CHICAGO | General Developments

[streetline]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Plus, like any other riverfront development, we get one more block of riverwalk.

Yeah, with West Marine, the Division bridge work, and development on the southeast corner of Division and Halsted, we'll only have one gap breaking up a continuous route from Kinzie to Division.

Assuming those developments all happen, it'd be a good time for the city to do something about the 0.1mi gap in the river walk between Grand and the Ohio ramp. And perhaps they could encourage the Apparel Mart to work with the Wolf Point developers to make the gap between Kinzie and the Wolf point river walk a bit more attractive as well.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Culver House is dead AFAIK.

The IIT dorms have been up there for a year at least; I'm sure IIT would love to build them but maybe the alumni aren't donating or something.

[george]

8/2

Maggie Daley Park

[ardecila]

Steger Building looks amazing. That cornice is great. I wish they would install them on some of the Loop hotel conversions going up now (Roanoke, New York Life, etc)

I gotta wonder, though - is this really the best place for sidewalk trees? Jackson is a MAJOR pedestrian route and these sidewalks are already pretty narrow. Plus, with so many tall buildings around, those trees will not get enough sunlight to grow properly.

[J_M_Tungsten]

Originally Posted by george

8/2

Steger Building restoration

What's up with the abrupt transition of materials and design here? Was this a part of the original design? Still much better than it was before.

[Busy Bee]

Yeah I've been waiting for someone to explain that.

[Mr Downtown]

^Originally the Steger Building had a secondary bracketed cornice between the sixteenth and seventeenth stories.



From the Landmarks Report.

[Buckman821]

Originally Posted by J_M_Tungsten

What's up with the abrupt transition of materials and design here? Was this a part of the original design? Still much better than it was before.

Ya. Definitely looks better all in all, but this is hardly the slam dunk success that the Marquette or Carson, Pirie, Scott was. There have been a few other cornices that came out much better than this as well.

[PKDickman]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Originally the Steger Building had a secondary bracketed cornice between the sixteenth and seventeenth stories.

That egg and dart band is still there. I just doesn't show on that photo.

I suspect the material change is an artifact of the removal of the original cornice decades ago.

They probably peeled the face brick down for two floors and relaid it with a modern brick.

While it is possible that the original architect was trying to emulate Roman Doric, (which often has a relieved lower band in the architrave) the recessed spandrel between the windows on that strip leads me to believe that the terra cotta casing was meant to continue above the lower windows.

[george]

8/2

Noah Properties condos in Noble Square - Chicago & Noble

[the urban politician]

^ Wow, I haven't been down Chicago Ave in a while. Nice to know that lot is biting the dust.

Chicago Ave is really turning into a nice urban corridor. Just need to see that Fifield property developed (former proposed Chicago Bowl site).

[ardecila]

Chicago always has been a really nice urban corridor. TONS of businesses and shops, buses coming every 3-5 minutes packed with people, lots of mixed use along Chicago itself and high density in the surrounding blocks.

[george]

The empty lots are finally filling in and the old Discount/ Bargain retail is slowly transforming with upgraded tenants.

[george]

8/2

Riverwalk - The River Theater (Clark to LaSalle)

[FlashingLights]

http://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comm...building_just/ LOL go here 4 a good laugh

[the urban politician]

I was earlier skeptical of the riverwalk's ability to draw pedestrians because it is kind of off the beaten path (ie it's out of the way and you have to traverse stairs to get to it). However, friggin A I can already tell that it's really going to have an impact on the river scene through downtown, and I may downright worship it (add that to the list of things I worship right now: 1) the Taco Bell burrito supreme, 2) my kids, 3) the first 5 albums of Black Sabbath circa 1969-1973) when it's done.

[Ned.B]

Originally Posted by PKDickman

That egg and dart band is still there. I just doesn't show on that photo.

I suspect the material change is an artifact of the removal of the original cornice decades ago.

They probably peeled the face brick down for two floors and relaid it with a modern brick.

While it is possible that the original architect was trying to emulate Roman Doric, (which often has a relieved lower band in the architrave) the recessed spandrel between the windows on that strip leads me to believe that the terra cotta casing was meant to continue above the lower windows.

Prior to the renovation, the top two floors were modern brown brick which had been installed when the cornice was removed. In the renovation, this brick was simply painted a glossy cream to match the glazed white brick and terra cotta below.

In general this building renovation seems to have been on a tight budget that didn't allow for restoring the exterior 100%. For instance the new 1st and 2nd floor windows are only rough approximations of the remaining original windows, several non-historic 4 over 4 windows were retained on the upper floors of the east facade, and I suspect that cornice is much less detailed than the original.

[harryc]

Great stuff all around George.





Old pilings incorporated into the new wall




Morning after a heavy rain

[george]

Gems

[Chi-Sky21]

What can i do to spark a little more competition between Harry and George!! Great pics guys! I try to do some photography myself of some of the cities architecture but you guys always come up with great composition and for some of these projects very frequent and pertinent updates. Kudos to you.