Yeah, definitely a movie. There was a film crew there getting crane shots of that structure thing today. I didn't see any actors so it could just be a sfx shot.

Just got back from Chicago, I was shocked to see how much nicer everything was since I last visited (06'), especially west of the loop. Keep on bringing that infill!

Looks like the North Ave Citgo in Wicker Park will be replaced shortly. There are numerous pre construction listing (with many pending) on RedFin for a mixed use development at the corner of North and Hermitage.

http://media.cdn-redfin.com/photo/68...08307485_0.jpg

This is infuriating.

Last night I was passing that and saying in my head how the land could be used for so much better than this. Guess I'm a psychic. :haha:

^At which intersection is that Citgo?

The loss of that Citgo is welcome news. While gas stations are a necessary evil, this was a significant underutilization of that particular lot of land.

The Wicker Park project looks nice!

Took a ride down around Cermak where the arena is proposed. Here's a refresher at street level.

Motor Row. Site to the left is where the large hotel tower will go. This street could use some trees. It's horribly un-pedestrian with all that concrete. I say make it 2 lanes with bike lanes, parking and wider sidewalks with trees.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8533/8...28296d0e_b.jpg

We can breathe a sigh of relief as the ABC building is not going to get torn down as part of this plan.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2873/8...9065dbc1_b.jpg

2110 S. Prairie will need to be relocated
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8533/8...8843f064_c.jpg

This two story parking garage and the tired looking bank behind it would be demolished
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8415/8...8af9c99a_b.jpg

That's basically what they're proposing for Motor Row.

Some preliminary concepts toward the end of this PDF:
http://pdnachicago.com/Community%20I...013_Marmon.pdf

The "flex zone" idea is cool; change the curbs to a sloped mountable kind, raise the parking to sidewalk height, and use movable bollards to switch the lane from parking to pedestrian as needed.

Fulton Market - May 15
 

Little apparent change - but they seem to be at work on it.

I still wouldn't be surrpised to see that ABC facade used as a casino front to give it a Chicago-y feel without resorting to typcial 1920's cartoonism

Northeast Grant Park renovations continue

http://imageshack.us/a/img571/5277/mil4l.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img10/3875/mil3b.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img109/2866/mil2j.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img822/6235/mil1.jpg

5-16

‘Divergent/ Catbird’ film set at Harrison & Wells St

http://imageshack.us/a/img7/7559/set3du.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img545/9580/set2m.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img46/3857/set1rn.jpg

http://www.onlocationvacations.com/2...8-may-13-2013/

A $20 million building permit was granted for 3720 S Dearborn on Friday. The owner is Park Boulevard and it says it will be 6 stories, 72 units with first floor parking. I believe it is mixed income/senior housing part of the Stateway Gardens redevelopment.

It also looks like some vacant land at 1806 S Wabash is being snatched up. It will be an auto repair shop with 10 bays. Ugh.

AMLI Clark & Polk

http://i.imgur.com/8Exz2l9.jpg

Sounds like just what the area needs.......big wtf on this one!

British School Roosevelt Collection

I just noticed that the Roosevelt Collection blog posted a "please support our British School proposal" plea a few days ago, then updated it after the vote on the 16th.

Included was a link to the proposal PDF.

I know some people hate dealing with PDFs, so I extracted high res images from each page:

http://i.imgur.com/UzqSODBh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VVhkVfAh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JMgRuQ5h.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xhCdDgch.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gKWtudzh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0BwIG2zh.jpg

I'm a little confused. The renders include the revised stairway design, but the ground-level field is back to being a full soccer field. A few renders ago it was a split-purpose field divided in half and including some basketball hoops or something like that. Maybe it's supposed to be easy to convert between different usage modes?

I do notice that they added a dog run area to the rooftop park. I remember there being some drama about dogs peeing all over the grass field. Hope your dog can handle stairs.

I looked up the owner and it appears as if he may own Euro Collision at 2232 S Wabash, just south of Cermak. It looks like they repair a lot of stuff - including exotic cars like Lamborghinis, Ferraris, etc. I just wish the land was used for better stuff like mixed use with some density.

Oh I love building permit data. Here's another one. One got approved the other day for a 4 story, 72 room "type I-C hotel" in Chinatown at 253 W Cermak complete with ground floor commercial. I think that is an empty lot but not sure..

I few drawings of some street level stuff:
http://councilmatic.opencityapps.org...lation/1345746


I also noticed that this was approved a few weeks ago to start doing foundation work:
http://www.suntimes.com/business/roe...avenswood.html

That was where Eco18, a ~12 floor residential building, was supposed to go. Financing fell through after the condo bust and it was never built. Yeah it sucks, but what can you do.