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The John Buck Company of Chicago has commissioned SLCE Architects to design a residential condominium building at 57 Reade Street in TriBeCa that will have a major mid-block frontage on Broadway between Chambers and Reade Streets.

According to a March 6, 2006 easement document on file with the city, the developer, officially known as 281 Broadway Holdings LLC, "intends to demolish the existing buildings and construct, or cause to be constructed on the Development Site a building of between 19 and 21 stories?containing?approximately 11,372 square feet of commercial/retail area on the first and second floors of the building, together with a cellar floor of approximately 5,000 square feet?.and?approximately 120,731 square feet of residence space?."

The Broadway facade will be a sleek, blue-tinted glass with one bay of balconies at its south end. The narrow mid-block facade at 57 Reade Street will also be blue-tinted glass with one bay of balconies but the western portion of the north facade will be a light-colored grid.

The building is just to the north of the landmark Broadway Chambers Building at 277 Broadway that was designed by Cass Gilbert, the architect also of the great Woolworth Building a couple of blocks to the south at 233 Broadway. The Broadway Chambers Building, which is very ornate with colorful terracotta ornamentation and a rich architectural vocabulary, is at the northwest corner of City Hall Park.

The John Buck Company last year completed a 32-story rental apartment building with Madison Equities at 400 East 92nd Street on the southeast corner at First Avenue. The 192-unit building was also designed by SLCE architects.

The John Buck Company is a major developer in Chicago where it completed the 40-story apartment tower at Two East Erie in 2002, designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the 50-story Plaza 440 in 1991 at 440 North Wabash, designed by Solomon, Cordwell & Buenz, and the 24-story Park Evanston in 1997 at 1630 Chicago Avenue, designed by Harry Weese Associates.

Its major office towers in Chicago include the 51-story, 111 South Wacker Drive, designed by Lohan Caprile Goettsch and completed last year, the 50-story One North Wacker Drive, designed by Lohan Associates and completed in 2001, the 50-story, 35 West Wacker Drive building, which is known as the Leo Burnett Building and was designed by Kevin Roche and completed in 1989. the 30-story 515 North State Street Building, which is known as the AMA Building and was designed by Kenzo Tange and completed in 1990, and the 40-story 190 South Lasalle Building, designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee and completed in 1987.

Calls by CityRealty.com to the John Buck Company and to SLCE Architects today were not returned.

Architecture Critic Carter Horsley Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.