Yes, Google bought Chelsea Market and left the shopping/food levels mostly untouched. It's not a food hall in the modern sense, it's sort of a hybrid of a 2010s/2020s food hall and a 1990s festival marketplace. The hallways are lined with industrial relics and artifacts displayed in a quirky way, etc. Reminds me of walking down Navy Pier's interior corridor, but with more gourmet food. Or North Pier, if anyone remembers that blast from the past.

The Thompson Center will be stripped down to its skeleton, though, so all businesses will likely be evicted and 95% of the square footage will be reprogrammed.

The other 5% being bathrooms I presume, lol

Chelsea Market is cool, but super annoying because of how many people (a lot of tourists) it's crawling with. It has a few cool shops but most of it is pretty regular stuff. Tourists there amp up everything so it's pretty hilarious.

With that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they put some sort of food hall in the basement there especially considering there is the train station accessible from there. I'm sure they'll kick out most of who's already there and bring in some trendier options. There's little doubt in my mind that this will happen.

Fantastic news! We just moved from NYC to the Loop late last year and can see the potential this area can become. After March, the area has been booming with people and every weekend has become busier and busier.

This news just made us feel better about buying a condo down here as we see it undervalued compared to major cities we've lived in.

Maybe even apply to Google in the future... :)

Hey fellow NYC transplant (but I used to live in Chicago for many years previous).

Activity downtown definitely picked up after March and especially after April. It's weird when people call it a ghost town now - I'm pretty sure they don't come downtown and are just guessing and applying what they knew what it was like 6+ months ago instead.

Chicago is always undervalued. It makes no sense except for 50-75% false crime stereotypes and the weather stereotypes. The Loop before the pandemic definitely had less retail vacancy and even more people. But there's 600K+ jobs technically in the area and there's still a lot of people coming into their offices now even if it's not a super high percentage.

What's always bothered me about the area though is the residential component. They've definitely added more in the eastern portion vs. when I originally moved to Chicago but they could do so much more. It does have the potential to be like some of the more populated parts of Midtown IMO. Not that Midtown is my favorite part of NYC (far from it) but there's still some sections with some nice after office hours activity and some good local restaurants.

Off topic, but I started commuting back to work (in Illinois Center) 2 days a week, starting in May. It's amazing how much more vibrant and bustling the Loop and surrounding areas have become over the last 2-3 months. Illinois Center, of all places, had a buzz last week. I'm sure that was partly due to Lolla but I suspect not too much (how many attendees ventured north to the exciting and vibrant Illinois Center?).

Alot of the tourists stay in the cluster of hotels north of randolph east of Michigan so it seems like it's always popping around here. I came back to the office before most people and even a year ago there were clusters of tourists all around lakeshore east.

Yup, confirmed:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/7/...ng-sold-google

I work in the central loop, and have since last October. The amount of people who are working there and clearly not tourists is way up since March or early April. My trains have been packed or what I consider "pretty damn full" 75% of the trips to and from work since then too. Since I ride the Brown Line as well, very few people are tourists and most people are very obviously office workers. When I walk to the train after work east towards Millennium Park, the tourists are more obvious but in the central loop there's a lot of office workers now. You'd see that if you hung out there a lot. And as someone who has been coming into the office (minus 2 months) since October for 3 days a week - it's like someone flipped a switch every week since early March.

^Yup. . . I live in the LSE area and have been working at our datacenter in the no-man's land south and west of the Loop, taking my electric scooter to and from work. . . I've noticed a huge uptick in both tourist (expected) and worker traffic in the Loop proper over the last few months. . .

. . .

Ditto for me. Have been downtown around 5-6 pm a few times and was seeing heavy traffic for the first time in a long time (as well people). But actual rush hour traffic was something I haven't seen in a long time, eg in the Wacker/Orleans/Franklin area.

Yea, here’s to hoping it spurs some more ambitious skyscrapers

Some interesting stuff from today's Crain's real estate forum:

https://twitter.com/chicagosamir/sta...84154587598851

https://twitter.com/agallun/status/1572583941194002438

https://twitter.com/agallun/status/1572586891610030080

Interviews and principal filming for Starship Chicago 2 are now complete, the film will be ready by the end of the year.

I can tell you we've got footage from inside the building like nobody has ever seen before.

Sweet, can't wait! Your previous films linked in your sig have been a pleasure to watch.

Not a really a major update, but confirmation from Jahn that Google is pressing ahead despite their recent layoffs.

Didn't they already sign the deal?

MAS Context has "Starship Chicago II," a documentary film produced and directed by Nathan Eddy, hosted on its site between now and June 18:

https://mascontext.com/events/starsh...cago-ii-online

Good stuff. Sketchy times for office real estate. Thanks for posting this ^. Oddly, I have faith in Google with this. I think they'll do right by it.

I hope you're right.

PS: Also worth noting that our very own "dropdeaded209" is the filmmaker. Excellent work, as always.

Cheers to that! This was a very good piece. Nice work DDed209.

