CHICAGO | General Discussions

[sentinel]

^^The building management was sited as early as last month regarding code violations, not having sprinkler system, etc., according to the news last night.

[SIGSEGV]

yeah, things like this make me nervous since I live in a highrise, but we at least have sprinklers and the exterior is brick...

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

yeah, things like this make me nervous since I live in a highrise, but we at least have sprinklers and the exterior is brick...

if you live in a well managed building, then they regulalry test their smoke alarm/fire safety systems.

in which case, you're good.

9 times out of 10 when there are fatal fires in chicago, smoke alarms were either not present or not working.


it's so sad because it's so needless. and there are many programs to get free smoke alarms if you can't afford them. they save countless lives.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

if you live in a well managed building, then they regulalry test their smoke alarm/fire safety systems.

in which case, you're good.

9 times out of 10 when there are fatal fires in chicago, smoke alarms were either not present or not working.


it's so sad because it's so needless. and there are many programs to get free smoke alarms if you can't afford them. they save countless lives.

Absolutely 10 times out of 10. Proper implementation of building codes work for a reason..perhaps situations are rare, but when they do work, tragedies like this become preventable (apologies in advance if I'm coming off as insensitive, that's not my intent - this is an unspeakable tragedy, not only for those who lost their lives, but also for those who lost their homes. I just cannot stress enough how buildings codes are vital.

[Rizzo]

Just read that individual units didn’t have sprinklers, but another article said the building had a system so maybe only in the corridors. Smoke detector in the unit wasn’t working, so it was too late.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Rizzo

Just read that individual units didn’t have sprinklers, but another article said the building had a system so maybe only in the corridors. Smoke detector in the unit wasn’t working, so it was too late.

very sad.

[galleyfox]

Originally Posted by Rizzo

Just read that individual units didn’t have sprinklers, but another article said the building had a system so maybe only in the corridors. Smoke detector in the unit wasn’t working, so it was too late.

I’m not so sure a smoke detector would have fully worked in this case. Especially a cheap ionization detector which can’t detect smoldering fires well.

The senior citizen who died was smoking cigarettes in bed when the fire started.

Fortunately, the interiors were non-combustible enough to slow the fire for emergency responders to help the neighbors.

When all else fails, construction quality is the last line of defense.

[Randomguy34]

Grand & Clark (between 1962-68)

https://twitter.com/chi_geek/status/1620475404615303169

Grand & Clark (2021)

[pip]

wow they screwed up that. Great pics!

[marothisu]

That makes me sad. Much better back in the 60s right there..

[Chi-Sky21]

Harry Weiner and Hotel Wacker in the same shot....well done!!

[MorganChi]

Off subject But WTF NYC ?!?!?


https://www.curbed.com/2023/01/anish...-complete.html

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by MorganChi

Off subject But WTF NYC ?!?!?


https://www.curbed.com/2023/01/anish...-complete.html

It looks more like The Bun rather than The Bean

[gebs]

^^^ That won't capture lightning in a bottle like ours does.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by gebs

^^^ That won't capture lightning in a bottle like ours does.

Just look at the picture, it reflects a bunch of banal 7 story tenements.

[Klippenstein]

Hey Chicagoans. Would love your thoughts on >>this post<< I just started in City Discussions about the Early Chicago Skyscrapers sitting on the tentative list for UNESCO designation since 2017. I tried to search for past discussion about this, but I couldn’t find anything. Personally, I think it would be amazing for the Printers Row/South Loop area that needs some enlivening.

[pullmanman]

Construction Physics Substack posted a great breakdown of skyscraper construction speed that reflects favorably on Chicago's construction industry compared to NYC.

Here's the conclusion:

To sum up, construction speed of New York skyscrapers has declined significantly over time, particularly after 1970. Depending on the metric you use, modern New York skyscrapers are built at 40-70% the speed of those built in the 1940s-60s, and around a third of the speed of those built in the 1930s (though the unusually fast Empire State Building distorts the data here.) Chicago, the only other US city that has built significant numbers of skyscrapers for many decades, doesn’t show this same pattern of decline (though it also doesn’t build as fast as it once did), and New York skyscrapers are built at around 50-70% the speed of Chicago skyscrapers. This seems partially due to New York constructing many more skinny skyscrapers with very small floor plates than Chicago does, which take proportionately longer to build.

[left of center]

Huh, interesting. Good news for the city. Speedier/more efficient construction makes tall buildings more economical to build for developers, which is of course a net positive for skyscraper nerds like us!

[SIGSEGV]

This has probably been discussed before, but why does Chicago not have a permanent public market downtown somewhere? (One that hopefully would sell normal produce in addition to bougie waffle balls). Has this ever existed or been proposed? The closest thing I guess is French Market but that's mostly a food hall...

[ardecila]

I think Mr. D weighed in on this a few years ago. Historically there was wholesale grocery in the Haymarket/Randolph area and the South Water Market on what is now Wacker Drive, but not really public markets like you see in Europe (or Cleveland, lol). Probably in the early days these markets sold directly to consumers on a small scale, but the rapid commercial growth of downtown soon pushed most of the residents to outlying neighborhoods. Downtown became strictly a business district and the downtown markets focused in on wholesale only by ~the 1890s.

Out in the neighborhoods, Chicagoans did their shopping at countless small grocers, often with a particular ethnic specialty. I assume all those small grocers had political power, so the city never stepped in to build neighborhood-level public markets that might compete with them. Eventually the small grocers gave way to larger supermarket chains (A&P, Jewel, etc) that combined greengrocer, butcher, fish, dry goods, bakery, floral, and eventually pharmacy/liquor under one roof and importantly provided parking for shoppers.

Later even the wholesale markets moved out of downtown, ironically to make way for new waves of residential. The South Water Market moved to 15th/Blue Island in the 20s and then to Damen/Blue Island in the 2000s. Obviously the meatpackers moved out of Fulton Market in the 2010s...

I guess we could fix the "mistake" and build a market today, but what would be the purpose? Downtown residents are already fairly well-served by supermarkets, although there's room for improvement. If the point is tourism, what exactly would the market offer? There are some good producers out there, but the Midwest doesn't have the rich bounty of California, Spain or Italy. We have a short growing season and most farmers are growing corn or soybeans. The existing farmer's market system is excellent, but if you shop there you quickly figure out that the good stuff is only available for 4 months out of the year. Not really enough to support a permanent structure.

Milwaukee of course has a great public market, but I think part of the rationale for building it was to provide a grocery option to the Third Ward so the residential population could keep growing. I assume private grocery chains were not interested in building there, or at least weren't interested in an urban format. We don't really have that issue in downtown Chicago.