Well, the Loop WAS an island. Train yards were a real barrier to the south and the river a barrier to the west and north. It was truly expensive to build quality bridges in the late 1800's. Crossing the river was a trip.

The de facto island nature of the Loop meant development all happened there. Just like the San Francisco peninsula or Manhattan island. Thus, infrastructure was concentrated there, namely transit and regional rail.

So the Loop continues to get built up because of legacy infrastructure reasons. There's no other central area in the country that has so many trains all pointed at one spot, other than Manhattan. And even in Manhattan, the areas that have the most high rises are the areas that are served by transit nodes, same as in Chicago.

And sure, Chicago isn't seeing a population boom. But we ARE seeing a boom in the number of people moving to Chicago. It's just that we're seeing a lot of people move away at the same time, so the NET inflow is low. But I don't think any other city has seen a bigger increase in the number of college educated individuals in the last decade. And it's similar for the change in percentage of high-earning households. If you add 100,000 engineers, lawyers and MBAs and lose 95,000 retired postal workers to Arizona, the magnitude gain is small. But it would be difficult to look at those numbers and not understand why you would need to add 20,000 apartments and 20msf of office space.

Long live Googie :cheers:

Ohio House is a gem?

Love it or hate it, Chicago does not have many examples of Gooige architecture despite the fact that John Lautner (a true father of the Gooige architectural style) studied here under F.L.W. for some time.

Only an insophisticate coastie would ask such a thing. Yes it's a gem, a very endangered gem given the closing in of density around it.

Living in London has rotted his brain... he makes pretentious comments all the time like that yet isn't banned. Not sure how

I get that Ohio House motel has significance given its design.

But I just wish it were located elsewhere. Downtown is all about street facing retail, density, enclosure, walkability. This is a motel.

When push comes to shove, I highly doubt that the powers that be will landmark it.

If that is “Gooige architecture”, then good?


edit: I’ve just looked it up, having never heard of it. “Googie” architecture (which is surprisingly difficult to search for given similar spelling to Google), like Ohio House, belongs in the suburbs or theme parks like Las Vegas. That building should be torn down asap.

I hated that building when I was a teenager in Chicago.

Given the relative wealth of shitboxes that can be torn down near Ohio House you'll have a hard time convincing me it should go. Nuke the Rainforest cafe, Hard Rock, the old Carsons, the BP station, postal station, Walgreens, and many others before that.

They’re all terrible, but I find it absolutely comical that so many here find that hideous piece of auto-centric 1950s garbage to be worth preserving. It’s an “architectural style” that originated with an LA drive through and was used for motels, car washes, gas stations and other things that don’t have any business being downtown.

If it were somewhere out near Joliet on the old Route 66, fine. But it has no business in downtown Chicago.

The owners clearly don’t think it has any architectural merit, or they wouldn’t have erected billboards.

Given the lack of other examples it does not offend me.

There is no compelling reason to tear it down.

Not until there’s something proposed for the site, no. But there’s certainly no compelling reason to save it, should something be proposed.

Opinions clearly differ.

Would you say the same thing about the last standing Gas Station, Walgreens, or strip mall downtown? In my opinion the building is garbage and taking up a prime buildable lot.

Clearly different opinions on this one...

Ohio House certainly is a bit unusual within Chicago, but not entirely unique. To me, Marina City is conspicuously Googie: very explicitly jetsons-esque in both concept.and form, even if most architecture critics call it plainly modernist. It is just extremely well done. It is regarded as one of the most significant pieces of architecture in the city and is the furthest thing from threatened; it could be considered internationally significant.

Obviously Ohio House pales in comparison.

But, if Ohio House really is that significant, (and I could maybe understand that as a last and most distinctive remnant from an era) I could see it as an adaptive reuse or master planned development with the density entitlements transferred to an adjacent lot. Convert the parking into a courtyard. Convert the ground floor units to retail. Especially keep the little building on the corner.

^^ for sure. I thought same thing with both marina city and its use of cement in such a modern looking design and a court yard or some type of pedestrian alleyway build out in front of the motel where the surface lot is.

It actually isn't that auto centric though which is what is charming about it. Compare it to the HoJo that came down for that Magellan tower. It DOES have retail on the ground floor, just on the corner. Until recently that retail was filled with a trendy Leghorn Chicken joint. That's the most appropriate spot for retail. While it does have a parking lot, something about the design of the building, probably the nifty corner retail/office structure makes it feel inviting, not like it is solely the domain of the automobile. Pedestrians regularly cut through the parking lot without fear for their lives. I would rather have these kinds of parking spaces where pedestrians share them with cars than fenced off lots and garages. Make drivers accept that a pedestrian can be anywhere at any time, even in a parking lot, and you will make all spaces in the city safer.

As others have mentioned, it could be adaptively reused in a number of ways. It could be converted to townhomes (which would be the worst option given the fact that it would probably be fenced off), it could be converted to retail on the ground floor and offices upstairs. Or it could just be left as is and upgraded as a trendy hotel.

Given the amount of festering post industrial sores our city is littered with, a building like Ohio House should, at a minimum, be wayyyyy down on the list of places to be razed.

It's funny, I literally just found a box full of about mid century 50 ashtrays in a building I am renovating. They are mostly from Vegas Casinos (very cool), but there are also a bunch from random motor lodges around the US apparently collected by someone on wide ranging roadtrips around the country. One of the is from a place called "Redwood Motel" in Mankato Minnesota that had an image of the lodge on it that made me immediately think of Ohio House and Heart O Chicago and all the other lovely googie motels we have smattered around down.

The HoJo was way more street-friendly than the Ohio House. Ohio House has that tiny little corner thing that's hardly charming, just run down, cramped, and poorly ventilated, with the office on the back for checkins.

Howard Johnson, on the other hand, had the office on one side of the single curb break/entrance (versus at least two for Ohio House - one on Ohio, one on Lasalle), with a decent-sized, family-run diner on the other wide. There was actual urban landscaping in front of the diner - not fancy, but it was there. HoJo wins that comparison, HANDS DOWN.

People are actually defending the Ohio House. Wow!