CHICAGO | The 78 Site
 

This is the thread for news and updates concerning the 78 Site. You guys asked for it, so here it is!

Aaron (Glowrock)

Anyone going to the meeting today?

Hmmmm... I'll check again in a couple hours. Hope to see some cool ideas. I'm much more excited about this than the Spire project tbh

^ Agreed. Its a much larger and more defining project for the city, and one that will *finally* help integrate and connect downtown with the neighborhoods to its south, most importantly Chinatown.

If only we could start anew with DPI and II.

The website has been taken down, likely to be replaced with a new one shortly.
http://www.78chicago.com

Good sleuthing!

Would it be feasible for a developer to buy out a block of those condos/townhomes and develop the land, like is there a Dearborn Park HOA preventing that kind of action? Just looking at google maps it looks like the less dense blocks have about 30 units each, I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard (financially) for a large developer to buy out a block.

Why is it called The 78?

chicago currently has 77 city-defined community areas.

this is being billed as the 78th one.

a bit tongue in cheek, as i don't think it will actually warrant it's own newly defined community area.

There are HOAs that oversee each expansion of Dearborn Park. I would imagine any buyouts would need to be voted on and agreed to by the respective HOA, so the quick answer is no. Now, if they buy up enough property to effectively control the HOA or meet the minimum required to buyout the entire development is another matter entirely, but I'm not sure any developer would want to invest that much time and cash in such a plan, especially since there are still plenty of developable land in the area. In 30 years, the story may be quite different.

And it begins:

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af46ae3/t.../1450/1450x816

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af46ab1/t.../1450/1450x816

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af489cc/t.../1450/1450x816

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af489ca/t.../1450/1450x816

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af489c7/t.../1450/1450x816

All images via Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...510-story.html

All other images in the Tribune article have been seen before - these are the new ones. More to come I'm sure...

Btw, these were the previously released images from last fall that were included in the same article above:

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af48a87/t.../1450/1450x816

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af489c8/t.../1450/1450x816

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af489c9/t.../1450/1450x816

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af489c9/t.../1450/1450x816
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...510-story.html

Ok, I'll start.

The riverwalk is basically Navy Pier on the river. I like the low-rises along the river building up to the 950 footers to the east. If some of those buildings are actually 950 feet like the articles claim, then those renderings are definitely understating their height, given that OMP is taller than them in the renderings even though its both shorter and farther away.

Most of the actual designs of the individual buildings look excellent. I hope they are not all just placeholders that Related will VE into oblivion.

Holy shit, this looks like some kind of future city on a terraformed Mars. Impressive!

http://www.78chicago.com Website is live now.

Yeah, they definitely fucked up the heights on the renderings. OMP is a little more than 700 feet tall and it is taller than 1000M and OBP, which we know is not even close to reality. Their team needs some work on that lol

That all being said, looks pretty cool, but basically nothing we didn't already know(renderings-wise) :/

Also, website is back up and different

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5af46ae3/t.../1450/1450x816

The website says that’s 15th and Clark. I don’t see any Metra tracks. So they’re buried?

Where’s the new Red Line station?

"but said it would create 20 percent affordable housing units on and off the site."- Chicago Tribune Article

If they actually follow through with this that would be freaking fantastic! Hopefully they build most of the units on site, but this would still be a major boost to affordable housing in the area! :cheers:

Any info on commencement of construction?

The biggest boost to affordable housing is simply building housing. I’ve never understood how those who cut a 500 unit, 0 “affordable” development down to 250 units, 50 “affordable” think they’ve accomplished anything.
What happens to the 300 people who would have bought market rate housing but couldn’t? They go gentrify an affordable neighborhood.

Now I don't want to really get into this conversation, because it has been done many times before. But I do agree with you, that the market is the best way to reduce housing prices. However, most developers currently don't want to invest in middle class to lower class housing (which makes sense) so the housing needs to come from somewhere. I think affordable housing in developments like this is a good middle ground. It includes both the market aspect, but also the needed affordable housing without taking it too far to either side.

