CHICAGO | General Developments

[Jim in Chicago]

Rauner announces joint campus for the site at Roosevelt/Clark. A joint campus of the 3 IU campuses, Chicago and Northwestern. Article here:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago...in-south-loop/

What are the chances?? The master plan for residences/offices etc. is still on the Related site. The article does say 62 acres, which is the total size of the site.

Doh - the posting right above this was about the same topic. Sorry.

[ardecila]

These renderings are obviously highly conceptual.... I really want to see a site plan.

But it does seem like there are some interesting urban design choices. It looks like the row of highrises on the east side of the site are stacked over the Rock Island tracks. This allows maximum open space within the site itself.

The tracks could pass through each building in a tunnel, probably with the cores and lobbies on the east side of the tracks opening into the park, and maybe loading docks and parking on the Clark St side. No idea what kind of access is provided from the east, or whether the only access points will be to the north and south at Roosevelt/18th.

Overall this looks suspiciously like an Asian-style master plan. However, it's a huge upgrade over the lifestyle center and the townhouses we've seen in previous plans, and it addresses the infrastructural barriers better.

[left of center]

Woah... the '78' project just got a hell of a lot more interesting. With this huge campus/incubator shared between 3 very prestigious colleges, I wonder if the chances for Amazon plopping itself down in Chicago have improved? This location might even be better than the OPO. There's access to 3 CTA lines at Roosevelt, and you can possibly add a RI Metra station on the south end of the site. Shuttle buses can easily connect the site to the large commuter stations in the West Loop.



On another note, with skyscrapers rising on every single empty lot east of State, and with the 62 acre lot along the river looking to have many planned high rises (in addition to Franklin Point and various other projects going up east of Clark), Dearborn Park is starting to look obviously out of place. I hope one day in the near future developers can buy properties en masse and redevelop the entire project... or at the very least correct the severed street grid. No reason at all why 9th, 11th, 14th and 15th street can't go all the way through! It's so aggravating. SUBMIT TO THE STREET GRID DAMMIT!

I attached rgarr4's awesome sketchup renderings to further my argument:

Originally Posted by rgarri4

[wchicity]

Originally Posted by gebs

Big announcement tomorrow for the 62-acre Related-own lot south of Roosevelt by the river.

"Joined by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen, Rauner plans to announce tomorrow morning a project called the Discovery Partners Institute, which would be built on a 62-acre site along the Chicago River south of Roosevelt Road that is being developed by Related Midwest. Related calls the site "78" in reference to hopes of becoming the city's 78th neighborhood. The property also has been floated as a possible site for Amazon's second headquarters, which the city and state jointly are pursuing."

U of I plans satellite campus in the South Loop [Crain's]

This looks like it has the potential to be really awesome - especially cool that U of I/UIC/Northwestern/U of C will all have a presence there.

On a separate note - have the other cities bidding for HQ2 submitted concrete development proposals (OPO, Trib site, Michael Reese, etc) like Chicago has? Seems like I haven't seen news in regards to developments like this in other cities except maybe Philly.

[BVictor1]

JESUS... I mean really?

https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/10/1...ovation-center

South Loop riverfront mega-development to include U of I innovation center

The facility will anchor a University of Illinois satellite campus

BY JAY KOZIARZ OCT 18, 2017, 3:08PM CDT

A soon-to-be-announced plan to construct a new University of Illinois innovation center in Chicago has provided a first glimpse of the massive, multi-phase plan to redevelop a 62-acre vacant riverfront parcel north of Chinatown. Developer Related Midwest will reportedly donate an undisclosed portion of the site to the so-called Discovery Partners Institute.

The facility would achieve a long-held goal by Governor Bruce Rauner to better connect the research strength of U of I’s downstate campus with the economic engine of Chicago. The private-public partnership will also team up with local research titans Northwestern University and University of Chicago.

Related acquired the sprawling property in 2016 and has recently referred to its redevelopment as “the 78,” an indication that it will increase Chicago’s 77 recognized neighborhood areas by one. The site is also understood to be part of Chicago’s bid for Amazon’s highly coveted HQ2 second headquarters.


The massive parcel occupies the east bank of the Chicago River’s South Branch between Roosevelt Road and 18th Street. Google Maps
According to the Chicago Tribune, Gov. Rauner claims that the planned innovation center was not concieved with the Amazon specifically in mind, but went on to say that “the institute’s offerings are exactly the type of thing that entices companies to set up shop.”

[the urban politician]

Now that, my friend, is a proposal.

[left of center]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

JESUS... I mean really?

Hello Amazon!

