CHICAGO: boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v4

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by SolarWind

I agree that the topic should be available for discussion, but come on, it's to help sick kids. How can anyone be against that? It seems very selfish on SOAR's part to oppose it. Besides, the article states that the "helicopter transports routinely total 75 a year, 70 percent of them during the day". It's not like the helicopter will be used for an hourly sightseeing tour.

Exactly, its not like it will even be every day, I mean 75 Flights a year equals one flight every 4 or 5 days. You'd be more likely to be annoyed by the local news helicopter than the Flight For Life with that frequency! This just goes to show that NIMBY groups like SOAR are almost completely based off the selfish obsessions of selfish people who will go to any extreme to see ANY new developments crushed. They are crazy and can't be reasoned with...

[HK Chicago]

always hated the UC hospitals' helicopter when I was down there

I've only ever known the other side of this, when the helicopter would land at designated park sites to pick up a patient in a significant emergency that UC had to handle. Seeing the helicopter meant that a local was probably dying.

I think this would be a hard sell here (even though it won it's architects the Pritzker) based on the resistance to Soldier Field.

[Dan in Chicago]

Hmm, I have to agree with SOAR on the helipad issue. Of course, if Children's needs a helipad they should have one... but maybe this is the clinching reason why they should NOT move into Streeterville. The Illinois Medical Center seems like an infinitely better site. Unless your family lives very close to downtown, where would you rather have your child go in an ambulance at rush hour?

I know we like to get excited about tall buildings and mega developments, and I do too, but every new hospital building around Northwestern has been an ugly design-by-committee behemoth. Judging by the mass-production design firms assigned to Children's, this won't be any better. Let the land be used for Northwestern's needs so it doesn't have to demolish Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice-Stone Pavilion.

The noise issues aren't insignificant either. Sure, what's a helicopter flight once every 4 days? But that's a LOT of people that are going to be woken up every time a chopper comes in at night - and sometimes it's hard to get back to sleep. Unless you want downtown to become an unattractive residential location, you have to pay attention to quality-of-life issues. I wouldn't want to sacrifice a booming condo market to one ugly hospital building.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by Dan in Chicago

Hmm, I have to agree with SOAR on the helipad issue. Of course, if Children's needs a helipad they should have one... but maybe this is the clinching reason why they should NOT move into Streeterville. The Illinois Medical Center seems like an infinitely better site. Unless your family lives very close to downtown, where would you rather have your child go in an ambulance at rush hour?

I know we like to get excited about tall buildings and mega developments, and I do too, but every new hospital building around Northwestern has been an ugly design-by-committee behemoth. Judging by the mass-production design firms assigned to Children's, this won't be any better. Let the land be used for Northwestern's needs so it doesn't have to demolish Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice-Stone Pavilion.

The noise issues aren't insignificant either. Sure, what's a helicopter flight once every 4 days? But that's a LOT of people that are going to be woken up every time a chopper comes in at night - and sometimes it's hard to get back to sleep. Unless you want downtown to become an unattractive residential location, you have to pay attention to quality-of-life issues. I wouldn't want to sacrifice a booming condo market to one ugly hospital building.

No, the Heli issue is complete BS, they said that "most" (meaining 50%+) of those 75 flights were durring the day. So, at a minimum, thats one nightime flight every 10 days. I think the rushhour traffic thing is BS as well, traffic is just as bad by the Illinois Med distrct as it is on any major road in the city. Besides, Children's hospital is not really a "first response" hospital as it is a specialty care facility, if a kid gets shot in the head in Skokie or something, you can bet you ass that they aren't driving all the way to Childrens to stabilize him, they take emergency cases to the nearest emergency room where they stabilize them and then take them to Childrens where they can do the dangerous risky operations.

Besides, helicopters aren't all that noisy (of course they are still loud, but not all that bad unless they are right next to you since they produce such low wavelength noise which is quickly absorbed by the surrouding air or buildings) compared to things like the El (which produces high intensity, annoying, short-wave length noise), which doesn't seem to stop people from sleeping.

[SamInTheLoop]

^ I agree with Nowhereman - the helipad use is largely a nonissue. Also, this other discussion of Streeterville vs Illinois Medical District is really not worth having, as the decision has already been made - they are moving to Streeterville...

[SamInTheLoop]

Totally agree though that the New Children's needs a much better design than all the other recent Northwestern hospital campus buildings. I think the word 'uninspired' best describes their collective quality of design...

[BVictor1]

Damn near every highrise building in L.A has a helipad on top, if they can do it without incident, I know we can. I agree, the Illinois Medical District would have been a more logical choice because of the abscence of tall buildings there, but it's not the case.

[honte]

Originally Posted by Dan in Chicago

...maybe this is the clinching reason why they should NOT move into Streeterville. The Illinois Medical Center seems like an infinitely better site. Unless your family lives very close to downtown, where would you rather have your child go in an ambulance at rush hour?

