CHICAGO | General Developments

[bnk]

Great one more nimby group pushed to the curb.




http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...0,301280.story


City planners back plan for high-rise hospital with heliport

Plan panel OKs Streeterville plan

By Kristen Kridel

Tribune staff reporter

December 14, 2007

Despite vociferous complaints Thursday from neighbors questioning the safety of allowing helicopters to buzz downtown, the Chicago Plan Commission assented to Children's Memorial Hospital's plan to builda 22-story hospital crowned with a heliport in Streeterville.

A dozen commissioners favored the proposal, with only Chairman Linda Searl voting against it. And her concerns were about the hospital's design, not the heliport. Commissioners told concerned Streeterville residents they were not qualified to determine the hazards involved in operating a helicopter at the proposed site -- that issue is up to state transportation officials.

Plans for the $1 billion hospital, which would replace Children's aging Lincoln Park location in favor of a site at 215 E. Chicago Ave., still must clear the City Council's zoning panel as well as the full council.

...

[wrab]

Originally Posted by bnk

Great one more nimby group pushed to the curb.




http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...0,301280.story


City planners back plan for high-rise hospital with heliport

Plan panel OKs Streeterville plan

By Kristen Kridel

Tribune staff reporter

December 14, 2007

Despite vociferous complaints Thursday from neighbors questioning the safety of allowing helicopters to buzz downtown, the Chicago Plan Commission assented to Children's Memorial Hospital's plan to builda 22-story hospital crowned with a heliport in Streeterville.

A dozen commissioners favored the proposal, with only Chairman Linda Searl voting against it. And her concerns were about the hospital's design, not the heliport. Commissioners told concerned Streeterville residents they were not qualified to determine the hazards involved in operating a helicopter at the proposed site -- that issue is up to state transportation officials.

Plans for the $1 billion hospital, which would replace Children's aging Lincoln Park location in favor of a site at 215 E. Chicago Ave., still must clear the City Council's zoning panel as well as the full council.

...

Hooray! Not that the design is all that interesting, but I'm always happy when disingenuous arguments fall flat on their fat, entitled butts. As happened here with the Helipad brouhaha.

[alex1]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

Good form overall, with the right materials it could come out really nice, but with cheap stuff it wil be another Pomo trainwreck.

hate to be picky but this isn't pomo.

[honte]

Originally Posted by bnk

Great one more nimby group pushed to the curb.




http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...0,301280.story
A dozen commissioners favored the proposal, with only Chairman Linda Searl voting against it. And her concerns were about the hospital's design, not the heliport...

Ah, thank you Linda... someone who actually cares about trying to get good design.

[honte]

At last!! Here is a new project in Chicago that is honestly trying to push the boundaries by having a competition and hiring international design talent. The project is the new Weber academic center at Judson University, Elgin.

I don't know how this escaped me until now, but I am glad to see it! I am not certain I love the actual design, but who cares?

The architects were Short and Associates, London, and Elgin's Burnridge Cassell Associates as the architect of record. Short was hired due to his work in natural ventilation, which was used in this structure extensively. He is presently teaching at Cambridge, according to info I saw on-line.

_____________________________


http://midwest.construction.com/feat...stOf2007_7.asp

Harm A. Weber Academic Center
Award of Merit: Higher Education/Research

The 88,000-sq-ft Harm A. Weber Academic Center at Judson University in Elgin, Ill., houses the expanded Benjamin P. Browne Library and the Division of Art, Design and Architecture.

...

Seeking a facility worthy of an architecture program seeking accreditation, the university conducted a design competition, and British designer Alan Short was selected in part because his plans called for a natural-ventilation system.

[ardecila]

The development of Judson College has been really fascinating... only a few years ago, they were acting just like you would expect an average community college to.

Coinciding with a large movement among small-time colleges to become "universities" with reputations, Judson has selected to base much of their growth on an architecture program - highly unusual outside of state universities, expensive East Coast private schools, and high-end art schools, all of which have the resources to operate an architecture program.

The buildings that Judson has already constructed are quite nice, and they even somehow managed to turn an abandoned motor lodge into an attractive dorm tower, which gives them a visible presence off of I-90.



On a side note, I would cry if they tore down the Butternut Bread Bakery.... I used to drive past it everyday. Why is Butternut abandoning the space? Bread still needs to be baked.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by alex1

hate to be picky but this isn't pomo.