[BVictor1]

https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/10/1...ovation-center

[harryc]

Oct 5





Oct 18

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^The Fields atria are all below the portion that was sold. These floors are like Sullivan Center: enormous floorplates with very few windows. Unlikely to appeal to any doctors or lawyers.

Apparently you can put coders every 20 square feet at tables, though, with a window they walk past twice a day on the way to the elevator.

Although don't forget the top floor of WTP (coincidentally ... built above another Marshall Fields), which has a floorplate as long as the river side of Merch Mart and a width about 2/3 its size; it has many medical offices. Granted, they are boutique medical, with the likes of plastic surgeons, fertility clinics, and prosthodontists, but they don't need windows. One of the interior suites is calling itself a surgery center; possibly it's set up to be rented by various surgeons in the area. If nothing like this exists in the Loop yet there surely is some demand for it -- traffic to and from North Michigan during the day can be horrible. And these solo practices love ways to save money on Class C rent, even more so if it is a prestige location. The developer could even brand the entire floor so it evokes the grandness of the Marshall Fields heyday (while still skirting any trademark pitfalls), which would make a huge impression on prospective patients/customers. It also would be a perfectly discreet location for patients who prefer not to be seen entering and leaving.

[jc5680]

Another rendering for the 78, from Crains twitter

[Busy Bee]

Hoping the riverwalk/bank esplanade whatever you want to call it will be clearly a municipal property, not some murky quasi-private nonsense with bizarre rules and heavy handed guidelines.

[Kngkyle]

Well I don't think anyone saw that coming. What a brilliant move by Related Midwest. They needed some sort of anchor for the site and boy did they get it. I'm excited to get more details tomorrow for hopefully the entire development and not just the innovation center partnership. I'm sure all of this is packaged very nicely in the Amazon proposal. Chicago is offering some Amazing possibilities for Amazon.

[Kumdogmillionaire]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Hoping the riverwalk/bank esplanade whatever you want to call it will be clearly a municipal property, not some murky quasi-private nonsense with bizarre rules and heavy handed guidelines.

There is no need to hope. There would be 0% chance of the city backing a project like this only to give up the chance for there to be a continuous riverwalk from Chinatown to LakeShoreEast.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Hoping the riverwalk/bank esplanade whatever you want to call it will be clearly a municipal property, not some murky quasi-private nonsense with bizarre rules and heavy handed guidelines.

Related will most likely push for private control. That way they can make revenue from events like festivals, weddings, and photoshoots, and they can phase in attractions over time without having to worry about Park District or CDOT bureaucracy.

Another thought... the "central park" shown in one of the renderings has sort of a crescent shape. I wonder if this is an attempt to evoke the former course of the Chicago River? It would serve a practical purpose as well as an aesthetic one... the soil used to fill in the old river channel is garbage (learned this from an actual geotech report). Even small structures on this soil would need expensive deep pile or caisson foundations. Keeping that land as a park could allow for serious cost savings.


src

[JK47]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

Well I don't think anyone saw that coming. What a brilliant move by Related Midwest. They needed some sort of anchor for the site and boy did they get it. I'm excited to get more details tomorrow for hopefully the entire development and not just the innovation center partnership. I'm sure all of this is packaged very nicely in the Amazon proposal. Chicago is offering some Amazing possibilities for Amazon.

This literally seems to be exactly what Amazon was looking for in a candidate city. A satellite campus where engineering and science students spend 1 to 4 semesters working in collaboration with business students from Kellogg & Booth is practically a conveyor belt of talent right to their doorstep.

[Randomguy34]

Apparently the Philly skyline decided to photobomb Related's proposal

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ That's this proposal leaving anything Philly can offer in the distance...

Seriously though, this now makes the Post Office even look like a joke. If Amazon doesn't end up here thats their loss. There are like half a dozen great options and 3 really killer central options including one that now has it's own campus of all the top tier Illinois universities right on site less than a mile from the already extant South Loop campus of DePaul, et al. D- talent my ass....

[TimeAgain]

This is the kind of thinking that can lure Amazon here. An old post office near the highway that wasn't big enough for the things they want wasn't going to do it. It's either this or Michael Reese site. Either way, the south side should see some benefit. Let's just hope it happens.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by emathias

It's pretty amazing if the 42nd had about 53,900 in 2010 (just dividing the city population by the 50 wards) and gained about 20,000 since then. That would be greater than a 37% population growth rate! If the Near North Side grew by that percentage it will be solidly above 100,000 population - around 110,000. It probably didn't grow quite that fast, but still it seems like a good chance to hit 100,000 in 2020 for the Near North Side.

Another positive about the growth is that when the ward maps are redrawn, Reilly will have a smaller area to control because of the increased density.