CHICAGO | General Developments

[Mr Downtown]

The transit thread is here.

[munchymunch]

Originally Posted by munchymunch

Land behind Wrigley Building could fetch more than $40 million


http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...an-40-million#

Let's hope a big developer gets this land.

Here

[harryc]

Cool building on Belmont, not sure how long it has been there, new to me.

[george]

Just opened this year & turned out well. ^ New CPS Charter HS with a great principal formerly of LaSalle II Elementary in the East Village neighborhood.
Clever shot w the building design relative to the street cross walk.

[jc5680]

The Maxwell

This one turned out quite nice. Shame the residential component didn't/couldn't happen.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by jc5680

The Maxwell

This one turned out quite nice. Shame the residential component didn't/couldn't happen.

Completely wasted opportunity.

[Mr Downtown]

^I'm sorry, but why is a site nearly a half-mile from any rapid transit a good place to put residential?

[jc5680]

I, personally, wouldn't live there. But that block is closer to two L stations than several places I have lived in Lincoln Park & Lakeview. You have to start somewhere.

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^I'm sorry, but why is a site nearly a half-mile from any rapid transit a good place to put residential?

If that is the measure for residential, then over half the city doesn't qualify. Don't make such an effort to be critical.

[denizen467]

Division Street is no longer divided - it is now passable westbound from Halsted again, with the temporary bridge at the Goose Island channel having been built and opened for traffic. It's a pretty unusual structure, like a knock-down kit from a million-piece Ikea box.

Does anybody know exactly what the plan is for the permanent bridge? The temporary bridge goes dead center down the Division alignment and is 2 vehicle and 2 bicycle lanes wide, so clearly it will have to be torn down before the replacement is installed. So if another road closure will be necessary, what was the reason they didn't just install the permanent bridge in the first place?

Separately, the new West Marine facility (I'm assuming that's what it is) just east of the crossing already has a bunch of precast walls erected. This whole area is transforming at an unbelievable pace.

[urbanpln]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^I'm sorry, but why is a site nearly a half-mile from any rapid transit a good place to put residential?

Agreed! Not only is far from rail, but it's completely surrounded by highways, rail yards, industrial uses, and a really busy shopping district that has a nightmarish traffic scene. I believe the current use (commercial/retail) is a good buffer between both neighborhoods (University Village/UIC and Near South).

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^I'm sorry, but why is a site nearly a half-mile from any rapid transit a good place to put residential?

That's just silly. If a person is not willing to walk just under 1/2 a mile to get on the train, then they probably aren't willing to take the train at all no matter how close they live to it. The Clinton Blue Line station is 2000' due north of this building. Beyond that, this site is walkable to a huge employment center in the Near West Loop and parts of the loop. It's a 1 mile walk to the Sears Tower, maybe 5 min if you use Divvy.

Also, it's not "nearly a half mile from any rapid transit". There's literally a #12 Roosevelt stop on the same block.If you hop on the Roosevelt bus it's probably like 2 min to the Roosevelt super station which connects you to just about the entire city. Thanks to the miracles of bustracker you can time your bus to a short wait and the hop on it right before it jets across the Roosevelt Viaduct which has virtually no stops or intersections on it to slow you down. I'd live there.

Finally, what he said:

Originally Posted by untitledreality

If that is the measure for residential, then over half the city doesn't qualify. Don't make such an effort to be critical.

Though I'm fairly certain we are going to have to raze a lot more than 1/2 the city if we are talking about access to heavy rail which Mr. DT seems to be since he would have had to totally forget about the existence of the Roosevelt Bus if we took his statement literally. What an absurd comment.

[Ryanrule]

buses make for shitty transit, esp during rush hours.
i dont count them at all, subway/el minimum.
maybe once they are automated they will be better.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Ryanrule

buses make for shitty transit, esp during rush hours.
i dont count them at all, subway/el minimum.
maybe once they are automated they will be better.

Maybe you don't count buses as transit, but many people do.

[SamInTheLoop]

^^^ Agree with both you and Untitled. I've tried to make the case before how wrongheaded the city's idea for these areas (such as along and especially north of Roosevelt West of the River) - to exclude residential and make them a wasteland of single use retail and this 'special service district' nonsense is - it is completely 1980s-90s era thinking, and keeps the area a shitty wasteland for many, many decades to come (folks underestimate just how long we are condemning this area to this state). It is preposterous to argue that this area is somehow far away enough from/inconvenient enough to public transportation and/or walking feasibility to justify excluding out residential from underlying zoning/not allowing PD's that include mixed-use residential, etc....


^ Yeah, I certainly count my daily commute (bus) as public transit, as does a huge proportion of the city, in all kinds of areas of the city. It's perplexing why someone wouldn't (probably just individual bias, because they live, or lived in the past relatively near a train station, and thus commute time was quicker by train than bus in that specific case??)...

[LouisVanDerWright]

Yeah, if anything the biggest cause of buses being unreliable in Chicago is poor city planning. The city seems obsessed with creating single use auto hell retail districts which inevitably leads to traffic clusterfucks that snarl buses in traffic and delay/bunch them. If you think buses make shitty transit just try the Chicago bus during rush hour some time. It's jammed and somehow manages to navigate the congestion on the street just fine. Then go try the North Ave Bus around 5:00 PM and prepare to sit in traffic for 30 min just to go 8 blocks.

If the city would just quit this habit of auto sprawl big box districts we'd probably see fewer issues with our bus system.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by denizen467

Division Street is no longer divided - it is now passable westbound from Halsted again, with the temporary bridge at the Goose Island channel having been built and opened for traffic. It's a pretty unusual structure, like a knock-down kit from a million-piece Ikea box.

Does anybody know exactly what the plan is for the permanent bridge? The temporary bridge goes dead center down the Division alignment and is 2 vehicle and 2 bicycle lanes wide, so clearly it will have to be torn down before the replacement is installed. So if another road closure will be necessary, what was the reason they didn't just install the permanent bridge in the first place?

Foundation work for the new bridge can certainly proceed underneath the temporary one. IIRC the plan is to build a wider arch bridge to match the new Halsted bridge, so maybe the superstructure can be erected around the temporary bridge.

At the west Division St bridge over the North Branch, there is no nearby alternate bridge there to detour, so the temporary bridge will be built to the north while the old bridge keeps operating.

[the urban politician]

Everybody needs to stop bitching and just be happy that the South Loop is finally getting a Buffalo Wild Wings!

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by harryc

Cool building on Belmont, not sure how long it has been there, new to me.

I live on Belmont and Cicero and I walk pass this building every day to and from work. It opened up in August after being under construction for pretty much a year. It's ok I suppose. It looks better in pictures than it does in person though. Someone already ripped off the 'I' in Intrinsic.

[wierdaaron]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Everybody needs to stop bitching and just be happy that the South Loop is finally getting a Buffalo Wild Wings!

I have a visceral disagreement with the idea of the south loop extending across the river, but I don't know what else you could call that Roosevelt/Canal area. South West Loop? Shoppers Paradise?