The marble guy was an especially nice add. I always appreciated the floors there, but hearing first hand the amount of human effort involved makes it more appreciated. Two years work on that craftmanship. Wow. So glad this building has a new chapter coming.

I hope Google pushes to keep the color (maybe add yellow?) to maintain the kitschy nature of the building. Can't see them in some sterilized stainless steel version of this

Preservationists be grateful the building ain’t biting the dust. Have your preferences, but let the new owners, and the current climate determine current needs, and go with it. Certain areas like lower-level tile could be landmarked, but for heaven’s sake, this is not the Eighties. I like what I heard from Jahn; cannot wait for release of schematics.

2026?
 

Any news on this project (other than cancellation) gets my immediate attention. Seems delayed: Is 2026 realistic at this point?
https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin..._content=alert

Can't read the article, what's the gist?

How does Google of all people f this one up?

There’s nothing much about Google. They seem to be looking over designs and such.

The entire rest of the article is just the usual office market discussions.

google is telling employees 2026.... which I laughed at when they relayed that info to me....

Current status from the developer

https://www.bisnow.com/chicago/news/...t-ahead-120192

How come? That's 3+ years. It can certainly be accomplished in that time.

Maybe they do not want to be in there while all the renovation is going on? When does THAT start?

Potential Completion Date Revealed For Thompson Center Redevelopment[
 

In before someone else reposts this...

https://chicagoyimby.com/2023/08/55832.html

certainly could....

The rest of the article just covers the history of the building.

Then a few comments from the local preservation groups.

Landmarks Illinois is realistic, and Preservation Chicago is in denial.

Starship Chicago II is also now free to watch on Vimeo.

Runs 40 minutes, interviews with Evan Jahn, Mike Reschke, Bonnie McDonald, Ward Miller, Stewart Hicks, Maurice Cox, Elizabeth Blasius, and Phil Castillo.

There is also a segment with Ben Capp, former president of Wolverine Stone, who discusses the work that went into assembling the atrium floor--also likely to be ripped out as part of the renovation.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bcee0d4e_z.jpg

Should thompson-center-be-used-as-a-temp-shelter
 

WGN Radio 720
The Thompson Center, (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
"It's right in front of our eyes, and Google needs to make a deal and help the people of Chicago."- Roger Romanelli, Chicago-Cook County Coalition for Humane Migrant Management

https://wgnradio.com/the-althimer-sh...-for-migrants/

October 17, 2023



October 19, 2023



Just a current view. No work yet.

It's supposed to be open as a site of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, in case anyone wants to see it again before renovations begin: https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial....ompson-center/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/real...6056efa2&ei=30

. . .

I read this as:
- They are going to keep the structure in tact and re-do the glass, yes?

If so, not sure that's a bad thing?

The new vision glass will be clear, so the polarizing blue and salmon scheme is going away. Depends on your POV if that's good or bad.

I will say that the demo will be something interesting to follow and document, since there's not a lot of new towers breaking ground in 2024.

All the salmon and blue panels could have gone well with the colors of Google's logo in my opinion. The building will still stand out due to its distinctive shape, but I hope they don't make it otherwise look generic and let it retain some of its PoMo flair. Also I hope the atrium will remain open to the public.

Is this the current plan? It's from less than 2 months ago so I'm assuming yes...

https://chicagoyimby.com/2023/10/tho...-the-loop.html

EDIT: Sorry for poor quality / resizing. Not sure how to prevent that.

https://chicagoyimby.com/wp-content/...-2048x1107.png

Nope, that's an old pre-2021 conceptual rendering produced before Mike Reschke and Google got involved.
They claimed the design has changed substantially since then, but nothing has been made public yet.

Urbanize shared new renderings of Google's redevelopment!!

https://chicago.urbanize.city/post/g...-redevelopment

https://chicago.urbanize.city/sites/...?itok=YqJkdDJ5

https://chicago.urbanize.city/sites/...?itok=u8KxAgx-

This is the most exciting and impactful development in the city right now. With Google steering the redevelopment I don't expect this to get VE'd either. The renderings look promising.

Love it! Modern, refreshed, and even more accessible somehow, while retaining the most important aspects of the original design. And the fact that the original architecture firm is doing the work only makes it feel even more appropriate.

Do we know what is happening with the Dubuffet sculpture currently in the plaza?

Definitely an improvement over the half-baked earlier renderings. That mezzanine just above the plaza level looks interesting, but somewhat lessens the impact of the atrium during the entry sequence. I would like to see more of the interior and the atrium treatment specifically.
Headed to the Art Institute.

Looks great.

The Dubuffet was originally going to be relocated to the State's new offices at 115 S. LaSalle, but it appears it's now being donated to the Art Institute: https://www.costar.com/article/39777...nt-nears-start

Here's the official blog post announcement from Google, in case folks were curious:

https://blog.google/inside-google/li...ompson-center/

Looks like Urbanize took those images from Google's blog, which gives some additional brief description and context.