^ Agree, plus many of the existing stairs and ramps are deteriorating and would either need major repairs or total replacement to blend into any future landscape plan. Then you have all the mechanical systems to exhaust the area beneath

No exhaust system needed because the trains are electric powered.

^ Imagine a time where all rail is electric powered - even where there's no catenary. Maybe Elon Musk's battery r&d will lead to locomotives laden with their own electricity source (already trucks and buses are on the horizon). And if the locomotives' batteries couldn't recharge enough at the stations or endpoints of their Metra runs, then self-driving / self-switching technology could seamlessly swap in a fresh locomotive!

(Wrong thread though, sorry.)

The passenger trains are electric, but the trains and vehicles that Metra uses to service the line are not.

It's probably only a matter of time. Emissions requirements are already forcing changes to the diesel portion of the locomotive. I can imagine that the next phase is to give up on trying to make specialized large, clean diesels due to prohibitive R&D costs. So, you install banks of commodity diesels from the auto/truck industry that have already been certified to meet requirements. These could be started and stopped on demand to ensure total electrical power is adequate for traction motors. Once you have that system in place, you can replace individual diesel motors with battery packs depending on the needs of the individual railroad operator. And boom, there you go.

Metra could go half and half, focusing on batteries near stations so they can be zero emission except when cruising in open air, when they would use diesel.

when will we have "nanners" for 113 E Roos?

Roosevelt & Indiana... A rep several weeks ago told me there could be movement in October, but we'll see.

an october start would be very cool.

could we really be so lucky to get construction starts on 3 towers over 800' in one calendar year?

i don't think that's ever happened before in chicago.

<fingers crossed>

Yeah if it did happen before it would have been when 2 Prudential, AT&T(now just Franklin Center), 900 N Michigan, and 311 S Wabash were all completed within about a year of each other. Don't remember their start dates though

accoridng to the SSP data base:

franklin center - 1987 construction start
900 n michigan - 1987 construction start
2 prudential - 1988 construction start
311 s wacker - 1988 construction start


so that was a very tight cluster of 800+' tower construction starts, but technically not in one calendar year. and none of those four are legit supertalls like vista, so if 113 s roosevelt does pop in october (or even november/decemeber), 2016 could go down as the greatest year for 800+' skyscraper construction starts in chicago history!

I believe they have changed the address of this to 1200 S Indiana.

Probably it will have an actual name once they start the marketing... but the primary residential entrance is on the Indiana side, so the city probably insisted on it.

^ got it, thanks for the update.

It'll never have the depth of the Loop, though, as long as Dearborn Park(s) are around.

When you say legit supertalls I assume you mean roof breaking supertall height right? Because two of those 4 are currently classified as supertalls due to their spires.

And yeah, the city's skyline could really evolve drastically in the coming 5 years. :happybirthday::happybirthday::happybirthday:

yeah, i was talking about the whole spire vs. roof thing. i probably should have used the word "unqualified" instead of "legit". no one can argue that vista will stand more than 1,000' above the ground, but those other two are more open to interpretation.

in any event, i really hope bvic's insider source about this one starting up in october is on the level.

^ Same, the South Loop got all those proposals, but so many of them have been dragging their feet it feels, maybe I'm just impatient

Did the address change I thought it was officially 113 e Roosevelt Rd?

For real? That was addressed literally six posts back.

Got some intel that this miiigght not be going ahead.

hmmmmmm..... conflicting inside sources..... who to believe......


i know who i WANT to believe ;)