With a futuristic blue and chrome color scheme, a lengthy serpentine couch that beckons alluringly to passersby, and clean white floors that reflect the sunlight streaming through the three-story plate glass windows overlooking its well-heeled marina, the dazzling lobby of the River City apartments in Chicago’s South Loop would seem like an ideal place to kick back and absorb a little atmosphere.
But, of course, nobody does.
Consider Rita Tandaric. In the five years that she has lived at River City, she has sat in the lobby definitely once, maybe twice.
“I sat on that sofa during the building Christmas party to talk to other tenants,” Tandaric says as she stands outside the building’s entrance waiting for a ride. “Other than that, I don’t really use the lobby other than to walk in and out.”
Tandaric is like most apartment dwellers, using the lobby as a place to pass rather than pause. Still, that doesn’t stop many architects, building owners and property managers from spending a lot of time and money designing lobbies that could shame the living rooms in many homes for comfort and beauty.
Everything from plush carpeting and upholstered furniture to fresh flowers for the coffee table are used to welcome would-be sitters. But visit the lobby of virtually any residential building in Chicago and you’ll find few takers. It isn’t unusual for such lobbies to feature custom lighting, designed to be both soothing to the eyes but bright enough to read a newspaper. Yet somebody reading a newspaper in one of these lobbies is a rare sight indeed.
First impressions
Because of their sheer size and layout, most large residential buildings incorporate some kind of lobby, if for no other reason than simply to provide access to elevators or stairways. In many buildings, however, the lobby is used to establish an impression, to make a statement about the building and its residents. Some lobbies, like the one at River City, go to great lengths to impress. Others, especially those in converted industrial lofts like the ones in Printers Row, are almost strictly utilitarian. Attractive, of course, but spare and practical.
Not surprisingly, some of the more opulent and extravagant lobbies exist in the buildings along North Lake Shore Drive-number 1500 particularly so. In fact, there are two lobbies in the cooperative building, and no fewer than four doormen are on duty at any one time. On both sides, the walls top to bottom are a rich mahogany, polished everyday. The floors are marble and the working fireplace is finished with Italian marble.
“The minute residents step through the door they are home and they want the lobby to reflect that,” says doorman Tim Conway. “This lobby certainly does that.”
It certainly does. In addition to the fine wood and furniture, the lobby has a grandfather clock, crystal chandeliers and ornate gold-plated mirrors. Two antique bowls from China are enclosed in glass cases, a gift from a resident.
“Some of the people like to add some pieces from their own personal collections,” Conway says. “For them it adds a genuine feeling of home.”
Conway says there is a definite sense of competition and hierarchy when it comes to building lobbies, at least in Chicago’s Gold Coast area. The lobby he works in could easily be the area’s champion, but next door at 1448 N. Lake Shore is one of the serious contenders. Hand-painted ceilings, elaborate ceramic tile floors, leaded glass and ornate fixtures adorn this lobby, providing an attractive workplace for doorman Walter Morrow. “We’re proud of this lobby,” he says.
The 19-story co-op was built in 1926, about the time of its neighbor, and both buildings evoke a kind of elegance and sophistication that few modern buildings can match.
Conway is not exaggerating when he speaks of a competition among Gold Coast lobbies. In fact, the buildings that line East Lake Shore near the Drake Hotel vie for ribbons and recognition in an annual contest that salutes the most beautiful grounds.
Source of controversy
Still, as stunning as these lobbies may be, most people linger no more than a minute or two, or the time it takes to say hello to the doorman, ring up a resident or call a cab. Yet even in that brief amount of time, the lobby can be a source of great controversy.
Almost two years ago, the lobby at 219 E. Lake Shore Dr. had floor-to-ceiling murals. Today its walls are pale and plain. “Some of the people said the murals made them sick and dizzy,” says Tony Goldish, who regularly comes to the building to visit his parents. “Even though the murals had been up for years and years, there was a great effort to change things. To tell you the truth, I kind of liked them.”
Colors and fabrics are a matter of personal choice, and “getting everyone to agree on what the lobby should look like is impossible,” says Donna Rasinski, an interior designer for Powell Kleinschmidt, a Chicago-based architectural design firm.
