^ I share much of those thoughts. parking garages are never a good mix with residential and that's a pretty blank (SW) corner to show to the neighborhood. having said that, I'm appreciative that they're going to try to make the south face about as green and inviting as they can.
traffic on Illinois has usually struck me as fairly light (it could be I am not usually there during busy car times) as a starting point, so I am going to try to be optimistic about the resulting congestion around the intersection you mentioned. we'll see. Mariposa was already recently widened, so that damage is already done.
I'll add that I'm glad for the 'paseo' and generally nice-looking landscaping around the block. the look of the buildings themselves doesn't either delight or disgust me particularly.
and thanks to WildCowboy for the scoop! after being away for a while, I have also not been out and about as often recently as I used to be, otherwise I probably would have noticed this.