And the reason developers behave this way is the politicians. You even say it yourself, they want the announcement to be a ceremony with Rahm and the alderman there to take credit for creating so many jobs. You see what happens to developers who don't do things this way on a monthly basis. If you don't keep things quiet and work on the alderman's timeline, then they fuck you and don't cooperate or even take your entitlements away.

If there is a big blank wall, hopefully they can keep these Trees intact. They are fairly semi-mature in size. It would be a shame to have to start over. I am not holding my breath though. If they embraced the plaza and put some retail on that side it would great. Some kind of cafe or something? I would quess that BCBS may not be into that though, considering that there is still no connection between their plaza and the second floor entrance to Marianos...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-y...no/Capture.JPG

BCBS isn't part of the Magellan/LSE club, so they've got no reason to play nice with the neighbors.

The city should really force BCBS to integrate with its neighbors. It's utter ridiculous that you can't cut through the BCBS plaza to Marianos.


In other news, some person on reddit is claiming that this will be operated by either Commune Hotels and Resorts or Joie De Vivre.

Sounds like a job for aldermen.

Not blank, but looks like there will be no doors on the ground floor facing south. There are a few terraces facing BCBS on the 2nd/3rd floors of the podium. Mostly spandrel glass.

The first floor of 201 N. Columbus is actually a few feet higher than the BCBS plaza, so any access there would require stairs/ramps.

http://i.imgur.com/eBM3QVul.jpg

Looks like a dual flag hotel.

they should be forced to connect the two plazas on either side.

Looks like we can confirm it is a Joie De Vivre and another Commune flag: Tommie. Thanks for the stacking plan Aaron.

Also, it's extremely interesting that the residential lobby is at LSE park level. What a great way to make use of the raised streets by separating the hotel lobbies and retail uses from the residential lobby.

Didn't they say there would be no parking? Does the parking in the stacking diagram already exist?

Not no parking, just no parking in the podium. I think they're adding about 190 spaces below street level.

The online info we currently have indicated that the (below Upper Columbus) parking would possibly be extended from where the Aqua parking currently ends - they'll probably knock out the southside reinforced CMU walls and extend the parking to the property line abutting BCBS, which is basically what the diagram shows as well.

Columbus is interesting because it's more than just the two levels: Upper Columbus dies into Randolph to the south and Wacker to the North; Lower Columbus cuts through from Grant Park, over the river and into Streeterville; Lower Lower Columbus is primarily a service street with lower level access at grade with the LSE park. I used to have the Aqua site plan from when I worked on the building years ago; I'll scan something if I can find those drawings..

^^^^ I agree....really making full use of this site, and it's accessibility.

Very interesting hotel choices as well.

What's exciting is that I think there are probably a bunch of other brannds without a flagpole yet in Chicago that are now actively looking for an outpost as part of new development deals. Didn't you actually mention something along this line fairly recently?

I'd be surprised if both SLS and Yotel (originally looked at as options for 201 Columbus) are not currently looking. And then you have Mandarin Oriental, perhaps Shangri-La, and I'm sure at least a few others that want to establish a presence in Chicago, not to mention new independent boutique names.

One thing though about the 5ish star flags.........My guess is that as far as new development, we're more likely to see those proposals come back when the new construction condo market does........it's a natural fit to combine luxury condos with a super high end hotel, and also makes sense from a land cost perspective (and from a high-rise fan's perpective)......I mean, while the Peninsula Chicago is certainly one of the country's best hotels, I think most/all of us here would generally not like to see more of that built!

Couldn't agree more. I and many others still cut through the plaza all the time, so they might as well just connect it! Or, maybe we'll just start hopping the railing and trampling their precious dirt and plants...

Actually not so sure on the thorium...........wouldn't Magellan have done this already for all of LSE, like when the first excavated for the park, Lancaster, and Shoreham?

I'm trying to remember if they did more thorium related remediation for more recent one-offs, such as Aqua, Coast and GEMS I.......can't say for certain, but I don't specifically rmember crews doing it for these...........

Not necessarily, they might have focused on individual, active development sites instead of all of LSE because of the high cost of testing/remediation for Thorium. Then again, Jim L. has pretty deep pockets...

Not sure which one of us you were responding to, but I know of another upcoming hotel tower downtown by a Chicago based architecture firm that does not yet have a single highrise in the city. They have done some very high profile adaptive reuse and restorations here, but nothing tall and new. I can't disclose the details, but it's an exciting project. It hasn't shown up here yet.

There are a lot of brands trolling for sites here, but even more existing brands with an extant presence here that are looking to cash in further on the Chicago hotel boom. I'm still not so sure we are seeing a glut of hotel rooms yet. There will inevitably be a crash of some sort in the hotel industry here, but not until the next recession reduces demand for more rooms. The city has a pretty good self-sustaining travel boom going on.

^ Yeah, you're the one.


Interesting. Don't think I have a good guess as to firm, at least that's jumping to mind....

Oooooooh exciting!!! :cheers:

The Fairmont hotel across the street seems to stay pretty busy, and for whatever reason they use it for VIPs. Biden stayed there for the 2012 election. They blockaded all of Columbus with snow removal trucks parked sideways in the street to lock the area down. There's the Raddison inside Aqua, and the Swissotel around the corner and that giant (but aging) Hyatt Regency across the street. I think that area gets overlooked as a hotel center.

201 will be able to say "steps from Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park".

Based on the newsletter, Reilly seems to be pretty responsive to complaints about traffic problems Randolph, like loading/unloading trucks blocking the bike lanes and clogging up the ramps. I think randolph needs to go on a major diet and become much more pedestrian friendly around Columbus if they want to cater the parks to the influx of visitors coming via LSE. No idea why the dead-ending street has to be as wide as an average freeway right there.