Ground was broken for the first of Cityfront Center`s new buildings in October, 1986. At the ceremonies, Mayor Harold Washington said: ”This administration is proud to have been associated with the developers in shaping a first-class project. And we welcome the NBC Tower to this ambitious development project.”
The NBC Tower is a joint venture of Equitable and Tishman-Speyer Properties, and it is the gem of Cityfront Center.
”NBC wanted to be at the forefront of development,” Restifo says. ”And it had become more evident to NBC that the future of Chicago was toward the east.”
The NBC Tower has been called, by no less an authority than-and a fellow hardly given to hyperbole-The Tribune`s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Gapp, ”the best-looking masonry-clad skyscraper constructed in Chicago since the 1930s.” That is no small compliment, in a city world-renowned for its architecture.
And in the December, 1988, issue of Commerce magazine, Howard Decker, a partner in Decker & Kemp Architecture & Urban Design, writes: ”Some recognize the spirit of some of Chicago`s best buildings, like the absolutely sensational NBC Tower. . . . This building, unquestionably the building of the year, is so beautifully conceived, detailed and constructed that it seems almost inevitable that a city, as if by its presence, can enjoy a kind of consistency in its built environment.”
The limestone-and-granite building was designed by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. While its Gothic lines offer a small homage to Tribune Tower, just west of it, it takes a deep bow to the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center, NBC`s headquarters in New York City. Similarities and references to that famous building on the east side of Manhattan are evident in the mock buttresses midway up the new structure as well as in its steady vertical striping and elegant setbacks.
The 40-story NBC Tower, with 850,000 square feet of space, is an eye-popper. Its lobby is equally stunning: white, green, beige and brown marble are employed tastefully on the floor and other surfaces. Public spaces are also enhanced with custom chandeliers and sconces, gilt ceiling ornamentation and moldings.
The structure has already started collecting design awards. There should be more because, in Gapp`s assessment, ”the crisply delivered perfection of the NBC building will always be counted on as one of Chicago`s strongest late- 20th Century design performances.”
Most WMAQ employees are understandably thrilled by the prospect of working here. Some 600 of them will occupy 250,000 square feet of it, including the studio building. Some of the 40,000 square feet of first-floor space that belong to NBC will be sublet to commercial tenants. Initially the television station will occupy floors 1 through 5 in the Tower. The radio station will be on the 6th floor, and two higher floors have been reserved for future use.
The studio building is four stories of technological triumphs and practical amenities that should be the envy of the industry.
”It`s incredibly exciting,” says Jim Powell, WMAQ`s director of broadcast operations and engineering. ”I`m from Chicago and can remember watching `Elmer the Elephant` when I was a boy. Now here I am breaking new ground in terms of television technology.
”This is probably the biggest move of any station in history. The automation is among the most advanced in the world, and we are prepared for HDTV with an equipment room large enough to handle what I feel will be the eventual conversion. I feel like I`m riding a rocket ship that`s about to take off.”
The most potentially visible area of the four-story studio building is a kidney-shaped newsroom on the 1st floor. It is so esthetically pleasing that it has been selected, over one of the studios, to be used as the newsroom itself, and the entire operation of that room will be on view to the public through thick bulletproof windows.
Also in the studio building is a 5,000-square-foot studio that will be used for the station`s ongoing local productions. The massive Studio A could be used for a number of shows. There are two control rooms, with a third on reserve; tape facilities are being built in them. There`s a huge master control room, ”twice as big as we need but with room for expansion,” editing suites and other amenities.
The lower level contains two generators and in-house parking for news vans and for company executives and news vehicles. There`s a car wash for trucks. To satisfy NBC security requirements, its portion of the building is actually a building within a building with its own electrical vault, emergency generator, fan room and cooling tower.
Carol Marin, who, with Ron Magers, will anchor the first news broadcast from the Tower, is pleased by the new setting.
”It`s pretty,” she says. ”The Mart was never designed for news-gathering. God help us if there was a fire in the Loop while the Furniture Show was taking place. We`d never be able to get down the elevators.
”The new building is designed for news-gathering, and that will translate into better coverage of news and events. I certainly won`t miss the facilities at the Mart, but I will miss so many of the people: Kathy and Ray, the security guards; the elevator operators; this wonderful Irish maintainance man. That`s what I`ll take away from the Mart-fabulous memories of the people who work there.”
But the Mart has simply outlived its usefulness.
”It was never built for TV,” Morse says. ”Editing rooms were far down the hall. Anchor talent was always running down hallways. There was so much wasted time. At the new building, we`ll save hundreds of hours a year just riding elevators. Everything happens where it is supposed to happen.
