Summit Design + Build Completes the Construction of 1040 W. Fulton

Summit Design + Build, LLC recently completed the new construction of 1040 W. Fulton, a five-story, 42,000 sf office building with ground-floor retail, a green roof and basement parking in Chicago’s Fulton Market District. Floors 4 and 5 of the building are home to general contractor Summit Design + Build’s new headquarters. “1040 W. Fulton is a showplace for our company and an example of what is possible in the modern age of wood construction,” said Adam Miller, President of Summit Design + Build.

Heavy timber construction was used to build 1040 W Fulton, making it the first multi-story mass timber building in the City of Chicago in 50 years, setting the stage for bringing more and larger timber projects to Chicago. A hybrid construction system was utilized in order to accommodate both Type I-A construction of two floors of parking on the basement and first floor, and its required fire separation, and Type III-A heavy-timber construction on the office floors. Exterior walls have steel columns and beams that support the brick cladding. Glulam columns, girders, and beams comprise the framing system, while the floor assembly includes a two-inch topping slab. The building is fully sprinklered.

1040 W Fulton

Summit Design + Build, both the owner and general contractor of the building, chose wood construction because it is a material consistent with other buildings in the historic neighborhood. “The project really echoes the neighborhood’s history when it was a meatpacking district and the majority of the buildings were made of raw milled heavy timber construction,” said Miller, “Given this history, it only felt right to use similar materials.” The building geometry and framing plan were also conducive to timber.

The 1040 West Fulton project team included project architect for the base building, Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture; interior architect for Summit’s headquarters, Eastlake Studio; owner’s representative, Carr Realty Advisors; structural engineer, IMEG Corporation; civil engineer, Weaver Consultants Group; and MEP engineer, WT Engineering. The building is being leased by Chad Schroedl, Scott Maesel and Drew Dillon of SVN Commercial Chicago. Construction financing was provided by First Bank of Highland Park.