Dearborn-Maple Mix-Use

An early proposal for a mixed-use apartment tower in central Chicago, for live-work. The office floors were connected to apartments above privately by stairs. Structurally, continuous end walls left the units flexible around a compact central core.

“This apartment building, with its cross-shaped plan attached to a central core, was the first break with the cubism of the domination of Mies Van der Rohe. The building was designed to be constructed with a steel frame and concrete sheer wells at the end of each wing. The texture provided by the spandrel construction and the horizontal window bands was also a deviation from the glass walled structures that were characteristic of the Mies Van der Rohe designs.” (BGA caption)

The proposal was done for the developer Frank Katzin, represented by Robert Oreck of Rubloff, who continued to work with Goldberg on other projects throughout the 1950s.