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Old Posted Jan 26, 2018, 5:24 AM
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ardecila ardecila is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: the city o'wind
Posts: 16,356
I'm interested to see how Adrian Smith returns to this area, 30 years after NBC Tower. I imagine back in 1987, he must have assumed Cityfront Center would be fully complete right now instead of the gradual phasing-in that actually happened.

Will we get another attempt at deco, maybe with real limestone like NBC used? Or something more futuristic, glassy and Dubai-like?

Quote:
Originally Posted by emathias View Post
I think that the office space along Michigan that was built decades ago was built under the assumption that the 1968 plan for a subway from the West Loop under Monroe, splitting north under Columbus/Fairbanks was going to get built. It's still one of the most obvious needs for mass transit in all of Chicago and yet never seems to have political support to make happen. Until/unless that plan or one very similar involving grade-separated transit happens, office will not be a popular choice in the Mag Mile corridor.
Eh, I don't think rail transit was a consideration at all. Those developers figured the upper management would drive in on Lake Shore Drive (the buildings all included moderate parking podiums) while the paper-pushers would take the express bus from northside neighborhoods and get dropped off right on Michigan.

As for people coming from other places, well, it's not that far of a walk from the L or from State Street buses. My brother commutes to the Mag Mile (from Pilsen) and has a pretty reasonable commute going Pink Line->Red Line.
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