”This will be a delightful place in which to work. And anytime you can improve working conditions by this amount, you`re bound to have happier people. By removing all of the frustrations (we had) at the Mart, people will be happier and more comfortable, and that leads to better people and a better product.”
The NBC Tower is no small deal for the network powers. Already, NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff has used the building to formally announce the talent-development deal the network has made with local radio wunderkind Jonathan Brandmeier.
At a news conference last April, Tartikoff said: ”Chicago is filled with many talented people. I would like to see network programming coming out of this building.”
The irony was unintended. One has to believe that for all of his executive-suite slickness, Tartikoff is not unaware of the grand traditions of Chicago-based television programs and, in particular, of the glorious legacy of his own network`s Chicago outlet.
Whatever sort of programs may make use of the NBC Tower`s wonderful facilities, they will have a hard time matching the marvels that came out of the Mart. By the late 1940s, Chicago was a thriving television center, with a series of original programming concepts. The most prominent emanated from NBC`s five small studios in the Merchandise Mart.
Under the inspired hand of Herbuveaux came ”Kukla, Fran and Ollie”; the pioneering live daytime serial called ”Hawkins Place”; the improvised show called ”Studs` Place,” which starred Studs Terkel; and in 1949 the uniquely original half-hour musical revue called ”Garroway at Large.”
Will the opening of the new facilities signal the return of Chicago as a base of network productions?
It is unlikely that NBC will bring existing programs here from New York or Hollywood, though the 11,600-square-foot Studio A-the brainchild of former WMAQ-TV vice president and general manager Monte Newman, who got tired of the Mart`s cramped 2,000-square-foot studio-is certainly capable of handling such duties.
It`s a massive room, two stories high and capable of being divided into two sections without interfering with the lighting on the 35-foot-high ceiling. A 10,000-pound freight elevator can haul up cars and props a few feet from the loading-dock entrance. VIP dressing rooms, makeup rooms, carpentry, paint and prop shop are close at hand.
The fact that the city already has a number of massive film stages will make Studio A a hard sell. Some suggest that it would be perfect for a talk show. It could seat an audience of 800. Already-twice-some of the staff of
”Late Night with David Letterman” have visited and been impressed. Brandmeier, who most likely will do some sort of talk/music program, is another candidate for the space.
”We want to operate as a profit center,” Morse says. ”The next step toward that is to fully equip the second control room. Initially, we will only have one control room, and since that will be used for our news shows, it doesn`t open up a lot of time for other productions. But next year the second control room will be operational, and that will open up some amazing possibilities not only for Studio A but also for the smaller Studio B.”
Both studios will be in use on Oct. 20 and 21, when NBC fills them with tables and chairs and all manner of ceremony for the lavish black-tie bashes planned for those evenings, featuring NBC and GE executives, local luminaries and a number of network stars. There are plans afoot for a time-capsule and a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony. ”The Today Show” will broadcast from the Tower on Oct. 19 and 20, and so will the ”Nightly News” on the 23d.
Archiable is donating his extensive collection of old cameras and other equipment to what will eventually be a museum, ”once we figure out where to put it.” A huge map, one of the items to be moved from the Mart, that once signaled in lights the cities in which NBC had stations, will also find a spot somewhere in the station`s new home. There will also be an NBC gift store in the lobby. ”We certainly don`t want to lose the sense of history that we are also taking from the Mart,” Morse says. ”We want that old map up.”
But it is the arrival of the peacock, that familiar network symbol, that has most excited some of those involved in the project.
”It is a huge peacock sign,” Archiable says. ”It`s 30 feet high and 26 feet wide. During the day it will appear bronze, but at night it will be filled with colors as the silk-screened feathers are lit. We plan to have it brought to the roof by helicopter. It will be quite a spectacle.”
And how spectacular might Chicago viewers find the first broadcast?
”We thought about playing some cute games during commercial breaks that first night,” Powell says. ”But we`ve thought better of it. I think that the best compliment would be if the viewer didn`t notice a thing, as if all the new things were transparent.
”We are confident that it will go very well. But a move like this is always risky. There`s just so much involved. We`re pioneers, and you know what they say about pioneers: There`s a chance you`ll get arrows in your back.”
So, are there any details not taken care of?
”Nothing I can think of,” Archiable says. ”We`ve covered all the bases.”
Who will turn out the lights at the Mart?
”Gee,” he says, ”that`s a good question.”
