CHICAGO | Highrise Projects & Construction, v7

[VKChaz]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Wait... what? The open space probably will not be developed, unless it's some kind of restaurant pavilion. But as McCaffery found at Roosevelt Collection, that actually harms the visibility of stores at the back of the courtyard, so it can be a net loss.

Also, if this development sucks business away from North/Clybourn, I will be a happy man. There's got to be businesses looking for new construction on the North Side with parking availability, but aren't going to North/Clybourn because of the congestion. Maybe if the retail is spread out a bit more on the North Side, the North/Clybourn area can deconcentrate on retail and become more mixed-use and pedestrian-oriented.

I would be happy to see North Ave retail better distributed (it is currently the equivalent of an open air shopping mall) but given the option, many of the large national stores prefer to congregate. Spreading the wealth, on the other hand, might benefit neighborhood streets. But if that does not happen, the question is what effect there will be on surrounding streets e.g., outlets choosing to relocate to this development and leaving behind storefronts or which close because of added competition..... We do not know what commercial to expect so this may not become an issue - but this development does appear to add significant capacity to the neighborhood so is worth watching.

Regarding the courtyard, we see cases where open space is remodeled and "monetized." I would not expect it anytime soon but will be curious to see how the space is utilized.

[SolarWind]

Originally Posted by James_Mac

Isn't that going one block further north - between Huron and Superior? I'm talking about the much larger block bounded by Huron, McClurg, Erie, and Fairbanks.

That's the former site of the Lakeside Veterans Administration Hospital. It was demolished in 2008 & 2009.

August 25, 2008


February 12, 2009


May 12, 2009


June 4, 2009

[DePaul Bunyan]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

What a concept, making institutions pay market price for the expensive, central, parcels of land they are building on. They might even seek to fully utilize those parcels rather than building 20 story turds all over the place. It might even force them to be architecturally innovative. But we musn't force that burden on them though, because sick children.

...

Hospitals are expensive structures, but not all that structurally dissimilar from office buildings. There is a reason why we get almost exclusively 650' 750' office buildings in Chicago: That is the tallest height at which such a structure becomes cost ineffective.

You're delusional.

[JK47]

Originally Posted by DePaul Bunyan

You're delusional.

I think the floor plates generally need to be stronger than a typical office loading due to the significant weight of medical equipment (especially near diagnostic areas). Further, lower and wider has often been preferred due to logistics issues. Vertical transfers between wards are not ideal and minimizing the amount of times a patient needs to be moved up or down within the hospital is a priority.

[tateyb]

Riverline Complex to Add 3,600 Residential Units to South Loop

Consisting of five skyscrapers, three mid-rise buildings and a variety of townhouses, Riverline is designed to house around 5,000 people across a mix of condominium and rental housing. The tallest tower will stand at 182 metres and 51 floors on the northern section of the lot, and feature a series of inclined support columns soaring from the Chicago River. The buildings' height will gradually decrease as the multi-phase development unfolds to the south — plans also include two 127-metres towers, as well as 98- and 90-metre edifices.


Riverline looking north towards downtown Chicago, image via Perkins + Will

[gallo]

Here are some updated renderings of 450-454 W Belmont. The tower portion is decent... the ground floor garage doors (I think there are three) and parking base are horrible:






source: www.44thward.org

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by JK47

I think the floor plates generally need to be stronger than a typical office loading due to the significant weight of medical equipment (especially near diagnostic areas). Further, lower and wider has often been preferred due to logistics issues. Vertical transfers between wards are not ideal and minimizing the amount of times a patient needs to be moved up or down within the hospital is a priority.

Actually the floor plates generally don't have to be any stronger than an office building. The IBC uses almost the exact same general live load requirements for both uses. Yes there are areas in hospitals that need to be reinforced for equipment like scan machines, but the same is true for office buildings. For example, file storage is actually a significant concern for office spaces as you can quite easily have many tons of paper in a small area, same applies for any significant data rooms. The fact is that the main differences between office buildings and hospitals all arise from either circulation differences as you mention in regards to avoiding vertical transfers, etc.or from infrastructure differences like heavy ventilatio requirements or larger elevator shafts to accommodate beds in elevators. Fundamentally the RIC building or Children's Hospital are just suped up office buildings with higher floors heights, better infrastructure, etc. Structurally the difference basically boild down to making each floor about 2' higher and making all the adjustments to sheer loads, etc that come along with those higher floors.

[DePaul Bunyan]

Originally Posted by JK47

I think the floor plates generally need to be stronger than a typical office loading due to the significant weight of medical equipment (especially near diagnostic areas). Further, lower and wider has often been preferred due to logistics issues. Vertical transfers between wards are not ideal and minimizing the amount of times a patient needs to be moved up or down within the hospital is a priority.

That, and the design requirements for surgical suites, ICU, etc. You have O2 lines, vacuum systems for suction, vacuum tubes for transport, special shielding and power requirements for MR imaging, nuclear medicine, etc. Negative pressure isolation areas, positive pressure for surgery floors.

