Grr-tuh or Gurh-tuh is what I hear and how I say it I have only heard Goe-thee in jest.

its DE -von or Da-von not De-vin

I still have gotten the answer at to whether Cuyler was named after Kiki Cuyler

Kind of getting off topic here.

Waaay off the subject if the subject is still 70 MPH. It's probably this guy.....

Edward Cuyler was a developer who probably subdivided what is now that part of Chicago including Melrose Street.


DH

^^Correct.

According to the fascinating Streetwise Chicago:

Danka!

Any other street names you want looked up before we get back on task?

Semi on-task: the CTA Train Tracker is in beta mode, and I've been having too much fun tracking trains all over the system.

The Hayner and McNamee book Streetwise Chicago is fun, but can't be relied on as total gospel. It repeats a lot of folk-etymology that Howard Brodman used on his filecards in the 50s, and a lot of that is from folk wisdom recorded in Andreas or manufactured by newspapermen through the decades. For instance: "Maple" was named "for the maple trees once found in large numbers in this area." Really? In a swampy lakeshore? And it's completely unrelated to the fact that adjacent streets are named Elm, Chestnut, and Oak?

Some research for Geoffrey Baer recently gave me an excuse to read through Edward Brennan's notebooks at the Historical Society, and I found that neither Brodman nor Hayner & McNamee were as careful as one might hope.

I wonder if any cities with tree street names plant exclusively that sort of tree on each street named as such?

Loyola Transit Plaza

Apparently McDonalds is no longer interested in maintaining a location at the Loyola L station, so there was no need for a building to house them. Therefore, they ditched the earlier, ugly PoMo design and replaced it with a small, open plaza. I believe the 2-story building to the north is just visionary... it's not included in the Loyola Station project.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/9071/loyolal.jpg

Old design

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/1...olastation.jpg

^^^ Hell yeah, get that trash outta here. I'm not sure that other building is entirely visionary though. I've heard rumblings that LU has found a developer for the North block of Loyola Station that they might be moving forward with. I'd guess it's probably McCaffrey again.

Oh so that's what all the homeless people keep trying to sell me.

:haha:

Well, the maps for the Loyola Station project show that the northern site has a cut-out to accommodate some of the existing buildings on Sheridan. Maybe they're increasing the size of the project? That would be awesome...

With Loyola being designated a transfer station in every RPM option, is this station remodel just a short term (10~ year) solution or does anyone think it will be compatible with the future arrangement?

Either way, its nice to see them pull Loyola west across Sheridan

This is only a short term....If the two track subway is restored, the station would be about 1000 ft south at Devon(Dah VON) and the ramp to the elevated would be at Loyola.....If the four track modernized with transfer station scheme is in place, the platforms (2) would have to be inbetween track 1 and 2 and inbetween tracks 3 and 4. The reason for moving the platforms northward is to get them out of the curve. To get them entirely out of the cuve they would have to be move still farther north than the artists' renderings.

David H>

The subway option is no longer being considered.

I'm guessing that a rebuilt Loyola station will be on aerial structure instead of an embankment. It will allow Loyola to continue straight east-west, and the current diagonal bit of Loyola will be vacated to allow for widening of the station. The new station will require the demolition of the flatiron building between Loyola and the current viaduct, but I think there is enough wiggle room on the east side of Sheridan to prevent any demolition of LUC's buildings. (I would assume the new student center was designed with this in mind).

Hopefully the new station will include an entrance east of Sheridan so students don't need to cross the street.

Is this Loyola station area project actually going to proceed even though the Red Line plans are still in some flux? Or are the portions that would end up being re-done only a comparatively small amount of money?

This project is a rough equivalent of the "patching" project that they're doing at the group of Red Line stations to the south. It's just funded separately, since Loyola wanted some token aesthetic improvements like a new brick facade and this plaza to complement their redevelopment efforts on the surrounding blocks.

As you mention, the reconstruction plans are still "in flux", but the key thing to keep in mind is longevity. The Loyola viaduct, and the embankment running down to Wilson which contains all the other stations, is crumbling apart. The majority of this current work is simply to boost the lifespan of these structures by another 20 years in case the total reconstruction is delayed.

When that reconstruction does come, the intention is to build structures that will last for a century. I'd advocate for double that lifespan, but nobody designs that way in the US.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,4080629.story

Looks like someone at Metra figured out that the waiting room (Great Hall) should be used for...waiting. Better than turning the concourse into a death trap when they have delays.

Thank god - but they can't use the Great Hall as a permanent waiting room, because Amtrak gets a significant amount of money from renting it out.

I'm not saying they shouldn't install much better communications systems in the Great Hall, and more/better benches, to allow it to be used as a waiting room. But Amtrak needs that money, so they'd have to find some way to do without it.

The Oswego extension is interesting. I'm probably gonna take a lot of flak for this, but the extension should go all the way to Plano. Oswego's downtown isn't on the BNSF, so any station there would be in the middle of cornfields. Plano has an existing, sizable downtown with an existing, beautiful station currently served by Amtrak. Plus, it would be easier/cheaper to construct a holding yard in Plano where the land is not under severe development pressure.

An Oswego stop would need to be like Schaumburg's on the Milwaukee West Line where it is basically a park and ride. Which I think given the suburban sprawly nature of Oswego and Yorkville would be acceptable.