It sure sounds like they are planning to do TOD on the Logan Square station. That would be a dream come true if they built a Tower of Pizza Hut esque design there. However, they better not be planning on removing the plaza around the West entrance by Grace's furniture, I actually really like that area underneath the trees with the chess boards. It gets a surprising amount of use. Whenever I happen to be there I always see a lot of people loitering there waiting for people to come out of the train or just hanging out.

Maybe they can take out that nasty parking lot to the North of the station too.

Just for reference, the Tower of Pizza Hut cost $12 million, so a $13 million TOD project would be roughly the same size, possibly taller since this site is more constrained.

That's about all that I can think of. The city owns the open space* at the NW, NE, and SE corners of the square, but the only site that would require $2M of CTA money would be the bus turnaround. It's about 0.7 acres, or about 10 city lots, with few immediate neighbors, and it's too large relative to the bus traffic it gets.

The parking lot beyond the bus turnaround is also city-owned, but since they're "metered" spaces they're administered by LAZ.

* I'm sure someone will call it "precious"

Well, there's an excess of open space at this intersection but not elsewhere in the neighborhood. The station plaza is also unique as a hardscaped plaza and not a green swath, although it's not very well-designed for what it is.

This type of public space is very rare outside of downtown. I'd prefer improving it before removing it, especially if the alternative is to give the land away to a developer free of charge PLUS a $2M subsidy.

^. Screw it, let's take the TOD. If it's anything like 1611 Division it will be worth it. We need density around our subway stations, not plazas. Kudos to CTA for planning this.

^ At a net loss to the taxpayer of $2M plus the assessed value of the land?

Yes.

Chicago is governed (with some exceptions) by corrupt douchebags, so what's new? I'm so used to tax dollars being thrown away around here that I've developed the mentality that "if you're going to throw my tax money away, then at least build something I like with it"

And I'd rather see a dense TOD than a windswept plaza

I think I'm more surprised by the $27 million for LTE antennas in the subway. Wtf? I definitely support continuous broadband connections during commutes, but is this so complicated that it costs 8 figures, and if so, that the big 4 carriers cannot pay for it? I don't think that sports stadiums, or places like Times Square etc., pay for special antenna clusters to be installed to handle mass crowds, do they? Broadband in the subways of the world is hardly a novelty anymore.

That's not really true - literally across the street from this is the square itself, which has both landscaped and hardscaped surfaces, and gets LOTS of use whenever whether permits. Creating more of a wall around it - and increasing opportunities for adjacent retail - would be great. Plus, there's the enormous Palmer Square two blocks south, and the new triangular plaza they're creating at Milwaukee and Diversey two blocks north. Logan Square is going through a huge boom in residential demand; we should be allowing as much new development as possible to absorb it.

They pay for it with substantial monthly fees.

The LTE antennas may in fact be funded by the carriers, but they are included in this project to bulk up the $495M figure. We don't know whether that figure is all tax dollars... the inclusion of the Logan Square TOD suggests it is not.

I'm happy to hear about a tower on the Logan Square station plaza, I just want to keep a dignified entrance to the station. Right now it's pretty unmistakeable where the entrance is, but if they reduce it to some narrow-ass stairs on the sidewalk it will lose that neighborhood centerpiece status.

^ Not to get nitpicky, as I agree with you 99% of the time, but what is up with you on this issue?

This is what I don't get about some people on this forum and what causes me to sometimes want to roll my eyes. People rage about the lack of TOD in this city, and now that there is a real proposal to introduce it, a whole bunch of complaining.

That Logan Sq Blue Line station is far from a neighborhood centerpiece. That particular intersection needs density, it needs a relatively tall building to stand out as an exclamation point for that beautiful district. I have no doubt that regardless of what gets built, people will have no problem seeing that there is a CTA Blue Line station there, I'm not sure why you are worried about that.

You've got this, 1611 W Division, the proposal (if it ever gets off the ground) at the Chicago Ave Blue Line station, and the proposal at Clark and Belmont, and I'm actually starting to get excited about a trend towards TOD in this city.

