CHICAGO | St. Regis Chicago (Vista) | 1,191 FT | 101 FLOORS

[danielschell]

Snapped some photos and a time-lapse of extension work yesterday morning http://wp.me/p7uLxw-2hz

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by danielschell

Snapped some photos and a time-lapse of extension work yesterday morning http://wp.me/p7uLxw-2hz

Amazing photos, Dan!

Does anyone have a site plan of what Upper Wacker will look like once the extension is completed? Can't find anything from googling.

[Alanky]

The Vista Sales Center informed me that as of this weekend 30% of the units have sold.

[James_Mac]

Photo taken around 2:00 today (2/11). It's a bit hard to tell from that angle, but they're actually extending Upper Wacker in the background there - putting up steel beams. All the residential buildings in Lakeshore East got a notice about the ramps being closed this weekend.

EDIT: also, sorry for being dumb, but can someone explain to me exactly how they are connecting Waterside Drive to Upper Wacker? I assume they're extending Waterside Drive north to meet Upper Wacker, but is that happening on the lake side of the Regatta or the other side? Or I am entirely confused??? I can't seem to work it out from the stuff I can find online.

EDIT 2: Nevermind, I worked it out. They're going to extend Waterside Drive behind the Shoreham, so it will continue in a straight line, and then have it turn north and pass through the middle of Vista above where N. Field Blvd. is now to meet Upper Wacker. For some reason I didn't realize they were going to be roads through the middle of Vista at two levels - I thought only the current N. Field Blvd. (soon to be Lower N. Field Blvd, presumably) was actually passing through the building. So they're just extending Upper Wacker so that there's a nice landscaped turnaround area? I'm still a bit confused about that.

[coldru]

Vista Tower webcam link.

http://www.vistatowerchicago.com/webcam/

More cameras coming soon

[SteelMonkey]

Originally Posted by coldru

Vista Tower webcam link.

http://www.vistatowerchicago.com/webcam/

More cameras coming soon

NICE!

[KWILLSKYLINE]

Originally Posted by SteelMonkey

NICE!

Fuck yeah!!.....one bennett,get on it.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by coldru

Vista Tower webcam link.

http://www.vistatowerchicago.com/webcam/

More cameras coming soon

Thanks, and welcome.

[10023]

It's always going to dead end isn't it? Or are they going to create an intersection with LSD?

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by 10023

It's always going to dead end isn't it? Or are they going to create an intersection with LSD?

Nope.

[KWILLSKYLINE]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

Nope.

Nope to the dead end, or nope to the extension?

[Northwest]

Originally Posted by 10023

It's always going to dead end isn't it? Or are they going to create an intersection with LSD?

I would guess its only going far enough for a grand entrance to the hotel and residences, and the parking structure. So I guess it would end at the fourth stub of a tower.

This one has to deal with a very wide and expensive three-level street, as well as a street grid extension below the tower. We normally think of streets as a tax funded thing, but is Wanda picking up the entire tab for this? There must be lots of rules associated with air rights over public street right of ways, but I don't recall seeing detailed renderings of where exactly this thing will end.

[James_Mac]

Originally Posted by Northwest

I would guess its only going far enough for a grand entrance to the hotel and residences, and the parking structure. So I guess it would end at the fourth stub of a tower.

This one has to deal with a very wide and expensive three-level street, as well as a street grid extension below the tower. We normally think of streets as a tax funded thing, but is Wanda picking up the entire tab for this? There must be lots of rules associated with air rights over public street right of ways, but I don't recall seeing detailed renderings of where exactly this thing will end.

It's not really detailed, but here's a diagram that shows it:



Taken from this this Curbed article: http://chicago.curbed.com/2015/10/27...second-meeting.

The first rendering in the article also shows the end of Upper Wacker, if you look carefully:

[Northwest]

^^ Thanks, that explains quite a bit of it from a top view, but still confused as to how Upper Wacker is connected to the LSE Park level road. There must be one hell of a ramp in there somewhere because isn't it like 40 or more vertical feet elevation change?
There not much space there, so where is this steep grade? Under the tower there is a hill?

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Northwest

^^ Thanks, that explains quite a bit of it from a top view, but still confused as to how Upper Wacker is connected to the LSE Park level road. There must be one hell of a ramp in there somewhere because isn't it like 40 or more vertical feet elevation change?
There not much space there, so where is this steep grade? Under the tower there is a hill?

It doesn't. There are two levels of roadway passing through Vista, Service Level Wacker at grade and Upper Wacker which will pass through on the top level to connect with the current top level dead end by the Regatta. This means that if you take the top level pass through you will end up popping out over by Harbor Point at the end of Upper Randolph by Cancer Survivors Garden and Maggie Daley Park (which are ironically right next to each other... Too soon?). If you take the Service Level pass through it will spit you out from the River Walk and Impound lot into LSE park.

[James_Mac]

Originally Posted by Northwest

^^ Thanks, that explains quite a bit of it from a top view, but still confused as to how Upper Wacker is connected to the LSE Park level road. There must be one hell of a ramp in there somewhere because isn't it like 40 or more vertical feet elevation change?
There not much space there, so where is this steep grade? Under the tower there is a hill?

The park-level road is N. Field Blvd. It's going to pass under Vista to Sub Lower Wacker, exactly as it does currently, just with a building on top of it. E. Waterside Drive is the elevated road, and it's going to be extended along the north side of the Shoreham (the building south of the east side of Vista) and then turn north and pass through Vista to connect to Upper Wacker. After it turns north it will presumably be renamed Upper N. Field Blvd., or something similar. So roads will pass through Vista at two levels, one on top of the other, with no need for an elevation change for either.

EDIT: Here are slides that show the two levels, taken from the same Curbed article:

1. LOWER LEVEL/PARK LEVEL




2. UPPER LEVEL (E. Waterside Drive / N. Harbor Drive level)

[Northwest]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Its not connected to the park level rd

Originally Posted by James_Mac

The park-level road is N. Field Blvd. It's going to pass under Vista to Sub Lower Wacker, exactly as it does currently, just with a building on top of it. E. Waterside Drive is the elevated road, and it's going to be extended along the north side of the Shoreham (the building south of the east side of Vista) and then turn north and pass through Vista to connect to Upper Wacker. After it turns north it will presumably be renamed Upper N. Field Blvd., or something similar. So roads will pass through Vista at two levels, one on top of the other, with no need for an elevation change for either.

Originally Posted by James_Mac

It's not really detailed, but here's a diagram that shows it:

^^ Thanks. I get it now. The entire circuit in red here is elevated quite high above park level. Makes sense now! I have only been there a few times, I thought Waterside and Harbor Drive were at park level, but they are elevated streets too. So there are no ramps at all in the final circulation between Upper Randolph and Upper Wacker. It is all at the "upper" level.

[officeworker]

[the urban politician]

It is not a dead end. It connects to the elevated circular drive in Lakeshore East, thus connecting vehicular traffic to Randolph. But it will not be extended to LSD

[the urban politician]

^ Not good