If you had smaller floorplates in a higher hospital building everybody would have to wait longer for elevators. Which would delay care.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by gallo

horrid

[marothisu]

Even though there is parking in the base, it's not bad. It's not as bad as the other podiums we've seen around town, but I wish those entrances to the garage were elsewhere and that was retail/commercial instead.

[the urban politician]

^ Meh, I don't mind. That stretch of Belmont is kind of cool in a way--all of the buildings set back, some parking.

Usually I hate that kind of stuff but I find that stretch kind of appealing.

........although I'm not quite sure why 3 garage doors are fronted by greenery and flowers. Something is kind of off there

[Ned.B]

^ I don't know what it is, but I don't think the far left opening is a garage door, and the greenery is front of that. They also may have been forced to a narrower curb cut so the landscaping grows as it gets closer to the street.

Unless it were another dry cleaner, I doubt commercial would do well here...it's too far away from other retail to draw business.

What is most horrid is the treatment and scale of the base on this thing. There are hardly ant parking podiums in Lakeview, and there are none along Belmont. Everything else has a nicely scaled pedestrian first floor. The least they could do is make this base feel like a three story masonry building like the one's all around it instead of that over-scaled monolith.

Are there any public meetings coming up on this one?

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Ned.B

^ I don't know what it is, but I don't think the far left opening is a garage door, and the greenery is front of that. They also may have been forced to a narrower curb cut so the landscaping grows as it gets closer to the street.

Unless it were another dry cleaner, I doubt commercial would do well here...it's too far away from other retail to draw business.

What is most horrid is the treatment and scale of the base on this thing. There are hardly ant parking podiums in Lakeview, and there are none along Belmont. Everything else has a nicely scaled pedestrian first floor. The least they could do is make this base feel like a three story masonry building like the one's all around it instead of that over-scaled monolith.

Are there any public meetings coming up on this one?

The driveway curves behind the plantings.

[spyguy]

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2016...tion-neighbors

Some real gems:

Tim McCahill, who lives within 250 feet of the site and is a suburban real estate developer, challenged the tower's height, which he later said would obstruct the skyline view from his rooftop deck.

"I love everything about it except the 15 stories," McCahill said after the meeting. "I'm all for development; just not when it obstructs at least 15 to 20 homes who will lose their rooftop views."

McCahill lives in the 1700 block of West Ellen Street, where several vintage homes have been torn down to build larger properties with rooftop decks.

Shane McMahon, who lives near an 11-story, 99-unit building at 1611 W. Division St. across from the proposed Wicker Park Connection, said he has seen a rise in CTA usage since the mostly carless tenants moved into that Transit-Oriented development, the neighborhood's first.

"What about the stress on the CTA? We are hearing build by transit, build by transit, but the trains are packed," McMahon said.

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by spyguy

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2016...tion-neighbors

Some real gems:

Moreno will approve it. He's king of TOD in Chicago right now and really doesn't give two shits about people bitching about views. Also, with the main neighborhood group in support; gives the project more solid legs with him. There may be some minor tweaks, but I wouldn't be too concerned.

[spyguy]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...217-story.html

Emanuel: Charge downtown developers more, spend money in struggling neighborhoods

Mayor Rahm Emanuel will announce Thursday he's seeking a new program to charge developers extra for packing more square footage into downtown buildings, with the money going for projects in Chicago's economically depressed neighborhoods.

The mayor estimated the proposal could generate roughly $40 million to $50 million in the next three or four years — but it also could help some developers make millions of dollars more on new projects.

That's because Emanuel wants to expand the borders of the city's Downtown Zoning District, mostly to the north and west.

Maybe they're finally taking into consideration more than just the local NIMBY neighborhood groups and thinking about how maximizing developments downtown might benefit the city as a whole.

[the urban politician]

^ Good idea, although I'm not a fan of this part:

Reilly noted that nothing in the plan would remove an alderman's control to veto a project in his or her ward. Asked how the proposal would be received by developers, Reilly predicted a "mixed bag."

Reilly is a douche-wanker, that's been proven over and over again.

Anyhow, I like how the "downtown boundary" has been moved west to cover much of the West Loop. I'm sure the NIMBY asshats living there will trip when they see that. They are suing to block an already approved development based on lost views.

All in all, though, if this money can be tapped to create more "affordable housing" for the "affordable housing class" as I like to call them (people dependent on the Government to do everything for them, and when the Government doesn't they get MAD!) then fine, throw a bone at them. It's better than block after block of vacant land. Build some new stuff, and I would hope that much of the money also goes towards rehabbing older building stock.

[Randomguy34]

Map from the Tribune article. I'm quite excited about this prospect of both dowtown expanding west and struggling neighborhoods given funds to help jump start their local economy. It would be great to see many of Chicago's neighborhoods have grocery stores and less vacant lots again. And of course since this is Skyscraperpage, it's exciting to see downtown expand into Chinatown and Near West Side (all the way to Ashland nonetheless!).


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...217-story.html

[Ryanrule]

We need to rope chinatown in, and convince some native chinese that chicago is also a good place to stash their cash in real estate.

[go go white sox]

This is a pretty big deal is it not? Assuming developers take advantage of it that is.