Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
Its not a masterpiece, but I really like the way it meets the ground with the cantilever and recessed glass wall to widen the sidewalk. Very nice touch. If it had been an arcade, the columns would create dead space like a handful of River North towers, but the cantilever solves that problem.
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I want to find it in my heart to at least try to appreciate this proposal, but I just can't (ok, ok - I haven't tried all that hard!). It was something of an interesting idea by VOA here.....sort of throwback to the 1970s......this seems like something out of Manhattan, circa 1977 uptown residential tower. It's the worst of the 70s though. The tower could and should have at least come to the ground on the Chicago side, especially to take advantage of the vertical emphasis of the facade. But that podium juts out to the sidewalk so awkwardly. And this thing was shortened by a good amount as well (why?) which also clashes with the vertically expressed elements......it's just a mess, does not work at all and a complete miss for VOA here. Frankly I'm more excited for that very banal, ultra-boring project just getting started now I believe directly south across Chicago (that Onni-developed, PH-designed tower). And that's not saying much at all!!
A couple other things I wanted to mention on this one (460 W. Chicago): Am I correct that it went to Plan Commission, was approved, but then went back again for amendments? (I believe this is what happpened) If so, why? Was it in this amendment process that it was downsized? I wonder what was going on behind the scenes there..........the developer here is Alison Davis (Davis Group), which could be important for any number of reasons. This is the guy that got kicked off managing some of the city's pension fund real estate investments, fyi (not just a run-of-the-mill change-of-manager type of thing.......so, in other words, a great candidate to be involved in developing real estate in the city of Chicago! Also, and finally, (and Near North Resident is going to go gaga over this one): 10% of the units in this tower are for CHA residents, which I found interesting. (was this a city land sale for this project?).........also, additional equivalent of 20% of units for affordable housing to be located offsite........