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Architectural Design
and Awards
Chicago is famous for its
architecture, and by its very nature, Block X lives up to Burnham's direction to
"make no small plans". The design is both impressive and functional, and each
walk through the complex reveals new levels of detail. While the bricks, metal,
and glass provide the physical structure of Block X, it's the ever growing sense
of community that weaves the residents together and strengthens their bond to
this unique place they call home.
 Block X is a one hundred
unit, gated community offering residents a truly "unique alternative
in urban living". Thrush acquired the 1.78-acre site in August 1996
and construction began in September 1997, and was completed in 1999.
The development included construction of five residential buildings
clustered around a 1/3-acre park-like courtyard.
Designed by the Chicago
architectural firm of Pappageorge Haymes,
Ltd., Block X was awarded the Builders Choice Grand Award from Builder
Magazine, the Distinguished Builder Honor Award for Excellence in
Architecture from the American Institute of Architects and two Gold
Key Awards from the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago.
KGH, a leading Chicago
based consulting architect and structural engineering firm, provided
the following descriptive of Block X's architectural style:
"The varied forms, use of
internal symmetry and external asymmetry, the distortion of grids and
framework, the incorporation of widely varied materials, and the use of
planar polychromy are characteristic of the complex's Deconstructivist
Style.
The Washington Street
elevations seek to be contextural with the
 surrounding warehouse
structures which defined the neighborhood in recent history, while the
elevations of the complex as one proceeds south are increasingly
fragmented in form and material.
Even the name of the
complex, Block X, is indicative of the philosophies of Deconstructivism
and its associated architectural style.
The Deconstructivist
Style uses asymmetry, varied materials, colors, forms and building
penetrations to reflect the infinite plurality and flux of human
experience and seeds to express their fragmentation and defragmentation
in parallel.
 The ideas of the style
are rooted in the philosophies of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derrida. The
American architect Peter Eisenman is most widely associated with
interpreting the style in the United States beginning in the 1980's.
Other architects including Zaha Hadid, Morphosis, Bernard Tschumi,
Daniel Libeskind, Michael Sorkin, Coop Himmelbau, Gunter Behnisch,
Lebbeus Woods, Kazuo Shinohara, and SITE, amongst others are prominent
practitioners on the international scene. The design of the new World
Trade Center complex that is currently planned for New York City is
conceived in this style." |