Ardceila, I don't think we can look at this as a "$2 million subsidy to a private developer". I have a feeling that any project that would replace the bus turnaround would include extensive additional expenses due to the fact that it needs to integrate a subway entrance. That's not to mention the fact that the developer would have to reserve a significant amount of valuable ground level space for a CTA entrance and the retail, given the booming retail scene in Logan Square, is one of the most valuable parts of a project like this. I see the contribution of the land and $2 million as probably a fair subsidy to make up for the extra expenses of completely rebuilding a subway entrance and permanently turning over a portion of the building to the CTA.

Ideally they would push the subway entrance all the way to the South corner of the lot and keep the retail to the North on both Kedzie and Milwaukee. Hopefully they have a good architect design this, buildings with integrated subway entrances are easy to mess up.

Speaking of Logan Square, there is a big push to completely rebuild the streets of the square to make it more pedestrian friendly and increase green space. The section of Milwaukee that passes through the square would be reserved only for Bike traffic and bus traffic and the auto traffic would be routed through the square as if it were a true traffic circle:

http://gridchicago.com/2012/neighbor...tsblog+Chicago)

http://farm8.static.flickr.com/7041/...bd4a5de282.jpg

Yeah, I have to agree with TUP; that plaza isn't a neighborhood centerpiece in any kind of positive way right now - the only time I can remember it functioning like that is during the night markets this summer, but otherwise it's pretty barren. And given that there's the little Paseo garden across Milwaukee AND the square just across half of Logan Blvd - both of which are *actually* used as public gathering spaces now - it seems totally unnecessary to keep a third, disused space on the grounds that it might be used at some point in the future.

LVDW, that proposal to redo the streets around the square is awesome! Thanks for sharing that.

Of all neighborhoods in the city, Logan Square really has the greatest potential to undergo a significant tranformation (ie gentrification). If something like the above were done to the circle, that would be one grand step in such a direction.

Yeah, I like the traffic circle proposal. Seems like that could become a nightmare for drivers tho... roundabouts tend to be pretty nerve-wracking when they are wider than two lanes. Of course, after nearly getting run over several times walking through there, anything is an improvement. I'm sure it would be great with proper design.

It is frustrating that CTA is trashing all of its modernist heritage, even when there's nothing wrong with it (Jefferson Park) but sure, TOD is great. We don't have much track record with integrated station entrances, but the one in the Thompson Center is pretty dec so maybe this won't be so bad.

It's pretty early to tell anyway, I'm sure CTA will want to issue an RFP to developers for the Logan Square site and the competition will hopefully lead to good design.

Logan Square is pretty nerve-wracking as it is. I think it will be easier to navigate without Milwaukee cutting through the middle.

I suspect that the bus turnaround is what's being discussed. It's much larger and wider, particularly if CDOT (which owns it and the roads) can tighten the roadway geometries at that intersection. Kedzie almost doubles in width on that block, for no discernable reason other than to accommodate what I assume is a CTA vent, and that results in excessive speeds.

Despite the Paseo Prairie Garden, people always choose to hang out at the monument during the summer -- it's better shielded from traffic. It's worth noting that another hardscape plaza is proposed for the gravel lot at the SE corner: http://www.chicagorarities.org/

I don't know if you can say they are "trashing all of their modernist heritage". Most of the South Red Line stations are preserved in more or less original condition after being renovated. I am sure they will keep, for example, the Belmont Blue line station and the Spaulding Exits to the Logan Station intact. Those are some of my favorite modern stations along with the interiors at Logan and Belmont and the Southwest Logan entrance (I can't stress how awesome that little garden is right there, the station entrance lets you out basically into a park which is too cool). The Logan Square station bus turnaround/main entrance, while cool, is frankly just too "urban renewal" for my tastes and for its location.

Also, I agree that Thomson Center is pretty cool, but the other side of Clark and Lake is a clusterfuck and practically never open except for 8 hours during weekdays. They can't integrate an entrance and then let the private owners dictate hours like that.

A tidbit from the Tribune on the Blue Line upgrades a few days ago. This stood out to me because I never heard any follow up as to what happened with the Quinn initiative to run express from Union to O'Hare.

Still, the numbers quoted still seem like a remarkable value. It is hard to believe that given the modest financials to run such a service they didn't find it worthwhile supposedly. There has to be more details or explaination to why no follow up........

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