Meanwhile some folks catching a ballgame on a nice sunny weekday off from work will wonder (if they even knew) why people on a development website bicker about wavy glass, parking podiums, and cheap developers. I mean there's sure is a hell lot more to life than this place.

let's play two

Here's a first look at the new hotel beginning construction across from Wrigley and the plaza. These renderings show some significant changes from the previous set that were made public.

It will be approximately 140 rooms with 47 parking spaces along with 7 retail/restaurant spaces on the 1st floor and 1 restaurant space on the top floor.

All in all, there should be 10+ restaurants ringing the plaza, which should help to make for a very active and enclosed semi-public space.

Hotel is accessed through mid-block lobby:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a42...pshmjfoggl.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a42...ps0eilykcy.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a42...psiubhzrv0.jpg
source: Cubs

^ it's still not great, but ever since they got rid of that stupid skywalk bridge dealie over addison, the overall concept has become a lot more palatable.

and it is replacing one of the absolute worst McD's in the city, so that's always a win when one another one of those horrendous shit-boxes with a giant parking lot goes away (hopefully forever).

^^yeah, still not awesome but a HUUUGE improvement from the last crap we saw...

Architecture is nothing special, but urban design wise it generally does everything right in creating a small sub-district centered around the plaza, and hopefully providing more 356-day vitality to an area that can be quiet in the off-season. It also provides connective tissue linking the northern Clark Street area around the Metro to the bars south of Addison.

Oh, and McDonalds will be returning in a more urban format, filling one of the restaurant spaces within the hotel (no drive through or anything).

Someone really needs to develop the Clark Street Sports lot.

Again, like the office building, not amazing or anything but still substantially better than the design we previously saw.

The clock going to have major impact on Clark Street. You can see the tower for many blocks from both the north and south.

Massing is good, holds the corner well. It'll feel a lot different walking up to the ballpark from the west on Addison. I think that plaza space is going to have a really nice enclosed feel. Unless the materials are really cheap, seems fine to me. They're midrises, hopefully they use real brick.

Couldn't agree more

I think they are going to use real brick. On the north side of the office building (Waveland side) they are erecting what appear to be giant scaffolds, which seem more indicative of laying brick than hanging panels.

Wow, I don't hate this. I remember seeing some god awful renderings or drawings of this and that clock tower building at the north end of the block, did BOTH designs change?

Never mind

^ I'm also just noticing that the road just north of the hotel is going to get some sort of treatment--brick pavers? Cobblestone? Anybody know what's going on there?

the owners arent selling, otherwise it would have been

The plaza renderings seem less cluttered and more understated than prior versions.

Initial 2013 scheme for comparison:

http://chicagocubsonline.com/wp-cont...igleyPlan2.jpg
sauce

seems ok

it's kind of a tough task architecturally because the worst thing to do is mimic the ballpark, and the second worst is to do something too modern

The cubs are investing in traffic calming along that street, and have also discussed an idea of creating shared streets along many of the corridors that border Wrigley Field, in order to create more of a district feel as well as to improve pedestrian safety. Ideally they'd like to close many of these streets during games... this is all still under discussion.