Can I also say that the skybridges are really disappointing?

Cermak was shaping up to be a pretty nice landscaped boulevard with wide sidewalks, but that skybridge just kills the vibe and makes it feel like a Minneapolis medical center. I don't care about the one over Prairie so much.

Seriously, build a fricking tunnel if an indoor connection is so important.

Yeah, it's pretty Vegas. You'd think with the Lucas Museum and Obama Library someone would insist on more vision. Block 37 syndrome.

Block 37 syndrome:

Start with something exciting (or even mildly exciting) with the potential to rejuvenate an area of the city
http://www.archidose.org/Feb01/37b.jpg

and then promptly value engineer it into an eyesore which actually sucks life out of the area

http://media.chicagomag.com//images/...ectratio=1.475


I think that is indeed what is happening here

I don't really mind the skybridge. Aesthetically it's not great cause these skybridges can often make a place feel uninviting but in this case I'm not sure that's so bad cause there is nothing east of that point of pedestrian interest. It also makes sense to free up the traffic a bit on cermak. I think this will still be, with the new cermak station, a nice pedestrian friendly blvd west of the hotel.

Because it was value engineered to a 4 story retail complex? This has changed pretty minimally with what was first proposed. Shorter and slight design change. The old one was pretty Vegas-y too..

Vegas-y isn't terrible, but a dead mall in the middle of the city center is.

You could go back to the beginning with the Jahn design if you wanted the original non-downscaled plan, but that was cancelled for macro-economic reasons, not value engineered.

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections...251_272846.jpg

I don't think Vegas-y bldgs work in Chicago. The city is too sophisticated for them. But if you start building them everywhere, that's a different story.

I would hardly call McCormick Place the city center.

Edit: o, you must be referring to block 37, but the two sites aren't comparable. One went from a tall high rise to a slightly shorter highrise. The other went from a highrise/retail/transit hub, to a 4 story mall with small commercial low rise.

The dark building immediately behind the ABC building in this rendering is the 300+ foot tall data center. This is a squished render and not a shortened building. But I could be wrong - I didn't attend the meeting.

Pretty swanky looking.

Activity is starting to ramp up. It appears that the corrugated steel-enclosed parking lot on the hotel site is permanently closed. Utility and foundation excavation began this morning at the lot that will receive the Rees house currently on the arena site.

Heneghan Wrecking equipment has started to arrive on the hotel site and it looks like they may have already started tearing stuff down.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2..._Donald_DD.jpg
http://fatalbert.wikia.com/wiki/Dumb_Donald

Are there final renders for the event center? Poor execution on the basic idea could result in a disappointing result.

Sept 7 - "Site Prep"
 

Newest renders here: http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2...gned-arena.php

http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...ccormick-1.jpg
http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...ccormick-2.jpg
http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...ccormick-3.jpg

Per the last community meeting, the arena will have a sports bar open to the public daily.

^ Thanks, wierd. Looks a bit less concerning than the ravioli (to quote the Curbed headline) unveiled a year ago this month. (Though ultimately that moniker will probably end up sticking.)

Seems like the latest version is taller than previous ones... I preferred it was it was more low-slung and horizontal. Had almost a Prairie School feel to it. I'm guessing they wanted to save on excavation costs by bringing it one story higher above grade...

Original:

http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...4ce81/2yi4.jpg

Revised:

http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...ccormick-1.jpg

Original:

http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...5/depaul5.jpeg

Original:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a0EsMQlXnG...ar-Pelli02.jpg

Huge revised renderings here. I was going to contrast them with the last two original ones but I didn't want fucked up the page. It has definitely lost some elegance and minimalism. The kiosks on its periphery appear to have exploded and proliferated. Do not like. And they really, really need to figure out how to taper the eaves.

No kidding! Who's designing this anyway - PCP, or Walsh (going way out on a limb and assuming that Walsh will be awarded the construction contract!)?

Are the cuts in the ceiling going to be open air? Or will there be some sort of glass that fills that in? Seems like the answer is obvious here but I wanted to confirm.