I know we like to get excited about tall buildings and mega developments, and I do too, but every new hospital building around Northwestern has been an ugly design-by-committee behemoth. Judging by the mass-production design firms assigned to Children's, this won't be any better. Let the land be used for Northwestern's needs so it doesn't have to demolish Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice-Stone Pavilion.

Dan, I think you make some very valid points. NW and Children's should both move to the IMD.

Of course, NW has already torn down almost all of their most significant buildings (aside from the main building and Prentice), but these land issues they are facing are not going away any time soon. I hope Children's is planning for some kind of future growth on the same site (a la Blue Cross), because land over there isn't going to get any easier to find.

As you know, NW is already short on space again, this time wanting to tear down the lovely VA hospital. And remember the rumors about them wanting to move the corporate part out near the West Loop due to lack of space? It seems that Children's Hospital is walking into a very difficult situation in many respects, with little obvious benefit.

[Second Citizen]

NW is going to do a BCBS style project. The Lurie MRC, the newest ~12 story laboratory building has a large lobby and dining area to the east that is only about two stories tall. NW plans to build a 15 story laboratory facility on top of this lobby space, twinning the Lurie tower.

There is a lot of vacant laboratory space currently in the NW MRC (Ward, Morton, Searle, Tarry, Lurie). I'm not sure if the laboratories up at Children's Memorial Research Center in lincoln park are going to move down with the hospital, but even if they do, I imagine that NW has sufficeint laboratory space to last it another 10-20ish years.

I think that V.A. should be moved to IMC, and that the space downtown should be reserved for NW hospitals (Memorial, Womens' and Childrens') and the academic needs of the university.

And the helicpoter pad is a TOTAL non-issue.

[brian_b]

Did someone mention helicopters in Streeterville?





Sorry about the terrible developing. I knew it was time to switch to digital when you couldn't have film developed properly anymore.

This is from 2004. The helicopter was picking stuff up off the street and putting it on the roof of the building; I guess the elevators couldn't handle anything so large/heavy.

[LoyolaBeachView]

MoMo and Block 37



300 and Waterview from Mart's 'L' platform



340 OTP

[honte]

Originally Posted by LoyolaBeachView

Thanks for the pics.

It's very cool to see TTC peeking out behind Unitrin in this shot. I wonder if it will actually be tall enough to be visible while walking on State Street?

[LoyolaBeachView]

Originally Posted by honte

Thanks for the pics.

It's very cool to see TTC peaking out behind Unitrin in this shot. I wonder if it will actually be tall enough to be visible while walking on State Street?

whoa, I hadn't even noticed

[LoyolaBeachView]

Randolph canyon w/B37, MoMo, BCBS and 340 OTP

[i_am_hydrogen]

^Nice shot. Eventually, 340 OTP will be completely obscured by BCBS.

[Eventually...Chicago]

Too bad the old post office couldn't be the children's hospital. This type of building seems like it could be adapted really well into a fun/dynamic place for sick children. And they would have the river to use as a heli corridor. And all that nice interior/no window space for radiology departments, records rooms, operating rooms,...

And it's close to UIC medical campus with better access off the dan ryan.

hmmm......

[brian_b]

Originally Posted by Eventually...Chicago

Too bad the old post office couldn't be the children's hospital. This type of building seems like it could be adapted really well into a fun/dynamic place for sick children. And they would have the river to use as a heli corridor. And all that nice interior/no window space for radiology departments, records rooms, operating rooms,...

And it's close to UIC medical campus with better access off the dan ryan.

hmmm......

Probably too much vibration with the highway running through it.

[SamInTheLoop]

I was just wondering about this project which has been advertised in the Trib. I noticed the developer and marketer (Provence Development Group and Garrison Partners) are the same as the Chess Lofts adaptive re-use (and presumably the Aristocrat Tower project). Therefore, could Hom Chicago possibly be the rumored re-design of Aristocrat Tower? Anybody have any info on this one?

[SamInTheLoop]

This is the project by Smithfield Properties, involving adaptive re-use and new construction. It looks like it might be moving forward, as the DPD (seen on website) released some sort of demo hold list for the project - however it stresses there is no demo proposed, just addition to and renovation of existing buildings. I'm looking forward to seeing some more detailed renderings of this project...

[Sir Isaac Newton]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

This is the project by Smithfield Properties, involving adaptive re-use and new construction. It looks like it might be moving forward, as the DPD (seen on website) released some sort of demo hold list for the project - however it stresses there is no demo proposed, just addition to and renovation of existing buildings. I'm looking forward to seeing some more detailed renderings of this project...

I think this may be the same project as the 600 South Clark project whose rendering is listed on page 1. My guess is that the address on page 1 is incorrect - this development wouldn't be directly south of Harrison - there is a parking garage between the development and Harrison Street, so 642 sounds like it would be the correct address. From the looks of the rendering, they are building on top of two buildings - one of which is ten stories high and one that is two stories high that has Pat's Pizza in it. The entire redevelopment looks like it will be 16 stories, total.