Chicago, IL
Capital One Cafe, Hyde Park
Scope/Solutions
With its new cafés, Capital One offers banking services in a fun, community coffee shop setting. The design for the Hyde Park café brings this experience to Chicago’s South Side along the rejuvenated 53rd Street corridor. The project includes a 4,500 sq ft renovation in an existing early-1900s masonry and timber-framed building clad with white and green glazed brick and terra cotta. SGH was the structural engineer of record for the project.
Highlights of our work include the following:
- Evaluating the existing floor framing for new ATMs and temporary construction loads
- Designing new steel framing to support a new moving glass partition and at openings in existing masonry walls for large bifold windows and doors
- Providing conceptual shoring details for removing an existing masonry wall
- Performing water testing to identify sources for water leakage through the masonry wall systems and to confirm the effectiveness of completed repairs
- Designing new steel anchors and lintels to support salvaged terra cotta moulding between the new bifold windows and existing ribbon windows
- Strengthening timber framing for new floor drain openings
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Project Summary
Solutions
New Construction | Repair & Rehabilitation
Services
Building Enclosures | Structures | Applied Science & Research
Markets
Commercial
Client(s)
IA Interior Architects | Bulley & Andrews, LLC
Specialized Capabilities
Building Design | Temporary Construction | Condition Assessments | Environmental Simulations
Key team members

Matthew Johnson
Structural Engineering Division Head, Chicago

Additional Projects
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SGH evaluated the impact of malfunctioning smoke louvers that were part of the smokeproof enclosure system for the exit stairway, and provided expert opinions on the conditions that led to the fatalities as a result of the fire.
Midwest
Willis Tower
Designed by Gensler, Catalog is a five-story dining, retail, and entertainment hub located at the base of the 1970s Willis Tower. SGH provided structural engineering services for the design of the entrances.