CHICAGO | General Developments

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ Yeah, as sad as it is to lose a few of this old commercial buildings, the reality is that they are often in really bad shape and cost almost as much to restore as it would take to build a whole new building. We are only really losing a few of them here and there to redevelopment anyhow. Meanwhile they are being razed en masse all over the South and West sides because rents aren't high enough to justifying maintaining a building that is constantly in need of repair because of it's fancy ornamentation.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

^^^ Yeah, as sad as it is to lose a few of this old commercial buildings, the reality is that they are often in really bad shape and cost almost as much to restore as it would take to build a whole new building. We are only really losing a few of them here and there to redevelopment anyhow. Meanwhile they are being razed en masse all over the South and West sides because rents aren't high enough to justifying maintaining a building that is constantly in need of repair because of it's fancy ornamentation.

I'm making a map of teardowns right now - issued ones but also pending ones. It's pretty sad about the south side. The areas like Englewood, West Englewood, Auburn Gresham are being torn down a lot without replacement. The only areas where there's a teardown being replaced by something are areas like Bridgeport, McKinley Park, Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Bronzeville.

However, I have another map of renovations and additions and there's some interesting stuff going on in a part of Chicago Lawn as well as Woodlawn and Bronzeville with a number of renovations and/or complete conversions of 2 and 3 flats to SFH. Many home additions in areas like Mount Greenwood and Garfield Ridge too.

[PKDickman]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Context though. What did other commercial strips look like at the time? Milwaukee Ave, Armitage, Chicago Ave...? Those were not gutted for a massive street-widening.

To be fair, we also had our duds, and CDoT had plans for Milwaukee. They ranged from widening it to 250ft in '52 to leaving it alone in '58 to closing it all together in '68. They also wanted to widen the rest of North Ave as well as Damen, Armitage and Racine.

Originally Posted by ardecila

Much of the city was declining in some way, especially that area as it transitioned to being Puerto Rican. The favorite reaction at the time to dense, crowded neighborhoods (Especially those with minority populations) was simply to clear-cut buildings.

It's easy to look back at the Urban Renewal era and project a lot of sinister motives. I'm not saying those motives didn't exist, but they would never have gotten any traction if the neighborhoods weren't already swirling the bowl.

When the DUR announced the widening plans for that stretch of North Ave in '64 All the local NIMBY groups got on board. They felt that the few businesses that were displaced could be accommodated in the Pipers Alley project.

I have been remiss in providing photo sources. The earlier ones were from the Carli collection, this post's photo is from the City of Chgo via ForgottenGhicago

[Near North Resident]

looks like the former 'strata' condos on larabee north of chicago ave, are being redesigned into more smaller units

old rendering was for 27 units / 6 stories stopped sales in november (prices were too high for the area IMO) http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...ct-halts-sales

new building details are 50 units 4 stories

Unit Composition: Studio – 12; 1BR – 26; 1BR + Den – 6; 2BR - 6

http://www.connectnearnorth.org/news/10341

not the prettiest looking building but at least its right on the sidewalk and will fill in that stupid lot

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by Near North Resident

looks like the former 'strata' condos on larabee north of chicago ave, are being redesigned into more smaller units

new building details are 50 units 4 stories
http://www.connectnearnorth.org/news/10341

Interesting. I preferred the old design but this won't look bad if they use real brick. Reminds me of a lot of the blended material mid-rise development I saw in Seattle this winter.

[marothisu]

^ Not bad - good increase of density as well. Any target begin date on it?

[SolarWind]

April 21, 2016

[Via Chicago]

talk about bland.

i was at least hoping for a more interesting/textured brick based on the renderings.

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

talk about bland.

i was at least hoping for a more interesting/textured brick based on the renderings.

It's really bad. At least they've underutilized the land to the extent that it might not take the rest of my lifetime to see it demoed/replaced.

[the urban politician]

Yeah that looks like absolute shit

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by SolarWind

837 S Wells

Is that 707 N Wells brother from the other side of town?

Originally Posted by george

1/14

[marothisu]

Welp, we can say goodbye to this building in the South Loop for...a new parking lot:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8600...8i6656!6m1!1e1

Looks like it's part of a parking lot expansion for the fairly new Mariano's next door. MCZ owns it - no other building permits, so not sure if another building could be constructed there or not. That building doesn't look like it's in the best of shape, but it's sad they can't re-purpose it.

[ChickeNES]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Welp, we can say goodbye to this building in the South Loop for...a new parking lot:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8600...8i6656!6m1!1e1

Looks like it's part of a parking lot expansion for the fairly new Mariano's next door. MCZ owns it - no other building permits, so not sure if another building could be constructed there or not. That building doesn't look like it's in the best of shape, but it's sad they can't re-purpose it.

And the suburbification of the South Loop continues....

[Mr Downtown]

The developer actually had plans to put a CVS there, in a new building with several floors of self-storage units on top.

A lot of blame should go to the PMD protection racket. Wicklander Printing got PMD status for this little swath of the South Loop back in the early 1990s—and then were hoist by their own petard when they decided to sell their property a decade ago. If this land weren't in a PMD, it would be too expensive for surface parking.

Though some vitriol should be saved for Chicago Police Dept., which apparently has some policy (or union stipulation) that cops can't be asked to park in structured parking. Or so I was told when I suggested that, if Ald. Dowell is searching for a place to build a new school, she could look to one of the nine blocks used as surface parking by the First District.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Though some vitriol should be saved for Chicago Police Dept., which apparently has some policy (or union stipulation) that cops can't be asked to park in structured parking. Or so I was told when I suggested that, if Ald. Dowell is searching for a place to build a new school, she could look to one of the nine blocks used as surface parking by the First District.

Which is very strange, considering both the 9th District (Bridgeport) and the 17th (Jefferson Park) have parking garages for the fleet, and probably more that I'm not thinking of.

Honestly the 1st and 18th Districts should NOT have surface parking lots....

[J_M_Tungsten]

Today at North/Clark
Not sure exactly what they are doing, but maybe for this? http://101northavenue.com

[ChiHi]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

The developer actually had plans to put a CVS there, in a new building with several floors of self-storage units on top.

A lot of blame should go to the PMD protection racket. Wicklander Printing got PMD status for this little swath of the South Loop back in the early 1990s—and then were hoist by their own petard when they decided to sell their property a decade ago. If this land weren't in a PMD, it would be too expensive for surface parking.

Though some vitriol should be saved for Chicago Police Dept., which apparently has some policy (or union stipulation) that cops can't be asked to park in structured parking. Or so I was told when I suggested that, if Ald. Dowell is searching for a place to build a new school, she could look to one of the nine blocks used as surface parking by the First District.

The PDNA group had sent something out on this saying that there was at one time some plan to convert this to residential but the building was in pretty rough shape structurally so demolition was about the only feasible option. Not sure if there is anything to that or not though.

[Mr Downtown]

^Must be a different building. Since this is in the PMD, residential was never an option.

[harryc]

[harryc]