Watercolor analytique
Digitally rendered site plan, elevations, and perspective
This imaginary design was created in response to a 2019 design competition hosted by the Chicago-Midwest Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The competition called for a fictive design for a new formal Harbor House to contain a Maritime Museum, watersport-oriented Park District Field House and/or lido, and new Yacht Club facilities to be located along Lake Michigan at Grant Park. Our entry was put together by members of the firm of Glavé and Holmes from Richmond, Virginia, including Gibson Worsham, Aaron Chupp, Connie Owens, and Tim Hayes.
The competition description:
The Chicago-Midwest Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art is pleased to announce the inaugural Chicago-Midwest ICAA Design Competition, offered to all ICAA members and member firms. Competition judgment will be “blind,” and entries may be submitted by individuals or teams of any number. Participants will have 3 months to conceive and illustrate designs for a new formal Harbor House along the waterfront in downtown Chicago, replacing the Chicago Yacht Club’s Monroe Harbor building, which currently terminates East Monroe Street. This competition is for an entirely fictive design – and is neither solicited nor endorsed by the Chicago Yacht Club organization. All entries will be displayed in a gallery on the Chicago ICAA Website with attributions. The winning entry will receive a $3,000 cash prize.
Underpinning this design challenge is a move to correct the private Yacht Club’s current interruption of the otherwise “public” waterfront with a multi-use edifice whose purposes are united under the marine theme: a Maritime Museum, watersport-oriented Park District Field House and/or lido, and new Yacht Club facilities. The resulting design should reshape Lake Michigan water’s edge as you or your team deem most-appropriate toward the objective of reinforcing the bilateral symmetry of the waterfront as envisioned in the 1909 Plan of Chicago by Burnham & Bennett. The siting of the new Harbor House building shall balance the Shedd Aquarium, mirrored about the east-west axis of Ida B. Wells Drive, at what is now the convex curve of the waterfront, offset from the “S-curve” of Lake Shore Drive.
The building and site programs are to be determined largely by the entrant(s), however a portion of the program area shall be dedicated to “public” (non-Club) use. The programming rationale and clarity of its presentation will be among the factors considered by the jury. Elements entrants are encouraged to consider incorporating include: (at least) one grand hall or ballroom, museum gallery spaces, athletic facilities, a pool or pools, a water taxi landing, dining and bar facilities, club member lounges, showering and changing facilities, meeting rooms, and administrative offices.
