Center on Halstead

Project History

The Center on Halstead serves as a comprehensive gathering place for Chicago’s LGBT citizens. Seventy-five percent of the building facade is glass, designed to create a sense of open community. The city offered a former municipal garage as a space for development. The garage, built in 1924, featured a polychrome terracotta facade with a winged wheel motif. Preservation efforts would save the terracotta, and earn the green building credits towards a silver LEED rating. The terracotta tiles were catalogued and numbered, taken apart, then housed and restored offsite. MIMIC TR was used on tiles requiring only thin coating repairs, while Matrix (which is colored matched on-site) was used to rebuild missing pieces. The tiles were restored to their original bright colors using M3P mineral silicate paint. M3P is a water based, low VOC coating, offering long term protection from water and contaminants while remaining environmentally friendly. Unlike most coatings, M3P reacts with the substrate, changing its color without changing its character.