Sweeping changes for lobbies don’t happen overnight. In fact, Rasinski says, remodeling a lobby can take up to a year. “Coming up with ideas is easy; it’s winning approval from tenants that takes up time,” she says. In co-op and condominium buildings, committees are formed to vote on furniture, swatches of fabric and paint samples. “It’s common for people to bring their own fabric samples to the meeting,” she adds. “Often it’s a piece left over from their own sofa or favorite chair.”
Committee discussions can and do get heated, and Rasinski recommends that the group select a leader “so that someone can make a final decision after all the input is gathered,” she says. “Picking artwork is difficult, too, because you get some people who like modern and others who want a more simple, traditional painting, like ducks flying over a pond.”
In rental buildings, often it’s the property manager who gets to choose what the lobby looks like. That’s how these decisions are made at 200 N. Dearborn St., says Jennifer Palasz, the assistant property manager. Recently the building started putting fresh flowers in the lobby instead of silk ones. “We thought fresh flowers would look better and they do add a touch of class,” Palasz says. “If the lobby looks lousy, potential renters won’t even come in the office to see me.”
The flowers are small change, costing “just a few hundred dollars more a year,” Palasz says. “And a lot of people say it looks good.”
Source of security
Although some lobbies seem to emphasize form over function, virtually all of them are designed to fulfill a basic duty: provide security. “Sure you want the lobby to look good, but its most important function is to make the residents feel secure,” says Gert Schoengart, principal of Schoengart Associates, a Chicago-based architectural firm that specializes in restoring buildings.
“A lot of sophisticated security equipment is being installed in buildings,” Schoengart says, one main reason being that many property owners simply can’t afford to hire the staff to adequately secure a building. “Cameras can provide extra security because they can look around corners and watch the cars in the garage,” he says.
Though sophisticated electronics are expensive, Schoengart says most tenants are willing to pay. When it comes to tallying up the budget, “security is something not many people are willing to skimp on,” he says.
Even the barest of lobbies must perform this most basic function. Novona Dillard lives in the Terminals Building, 537 S. Dearborn St., a loft building in Printers Row that once reverberated with the sounds of typesetters and printing presses. Much as it has probably always looked, the lobby here is spare but practical. An outer door leads to a small waiting area, where a secure door provides elevator access only to residents with keys or guests who get buzzed in. As in many buildings, the area accommodates a phone for guests to announce their arrival, but Dillard says people have other uses for the lobby.
“In bad weather a lot of people will stand inside to wait for the bus,” Dillard says. “In the morning sometime you have to push your way through the crowd.”
The building doesn’t have a doorman and sometimes the building’s outer door is locked, particularly after midnight. “If you have guests coming over late, they have to find a pay phone and then you have to get dressed to let them in or come down in your pajamas,” Dillard says. Still, though this may seem an inconvenience, this waiting area could easily become a magnet for less desirable characters if left open during the wee hours of the morning.
A city phenomenon
It appears that because of such concerns, downtown dwellers place a higher priority on secure lobbies than do their suburban counterparts. The farther into the suburbs you get, the more obvious this becomes, with many suburban apartment buildings having little or no lobby at all, much less lobby security. The closest thing to a lobby in many of these structures might be the communal mailbox area.
“Suburban building residents, especially those in apartment complexes, would rather their properties spend money on things like swimming pools and tennis courts than on lobbies,” says Tony Tumbarello, a real estate broker for Re/Max A.C.T. in Chicago. “The difference between city and suburban living can really be seen in the lobby.”
Some buildings in the city strive to offer the best of both worlds. River City, for example, has a full complement of retail establishments and a full-service health club on premises. And Clarendon Condominiums, a 450-unit structure at 4949 N. Clarendon Ave., offers a restaurant, retail shops and a swimming pool for the residents.
The lobby at the Clarendon Condominiums was recently renovated, and once residents and visitors get past the tight front door security, they are treated to an airy, multi-story, pine-paneled area, an attractive though relatively unadorned lobby that maintenance worker and former doorman Michael Sturdivant says is a great improvement over the previous lobby.
Although the furniture and plants are still on order, and though they promise to make this common area still more comfortable and appealing, Sturdivant says it is unlikely that residents will spend much time lounging in the lobby area.
“People use this to get in and out of the building, and once in a while visitors will wait here for a resident to come down. But you never see residents just hanging out in the lobby. I’m sure their own living rooms are more appealing to them, and besides, the lobby has to compete with the pool. If the people here have a choice between hanging out in the lobby or by the pool, there’s no contest.”