That kinda looks like a train running in a viaduct below the elevated pedestrian walkway. Although it doesn't really look like a Metra train.

The proposed Red line station is shown on the video, on 15th St, just east of Clark.

The PD was filed today, so those who are good with the city clerk site.

“THE 78”

May 10, 2018

-62 acres

-RELATED MIDWEST

-Roosevelt, 16th, Clark Street and the Chicago River.

-All in the 26th Ward.

-SOM Master Plan

-13 million sq ft (12.7 hudson yards on 28 acres)

-DX-5 underlying zoning

-activating the riverfront… drawn to the river… public spaces

-infrastructure moving through the site

-The Crescent Park

-100’ of riverfront setbacks with 3 separate zones

-realigning the metro tracks to the west, away from clark

-15th Street into the site under the tracks to Wells

-adding a redline at 15th and Clark

-extend lasalle street south into the site

-Discovery Institute (+100 faculty and +2,000 students)

-5 acres of public riverfront
-7 acre crescent park
-River Taxi

-$24,000,000 density bonus payment

-10,000 jobs both permanent and long-term

-20% affordable housing created by development

-950’ maximum height

-Well Street construction, sometime beginning in late july

-looking at and for infrastructure financing (public/private)

How is LaSalle extended south when it ends at Polk, and due south is the Metra?

Start the railway push west right at Roosevelt and bring LaSalle over and down as a bridge?

The roadway that leads into Roosevelt Collection will be extended southward and be called Lasalle.

Nice. A necessity IMO - timeline for that?

Crazy - what are the phases looking like? What will they start construction on first?

Infrastructure. No timeframe for entire project, or a projected cost.

From the video, here's an idea of where the 15th and Clark red line will be

https://i.imgur.com/KCBRWzN.jpg

So, about 19% of the land is dedicated to parkland? That's pretty great and fixing the infrastructure coming first is even better news. I'm pretty content with this plan. Don't care how badly they ruin the Spire site now :)

Cyooot!

That Red Line location kind of spells the end for DPII doesn’t it? They’d need to take land for a station and that will open it up to TOD.
Does 15th connect through for pedestrians below the park?

Doesn’t it look like the Orange line should get a stop at State?

I recall seeing some discussion a long time ago about rerouting the orange line so that it would hit the Red Line just south of Cermak-Chinatown. Probably never going to happen, but food for thought.

Did they say how many units would be here?

How much will the South Loop boom effect the sales of the higher end units, if at all?

I cobbled together an annotated site plan so you guys can better understand:

https://i.imgur.com/Bb0FBnZ.jpg

Fake lasalle street is lame. A completely isolated jog of a street people use for wayfinding is cruel, though entirely in character for lasalle. Hopefully nobody will have a street address on it.

Like the wells connector, though. That will make a straight shot from Cermack/Chinatown to downtown via wentworth, opening a whole new arterial supply of humans to an atrophied area.

Hopefully riverwalk will connect with the neighboring projects to the north, then eventually to the Riverwalk itself.

Name is dumb. Hopefully placeholder. I’m allergic to “The ###” titles.

Also think how they’re handiling the elevation changes from street level at Roosevelt on the NE corner of the site. Stairways to tight, ramps too long.

Where’s the IKEA go?

If they can actually pull off something like those renderings, that would be pretty awesome.

Much cooler from a design standpoint and in layout and incorporation of public spaces than what Magellan did over at Lakeshore East.

Pretty good cobbling Mr DT.

So LaSalle St at north end will elevate to meet Roosevelt and the RC at Deleno Ct. Wells will be an under pass at Roosevelt.
Looks like 15th St west of Clark is a viaduct under Metra tracks, connecting with LaSalle St and with Wells on the west end.

