Lakeshore club in danger
(
http://www.suntimes.com/business/337897,CST-FIN-lake12.article)
April 12, 2007
BY DAVID ROEDER
The prospective buyer of the old Lakeshore Athletic Club, 850 N. Lake Shore Drive, plans to raze the 19-story building and construct new luxury residences in its place, despite claims by preservationist groups that it should be a landmark.
The new structure would be the same height as the old one and thus wouldn't need a zoning change, Alan Schachtman, senior vice president at Fifield Cos., said Wednesday. He said Fifield has a contract to buy the property from Northwestern University.
The contract is contingent on Fifield securing a demolition permit. Schachtman declined to discuss other terms, but sources said the building sold for more than $40 million.
Both Preservation Chicago and Landmarks Illinois have listed the old club as among the most endangered, notable buildings in Chicago, and have called for it to be saved. Some neighborhood residents have spoken in favor of the old building, but that sentiment is based party on suspicions that a high-rise would replace it.
Fifield is betting it can blunt some of that opposition by agreeing to abide by height limitations already written into the site's zoning.
Schachtman emphasized that the plans will be open for community review, even though Fifield is under no legal obligation to do that. "We're not trying to fight with anybody about it,'' he said. "People will see that we will do a very, very high-quality and very nice-looking building."
The firm of noted Chicago architect
Lucien Lagrange will design the new building, Schachtman said. It will sit on a prime corner alongside Lake Michigan, between two towers designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lagrange buildings that went up in the late 1990s.
"The intent is to build something that looks like it's always been there," Schachtman said.
He said the old club, which dates from 1927, is unsuitable for renovation, because much of it was designed as open, public space. A pool, gym, squash courts and rifle range all were on the lower floors of the club, which Northwestern converted into student housing before shuttering the building in 2005.
Preservationists argue those interior features, including murals and a marble lobby, are the top reasons to save the building. It was designed by Jarvis Hunt, and hosted many society galas in its early years.
Michael Moran, vice president of Preservation Chicago, called on City Hall to declare the building a landmark. He said his group will start a petition campaign on the building's behalf.
The plan emerges as 42nd Ward Ald. Burton Natarus, who has opposed landmark designation for the club, gives way to incoming Ald. Brendan Reilly. Moran said Reilly's defeat of Natarus in the February election showed residents are tired of policies that favor developers.
Schachtman said his firm has shown the plans to Reilly, who made no commitments and urged him to set up community meetings. A spokesman for Reilly said he was unavailable Wednesday.
Any request to demolish the building triggers a 90-day review by the city's planning department. That's because the building was flagged in a property survey a few years ago that it had potential architectural or historic importance.
The Fifield firm is an experienced residential and commercial developer known for new office buildings in the West Loop and a 1990s renovation of the Civic Opera Building. Founder Steven Fifield has expanded the Chicago-based company's activities in California.
He tussled with preservationists a few years ago over his plan, never implemented, to put a condominium tower on top of the Medinah Temple on the Near North Side.
Prev
' "The intent is to build something that looks like it's always been there," Schachtman said.' 
And now in addition to all the other valid complaints, where will the lux condo market be in nine months? Will the city give them the demo permit without a guarantee that the site won't stay empty who knows how long? And what is Northwestern's problem, with that no-rezoning clause? Have they done anything good for the city in the last couple of decades, urban-wise?
Linear Mode
