Allen Richards' Blog: Boardrooms Out, Bedrooms In at 171 North Wabash

X marks the spot where 171 North Wabash will be built. The parking garage behind it has already been replaced by Experience 73. (Courtesy of Apple Maps)

Residential real estate is still hot in downtown Chicago, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a long-planned office building is going to welcome bedrooms instead of boardrooms.

Plans for the building at 171 North Wabash Avenue debuted almost five years ago. The eight-story office building was the shorter, less glamorous companion to the shiny residential tower built around the corner now known as Experience 73. It was the George to 73 East Lake Street’s Jerry.

The George (not it’s official name, but not a bad idea) was going to be 80 feet tall, with 248 parking spaces and a green roof. As we reported back in 2011, it was designed by friends-of-the-blog SCB for M&R Development and Consolidated Equity III to blend in with the “historic character” of its Wabash Avenue neighbors.

Now that plan is out the window. In its place — levels. Seven of them containing just 60 homes, over ground floor retail space. The 248 parking spaces from the office design are being replaced by… nothing. Seriously, if you live on the corner of Lake and Wabash, you don’t need a car.

It’s unlikely that 171 would share parking with Experience 73, since the new building has a new developer. It’s now RZR LLC Wabash, which has been known to borrow a toothbrush from Odgen Partners over in the West Loop. You may remember Ogden from such hits as East Water Place in Streeterville, Dearborn Park II in the South Loop, and The Madison in West Town.

Nearly all of the projects listed on Ogden’s web site were designed by Booth Hansen. But this time the city paperwork lists WW Architects & Consulting in Naples, Florida.

Let’s give George the firehose, shall we?