^ Thanks Mr Downtown.
Great find - it even (tangentially) brings up the cow. Well it sounds accurate, especially if Cecil Adams's research includes that detailed input from Dennis McClendon.


Speaking of Dennis McClendon, I have a question. I was recently embarrassed by a gaggle of twelve-year-olds when I watched the National Geographic Bee and saw the kids rattling off obscure mountain range and water feature names, all for rather big money. At the conclusion of this mild torment, one of the co sponsors came to the stage, and it was a guy who heads Google's mapping endeavors - and his name is Brian McClendon. Could anybody here tell whether this is just cartographic coincidence, or whether Brian (originally from Kansas) and Dennis both are in fact from a first family of midwest mapmakers?

They're unrelated. Dennis McClendon, who grew up in Texarkana, says he had never heard of Brian McClendon until he read Maphead.

Today
Tower crane is up at the building site on the NW corner of Madison and Racine.
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps9adb5f4c.jpg
For reference, this is a 9 story luxury apartment building
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps66287b51.jpg
Source: http://blog.chicagoarchitecture.info...ring-med-res1/

Mr. D
You know, until right this minute, I did not put it together that you were the same guy from Forgotten Chicago.

And don't forget the Forgotten Chicago presentation (for Friends of Downtown) at the Cultural Center, Thursday, Sept. 5, at 12:15 pm.

That's a shameless plug.

^I have no connection with Forgotten Chicago.

I am sure everyone has heard but here is a link to the new Englewood whole foods that will be built at 63rd and Halsted

http://goo.gl/CtefuB

^ That's excellent news. It's great to see them moving into areas that are big food deserts.

I would have expected a Trader Joes, Mariano's, Costco, Garden Fresh Market etc.

Its just a bit surprising that its a Whole Foods. Heck, I tend to think of Whole Foods as unsuitable for some middle income suburbs demographics let alone one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. Good luck to them though.

It is called Whole Paycheck by those of us with 6 or more supermarkets within 2mi. In the inner city the prices aren't that out of line.

I think people who expect the prices to be the same as the others are kind of out of it. I am pretty sure they stated they'll have discounted things. IMO this is more of a "corporate citizenship" type of thing than just a grocery store. Let's think about it from an economic standpoint if it was just another Whole Foods. There aren't a lot of people down there that can truly afford to shop at Whole Foods every day, so they'd obviously lose money if it was just a normal one. They probably will not be a FULL store, but another mode of it operating on less, having less.

If, however, Whole Foods chooses to keep their prices the same as all other stores, then they are not very smart.

Although I am glad that one of these humongous lots is about to bite the dust with a much needed development, I can't help but to seriously hope that it doesn't get a suburban layout. This building needs to actually hold up the corner. That vacant lot is just way too big to orient the building any other way since there currently isn't any other structures it can abut (which would open the door to other suburban style developments if it's set too far back). Plus, the 63rd street green line station is right there. The parking can sit directly north of the building along Halsted and the part for the trucks to deliver their supplies can be west of the structure on the 63rd Street side or vice versa (trucks will probably be coming right off the dan ryan anyway so having their entrance on the 63rd street side might make the most sense).

I know nothing about the size of grocery stores but 18,000 sq. ft. sounds a bit small. Would that basically be on par with Walgreens or is it a bit bigger?

In any case, it's really good to see Englewood of all places finally get something....

That is on the small side. The Lincoln Park Whole Foods is 75,000 sq. ft and is one of the largest in the world. The South Loop location is about 38,000 sq ft

I believe it's a clone of the midtown Detroit
Store

Per the Suntimes, here's a really crude render. Not looking so hot with that huge parking lot facing the street, but I can't figure out the orientation of the lot. However, a ton of asphalt is to be expected when only 1 store buys up a 63 acre lot.
http://www.suntimes.com/csp/cms/site...YPE=image/jpeg

there are no buildings near that intersection that look like the buildings rendered, so I would say this is a generic render and will not look like the final building or orientation.

Is there no way to petition the alderman to get whole foods to consider orientation with store butting up against corner? I believe this is very important as well.

Same strategy as Detroit. Sidewall faces the street

I don't care for the design, but below is the expected product and it will certainly be a boost the community. Parking is a given. Lots of folks drive down there. So a prototype model was probably used in place of the expensive LP store

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3388891

^ That's probably the best we can hope for, and in the big scheme of things it's not too bad

I don't mind the Detroit siteplan, except the entrance is placed at the far end of the building from the street, lengthening the walk for anybody who arrives on foot or by bus. I'm fine with the typical Walgreens siteplan where the entrance is at the street-facing corner of the building and usually on a 45-degree angle.

http://cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs...4/IMG_6041.JPG
src