I'd like to see a few more connections to the street grid with this development. Why no connection to 14th? It would provide another outlet to Clark. The way it is right now, 15th St would be getting slammed with all the traffic that wants to exit into the South Loop, and its not like Roosevelt will be any better since its already a traffic nightmare during rush periods. Wells only works if you want to go north to the Loop or south to Chinatown, neither of those really being an escape from traffic.

who is being displaced? this land is vacant?

but man being poor in Chicago is great. free/low cost housing, higher probability of access to the top selective enrollment schools for the kids, cheap public transit, lots of public parks, elected officials that pander to you for votes...

I live in a yuppie DINK household with two college educated and relatively highly paid professionals and I cannot afford to live in a development like this. Somehow my life goes on.

Just wondering who will ensure that I can afford to live here...anyone, anyone? Pleaase...my life is so miserable in my vintage housing out in the neighborhoods....heeeellppp meeeee

Ok, so sorry to ask a dumb question.....

Obviously, all the renderings of the buildings and such are conceptual at this point, correct? I mean, I’m sure they have a general idea of a master plan. But hammered out, detailed plans of individual highrises are a ways off, right?

I ask because the images posted seemed too avant-garde for Related Midwest.

Welcome back! You haven’t posted in a long time

Perhaps, but Related has pretty deep pockets and these buildings seem more fully fleshed-out than what Magellan had initially proposed for their (also SOM-designed) master plan for Lakeshore East.

When the masterplan proposal for LSE was first released back in 2001, it was more a conceptual idea than a solid proposal - it was a lovely watercolor depicting the relative massing of the building components without much detail.

For the 78 however, perhaps Related is much further along in the process and willing to building a portion of the building shown on spec, rather than waiting to find tenants, at least for the commercial components. That doesn't mean that designs of some of the buildings won't change over the years, but so far, everything looks more realistic than not...at least relative to LSE.

Looks good - one of the things I like most about this development is not just the park (which is wonderful), but how the buildings are tiered - the shorter ones are closest to the river, so that visually, your view is not blocked by a 30 story building right next to the riverwalk.

Nice aerial view of how the development relates to the rest of the CBD:

http://www.78chicago.com/assets/img/...e-vision-1.jpg
http://www.78chicago.com/

Whoa, so much to unpack! Seems like a lot of shrewd decisions to provide the needed infrastructure at a reasonable (or at least slightly less astronomical) cost.

Previous plans for the site have been mainly auto-oriented, with transit an afterthought. Those plans included a whole street grid for the site (albeit totally disconnected from the east). This one forgoes the grid for, basically, just two main streets plus a short link at 15th. One of those streets, Wells, will even be constructed entirely by the city, taking it off Related’s project list. I wonder if Related is “finding” money for the Red Line station and the Metra relocation by being super efficient with new streets? I don’t see a potential congestion problem - earlier plans for the site had more mileage of streets total, but still only three access points. This one has four, and seems to suggest that limited parking will be provided.

On the rail side, I’ll be interested to see what happens. I’m fairly sure the Red Line tracks are on an incline here, which will make a new station difficult to construct. It also looks like the station box would slot in under some of the DPII townhouses on 15th, so those would have to be purchased and demolished. CTA does have a ventilation structure at 15th/Clark, so maybe that can be repurposed somehow to save a little money. I wonder if Related will seek TIF money or other public funding for the new station.

The Metra solution (enclosing the tracks inside the podiums of buildings) is interesting. That way the Metra “tunnel” is paid for one piece at a time, as each building is constructed. At first glance I assumed Metra would never go for that, but they did allow River Point (and the rest of the buildings above Union Station) which was a very similar concept. :shrug:

Lastly - I like the Crescent Park idea, although it’s ironic our civic forefathers spent so much time moving the channel precisely to allow for a regular grid of streets to be built here. As a developer, it’s smart... the former channel was filled with terrible material, it is awful to build foundations or even streets upon. I have seen the geotech reports to prove it. With the park concept, they are turning a liability into an asset.

Wait, I thought Amazon HQ2 is going in here lol!

Looks awesome! It's like new developments in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Which is great, the ones there are amazing so hopefully it will be of a similar quality that the renderings show!

That's crazy that they are going to have to demo some midrises and buildings along State for the redline stop though.