Juliane Wolf (Illinois Institute of Technology)
“Building
Sustainability” Written by Andrew Connor
Juliane
Wolf (she/her)
Just shy of 1,200 feet in height and coming in
at 101 stories, the Studio Gang-designed St. Regis Chicago has already become a
recognizable part of Chicago’s skyline. Its height and three-stem profile set
it apart, while its undulating façade and glass gradient evokes the blue-green
surface of the river it overlooks. When it opens later this year, it will be
the third-tallest building in the city.
Much more than an aesthetic flourish, the
glass gradient represents both an achievement in building material advancement
and a step forward in energy-efficiency, two areas of architecture that St.
Regis Chicago’s design principal, Juliane Wolf, has been pursuing her entire
career.
Now a partner at Studio Gang, Wolf grew up in
Germany surrounded by architects—her father, grandfather, great aunt, uncle,
and currently, her nephew. She says that she came to Illinois Institute of
Technology because its Bauhausian and Miesian ties have given the school a good
reputation in her home country.
Illinois Tech was also the place where Wolf
met Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang founder and a former professor at the College of
Architecture. Wolf became an intern at Gang’s studio in 1999, just two years
after its founding.
“When I started as an intern there were only a
handful of people,” says Wolf. “It was such an amazing experience. I knew from
the moment that I interned there that it was something really special. Jeanne’s
vision was immediately inspiring.”
Wolf returned to Studio Gang after graduating
first in her class and helped to bring some of the firm’s earliest projects,
such as Bengt Sjostrom Starlight Theatre in Rockford, Illinois, to life. She
only stayed until 2004, departing for Berlin to do what many architects do at
some point in their careers: leave to pursue independent practice to find her
creative voice.
“As much as I admired Studio Gang, I knew that
I wanted to do some projects on my own, which is just part of growing as an
architect,” says Wolf. “I wanted to know what I would do if I did something by
myself.”
It ended up being a more hands-on experimental
study of materials by way of her creative practice with Eva Tuerks (ARCH ’98),
Büro Blickpunkt, and a rigorous study in sustainable design at the
Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Wolf soon returned
to Studio Gang—and just as she had grown as an architect, so, too, had the
firm, taking on larger, more impactful projects. One of her first assignments?
Chicago’s St. Regis Chicago.
Because the building has an undulating frustum
shape (a truncated pyramid), one of Wolf’s first moves was to measure the
thermal conditions of the three towers at their widest and narrowest points.
What she found was a surprising variance in the performance of the units caused
by the changing ratio of window glazing to floor area.
“I shared this with Jeanne, and that started
our exploration of how to tune the glass to address that performative issue,”
says Wolf. “The skin is the aspect of the building that is the most responsive
to the environment.”
From there, the design team developed the
solution in the form of the glass gradient, which gets darker at the tower’s
narrowest points to tune solar heat gain to the unit size, thus reducing the
energy required to keep the interior at a comfortable temperature.
In addition to St. Regis Chicago, Wolf is
working on the new O’Hare International Airport Global Terminal, filled with
natural materials and lush green spaces, and the Beloit College Powerhouse, a
former coal-burning power plant turned student union. The Powerhouse, whose
first phase opened in February, features a radiant panel and slab system that
uses energy from the water in the adjacent Rock River to heat and cool the
building, which is more sustainable than traditional air-conditioning systems.
Besides these features being energy-saving measures, Wolf believes these
elements create workspaces that are both beautiful and healthy.