I think a better location for the intersection would be closer to 14th St. That said, this will work fine as well, giving people an additional route to Clark in order to avoid the traffic nightmare that is Roosevelt.

As pilsenarch said, that light will undoubtedly be coordinated with the light at Roosevelt, so there shouldn't be too many issues with its placement. Plenty of space for a left turn lane, which should keep cars from piling up on the ramp to upper NB Clark.


The density boost will be nice. Hopefully it will provide plenty of customers for the retail that I assume will be lining Clark. Its just too bad that the east side of the street looks like garbage with the cinder block walls enclosing an illogically placed subdivision.

Mr. Emmanuel, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!

Interesting. I assumed LaSalle and the Metra tracks would be at the same level, with creative architecture allowing the tracks to pass through building podiums. But in fact, they're building the entire east half of the site up to a higher level like Lakeshore East. It's an even more similar plan than I realized.

Standing on LaSalle Street looking down at Crescent Park will be very similar to standing on Field Blvd looking down at LSE Park. I love it... it will be amazing to get some visible urban topography out of this, a nice relief from Chicago's relentless flat gridiron. Another reason to keep the buildings along the river low... could be a great sunset view from on top of LaSalle.

Hopefully the design of Crescent Park isn't a cap for some ginormous parking garage. We will never get real big mature trees in a park-on-structure with shallow soil depth. Millennium Park's medium-sized trees are about as close as we would get.

Chicago Architecture Blog has a good rundown of the project's details. Possibly my favorite detail is that Wells St will have bus lanes in each direction, indicating that there will be BRT: https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/...os-south-loop/

Connecting this through all they way from Ping Tom to the current Riverwalk downtown will be an epic accomplishment. Also the tangle of infrastructure and multi level streets following the rivers is epic, few cities on Earth have this kind of infrastructure density. However none have waterfront public spaces on all waterfronts and certainly none have continuous chains of parkland in such an urban setting.

It's a bit confusing. What is this LaSalle St decking over the Metra thing, but then it's a private road? What would that mean?

And I see other east west streets intersecting with Clark and the LaSalle "private road". Not sure what to make of those.

Come to think of it, why are there any private roads at all within this development?

LaSalle probably has to stay private in order to build it above the Metra tracks. CDOT probably wouldn't accept dedication of a street whose underpinning structures will have to be rebuilt in 80 years. They're facing that issue right now with Canal next to Union Station. In fact, CDOT may refuse dedication of any street without fee simple ownership of the land underneath.

As I understand it, Wells won't have continuous bus lanes. There will be bus pullouts, and that's what one of the cross-sections shows.

Interesting. My take seems to be that The 78 HOA will be financially responsible for LaSalle St, when it comes to repairs and maintenance, while the city will maintain a publicly accessible easement on the street? If that's the case (and I'm not 100% certain of that), then its a good deal for the city.

I wonder if the city will remove the cul-de-sac at 15th and Dearborn and make 15th St a through street again so that it can connect with State?

I'd very much like to see the cul-de-sacs on 15th removed, but no alderman ever willingly held a public meeting to promise townhouse owners that more traffic would be routed past their doors.

The diagrams show most of the station under Cottontail Park, so I assume that whole area will get torn up for CTA construction. They might "temporarily" open 15th for construction access and then forget to put the cul-de-sac back in. It really only affects a handful of homeowners on that one block.

Is CDOT also not accepting any new streets in Lakeshore East? This kind of thing really pisses me off, the city needs to be taking charge of these things. Otherwise we end up with private "streets" where homelessness, political protest, and any other unsightly behavior can be quickly and legally shooed away. That's especially true if Related lands Amazon, people can and will want to protest Amazon for their business practices.

On another happy note, I like the sidewalk bike lanes on Wells. I prefer that style, it really makes the sidewalk feel wider and provides a very comfortable environment for walking. The ones on Roosevelt are awesome. The city should really stripe a two-directional bike lane on Michigan Ave/s east sidewalk between Monroe and Roosevelt, too. People already ride bikes and Divvys there, might as well sanction it.

I can't think of any of those that are built over other uses, so all the streets in LSE can be dedicated ad inferos (all the way to hell).

I seriously hope that’s an actual legal term of art...

I thought several of the Lakeshore East streets sit atop parking garages? Harbor Drive and Waterside Drive definitely do, although many of the other streets have (public) lower levels or even a level below that. Lower Lower Randolph is an interesting place... the third circle of hell, if you will.

Yeah.... it's one of the most other worldly places(if that makes sense) in Chicago. I do not like it, and Lower Randolph is so cavernous, but not a in a good way

So it looks like phase I will be strictly infrastructure? I'm surprised no mention of any Phase I buildings to rise so they can begin cashing in on their investment asap.

The state budget that just passed the General Assembly includes $500 million for the Discovery Partners Institute, though there are not details of how or when those funds would be distributed.

While I share your anticipation for buildings to rise. You do realize that there is simply zero infrastructure to support a building- No water, sewer, storm drain, gas, roads, electric service. And the riverwall needs to be upgraded. A double track railroad line needs to be relocated and the major access road is actually considered Phase 3 of the Wells/Wentworth connector project. think they are completing Phase 1 now.

I wouldnt expect a foundation rig for 2 years or more. From what others have said this is a LSE type of development- 20 to 30 years for full build-out.

Phase I was completed last year IIRC, they rebuilt and widened Wentworth between Archer and Ping Tom Park, and put in a new signal at 18th.

Phase II is the dogleg realignment at Cermak to connect the two pieces of Wentworth together, and Phase III runs between Ping Tom Park and Roosevelt through the 78 Site. I assume it includes restriping north of Roosevelt as well.

Supposedly both phases are supposed to begin this year.

It's hard to find info on the Wells/Wentworth connector. I think phase 2 already started last year according to google maps or is already finished.
The Wells/Wentworth connector phase 3 part was supposed to start this year and finish in 2018

^ Good to see they are further along than I thought. Maybe a SSP photographer can get down there for an update.
All of the initial construction access will have to come through the south from Wentworth and from the north on Wells. The Wells access is not complicated, bridge viaduct is in place.
But the Wentworth phase 3 has more work to do. The CN railway will need to sign off on a new at grade crossing here: And the viaduct under the St Charles Airline will need some attention. Google Map
And this triangle of rail is in play for the Cross Rail project which is the lynchpin for connecting Metra/Amtrak and Regional rail projects to and through CUS onto OHare. So eventually Metra, Amtrak, Midwest Regional Rail, CMAP, CTA, CDOT, IDOT, CN Rail maybe BNSF since ST Charles connects to their ROW, FRA all will need to come to the table for optimal planning.

There's nothing to photograph yet. Only a few stakes in the ground.

Wells won't cross the St. Charles Airline at grade; it will use the old C&WI undercrossing (requiring an inelegant jog to nearly the river and back). "Cross Rail" is merely the dream of some foamers. There's no governmental interest in it, and in fact the IC routing has been eliminated as the corridor for HSR to Downstate.