-shaped ACM panels and rectangular zinc panels. It includes 9,652 square feet of 4mm Alucobond Plus naturAL ACM in the Brushed Stainless finish. The panels were installed utilizing Sobotec’s SL-2000 Dry Joint Rainscreen System.
Alucobond, which consists of 0.020-inch aluminum thermos-bonded to a plastic core, provides flatness and rigidity, formability, low weight and weather resistance. Alucobond naturAL panels feature textured aluminum surfaces that amplify the natural character of aluminum. Alucobond Plus wall panels have a flame-spread index of less than 25 and a smoke-developed index of less than 450 when tested in accordance with ASTM E 84. They also have a Class A interior finish classification.
The radius of this building’s profile was its “key feature,” according to Vlad Sobot, president, Sobotec. Sobotec fabricated approximately 1,400 Alucobond ribs—curved or flat—that were shop-installed with concealed fasteners into 200 wall panel sections averaging 4- by 8-feet. Additionally, Sobotec fabricated 24 U-shaped 4- by 5-foot Alucobond panels for installation around first- and second-story windows on the retail center’s space.
“These wall sections were easy to install in the field with hidden fasteners,” Sobot says. “We’ve completed many projects in this manner. By assembling these panel sections in the shop, labor costs are reduced because labor is much more expensive in the field. The controlled shop environment also allows us to match all of the ribs from one panel section to the next.”
ACM Panel Manufacturer: 3A Composites USA
The Retrofit
The 61,000-square-foot shopping center, located at the highly trafficked intersection of North and Clybourn avenues on Chicago’s north side, has undergone the kind of major changes in just a few short years that have made it a real-estate-investment company’s dream venture.
When White Plains, N.Y.-based Acadia Realty Trust acquired the urban retail property in April 2012 for $31.5 million, Lincoln Park Centre was suffering from tenant losses, including the shuttering of the Borders Books and Music store that had occupied its 25,000-square-foot anchor space. In January 2015, Acadia announced its sale of Lincoln Park Centre to The Georgetown Co. LLC, New York, for $64 million—more than double its purchase price.
Key to that investment success was an approximate $5 million renovation, including an extensive redesign of the shopping center’s light-hued brick-and-stone exterior façade with a modern metal look that focused on creating a custom, contemporary image for new tenant Design Within Reach Studio. The home furnishings and decor merchandiser opened in July 2014 in Lincoln Park Centre, occupying the second story of the vacated Borders anchor space.
The successful sale of the shopping center, which now is home to Design Within Reach Studio, Eddie Bauer, and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, as well as legacy tenants Sur La Table and Carter’s, may be the best endorsement for this renovation project’s design.
Photo: Paul Biasco