CHICAGO | General Developments

[intrepidDesign]

Looks like the Madison is TO.





I remember getting lunch at the greasy spoon on the corner there, they made a mean grill cheese. Anyway, this should really hold that corner well.

[le_brew]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

I'm not so sure. I think every mayor wants to be seen as a builder, and it's a really prominent parcel to have lying fallow.

And no one is talking about moving railroad tracks, unfortunately.

With its usual proactive planning process, the city will put it out for proposals and see what comes in and how much TIF they want. It would be nice for a big chunk of River South TIF money to go to building the Clinton subway, with a stop in the middle of this property.

your discussion reminded me that this was an issue back in the late 1980s. our mayor Eugene sawyer let this opportunity to construct a trench, pass up. . .

METRA STANDS FIRM ON LAND NEAR LOOP
Gary Washburn, Transportation writer. Chicago Tribune [Chicago, Ill] 29 Feb 1988: 5.

The future of 150 acres of prime real estate south of the Loop could depend on how the property owners respond to a virtual ultimatum from Metra, the commuter rail arm of the Regional Transportation Authority.

At issue is relocation of Rock Island rail tracks that bisect a parcel 1 1/2 times the size of the Loop, reputed to be the largest contiguous piece of vacant land adjacent to the downtown of any major city in North America. Metra operates the Rock Island commuter line.

Chicago Pacific Corp., one of several major owners of the land, has sought a rail realignment that would switch the Rock Island terminal from LaSalle Street Station to Union Station. Such a move would open up the property for a huge office, shopping and residential development.

But after months of discussion, study and debate, Metra has rejected the proposal as impractical and last week delivered this edict to Chicago Pacific and the other property owners: Propose a program to put the tracks in a below- ground "cut" along the eastern edge of the South Loop property or forever lose the opportunity to move them.

"I would suggest that the train is leaving the station on this issue very, very shortly," said Donald Udstuen, a Metra board member.


needless to say, the train left the station. . .

[brian_b]

Originally Posted by le_brew

Chicago Pacific Corp., one of several major owners of the land, has sought a rail realignment that would switch the Rock Island terminal from LaSalle Street Station to Union Station. Such a move would open up the property for a huge office, shopping and residential development.

But after months of discussion, study and debate, Metra has rejected the proposal as impractical and last week delivered this edict to Chicago Pacific and the other property owners: Propose a program to put the tracks in a below- ground "cut" along the eastern edge of the South Loop property or forever lose the opportunity to move them.

"I would suggest that the train is leaving the station on this issue very, very shortly," said Donald Udstuen, a Metra board member.
[/I]

needless to say, the train left the station. . .

And in hindsight, I think Metra was right about wanting a trench. Can you imagine Union Station during rush hour if the LaSalle Street Station trains were there? It already feels like it's running above capacity.

[le_brew]

Originally Posted by brian_b

Can you imagine Union Station during rush hour if the LaSalle Street Station trains were there? It already feels like it's running above capacity.

you're right, that's why i'd advocate for using that empty post office bldg to absorb much of that traffic.

but that's a transit forum discussion.

[Mr Downtown]

^Yeah, I was very involved with this issue at the time. Metra's tracks were on a "relocatable easement" through the land that's still vacant and the land that became Target/Amli 900/Roosevelt Collection. The owner of part of that land, U.S. Equities, commissioned a study "proving" that the Rock Island trains could be moved to Union Station. This would have given Bob Wislow a big chunk of near-Loop land unencumbered by all those trains. After all, he'd done it at One Financial Place, where he moved the trains south an entire block. But Metra said a moveable easement doesn't mean you can evict us; legally we still have to get from one end of the property to the other.

As I've said before, if someone had just had the foresight to put the Metra tracks up on a viaduct (and Roosevelt down on the ground) we'd have been a lot better off. But the two projects were planned and built separately three years apart, what today we'd describe as thinking in silos.

