Real Estate

I remember it vividly as something of a formative childhood experience. The news came hard in the year 2009, when they announced that the last construction vehicle was to be sadly removed from the empty lot on the corner of Lake Shore Drive and the Chicago River. They left behind a now infamous hole in the ground that has collected water for the past decade. Due to the Great Recession and a lack of sales, the Chicago Spire was repeatedly postponed and canceled in the following years.

When a historic building is not only preserved, but enhanced to allow it to remain functional and relevant, that is when it is realizing its full potential, adding both beauty and community benefit.

Chicago’s ever-evolving skyline – a series

Marketing calls for creative and inventive thinking, new ways of gaining visibility and interest. But the world tires quickly of gimmicks and cleverness, and hungers for real experience and connection.

We see that everywhere in real estate marketing, so we’ve turned our full attention to ways our clients can connect with their communities to create more engaging user experiences with tenants, employees, consumer and others.

Guest post by Sebastiano Masi

The new Chicago Apple flagship store on Michigan Avenue and the river is the first of its kind – and it is one of the most ingenious buildings in Chicago.

The thought of working on one of Chicago’s most admired icons is enough to get the whole agency jumping up and down. We got that chance recently when the owners of Chicago’s John Hancock Center – affectionately known as Big John – called on us to build an online presence for the building.

As we put the finishing touches on another corporate space branding project (more to come on that!), we’re reflecting on the category as a whole and why these projects are so powerful for companies.

When a massive new commercial property, something like a global company’s new headquarters, moves into a neighborhood in Chicago, there’s no doubt that area will change.

The first example that comes to mind (probably because it’s Torque’s home) is Fulton Market. Ever since Google moved in, the grit of Fulton Market is chic. Chicago’s meat packing district has followed the same path as New York’s.

Business has always been obsessed with first impressions. Traditional business thought says that when you walk into a prestigious office building, you should experience a grand entrance. True, when you step into a breathtaking lobby, one like The Rookery’s or 311 S Wacker’s atrium, something happens, you feel a sense of awe. But what if that space facilitated something else, something less about the grandiosity of business and more about the individual.