CHICAGO | General Developments

[sentinel]

John Ronan Architects use reclaimed brick and anodized aluminum for facade of Chicago Park District Headquarters








(All images by James Florio for the article)

https://www.archpaper.com/2023/08/jo...uarters/#specs

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by SolarWind

August 29, 2023



https://chicago.eater.com/2023/7/19/...rden-west-loop

You can't knock them for knowing how to take advantage of a moment.

[west-town-brad]

^

park district HQ is lovely

I love everything about that project

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by west-town-brad

^

park district HQ is lovely

I love everything about that project

Indeed. More unique projects like this, please.

[SamInTheLoop]

^^ ^ 10,000%

Fantastic design and by all appearances execution on this.

Ronan brought it.

[Randomguy34]

Even though City Council isn't meeting till the 19th, the new city clerk website is starting to upload zoning apps for the meeting!

Looks like there are plans to convert the old Earle School in West Englewood to 64 units: https://chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov...D-001DD8097665

[Klippenstein]

I love the new park district HQ, but when I passed on the orange line recently I couldn’t help but think that they missed an opportunity to site a residential TOD on the SE corner of the new park. The space is not really being utilized for anything and it would make so much sense next to the train. The orange line could really use some major TOD plan to make the areas around the stations more lively.

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

Even though City Council isn't meeting till the 19th, the new city clerk website is starting to upload zoning apps for the meeting!

Ald. Lee is upzoning various parcels near 35th & Halsted to B3-2.

Ald. Rodriguez-Sanchez is upzoning 2907 W Irving Park Rd to B3-3, where a 7 story 45 unit development is being proposed

[pullmanman]

Preview: Proposed Plans for Former People’s Gas Site

People’s Fabric has obtained the detailed plans and renderings as presented to the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) last month. The revised plans contain significant changes from those last presented to the public and interim plans published by People’s Fabric a year ago.

According to a letter from GW Properties about the upcoming meeting delivered to nearby neighbors, the latest plans call for four commercial one-story buildings on the north end of the property. Three buildings are planned along Irving Park Road and one along Kilpatrick.

The new plan more than triples the residential component of the development from those shown two years ago, increasing the number of apartments from 110 to 348 in a proposed “four-and-a-half-story full amenity residential (apartment-rental) building...”

The most recent plan presented to DPD includes 204 garage parking spots on the first floor of the residential building. Plans show surface parking with 24 visitor spaces and approximately 126 spots for commercial customers.

People's Fabric is a small Northwest Side media org I haven't heard of until I saw this on Reddit. This is a significant change to the previous development plans and has way more units. An incredibly car-oriented development, but still a good bit of density for the area.

[mh777]

Not sure if the development has full approval, but earthwork has definitely started at the Larrabee/Clybourn Cabrini Green site.

https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/07...dvances-plans/

[marothisu]

Speaking of former Peoples Gas sites...

Asian American community campus planned for Bridgeport development site

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/comm...ned-bridgeport

A long-vacant development site along the western edge of Bridgeport is poised to become a mixed-use campus serving the city's growing Asian American population after it was sold to a locally based social service agency.

The Chinese American Service League paid $8 million last week for the 5.2-acre property at 3000-3052 S. Pitney Court, according to a statement from ACO Commercial, which marketed the property on behalf of the seller. The Chicago-based nonprofit plans to develop the site with a "comprehensive community care campus" that includes affordable senior housing, an adult day service center for seniors, an early child-care center and a commercial kitchen for senior meals and culinary training programs, the statement said.

The project, which would be built along the arm of the Chicago River's south branch known as Bubbly Creek, is slated to include a community center that offers sports programs, meeting space and outdoor garden space along the water.

The plan would bring activity to a long-fallow property that was home to a Peoples Gas manufactured gas plant over a century ago and has undergone extensive environmental remediation over the past 15 years. It would also highlight the continued growth of Chicago's Asian American community, which the 2020 census showed to be the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the city. Fueled by the proliferation of the local Chinese American population, symbols of the community have expanded well beyond Chinatown over the past decade into neighborhoods like Bridgeport, Armour Square and Douglas.

..

CASL paid all cash to acquire the property from Soho Investments, a St. Louis-based venture that acquired an option for $1 million in 2008 to buy the site from Peoples Gas. The venture did not purchase it until environmental cleanup was done in 2021, when it paid just more than $3.7 million, according to ACO Commercial.

