CHICAGO | General Developments

[the urban politician]

^ Seriously, the building that stands is being preserved, and the addition is respectfully set back from the street.

NIMBYs being NIMBYs I guess...

[upupaway007]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I'm not surprised by Philadelphia either with this. In terms of change of China born population in cities between 2011 and 2019, Philadelphia is 6th. Chicago is 2nd highest (NYC #1). However for 2018 to 2019, Philadelphia is 3rd while Chicago is 4th.

Also, Chicago has the 2nd highest born in Japan population from 2011 to 2019 (San Diego #1). Philadelphia has the highest increase of Korean born in that same time period.

Do you have the source? Intriguing numbers, I would like to dive deeper.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by upupaway007

Do you have the source? Intriguing numbers, I would like to dive deeper.

The Census American Community Survey.

http://data.census.gov

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Oh there's ground floor retail too. Who knows what the deal is, but this is the text for the permit:

"NEW 6-STY RETAIL AND 28 RESIDENTIAL UNITS W/ (7 AS EFFICIENCY UNITS AND 21 AS DWELLING UNITS) 2 PARKING SPACES AS PER PLANS.(conditional permit subject to field inspections)"

Jonathan Splitt Architects. It's gonna look like crap.

[Skyguy_7]

Sears Tower Redevelopment - Food Hall



It is awesome in there!

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by marothisu

The Census American Community Survey.

http://data.census.gov

Oops, thought I put the table number. It is B05006

[marothisu]

There were 2 permits issued in the last 2 days to build 2 new mixed use 5-story buildings on a vacant piece of land at 2127-2139 W Madison. Total of 88 new units and 4 total ground floor mercantile spaces. A total of 88 spaces for cars in garages. This is next to the Mabel Manning branch of the public library a little west of the United Center. Architect is SGW.

The owners of the parcel from what I can find are a handful of guys who I believe are from Ukraine originally. One of them is a constructor contractor. At least one of the owners is the same as a semi recently built 4 story building at 2223 W Madison right down the street (https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8812...7i16384!8i8192). My guess is these new buildings will look similar to these.

From 2019 street view:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8812...7i16384!8i8192

[ardecila]

Glad to see more infill on that Madison corridor. It's a shame so much of it is built without ground-floor retail, so it'll never go back to being a commercial corridor. That area of West Haven is really picking up, and there's plenty of room for new construction without displacing longtime tenants. The Pete's supermarket helps too, definitely makes the area a lot more livable.

[BrinChi]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Glad to see more infill on that Madison corridor. It's a shame so much of it is built without ground-floor retail, so it'll never go back to being a commercial corridor. That area of West Haven is really picking up, and there's plenty of room for new construction without displacing longtime tenants. The Pete's supermarket helps too, definitely makes the area a lot more livable.

There's been plenty of retail space available in buildings right around Western & Madison. Unfortunately, they've been very slow to fill up over the last 10 years. So it's understandable why new buildings like these (as exciting as they are for the area) would just say screw it. I think the city and county needs to reassess property taxes for retail, especially the kind we like with no parking lots. It needs to become much more affordable, especially for mom & pop businesses.

[the urban politician]

The cost of land in that area must be cheap enough that these smaller developers are able to turn a profit on these condo projects.

Plus, the more of these projects get built the more they feed off of each other to make the area more appealing. Still lots of vacant land there but it does appear to be filling in, bit by bit.

It’s too bad that the Pete’s Fresh Market retail center is so suburban, but an urban design there probably would’ve been too much to ask for

[harryc]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

The cost of land in that area must be cheap enough that these smaller developers are able to turn a profit on these condo projects.

Plus, the more of these projects get built the more they feed off of each other to make the area more appealing. Still lots of vacant land there but it does appear to be filling in, bit by bit.

It’s too bad that the Pete’s Fresh Market retail center is so suburban, but an urban design there probably would’ve been too much to ask for

Yes but the suggestion of a tax break for stores with no dedicated parking sounds like something that is more immediately do-able. Is the property tax rolled into their rent ?

[ardecila]

They already pay less in taxes relative to the interior square footage of the business.

A typical triple-net lease for commercial spaces will pass the taxes directly to the tenant. Parking occupies land which is taxed. So, all things equal, an 8000sf taxpayer retail building with no parking should pay less tax than an 8000sf strip mall that also includes a parking lot.