What would you call it Romanesque/Romanesque Revival?

[Alliance]

Originally Posted by alex1

hate to be picky but this isn't pomo.

[SolarWind]

December 12, 2007

[dropdeaded209]

thank you so much, solar! it looks fantastic and it's coming along so quickly, it seems.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by alex1

hate to be picky but this isn't pomo.

Whatever it is it's still shitty and belongs to 1910...in Nebraska.

[alex1]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Whatever it is it's still shitty and belongs to 1910...in Nebraska.

well yeah. i agree with everything you say up 'til the 1910...part.

this thing exists only to be as conservative and bland as humanly possible (to get village approval). There is a perception that this is what villages and people actually want.



in any regard, just because something is in a revival style doesn't make it poMo. PoMo's use of traditional elements were many times over the top and without functionality. Much of it was about freeing up the visual language and reinterpreting older forms. Therefore, there was an expanded amount of conceptualization and experimentation in form and language.

Since coming to Yale I have come to value poMo architecture immensely. Coincidentally I'm not crazy about poMo built structures, but i like the theory involved.

[alex1]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

What would you call it Romanesque/Romanesque Revival?

yes. I think you nailed it.

[honte]

^ Nah, you can't call it that. We have real architecture that already goes under that moniker. Let's call is Post Architecture.

[Alliance]

Originally Posted by honte

^ Nah, you can't call it that. We have real architecture that already goes under that moniker. Let's call is Post Architecture.

Lets reserve that term from Dubai. At least that structure looks like someone designed it.

Speaking of POMO, what would everyone classify Pru2 as? It looks post-modern to me, just the good postmodernism that I associate with R.R Donnely (sorry, I like it) and not with 333 S. Wacker or 900 N. Michigan.

[aaron38]

Originally Posted by alex1

This thing exists only to be as conservative and bland as humanly possible (to get village approval). There is a perception that this is what villages and people actually want.

Having been to many suburban planning commission meetings, it's not perception, that is what the suburbs want.
And in some ways it's a good thing. It's Crystal Lake, they're not going to get Calatrava.

[honte]

^ I disagree with this assessment. I do agree this is what the conservative suburbs want these days, but I don't think it's a good thing. One of the things I like about living here is that you can go out to many suburbs and still find work by the best architects who were working in the city.

[the urban politician]

I found this somewhat interesting, especially the parts in bold. It's too bad there isn't an L stop at Damen and Lake, which would make this a great example of TOD:

Westhaven Park heads toward its final phase
By Jeanette Almada | Special to the Tribune
December 16, 2007
The city has approved the last 203-unit phase for Westhaven Park on the Near West Side.

(Excerpt 1)

The Plan Commission in November approved that phase on 8.35 acres between Lake Street and Washington Boulevard and Wolcott and Damen Avenues.

(Excerpt 2)

A 10-story building at Lake Street and Damen will hold 80 of the last 111 for-sale units. Of those, 16 will be leased to public-housing residents and 64 sold at affordable and market rates.

(Excerpt 3)

The 10-story building and one of the apartments will contain ground-floor commercial space. . Another apartment building will include office and community space on Lake, Levavi said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classi...,7539123.story

[Jaroslaw]

This evening the HP co-op will announce that it's done. Timeline for the closing not clear yet... should reopen in a few weeks as a chain, though.

[the urban politician]

^ Can we redevelop that strip mall while we're at it?

And more south side news:

Retail rehab gets started on Cottage Grove
Pockets of success give hope to Bronzeville residents trying to restore commerce to once-bustling district
By Susan Chandler | Tribune staff reporter
December 17, 2007
It was the heart of Chicago's "Black Metropolis," a commercial swath of black-owned businesses that thrived on the South Side between World War I and World War II. To some, Cottage Grove Avenue's mix of black insurance brokers, butchers and shop owners represented a viable separatist model for black urban development.

Today, the Cottage Grove corridor looks like a war zone.

Yet optimists like Bernita Johnson-Gabriel envision Cottage Grove's string of decrepit board-ups and vacant lots being transformed into the next Andersonville, a walkable stretch of eclectic boutiques, shops and eateries that will draw shoppers and fun-seekers from around the city and suburbs.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,3959783.story