CHICAGO | Highrise Projects & Construction - Page 1004

wierdaaron · #**20061** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 6:54 PM**

Went to the rooftop bar at the Virgin Hotel for the first time yesterday. They've got a 360º view, but the western face is the most interesting:

Block 37

Hilton Garden Inn / Grayscale pattern everyone hates and I think is fine but will look dated in 20 years.

200 North Michigan / NOMA

Really interesting lizard-looking guys that were all around the top of the building:

The building was a bank before, right? Not sure the lizard/bank connection. Except for the obviously true fact that the banks are controlled by lizard people.

Ned.B · #**20062** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 6:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BVictor1

I'm pretty sure that 200 N. Michigan Avenue is topped out.

I just counted today, and they are either topped out or working on the top floor right now with the roof soon to follow. It's hard to tell how many floors are withing the screening at the top of the building.

However the curtainwall continues as a screen for a good 20' above the roof, so it will gain a little more height.

Edit: didn't see the pictures above. They are definitely pouring/just poured the roof.

wierdaaron · #**20063** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 7:00 PM**

Since y'all are talking about it..

Ned.B · #**20064** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 7:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Went to the rooftop bar at the Virgin Hotel for the first time yesterday.

...

Really interesting lizard-looking guys that were all around the top of the building:

The building was a bank before, right? Not sure the lizard/bank connection. Except for the obviously true fact that the banks are controlled by lizard people.

The building was designed by Rapp and Rapp who were noted theater architects (also designed the Chicago, Oriental, Palace, Riviera, and Uptown Theaters) and so gave the building an unusual theatricality similar to the Oriental. There's a whole host of strange creatures on the the building, most of which I don't think were meant to have any connection with banking.

wierdaaron · #**20065** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 7:34 PM**

Thanks. I didn't really mean that it should be giant dollar signs, just that some ornamentation ties back to the building's owner or purpose, like the fish all over the Fisher building.

Near North Resident · #**20066** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 8:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notyrview

Oh, you mean that families have built their lives around those homes. That reason. You myopic fool.

yeah wanting to fix the remainder of a huge problem... how narrow minded of me, not going to argue about this with people that are clearly clueless about the situation there

Ned.B · #**20067** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 8:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Thanks. I didn't really mean that it should be giant dollar signs, just that some ornamentation ties back to the building's owner or purpose, like the fish all over the Fisher building.

No definitely understood. There are buildings in the loop where the ornamentation speaks to the original tenant, and several others where there doesn't seem to be a relationship (such as the ox skulls in the cornice of London Guarantee).

Apparently some of the creatures at Virgin are supposed to be squirrels, symbolizing squirreling away money.

Notyrview · #**20068** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 9:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Near North Resident

yeah wanting to fix the remainder of a huge problem... how narrow minded of me, not going to argue about this with people that are clearly clueless about the situation there

Ok, thats fair. But i'm not clueless. You're not from there. You moved there. And now you want the poor black people to leave.

XIII · #**20069** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 10:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notyrview

Oh, you mean that families have built their lives around those homes. That reason. You myopic fool.

This is the same argument most people make about nearby development affecting their entrenched way of life. Logan square hates tall buildings. The West Loop hates apartments. Lincoln Park hates all development.

If the city needs to change, it needs to change. There is no reason to preserve this area, especially since the concept of sequestering all of the city's poor in dense clusters of public housing has already been shown to be a terrible idea. Better to have mixed income buildings and communities.

emathias · #**20070** Posted **Aug 5, 2015, 10:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notyrview

Ok, thats fair. But i'm not clueless. You're not from there. You moved there. And now you want the poor black people to leave.

It's not that *he* wants poor black people to move, it's that the CHA has decimated the rest of Cabrini, and these remain. Like it or not, while publicly funded housing definitely has a place in Chicago and America at large, these concentrations of poverty rarely benefit the people living in them as much as more dispersed types would. The rowhouses are mostly gone already - what was being referred to was attempts to put them on the National Historic Register, which is one of the reasons they are still around. Believing that they are not worthy of being on the Historic Register and thus should have been changed when the rest of Cabrini was is not the same as wanting to push out "poor black people," even if that would be one of the results.

The fact that the CHA has done a terrible job of providing alternate housing is not the fault of developers or commenters here on SSP, it is the fault of the CHA and the City government at large. Redeveloping Cabrini could have been done without a net loss of subsidized housing in the City, but it was not, for reasons that include financial and political reasons as well as pure incompetence. Name-calling, race-baiting and accusations of carpet-baggery really have no constructive place in the discussion no matter how impassioned you are about the poor execution from the CHA.

rlw777 · #**20071** Posted **Aug 6, 2015, 12:02 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notyrview

Ok, thats fair. But i'm not clueless. You're not from there. You moved there. And now you want the poor black people to leave.

Hmmm... You may be relying on a big assumption here. I could be wrong but I dont think anyone is living in the large majority of those row houses. Last time I was by there they were all fenced in and looked empty. That was quite a long while ago though. Anyone know for sure?

Notyrview · #**20072** Posted **Aug 6, 2015, 12:02 AM**

^^*Oh pshaw gurl i am not at all surprised you chimed in.

Anyway, looking at the pictures it does seem that 200 N. Michigan nearly reaches the roof of C&C so that's pretty good.

rlw777: you may be right, but the tone of the post i responded too, was like, "these people are troublemakers and they need to be banished"