I pray to every deity that I never end up looking like Mayor Rob Ford :haha::haha:

My rendering company already creates architectural VR walkthroughs. If I can get enough buzz going I could possibly get this project in the works! Maybe make it available for the Occulus Go.

This is the sort of community cooperation I can get behind!

A beautiful spirit. His flame burned bright but it was destined to be snuffed out too soon...too perfect to walk among us.

Or just too much crack and booze.

:haha:

October 3, 2018

The way this one turned out gives me hope that the rest of the development will be really nice. The design is great, and while its Wells street side isn't perfect, it's much better than most of the other buildings there.

October 17, 2018

I want the next towers to start ASAP :(

Good to see they are working hard on the riverwalk part of things though!

Same - though luckily there's 2 small towers at the corner of Harrison & Wells U/C right now. That's kind of like a small consolation right? Nonetheless, they need to get the others in. I'd bet that if Chicago won the HQ2 sweepstakes and they chose either OPO or the 78 that you'd see another tower kick off pretty soon after.

That's been exactly how I've been trying to view it. The Harrison and Wells site is just a pseudo continuation of the Riverline project in my eyes so it'll keep that area a buzz with construction probably long enough to tide over this time between towers.

The 78 is definitely going to be a long process even if Amazon comes it'll take more than a decade to be built, but with those two proposals you mentioned, I know they already said that OCS is being built all at once(should start early next year) and 400N LSD is going to be a two phase process with the smaller one being built first over the old foundation(as of now that is the plan at least).

Yes. My office has been at Hudson Yards for nearly 3 years now (one of the already existing buildings) and they still have a long way to go. There's 2 towers being built near me that began foundation work not that long ago. It's a far cry from what it was 3 years ago, but still a bit to go. It feels like they're on an expedited schedule, but honestly it feels like they're still 3-5 years from being done with everything. The 78 is about equal in size as far as square footage of buildings and what not goes, so even on expedited schedule, I think it would take at least a decade.

Curbed reported both towers at 400 LSD would break ground simultaneously.

https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/5/16...te-skyscrapers

Oct 13

From X-Chicago [OHC]




Oct 22

The second, third, and fourth pictures... Amazing stuff Harry(as always)

I used to think the same about the view of the skyline from the south west, but I've grown to appreciate just how goddamn imposing the Sears looks, lording over the rest of the skyline. It also is oddly pleasing to see such a tall peak centered almost perfectly with buildings getting shorter the further away from the center they get.

That said, SB 90/94 and SB LSD compete for best skyline view, IMO.

I still hold strong to the view from the Orange line between Roosevelt and Halsted is best.

I'd say the ugliest view is coming back to the city from O'hare. City looks all clumped together and awkward(during the day). At night, the skyline is always nice from anywhere.

The way the South Loop is developing though makes me so much more excited about my favorite view, being that is can only get better, thanks to projects like this one and the 78!

When I was going to UIC the new dorm at roosevelt/halsted on the top floor has a very unique view.

Uhhh, what? The view from the NW is the flip of the classic Shedd angle. It's by far the most spread out angle, where are you coming up with "clumped together"?

Yes, and the inverse of a crescent view(like that coming from the Shedd) is that of an arrow(aka more clumped together). Again, this is just my personal opinion and how it looks to me. :shrug:

There is much more depth and architectural/color/height variation from the Planetarium/Shedd view as well. Additionally you can see buildings stretching from OMP to the Hancock. From Ohare it's basically Hancock to Sears, plus all that beige from the North is just unappealing to me personally, and that gets blocked out from the South, Southwest, and Southeast.

Yep, the view from the pier thingy at North Avenue Beach is absolutely amazing, although I think I've seen it so many times in movies and pictures that the view from the North is just a little played out for now. And again, I'm just making personal opinion based statements here. People can disagree with me if they want. That's what makes vistas and panoramas fun, the fact they are all different and have their various advantages and disadvantages! :tup:

Anyway, feel free to remove my comments mods, because I know this has gotten extremely far off topic :haha: Just having some fun

I drove by this evening and it appeared they started working on a new portion on the very northeastern portion of the tract

If it is right on the intersection of Harrison & Wells, then that's not Riverline. It's Alta Grand Central, which has been U/C for a few months. 2 buildings of 14 stories each - 350 total residential units.

https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/6/5/...-grand-central

Dec 17

Awesome update there Harry! They are doing some great work with the shoreline there already, and it appears they are getting ready for the next couple towers from the way the land leveling looks. :tup:

They can get the land leveling readying, but I kind of doubt they will build the next tower that soon. I don't think the leasing in Cooper is going well if you visit their site. I live on the high floor of nearby building. At night, there are just a few units with light on even though they had their first occupancy since September.

Plus, several rental apartments are due to completion this year. We are talking about probably more than 2000 new units in South Loop alone. It will require time to digest. So I doubt the developer of South Bank project will be in a hurry for next towers.

March 6







March 10

Riverline - Riverwalk
 

March 6

Thanks for the update, Harry! Very excited for this stretch of the riverwalk.

I'm interested to see how they integrate the naturalistic water features into the riverwalk and connect them into the river.

Oh man, I hadn't seen ANY progress shots of Riverline landscaping. I hope this turns out as great as envisioned.

I’m glad they’re doing the Riverwalk now rather than in 15 years when all the buildings are complete.

Makes sense when you think about it. Increases the value of the area drastically, and is a great marketing tool for them to get renters + line up their next loan

I wish they would start the 2nd tower soon, anyone have any leads on a timeline for the 2nd tower? I haven't gotten anything myself.

How much square footage are we looking at for the Riverline master plan?

Required by the PD. You know, some actual city planning rather than relying on the kindness of developers.

You kinda sorta don’t like developers, do ya?

He has a point that these things tend not to happen as proposed if left to the developers deciding to do it when they are done. If you get a zoning change, you should be required to complete the improvements you promised on a reasonable timeline.

Kinda sorta don't blame him. Haha. If you've spent enough time working with developers, you'd know what they're mostly about. Some worse than others, granted, but, 9 out of 10.....

I don't have any particular opinion on developers as a category, but we in the South Loop have certainly gotten burned more than once. I believe in city planning and enforceable agreements. What bothered me about Lincoln Yards was people looking at the pretty renderings rather than the actual wording of the PD.

Pretty much where I'm standing now on these mega-developments now. My opinion has evolved greatly over time, since I definitely used to trust those developers more

If I'm looking at this rendering correctly, It looks like the tallest tower will be built above the first section of the river walk. Would they build around the walk or destroy it then rebuild? Seems like it would be a big task to build around it and a waste to destroy it. (I copied this image from the first page of this thread)

http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/w...al-at-dusk.jpg

If and when they get to that point (could well be 15 years from now), they'll close that section of the riverwalk for a few months, and restore anything they had to take out to put in the new foundations and structural members.

Also - this is not directly Riverline related now that the portion south of River City has been broken off into a separate CMK parcel, but I saw recently that a new bridge at Taylor will be one of the infrastructure improvements funded by The 78's TIF district. So that's good...

^Where'd you see that?

This has been an issue of discussion for years, but I always thought it was a pipe dream. Also very interested in where you saw this!

Actually still very relevant. The south CMK parcel retained the Riverline name, and I suppose once something happens will still be discussed here. The north part retained by Lendlease that includes the current work is now actually called Southbank.

Yeah, I'd prefer if the mods keep the discussion of both in this thread for simplicity's sake. Last thing we need is yet another thread to confuse people :haha:

This one should really just be renamed. I suspect CMK—which has an incredible amount of dirt at the moment—may sit on its land until the next cycle.