CHICAGO | General Developments

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by left of center

Which is absolutely fantastic, until we run out of empty lots to develop. I really hope that we don't start seeing a wholesale demolition of the old, industrial brick buildings that made the WL such an attractive neighborhood to begin with.

Let's not do the same thing here that we did to River North; a successful yet soulless neighborhood.

Well, a lot of stuff got landmarked.

I think the boom will keep moving westward with that new L stop being planned.

I don't expect wholesale demolition of historic building stock

[left of center]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Well, a lot of stuff got landmarked.

I think the boom will keep moving westward with that new L stop being planned.

I don't expect wholesale demolition of historic building stock

There are still plenty of supporting buildings that aren't special enough on their own to get land marked (and are outside of landmark districts), but add to the atmosphere of the neighborhood. Its these that I worry about.

I also hope the new Damen stop swings the center of gravity of development further west, to where there's a lot more empty land to work with.

[wchicity]

Originally Posted by left of center

There are still plenty of supporting buildings that aren't special enough on their own to get land marked (and are outside of landmark districts), but add to the atmosphere of the neighborhood. Its these that I worry about.

I also hope the new Damen stop swings the center of gravity of development further west, to where there's a lot more empty land to work with.

I'm actually pretty surprised that there hasn't been more development around the Ashland stop.

[spyguy]

Glad it won't be demolished.

Co-working firm Spaces plans to take over an eight-story River North building previously leased to Sports Authority, continuing a trend of large retail spaces being converted to new uses.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...302-story.html

[KWillChicago]

^How bout that? Its actually a pretty nice building when you take down that god awful sports authority sign and those horrendous neon floor level signs on the inside of it. Good save.
Please kill rainforest and hard rock.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by wchicity

I'm actually pretty surprised that there hasn't been more development around the Ashland stop.

There can't be, there's no room to develop. Everything north of Lake is a PMD, so residential and hotel are off limits. There are already some creative offices there in older buildings, but I think it's too far from Metra for office developers to take a chance on new Class A.

South of Lake, half the land is Union Park and the other half is taken up by a large drug-abuse clinic, Section 8 housing and CPS property.

The new Damen station, if built, will have a similar problem. Still a PMD north of Lake, and south of Lake is entirely CHA's Westhaven Park. It's possible that the new Damen stop will be an impetus to the City to start finding developers for the United Center parking lots (the City owns about half of them).

[KWillChicago]

Is that huge parking garage with the dunkin doughnuts across wabash from trump landmarked?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by spyguy

Glad it won't be demolished.

Makes sense. The building permit for its renovation was issued a few weeks ago with a multi million dollar estimated cost

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by KWillChicago

Is that huge parking garage with the dunkin doughnuts across wabash from trump landmarked?

What makes you think that ugly POS would be landmarked?

[left of center]

Originally Posted by ardecila

The new Damen station, if built, will have a similar problem. Still a PMD north of Lake, and south of Lake is entirely CHA's Westhaven Park. It's possible that the new Damen stop will be an impetus to the City to start finding developers for the United Center parking lots (the City owns about half of them).

You forgot the hideous cell tower on the west side of Damen.

Once placed, those things are an absolute nightmare to remove, given all the data cable infrastructure they are connected to. Look at the one on Madison by Aberdeen. Its smack in the middle of a restaurant/bar area in the booming WL, and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

[jc5680]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

What makes you think that ugly POS would be landmarked?

I think that menacing looking thing is awesome. But yeah, definitely not landmarked.

[KWillChicago]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

What makes you think that ugly POS would be landmarked?

I never thought it was, I just wanted to make sure I wasnt going to upset anyone here if it had some significance and I started bashing it. It boggles my mind that it is still in existance being such prime land. I drove past yesterday for the first time in awhile and Holy shit is that thing disgusting. How the fuck has no developer come up with the scratch to buy it. Are they making that much off of parking that their asking price is that high? It would obviously be a huge payday for the owner but that person obviously has some rediculous pricetag on it. Between that and the nordstrom parking lot I just got really depressed.

[left of center]

I would imagine the owner is land banking it. It's worth a lot today, but will probably be worth even more tomorrow. Everyone has their price though, it's only a matter of time.

[Mr Downtown]

^Not landmarked, alas, but actually a very interesting piece of work by George Schipporeit. Certainly not a "POS."

[KWillChicago]

^ interesting info, but still ugly. IMO.

[Kumdogmillionaire]

Originally Posted by KWillChicago

^ interesting info, but still ugly. IMO.

Yeah, totally hideous. I guess I'm just not "cultured" enough to appreciate a metal box parking garage

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Not landmarked, alas, but actually a very interesting piece of work by George Schipporeit. Certainly not a "POS."

It's definitely a very Miesian parking garage, if that's even possible.

But I'm not sure it's worth preservation. I mean, after all, it's still a parking garage

[wchicity]

Originally Posted by ardecila

There can't be, there's no room to develop. Everything north of Lake is a PMD, so residential and hotel are off limits. There are already some creative offices there in older buildings, but I think it's too far from Metra for office developers to take a chance on new Class A.

South of Lake, half the land is Union Park and the other half is taken up by a large drug-abuse clinic, Section 8 housing and CPS property.

The new Damen station, if built, will have a similar problem. Still a PMD north of Lake, and south of Lake is entirely CHA's Westhaven Park. It's possible that the new Damen stop will be an impetus to the City to start finding developers for the United Center parking lots (the City owns about half of them).

Good to know. Didn't realize it was all PMD north of Lake there.

[harryc]

d.p.

[harryc]

March 3

The 100+ yr old facade will be preserved and attached to the new condos - it will be attached to the containers during construction.