[Jibba]

Apartments planned for Logan Square:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...-logan-square#

I would guess that the property includes everything up to the SE edge of the parking lot and entry area for the self-storage place. That same parking lot and entry looks to be set in to what was once a contiguous warehouse (based on the appearance of the two buildings on either side), so I'm wondering if that property was parceled out at some point or if the developer was able to get it parceled out now.

Edit: Looking at the parcel from above, another possibility is that only the low-slung, tan-brick warehouse will be demolished, and the two apartment buildings will be situated on a north-south axis along Campbell.

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

So this answers my question: office to residential truly does "increase" density.

And I agree that the work-from-home model seems to be becoming more popular, especially among higher up executives. The office overhang conversion to hotels/residential is a great thing for downtown because it preserves or even enhances density without seeing the loss of historic buildings.

This is a very interesting question to me, particularly as it relates to office density trends. The tricky part in analyzing this stuff, is that while it is true that 'flexible' workplace arrangements have certainly increased, eg working from home part of the time, etc - don't forget the major counteracting force of corporations squeezing significantly more 'work stations' into a given amount of overall space, and doing everything else under the sun for space utilization and cost efficiencies....a wager might be that, on net, 'live' population density of offices has not really declined, and in fact, may have trended somewhat higher....

[Skyguy_7]

I noticed last night that a barge-crane is in place between Congress and Harrison, on the Post Office [west] side of the river. Does anyone have any idea as to why?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

As I've said before, if someone had just had the foresight to put the Metra tracks up on a viaduct (and Roosevelt down on the ground) we'd have been a lot better off. But the two projects were planned and built separately three years apart, what today we'd describe as thinking in silos.

A trench would have been cool. Ultimately I think it's good that we saved LaSalle as a capacity reliever for Union... I don't think anybody in 1988 saw the resurgence of Amtrak and Metra service that we've witnessed in the last 25 years. On the other hand, a connection from the Rock Island into Union Station would come in handy right now as IDOT prepares to build one for St. Louis trains (IDOT wants it at 40th Street while I and other activists want 16th).

I didn't realize a full relocation of the Rock Island was part of the discussion even after the current LaSalle was built... I guess it explains to some extent the cheap, temporary feel of LaSalle - US Equities was playing a long game to move Rock Island trains to Union. It ended up backfiring on everybody - screwing US Equities, South Loop development, and 25 years' worth of Metra commuters.

[Chicago_Forever]

I'v been a member of Skyscraperpage for about 7 years now. I started out as mostly a lurker but then started to post. I don't recall if it's here or Skyscrapercity, which I'm also a member of, but there was a thread on Chicago cultural, entertainment, sport and art projects that basically provided updates on construction and news related to those topics. I wonder what ever happened to that thread and if maybe it could be brought back because I think there are a lot of projects out there that are falling through the cracks.

What got me thinking about starting resurrecting the old thread or starting a new one is the Navy Pier Flyover. It's something I've been looking forward to for a while. The funny thing is, just as it crossed my mind this morning, I noticed that TUP posted an update in the transportation thread saying work was imminent.

I also looked up the health museum and they have a website up and have opened a temporary location at the site at which they wish to develop into the actual museum.

The Navy Pier redesign - work in progress
The River Walk extension - work in progress
The Navy Pier Flyover - work - eminent
The Bloomingdale Trail (606) - work in progress
Maggie Daley Park - work in progress
Grant Park skate park - proposed/eminent
The national Museum of Health and Medicine - IDK
Chicago Casino (it's inevitable)
Chicago Helicopter Express Tours (fighting NIMBYs)
Obama Presidential Library - TBD
Uptown Music District - IDK
Bulls practice facility - work in progress

I'm not sure if there are any projects that I'm forgetting but anyone if free to add other to the list. Finally, I don't know how to upload pictures so if wants to do that, it would be great.

