Artful design and planning

Located on the second level wall is a mixed-media mural by artist CJ Hungerman. The eight-foot-high by sixty-foot-long artwork, titled “Universal Transverse Immigration Proclamation,” was commissioned through Chicago’s Public Art Program. The artist engaged the community in workshops to understand the area’s history and to gather generations of personal experiences before distilling it into an expression of Chinatown’s past, present, and future, through marker and paint.

The building’s south-facing entrance, a softened triangular shape, and gentle interior circulation, references feng shui design principles. Like a traditional Chinese courtyard plan, all spaces connect to the central atrium room, providing clear orientation and spatial cohesion. The soft curves of the three-sided structure match the alignment of the avenues, without creating sharp corners. This allows for a fluid movement of pedestrians, abundant landscaping, and visibility from all sides of the building. Vertical shading fins juxtapose an ultratransparent, high-performance glass curtain wall that maximizes visibility and makes the building appear as a glowing lantern at night.

Sustainable design

A comprehensive sustainability strategy has earned the building a LEED Platinum rating. Features include radiant cooling and heating, in-ground thermal storage tanks, a green roof, in-ground stormwater retention system, and natural daylighting technologies. A solar shading screen integrated into the building’s glass curtain wall reduces heat gain without compromising views and allows the building to consume 30 percent less energy than a typical library, while providing 70 percent vision glazing.

Comprehensive passive design strategies include the placement of the building core to the west to further reduce solar gain and glare. Low-energy LED lighting is used throughout the building and permeable paving with a high infiltration rate reduces the rate and quantity of stormwater runoff. The result is a building that has been recognized as a model for the sustainable design of new civic facilities.