Adams said CASL pursued the purchase and development plan after receiving a "generous gift" from the Sue Ling Gin Foundation, the philanthropic trust of the late Chicago businesswoman and Flying Food Group founder. The foundation's leaders "expressed that they wanted to make a lasting, significant contribution that would serve as a catalyst for CASL's growth," Adams said in her statement. She declined to share the estimated cost of the development plan, which she noted is still not finalized and will likely take "multiple years" to complete.

..

The sale came roughly a year after U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced $1 million in federal funding to help with the restoration and conservation of Bubbly Creek. The waterway's name is tied to its history as a dumping ground for animal carcasses from the nearby Union Stock Yards, which have been closed for more than 50 years. As animal remains broke down, bubbles would surface on the water.

The river has been cleaned up and drawn back new wildlife over the years, and the federal money is backing an effort by the Shedd Aquarium and Chicago Park District to restore Bubbly Creek as an aquatic resource and nature outlet.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by pullmanman

Preview: Proposed Plans for Former People’s Gas Site







People's Fabric is a small Northwest Side media org I haven't heard of until I saw this on Reddit. This is a significant change to the previous development plans and has way more units. An incredibly car-oriented development, but still a good bit of density for the area.

Still sucks but much better than the horrific proposal pitched by People's Gas previously. If the retail buildings at least look decent it could be alright and still definitely add to the revitalization of the Six Corners area.

[Steely Dan]

Three 1-story retail buildings fronting Irving?

Jesus Christ, this fucking stubborn-ass city just absolutely refuses to learn from its past mistakes sometimes.

[moorhosj1]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Three 1-story retail buildings fronting Irving?

Jesus Christ, this fucking stubborn-ass city just absolutely refuses to learn from its past mistakes sometimes.

Who is "the city" in your comment?

This is the new proposal after the neighborhood and DPD pushed back on the sea of parking and lack of residential in the original. I assume the neighborhood and DPD will now push back on the one-story retail and curb cut fronting Irving Park.

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Three 1-story retail buildings fronting Irving?

Jesus Christ, this fucking stubborn-ass city just absolutely refuses to learn from its past mistakes sometimes.

stubborn national retailers who demand such buildings

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Three 1-story retail buildings fronting Irving?

Jesus Christ, this fucking stubborn-ass city just absolutely refuses to learn from its past mistakes sometimes.

Doesn't appear to be an issue with the city, rather a continued developer issue. At least the proposal is much improved over the original, horrific first iteration! Hopefully v it can still be somewhat modified to allow for more density fronting Irving Park as well.

[BrinChi]

So there's a second People's Gas site in Bridgeport that is also going to be redeveloped by the Chinese community? Just want to make sure that's clear since we jumped back to the People's Gas site on Irving Park.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by moorhosj1

Who is "the city" in your comment?

No one specifically, just ranting about the fact that suburban-ass crap like this keeps getting proposed and built here.

But to west-town-brad's point, a lot of the blame lies at the feet of national retailers who only have a "one size fits all" business model.

Hopefully there is more community pushback against this newer, but still suburban, scheme.

To the retailers/developers who produce this crap, DO BETTER!

[pullmanman]

City selects $121 million mixed-use project for Pershing Road warehouse site

A $121 million project that includes mixed-income housing, commercial offices and retail space was announced today as the winner of a Chicago Department of Planning and Development (DPD) Request for Proposals (RFP) to redevelop a historic City-owned property in McKinley Park. 

Planned by IBT Group LLC for an approximately 6.5-acre site at 1717-69 W. Pershing Road, the project will repurpose a vacant 571,000-square-foot warehouse known as the Quartermaster Depot, which was built in 1918 for the U.S. Army. The six-story structure, featuring 90,000-square-foot floor plates and located within McKinley Park’s Central Manufacturing District complex, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

Rehabilitation work will remove a center section of the building to create two partially detached structures with a shared interior courtyard. One structure will include 120 mixed-income apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. The other will become a 200,445-square-foot innovative office hub and technology incubator. Approximately 120 parking spaces will serve tenants and visitors of both structures. The facade and other historic elements of the complex will be preserved and restored. 

The eastern portion of the site, which currently contains a one-story City maintenance facility, will be redeveloped as a 50,000-square-foot grocery store. Approximately 130 parking spaces will be available for store patrons and workers. 

They picked the proposal with the most residential units, which I like. It also leaves two of the remaining buildings untouched, which I'm fine with for now.

[west-town-brad]

^
Looks great but surprising to see just 120 units in that massive building