Maybe I'm just being snooty, but I've lived in Chicago long enough to remember what the CPS decorations looked like BEFORE the restoration, and honestly, I don't really see the huge change that you guys see. Sure, I'd much rather have the ornamentation visible instead of hidden, and I'm glad that it's not gonna fall off when a pigeon lands on it, but it doesn't really look much different than it did before.
Freed resisted doing any of the major restorations, like moving the canopy along Madison back to its original position, installing prism glass in the transoms, or re-casting all of the funky ornament that spilled out of its panels to lap up onto the cornice, over the glass panes, and even onto the wires holding up the canopy. What's left is just a patching job to the ornament that was there before, but a patching job that cost $12 million with most of the changes and improvements being made in out-of-sight places.
For all the fuss and the years-long presence of sidewalk sheds, I expected something a bit more... dramatic.
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Oh, and did I mention that Freed has almost no tenants for Sullivan Center? That coupled with the loss of Block 37 has got to be a massive disappointment for Freed management. Hopefully they don't go bankrupt, and even if they don't, I wouldn't blame them if they decided to flee back to the suburbs and never return. Urban development is a tricky, tricky business, especially when your first urban projects are easily among the city's most complex buildings, Block 37 because of the rat's nest of power lines and the subway project, and Sullivan Center because of the preservation issues and leasing difficulties.
Freed was in talks with a "major supermarket chain" a few months ago; here's to hoping that the chain is Roundy's and that the talks were successful.