108 North State Street

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Block 37 (From State & Washington)
June 8, 2006 Block 37 site and signage. (In background left to right: Chicago City Hall, Richard J. Daley Center, Chicago Title & Trust Building[1] (location of webcam below) & James R. Thompson Center) November 21, 2006 progress Southwest corner progress.

108 North State Street will be a mixed use urban center located in the part of downtown Chicago, Illinois, known as the Loop. It will be located on the square block bounded by North State Street, West Randolph Street, West Washington Street and North Dearborn Street that is affectionately known as block 37. The project broke ground in November 2005 is slated for completion in March 2008, although it has been reported that the developer has asked key tenant Morningstar, Inc., to delay its scheduled move-in to the complex.[2]

According to proposed plans (see emporis.com below), it will be composed of three united structures: a 21-story residential condominium tower called 108 North State Condominium Tower at North State Street and West Randolph Street, a 20-story hotel tower called 108 North State Hotel Tower at West Randolph Street and North Dearborn street, and a 17-story tower called CBS 2 Broadcast Center at North State Street and West Washington Street. It is expected to have a very eclectic mix of shopping, entertainment, and dining in its lower retail floors. Below street level, there will be a CTA transit station providing express service to O'Hare and Midway airports via the 'L', as well as local connections via the CTA Blue and Red line subways (replacing the Washington/Dearborn and Washington/State stations, respectively).

It will be flanked to the west by the Richard J. Daley Center and to the east by the flagship Macy's State Street Store.

Block 37 was one of the city's original 58 blocks[3] and there was much consternation when it was demolished in 1989, after Mayor Richard M. Daley approved its demolition to erect a multi-use skyscraper with retail, hotel, office, and residential spaces. Due to block 37's central location in the downtown loop, block 37's history is a microcosm of the city's history. Block 37 was an almost vacant city block from 1989 until 2005 after several attempts at redevelopment failed due to Chicago politics and insufficient funding of several past developers. It should be noted that the complex is being developed by financially-troubled commercial real estate developer, the Mills Corporation, best known for its ownership of numerous super-regional shopping malls.

The single remaining building from the 1989 block 37 architecture is an active Commonwealth Edison transformer building that distributes power to a great portion of the loop.