Looks like a copy of Central Park Tower (Nordstrom) in New York. And even at NY tallest height that design is meh compared to everything else under construction..

Yes current design is much better, however there is a lot of room for value engineering.. that scares me but considering how One Bennett Park turned out I have hope.

The more I look at this design, the more I like it. Probably more than what we will be getting. I love how our two towers look from east and west. I think they look horrible from north and south. That said, I hope our 400 LSD keeps the terracotta. I would love to see more buildings built with it in Chicago

I just got a ward update email from Brendan Reilly. Not good.

“After sorting through community feedback, I sent a detailed memo to the Development Team on August 13th - detailing the priority issues that the Developer must address before their project could receive additional consideration for approval. Unfortunately, several weeks later, Related Midwest provided me with a response that did not adequately address any of the major concerns about their proposal.

I have informed Related Midwest that the 400 North Lake Shore Drive Proposal will not be moving forward in its current form and is therefore rejected.

I always strive to negotiate positive outcomes when considering development proposals. As with any project, my ultimate goal is to strike a fair balance and approve responsible projects that will be successful for the owners, while enhancing the character and vitality of the surrounding neighborhood.

That said, the Developer must address many issues related to this proposal before it may be further considered. Some (not all) of the outstanding neighborhood concerns include the following:
- Access to the site via East North Water Street must be significantly restricted
- Proposed hotel use should be eliminated
- Podium height and bulk must be reduced
- Make greater use of the Lake Shore Drive access ramp system and below grade parking system to manage deliveries, services vehicles and pick-up / drop-offs.
- Developer must assemble a security plan for the Riverwalk and DuSable Park
- Elimination of the proposed Ogden Slip Public Esplanade

As it stands, this project remains stalled and will not move forward. In the event the Developer chooses to address the legitimate concerns regarding their proposal, my office will be sure to provide all impacted neighbors with an update.”

^He wants his nuts tickled...

Catering the the NIMBY hack constitutes that live along East North Water.

Well, the hotel component was also removed from LSE and that got a smidge taller.

I always thought the base on this one was a bit too bulky.

It was already more restrictive than the Spire plan, since it eliminated through-traffic. It's a city, for crying out loud, a few blocks from Chicago's largest tourism generator - what did people THINK would happen when they moved in there, and why is Reilly defending their irrational wishes?

Why? It's a block away from the Sheraton. At 175 rooms, it's a small hotel for downtown. Again, why is it in the CITY'S best interest to restrict hotel use?

I tend to agree with this, but having a bulky podium did make it easier for them to stop through-traffic ... but this is reasonable enough.

It uses it more or less the same as the Spire plan did. What, exactly, do you want them to do unless you're actually just trying to starve the site into townhomes? Which would be a waste of location.

Why is the City not responsible for security plans for public spaces? Regardless of that, a security plan can be created, it's not a reason to outright reject a plan even if you feel you have to delay things in order to enforce a plan creation.

This is egregiously anti-Chicago. Chicago is moving toward public access of all waterways. Removing it here and privatizing it is absolutely unacceptable on the part of Reilly.

His phrasing has always been arrogant and patronizing, and this is no different. How much longer will he be allowed to represent the most valuable part of downtown and make capricious decisions about areas of the city that need to be maximized for tax revenue and public use?

I like the podium reduction but why on earth is a hotel not ok?

In general, this should not be up to just one elected official to decide. It should be the purview of a design board with at least 5 experts that answers to the whole city council.

Whats the height(s) of this two tower development? Referring to rendering in Sky88's post.

That doesn't look like 1,100 ft? Looks much higher, unless maybe the rendering is stretched.

Is that a small spire I see or is it just distortion via rendering?

I can kind of see why they'd be against the Hotel use. In terms of realistic access to the site by travelers and rideshare vehicles everything really depends on North Water, McClurg, and Illinois. A site like the Spire with the height and river frontage is also going to have a fairly in demand restaurant and event space. So traffic will be bustling on weekends at least. Just from what I've seen around other hotels rideshare vehicles and valets turn the adjacent street into a clusterf*ck of snarled and blocked traffic. For a street like North Water with only one entrance and exit and a bit tight with two lanes of traffic I can see that turning into a god awful mess. Now I suppose that could be alleviated by a cut-through to LSD but that'll quickly get swamped by folks trying to use it as a shortcut to get to LSD itself. Perhaps the angle here is to route the hotel traffic to/from the site off of LSD and use the North Water entrance for residents?

The concern regarding the Ogden Slip Esplanade though is confusing. Isn't the southern boundary of the Slip already open to the public?

Yes but that is a SECRET - don't let the plebes know - people live next to the slip in a literally gated community.

Wait, North Water St is the only road that leads to this site.

So......how the fuck would anyone get to this building?

The podium complaint is fair and hopefully we'll get a better design for that piece now. I also understand the concern around the hotel but that should be solvable by restricting hotel access to just LSD.

The rest is horseshit.

But I do find it strange that Related didn't respond to Reilly's concerns to prevent it from being outright rejected. Many of them seem rather easy to incorporate.

God that Ogden slip thing is ridiculous. Talk about broken government. We have a public official discouraging public infrastucture so a couple dozen ass pipes can pretend they live in Winnetka.

I don't given that Related has probably several things in the hopper ahead of this and everybody has their eyes peeled for a slowdown.

Let Reilly pound the table and reject it then swing back in time when they are ready with most to all of those changes which they'd do anyway.

Positioning and or fundraising for a competitive re-election campaign?

This seems to be a problem when our "public" land is actually private. Though with respect to DuSable, I would have expected that to be park district city controlled - is it actually to be in private hands?
I wonder what kind of security these people expect. Maybe they should just start a neighborhood watch.

Blair Kamin suggested this would happen with the Ogden Slip. And it is a decent read from Kamin (on 10/18) about the history of the Cityfront Center development.

http://graphics.chicagotribune.com/c...min/index.html

I wonder what Related's response was exactly.

So, the Related Midwest 400 North Lake Shore Drive Proposal is on hold?:shrug:

http://imageserver-bisnow1.netdna-ss...HeroRiver.jpeg
http://www.bisnow.com

This all goes to show that machine politics/patronage is really the enemy of the people. It highly favors people with the most influence and encourages our elected officials to adopt a mafioso attitude. It’s just bad.

Well, I think this project can still turn out great and I hope the design changes are minimal.

The Ogden Slip thing is unfortunate, but I’m pretty sure they are still required to have some sort of public ROW there, it’s just too bad it will probably be really stripped down and bare bones. But they can make up for this doing a nice job along the Chicago River and really creating access to the Lakefront there.

Reilly has really become a stickler for security on Lakefront access sites. Obviously crime issues are dominating conversations he is having with constituents.

fyi -
Column from Kamin:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...023-story.html

For this site, this entire process just feels very bush league. This is a very prominent and important site for the city. To just get a communication from an alderman? and without subsequent interviews? No reaffirmation from City Hall about its commitment? Maybe a statement from Related? And at this stage to decide a hotel cannot be allowed in the programming? Shouldn't that have been definitively resolved for this site already? Just a very weak way of doing things.