Of the many construction site tours that I’ve had the opportunity of exploring this semester, this was organized outside of our Health & The City coursework by INOMA (the Illinois Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects). This event was hosted as apart of their professional development initiative:
This Initiative focuses on mentoring and developing minority leaders within our industry. Through this initiative, we host construction site tours, networking events and continuous education seminars.
Today, we were able to tour the renovations under construction at Chicago Union Station. They are renovating the ceiling because of issues with water coming into the building and leaking on patrons of Amtrak. Also, sometimes the water leaks from the roof would get so bad that maintenance would have to lay buckets around the floor to capture the water. The internal drains in the walls failed because of the issues with the water on the roof. So apart of the renovation is introducing a new gutter system.
Their solution to the problem is to build a double-skin skylight (so a new glass ceiling on top of the old one), that is up-to-date with code and can withstand the issues of water. They are also replacing the gysum based plaster, adding strip lighting along the columns, ceiling lights and chandelier lights. They are also adding a new balcony, and hoping that the renovation of the new space could potentially lead to to re-use of what use to be office space in the building.
Here are some photos I took from the visit.
This image shows the cables that were used to elevated the curtain wall pieces and put them in place.
Interesting Fact! In deciding what color to paint the new interior space, they hired a contractor that used chemical removal process to reveal the original color of the building. During that process they found two colors, the first color was the color that the paint turned into because of the sun; when going back for a second review, they discovered the original color.
I’ve been an active in NOMA for about 5-6 years now. Being apart of an organization like this has been extremely influential in my decision to pursue architecture as a career, and in my personal professional development.
The Illinois Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects creates a platform of inclusion and growth to support all minority designers; as defined by ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation. Our programming stems from three initiatives, Project Pipeline, Minority Leadership & Professional Development and the 2018 NOMA National Conference which we are honored to host.
If you’re interested in learning more about INOMA and their events please visit their website at: https://www.i-noma.org/
Comments