Like any good property manager with a new assignment, John McDonald did some detective work when his company was named agent for the Marquette Building last August.
He dug through architectural catalogs, papers from the Chicago Historical Society, and big heavy books that looked like they’d probably just gather dust on someone else’s coffee table.
Certainly, there was no lack of material, because the people who keep track of these things have collected lots of facts about the historic Marquette-one of Chicago’s architectural jewels, best known for the $4 million worth of artwork in its lobby.
In one of the books, McDonald, who previously worked at the Rookery and Reliance buildings, came upon the ideas of Owen E. Aldis, the first agent for the Marquette Building, after it was built in 1895.
The current owner of the Marquette Building wanted to make some changes, and what really sparked McDonald’s interest, were the principles for economic office building design that Aldis had mapped out in a letter to the Boston developers of the building.
In part, the prescriptions read:
– The office building with the most light is the best investment.
– Second-class space costs as much to operate as first-class space; therefore build no second-class space.
– Common areas should make a lasting impression.
– Operating expenses must always be kept in mind.
– Upkeep is important; it should be management progressive.
While today the ideas may seem like nothing more than just plain old common sense, they became the basis of modern building management and design. And McDonald says he’s using the axioms like a century-old roadmap for a renovation program currently underway at the Marquette.
“We are adhering to these principles,” said McDonald, vice president of Continental Offices Ltd. Realty, Chicago, which is spearheading a $2 million upgrade of the seal-brown building sitting at 140 S. Dearborn St., the northwest corner of Dearborn and Adams.
“We want to bring the building up to today’s technological standards. We also want to bring it up cosmetically.”
McDonald admits that with the recent loss of a big tenant, and a vacancy rate now hovering around 20 percent, the Marquette needs some “brushing up” to compete in a tough leasing market.
He says the first round of improvements will focus on lighting, efficient operating systems and new interiors-just as Aldis might have suggested.
The changes should be complete by the end of the year, and McDonald says another $1 million to $4 million will be spent over the next few years on tenant spaces as the need arises.
While the owners of most older buildings these days aren’t interested in pouring money into them because the market for aged office space isn’t good, the Marquette has lucked out in one big respect.
The building is owned by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which also happens to be the building’s largest tenant with 75,000 square feet of space.
“This is an asset that we feel is our home,” said Tim Hoeppner, director of real estate for the foundation. “We see this building at a transition point. But we would rather hold onto it and take it through the renovation process and create value in it.”
Built for about $1.4 million, the Marquette Building was designed by the architectural firm of Holabird & Roche.
Thought to be the firm’s best example of its Chicago School of architecture, the 16-story building stands out from the other rather simple buildings of the period because of its intricate lobby artwork.
Above the lobby’s doors to the outside are four bronze panels illustrating the journey of French explorer and missionary Jacques Marquette. Colorful glass and mother-of-pearl mosaics made by Tiffany Co. further depict the explorations of Marquette, circling the face of the balcony in the two-story, rotunda-like lobby.
Also, over each elevator door on the first and second floors are bronze portraits of noted Indian chiefs, and several less remarkable European explorers.
The Marquette Building was the focus of a major preservation battle in the mid-1970s when developers wanted to tear it down and redevelop the site. Instead, it was designated a landmark.
About that time, Banker’s Life and Casualty (the insurance company started by John D. MacArthur) foreclosed on the building, later donating it to the foundation.
The building was completely renovated from 1979-81 for about $17 million.
Although the MacArthur Foundation’s stated mission is to “improve the human condition,” it’s certainly not looking to lose money in the process. So, to diversify its investment portfolio, a large portion of the foundation’s real estate holdings have been sold off since the mid-1980s, according to Hoeppner.
At one point, he says, the foundation had about 75 percent of its assets in real estate and even became the largest owner of buildings in Manhattan.
The foundation’s real estate holdings now have been reduced to about 27 percent of its entire portfolio. (It still owns about $700 million worth of property and remains the biggest landholder in Palm Beach County, Fla.)
Hoeppner says the foundation has no plans to sell the Marquette for now, but he does think there’s a window of opportunity as the real estate market improves to move the building up a notch and make it “really enjoyable” for a certain type of tenant.
A plus for the building: the MacArthur Foundation funds energy conservation research and is using some of that know-how in the current renovation.
At the suggestion of a foundation fellow-Amory Lovins, the head of an energy think tank-an energy study of the building was commissioned back in 1992.
“We wanted to provide a good working environment that goes along with our sensitivity to energy efficiency,” said Hoeppner.
The energy analysis of the Marquette, by Sieben Energy Associates Ltd., Chicago, focused heavily on lighting.
Energy experts, who probably would agree with Aldis’ century-old idea that light was the first ingredient of a good office building, say lighting is usually the quickest and simplest way to conserve electricity.
“Lighting is a big thing in commercial projects,” said George Malek, senior research engineer, Energy Resources Center, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Malek says most commercial building owners could probably cut their lighting bill by about 50 percent if new, energy-wise lighting were introduced.
Figuring that a lighting retrofit will probably save about $158,000 a year at the Marquette, new energy-efficient lighting is being installed in most of its common areas. That change not only should produce more light, but also more natural-looking light, energy experts said.
Building manager McDonald says improved lighting also will help accent the lobby’s trademark artwork and its marble staircases. He adds that the lighting will be upgraded on the interior stairways that corkscrew through the building to enhance their appeal as well.
Simple changes are being made to improve the lighting, too. Recently, the lobby ceiling was washed.
“Keeping reflective surfaces clean can make a tremendous difference,” said Kevork Derderian, president of Continental Offices Ltd. Realty, the firm now managing the Marquette. “It even changes how the mosaics look.”
Energy experts point out that any analysis of indoor lighting naturally leads to the study of other building systems, such as windows and air conditioning.
For example: The U-shaped Marquette includes a light court that was originally designed to insure an abundance of light into offices on the back side of the building. That means it has a lot of large windows that not only let in light, but heat too.
“We are looking at the windows,” Derderian said, explaining that the Marquette’s panes are tinted red to cut down light and thereby reduce cooling costs. “There are windows that can be made clear, but that reflect 51 percent of the radiant heat.”
While no decision has been made on whether the windows in the building will be replaced, new windows could cut cooling costs. That’s important because the building will get a new air-conditioning system (the biggest expense of the current round of changes) by the beginning of next year.
The circa-1947 air conditioning system will either be replaced, or the building will buy chilled water from Unicom Thermal Technologies Inc., which is providing cold water to air condition a number of Loop buildings.
“It is expensive to replace all the windows, but if we can prove we are lowering the cooling load on the building, then the utility will charge us less,” Derderian said.
He belongs to the Merritt Alliance, a group of 44 businesses studying ways to cut energy costs.
“We can sit with someone who is retrofitting a building and show him all his options on a computer model. We can show him the effects on his cooling load and choose the most efficient systems and the best environment by using computer models instead of by guessing,” he said.
But those kinds of systems are a little easier to swallow in drawing specifications for a building without such a prominent past.
“You have to do all your work in a way that doesn’t affect the historical aspects of the Marquette,” Derderian said. “Those beautiful bronzes have to stay there. There is a premium in a building like that.”
McDonald says the building is primarily being marketed to law firms. Accordingly, special conference and deposition rooms have been built for tenants. Also, cable television and a fiber-optic communications system to transmit data have been installed.
“It might look like a nondescript brown building from the outside, but when you walk in the lobby, those hidden jewels are what makes Chicago a great place to visit and a great place to work,” McDonald said.