That being said, most of the tax assessment is based on improvements (the building, basically) and not on the land itself. People since Henry George have been arguing that a “land value tax” would incentivize development on vacant parcels and discourage wasteful practices like landbanking and excessive parking.

[the urban politician]

That kick ass website Chicago Yimby (AKA porn for urbanists and city construction nerds) is reporting that permits were issued and construction is soon to begin for the apartment project in Lakeview that replaces that Treasure Island grocery store.

When suburban style stores with parking lots get replaced by urban, dense, lot-line to lot-line buildings, I experience nirvana

[ardecila]

^ I believe the process will result in another parking lot, though... Optima agreed to tear down a bowtruss building that Best Western was using for indoor parking, this will make Optima's construction easier but may result in another surface lot.

I think in the long run Best Western wants to expand onto that lot, but who knows when that will happen?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

That kick ass website Chicago Yimby (AKA porn for urbanists and city construction nerds) is reporting that permits were issued and construction is soon to begin for the apartment project in Lakeview that replaces that Treasure Island grocery store.

When suburban style stores with parking lots get replaced by urban, dense, lot-line to lot-line buildings, I experience nirvana

My one knock about YIMBY is that sometimes they are behind. That building was issue permits a few weeks ago. There was a 2nd permit issued recently.

[ChiPlanner]

Originally Posted by marothisu

My one knock about YIMBY is that sometimes they are behind. That building was issue permits a few weeks ago. There was a 2nd permit issued recently.

Yeah the demo has been done for months and site prep work is well underway

[sentinel]

So this is pretty interesting:


Booth Hansen/LMN Architects

https://news.uillinois.edu/view/7815/807140#image-1
(article is from March 12, 2020, before Covid shutdown)

The new Computer Design Research and Learning Center at UIC

"The University of Illinois Board of Trustees on Thursday took steps to advance important capital projects at two U of I System universities.

Trustees approved a $117.8 million budget for the new Computer Design Research and Learning Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

The 125,000-square-foot facility will be the new home of the university’s Department of Computer Science and will be designed to meet LEED Gold certification standards for environmental sustainability.

The new center will include a 1,200-square-foot robotics lab, 16,000 square feet of classroom space, and the interdisciplinary Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). The EVL has developed and commercialized high-performance visualization and virtual reality systems such as the CAVE2 hybrid virtual reality environment employed by NASA in its ENDURANCE under-ice robotic exploration in the Antarctic."

I know this was part of UIC's long-term master plan, but the rendering is new to me, and I don't think it was ever posted here before. I like the design, personally.

I know that UIC has raised over $550 million of it's $750 million fundraising goal, in only about 2 or so years...not sure how Covid is impacting giving, but who knows?

[KOgc]

There is a construction fence, a few pieces of equipment and a few guys framing some basement walls on the SE corner of Halsted and Division today. Can't imagine it's for any of the larger scale projects we've seen on here in the past, but it's nice to see that intersection getting a little love.

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by KOgc

There is a construction fence, a few pieces of equipment and a few guys framing some basement walls on the SE corner of Halsted and Division today. Can't imagine it's for any of the larger scale projects we've seen on here in the past, but it's nice to see that intersection getting a little love.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the construction is for a gas station

[ardecila]

^ Interesting. I know Division St is set to be widened between Kingsbury and the Kennedy Expwy. I wonder if it's infrastructure work related to that?

Otherwise there was a retail proposal for that corner a few years ago, some kind of weird vertical mall.

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the construction is for a gas station

Oh dang okay. This kinda sucks, but on the other hand this is already a super auto-centric intersection. Probably a lost cause. And we have been losing downtown gas stations slowly so it's expected we'd see a new one eventually.

Originally Posted by sentinel

I know this was part of UIC's long-term master plan, but the rendering is new to me, and I don't think it was ever posted here before. I like the design, personally.

Yeah, this is a cool design. I don't love how it attaches like a barnacle to Walter Netsch's awesome Science & Engineering Building, though. UIC has plenty of parking lots they could develop before wedging buildings in awkwardly like this. It does seem like Booth Hansen is treating Netsch's work as respectfully as they can, though... I like this atrium built in the interstitial space, where they treat Netsch's prism-shaped column like a sculpture.