Yep, and they were also part of Open House Chicago the last few years I believe. Very awesome stuff - if the Obama Library goes to WP, along with this, my hope is that WP gets more arts projects like it's slowly been getting. Would be amazing to see.

There are always events going on at the Dorchester Projects:
https://rebuild-foundation.org/

He's got a damn good Ted talk, too
https://www.ted.com/talks/theaster_g...rt?language=en

Somehow, I feel that DS+R won't get two major commissions at U of C, since they're already doing work on the Regenstein(?) forum south of the Plaisance.

Personally, I would love to see it go to Snohetta. Their Biblioteca Alexandrina is still amazing.

Real estate investors bet Obama library would boost Washington Park
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...hicagobusiness

Great post Randomguy34. This is bigger news than most Chicagoans realize. Sadly, many are content with having a vibrant and bustling downtown, north side, near south and west sides but until we start putting a dent into the blight and crime that exists on the greater southside, Chicago will never be all that it could be.

New York enjoyed a renaissance if you will, a renewed image and vitality when it cleaned up Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn. Until then it was viewed as "dangerous" and "trashy" - not the global urban paradise it is now portrayed to be. And although we know the media is largely behind giving us this false image of New York, it cannot be denied that they have done some heavy lifting and have done a great job in cleaning up their own mess. It also cannot be denied that New York's new image and makeover has been a key driver in spurring growth, investment and development for them.

Chicago is at that crossroads now. Chicago has not done the heavy lifting but has instead, for the most part, swept the greater southside under the rug. Granted, cleaning up the southside is no small task. It takes great planning, initiative and it is expensive... but it has to be done. Our southside is our Harlem, Bronx and Brooklyn. And right or wrong, our southside drives the narrative/news right now -- crime, school closings, population loss, etc., all leading the nightly news. Cleanup our southside and watch our population grow and watch the renewed interest, vitality and investment in our city.

For the greater good of the city of Chicago, here's hoping the Obama Library can be the catalyst to spur the kind of turnaround thats so desperately needed on the south side. :tup: --- fingers crossed.

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We all know how to quickly fix the south side, but it is not palatable.

We do?

Measured and inclusive gentrification with incentives for mixed use/mixed income housing, with inviting and relevant cultural and commercial interests that reflect the rich and complex history of the South Side?

Hope so. There's some good stuff happening on a small scale with Theaster Gates down there, and some in Washington Park with him too. Unfortunately, the south side lost the future Blues Museum to f'ing Navy Pier. What a travesty. That could have been huge for the south side.

A curious comment indeed.

Agreed. A missed opportunity for the southside and city of Chicago as a whole. Hopefully the Obama Library can go a long way toward making up for that loss.

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What I am most curious about is how the housing facing Martin Luther King nearest the library will be treated.

Will the route be for most of the owners to simply rehabilitate and update the units or will there be wholesale demolition of some, most, or all the block in the coming decade. Some of the buildings along the block aren't all that bad. They could just use a large touch up. Is it best to try to keep some "authenticity" of the history nof the neighborhood or is best to start a new. It isn't as if there aren't loads of empty lots for new housing or even some boutique hostels around the library.

Well I wasn't the one that wrote the article, but I still appreciate the thanks

I completely agree about how much New York has changed because of the investments going into Harlem, Brooklyn and The Bronx. I was walking around South Bronx last month for a friend and I had time to kill in the mean time. It was amazing to see the disconnect between how the neighborhood is portrayed and the reality. Sure, South Bronx still has some crime and there are a few blighted buildings, but the amount of people and commercial activity was mind boggling for me to believe. There were dozens of businesses under the elevated lines, construction and rehabs were plentiful, I felt pretty safe walking around, residents were very nice, and I felt happy admiring the neighborhood.

My greatest wish is that I hope the South and West sides become great places to visit and for people to live in by the time I'm old enough to settle down and have a family. The Obama Library could very well jump start Washington Park, Bronzeville, Woodlawn, and potentially Englewood's economy, with the new Whole Foods, and result in them being very nice places. However, doing the same for the Far South Side and West Side will be a more difficult task, but maybe the Library will set a precedent for there to be investment in the rest of Chicago's poorer communities besides the Mid-South Side.

Reference the map I made of renovations, additions, and conversions/deconversions. It goes until last Friday, but there's a fair concentration of these in the general Grand Boulevard/Bronzeville area already:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?m...k.kyJajGMvzhcE

Unfortunately, unlike Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Bronx Chicago's dimwitted leadership let so much of the south side's building stock disappear from the face of history.

The south side will simply never come back. It's gone. Whatever will be built will be pure suburban crap: grocery stores, strip malls, etc. The kind of garbage that nobody cares about. Everything else will be so heavily government subsidized that it will be few and far between.

Outside of Hyde Park and a few select areas, that is (and this is very different from the southwest side, which is a totally different animal).

Actually, tons of buildings in the 1970s in the Bronx burned down.

There's still quite a few neighborhoods on the South Side relatively intact outside of Hyde Park.

South Shore can match the best of historic Hyde Park in the area just south of Jackson Park.

Mid-century houses in Chatham: http://design.newcity.com/2015/11/19...d-their-stuff/ Pill Hill is similarly a neighborhood that was for affluent black Chicagoans, though the stock resembles more of what you'd find near Midway.

I spent some time in Burnside with a relative renovating a two-flat there, and there didn't seem to be much vacant land.

Of course, there's Pullman. Some of it was lost, but it is and will continue to be a national gem of historic architecture.

I know you mentioned the Southwest Side being a separate discussion, but in my view the biggest threat to South Side preservation now is the Central Manufacturing District. It will be a huge missed opportunity for the South Side, and Chicago, if those buildings aren't saved.

There are also counter-examples of neighborhoods with areas that appear totally bombed out – particularly Washington Park, parts of Englewood, 63rd east of the Green line in Woodlawn. But all that vacant land presents an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the north side, without losing historic stock. Build TOD near trains, encourage density on arterial streets, etc. I believe it is an inevitability that these areas will be reinvested, but it will be a question of how quickly, and how much we lose in the meantime.

But I get what you're saying – we need more folks like you renovating and investing in the greystones in these neighborhoods, of which there are still many (in deteriorating condition).

What exactly are you intimating?

Negro removal? :shrug:

Sounds like that's what you're trying to beat around the bush about.

Like everyone else here, I'm eager to learn of what this quick fix would be.