CHICAGO | St. Regis Chicago (Vista) | 1,191 FT | 101 FLOORS

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by danielschell

Snapped some photos and a time-lapse of extension work yesterday morning http://wp.me/p7uLxw-2hz

Amazing photos, Dan!

Does anyone have a site plan of what Upper Wacker will look like once the extension is completed? Can't find anything from googling.

[10023]

It's always going to dead end isn't it? Or are they going to create an intersection with LSD?

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by 10023

It's always going to dead end isn't it? Or are they going to create an intersection with LSD?

Nope.

[Northwest]

Originally Posted by 10023

It's always going to dead end isn't it? Or are they going to create an intersection with LSD?

I would guess its only going far enough for a grand entrance to the hotel and residences, and the parking structure. So I guess it would end at the fourth stub of a tower.

This one has to deal with a very wide and expensive three-level street, as well as a street grid extension below the tower. We normally think of streets as a tax funded thing, but is Wanda picking up the entire tab for this? There must be lots of rules associated with air rights over public street right of ways, but I don't recall seeing detailed renderings of where exactly this thing will end.

[KWILLSKYLINE]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

Nope.

Nope to the dead end, or nope to the extension?

[the urban politician]

It is not a dead end. It connects to the elevated circular drive in Lakeshore East, thus connecting vehicular traffic to Randolph. But it will not be extended to LSD

[Alanky]

The Vista Sales Center informed me that as of this weekend 30% of the units have sold.

[the urban politician]

^ Not good

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Not good

Weren't they at 20-25% a year ago? Does seem to have slowed significantly...

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Not good

Not terrible either given the pricing and competition from No.9 Walton and Bennett Park. Also, remember this building is like 25% hotel too, so overall occupancy would probably already be over 50%. If you assume the last quarter of the building is profit, they are probably closing in on break even already which is not bad for a project that's 3 years out from completion.

[ithakas]

It's still disappointing considering how much demand I was hoping would be built up for condo at this point. I believe 9 Walton was 50% sold by the time Vista broke ground, and there are only 69 units in One Bennett.

I do think that the market for starter condos could catch fire easily here – buildings like 235 Van Buren aimed at households with $75-150k incomes.

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Not terrible either given the pricing and competition from No.9 Walton and Bennett Park. Also, remember this building is like 25% hotel too, so overall occupancy would probably already be over 50%. If you assume the last quarter of the building is profit, they are probably closing in on break even already which is not bad for a project that's 3 years out from completion.

And, as noted many times before, Dalian Wanda Group isn't going to embarrass itself here.
They plan to enter the US market with a major splash--profitability is a secondary thought.

[James_Mac]

Originally Posted by Northwest

I would guess its only going far enough for a grand entrance to the hotel and residences, and the parking structure. So I guess it would end at the fourth stub of a tower.

This one has to deal with a very wide and expensive three-level street, as well as a street grid extension below the tower. We normally think of streets as a tax funded thing, but is Wanda picking up the entire tab for this? There must be lots of rules associated with air rights over public street right of ways, but I don't recall seeing detailed renderings of where exactly this thing will end.

It's not really detailed, but here's a diagram that shows it:



Taken from this this Curbed article: http://chicago.curbed.com/2015/10/27...second-meeting.

The first rendering in the article also shows the end of Upper Wacker, if you look carefully:

[Northwest]

^^ Thanks, that explains quite a bit of it from a top view, but still confused as to how Upper Wacker is connected to the LSE Park level road. There must be one hell of a ramp in there somewhere because isn't it like 40 or more vertical feet elevation change?
There not much space there, so where is this steep grade? Under the tower there is a hill?

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Northwest

^^ Thanks, that explains quite a bit of it from a top view, but still confused as to how Upper Wacker is connected to the LSE Park level road. There must be one hell of a ramp in there somewhere because isn't it like 40 or more vertical feet elevation change?
There not much space there, so where is this steep grade? Under the tower there is a hill?

It doesn't. There are two levels of roadway passing through Vista, Service Level Wacker at grade and Upper Wacker which will pass through on the top level to connect with the current top level dead end by the Regatta. This means that if you take the top level pass through you will end up popping out over by Harbor Point at the end of Upper Randolph by Cancer Survivors Garden and Maggie Daley Park (which are ironically right next to each other... Too soon?). If you take the Service Level pass through it will spit you out from the River Walk and Impound lot into LSE park.

[the urban politician]

^ Its not connected to the park level rd

[James_Mac]

Originally Posted by Northwest

^^ Thanks, that explains quite a bit of it from a top view, but still confused as to how Upper Wacker is connected to the LSE Park level road. There must be one hell of a ramp in there somewhere because isn't it like 40 or more vertical feet elevation change?
There not much space there, so where is this steep grade? Under the tower there is a hill?

The park-level road is N. Field Blvd. It's going to pass under Vista to Sub Lower Wacker, exactly as it does currently, just with a building on top of it. E. Waterside Drive is the elevated road, and it's going to be extended along the north side of the Shoreham (the building south of the east side of Vista) and then turn north and pass through Vista to connect to Upper Wacker. After it turns north it will presumably be renamed Upper N. Field Blvd., or something similar. So roads will pass through Vista at two levels, one on top of the other, with no need for an elevation change for either.

EDIT: Here are slides that show the two levels, taken from the same Curbed article:

1. LOWER LEVEL/PARK LEVEL




2. UPPER LEVEL (E. Waterside Drive / N. Harbor Drive level)

[Northwest]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Its not connected to the park level rd

Originally Posted by James_Mac

The park-level road is N. Field Blvd. It's going to pass under Vista to Sub Lower Wacker, exactly as it does currently, just with a building on top of it. E. Waterside Drive is the elevated road, and it's going to be extended along the north side of the Shoreham (the building south of the east side of Vista) and then turn north and pass through Vista to connect to Upper Wacker. After it turns north it will presumably be renamed Upper N. Field Blvd., or something similar. So roads will pass through Vista at two levels, one on top of the other, with no need for an elevation change for either.

Originally Posted by James_Mac

It's not really detailed, but here's a diagram that shows it:

^^ Thanks. I get it now. The entire circuit in red here is elevated quite high above park level. Makes sense now! I have only been there a few times, I thought Waterside and Harbor Drive were at park level, but they are elevated streets too. So there are no ramps at all in the final circulation between Upper Randolph and Upper Wacker. It is all at the "upper" level.

[James_Mac]

Originally Posted by Northwest

^^ Thanks. I get it now. The entire circuit in red here is elevated quite high above park level. Makes sense now! I have only been there a few times, I thought Waterside and Harbor Drive were at park level, but they are elevated streets too. So there are no ramps at all in the final circulation between Upper Randolph and Upper Wacker. It is all at the "upper" level.

It is quite confusing. I live in Lakeshore East and it took me a while to work it out this weekend. I'm still a bit confused about what happens at the middle Wacker level (which I think is called Lower Wacker, confusingly, in distinction from Sub-Lower Wacker, which is beneath it). I had initially assumed that there would be a turnaround area at that level, underneath the building and between what will be the two levels of N. Field Blvd., but if the diagram below is to be believed, it looks like it's solid building at that level:



This rendering, which is presumably taken from the park/south of the building seems to support that:



(both again taken from the Curbed article referenced above)

I guess that makes sense when you think about it. That part of Lower Wacker (i.e., the middle level of Wacker) is essentially just a ramp to/from Lake Shore Drive.

[Swicago Swi Sox]

^ That's the rendering I was looking for weeks ago! Thanks! Does anyone know if they still plan to do something like this at the Riverwalk level? This rendering does not show up in any current web sites or marketing material.