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ Possible addition of seats to Soldier Field
Chicago 2028??? LOL

[the urban politician]

While it's a good idea, most threads of that sort just tend to disappear after a while unless they are getting updated very frequently.

I have a question: I forgot what it was, but there was going to be some sort of digital museum of some sort in the Loop. I think we all discussed it about 2 years ago. The whole exterior of the building was going to have digital symbols or something of the sort all over it. I can't for the life of me remember what kind of museum it was or what it was going to be called, but it was a really cool idea. I'm wondering if that is still planned? Anybody know what I'm referring to?

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Chicago_Forever

The national Museum of Health and Medicine - IDK

^ Ahh yes, this was what I was talking about above. Here is their website:

http://nmhmchicago.org/index.php/abo...e-building-abt

Is there anybody who knows the status of this project?

[Chicago_Forever]

^You're right about these threads disappearing due to lack of updates but maybe if a more wide range of projects are covered it would help. Anyway, the digital museum that you're talking about is the health museum that I mentioned. It's called the National Museum of Health and Medicine of Chicago >>>http://nmhmchicago.org

You beat me to it but according to a video that was uploaded to their website a week ago, some time in 2015 the given grand opening date. I know the've been fundraising for a while too. The location is 175 West Washington St.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by Chicago_Forever

I'm not sure if there are any projects that I'm forgetting but anyone if free to add other to the list. Finally, I don't know how to upload pictures so if wants to do that, it would be great.

Ongoing Northerly Island construction is a big one.

[woodrow]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

Ongoing Northerly Island construction is a big one.

HUGE! and there is NOTHING out there on it. The Park District's page is lacking anything up to date, newspapers, DNAInfo, Chicago Curbed, Chicago Architecture....zero

About a month ago I was going down LSD and looked over and there are HILLS on Northerly Island now.

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ Not exactly the most accessible or convenient site to document. Send out Harry on a boat!

Originally Posted by Chicago_Forever

^You're right about these threads disappearing due to lack of updates but maybe if a more wide range of projects are covered it would help. Anyway, the digital museum that you're talking about is the health museum that I mentioned. It's called the National Museum of Health and Medicine of Chicago >>>http://nmhmchicago.org

You beat me to it but according to a video that was uploaded to their website a week ago, some time in 2015 the given grand opening date. I know the've been fundraising for a while too. The location is 175 West Washington St.

I just heard that building is under contract to be turned into a bar/restaurant so do we think this project is dead or going to have to find a different location? Either that or my information is bad which it might be because sometimes the guy that told me that is a total blowhard...

[brian_b]

Originally Posted by woodrow

HUGE! and there is NOTHING out there on it. The Park District's page is lacking anything up to date, newspapers, DNAInfo, Chicago Curbed, Chicago Architecture....zero

About a month ago I was going down LSD and looked over and there are HILLS on Northerly Island now.

Hills? That's all you've got?

There's a pond in the middle of it all, with a channel that leads out to the lake, and a little bridge that crosses the channel so the circle loop path around the entire park can still exist.

But about those hills:

The hills will ... provide new and expanded camping groves and will accentuate the view corridors from Northerly Island to downtown. In particular, the sight lines will correlate with the celestial calendar, aligning the visitor experience with constellations overhead. Lastly, the increase in elevation of the hills will prevent bird strikes at McCormick Place.

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en...abitatdev.html

I can see the work fairly well from my condo gym; the Corps of Engineers work appears to be nearly completed. Hopefully the city can get the funding for the Studio Gang portion.

[Baronvonellis]

/\ /\ Cool! do you have any pictures?

[emathias]

Originally Posted by brian_b

Hills? That's all you've got?
...
But about those hills:
...

The hills will ... provide new and expanded camping groves and will accentuate the view corridors from Northerly Island to downtown. In particular, the sight lines will correlate with the celestial calendar, aligning the visitor experience with constellations overhead. Lastly, the increase in elevation of the hills will prevent bird strikes at McCormick Place.

More and more anti-union in this town ...