CHICAGO | Lincoln Yards

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Domer2019

I think it has the potential to serve as a stadium analogue to Wintrust Arena in the multi-use sense. Especially being empty in the winter/USL off-season.

I don't see it. Wintrust Arena itself has a shaky business case, but it doesn't matter since it's funded through McPier (tax dollars, etc). This is presumably a totally private venture by Sterling Bay.

However... now that I think about it, maybe it's possible to use air-supported technology (i.e. a golf dome) to enclose the stadium cheaply. Setup and takedown would be a project, but it could just be done for November-March when soccer games are not being played. The max span on a golf dome is around 360' while a FIFA soccer field is only 240' wide, so that still leaves 120' or approximately 40-45 rows of seats. With some endzone seating, it wouldn't be difficult to fit 20,000 seats. Getting people in and out while maintaining air pressure would be the biggest challenge, especially at the end fo events when everyone is leaving (or during an emergency evacuation).

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Seriously, these roofs run into the hundreds of millions. I don't see how they make business sense unless you have a bunch of free money to burn.

Not to be too picayune, but it's not really the roofs that are the biggest cost in a dome stadium project. It's that once you enclose a stadium, you need massive amounts air conditioning. It's all the HVAC equipment, ducts, etc., that are the biggest cost. But your point is well taken.

[denizen467]

^ Comparable to United Center, a 20k seat enclosed stadium? Except, as to operating costs, UC can't un-retract its roof.

This area already is a traffic clustermess, at least along Armitage around the Kennedy and Metra, and Ashland from Fullerton to Cortland. I don't see how you just shove at least 5 thousand extra vehicles (including ride-hails and self-driving ones ... but not yet including all the office worker traffic) into that at least once a week, without massive infrastructure construction to reconfigure things. Admittedly major upgrades are needed there anyway.

This out-of-left-field move by a property developer must be part of enticing Amazon; maybe they think Amazon would want to use a giant field and stadium like this sometimes. This would help explain the retractable roof too, as the perception of horrible winters will be affecting Amazon's thought processes.

[10023]

Originally Posted by skyscraper

Not to be too picayune, but it's not really the roofs that are the biggest cost in a dome stadium project. It's that once you enclose a stadium, you need massive amounts air conditioning. It's all the HVAC equipment, ducts, etc., that are the biggest cost. But your point is well taken.

Do you need air conditioning in a retractable dome? Wouldn't you just open the roof when it was warm enough to need A/C?

[Rocket49]

Originally Posted by bnk

Too bad it will still be too small for any real sport though.

The stadium will seat around 20,000. Which is about the White Sox's average attendance

[10023]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

^ I'm actually don't think much community input will be needed since there aren't that many 2nd ward residents surrounding the development. The 43rd ward NIMBYs are going to give a helluva fuss about it, but ultimately most of the North Branch is in the 2nd and 27th ward. We already know that Brian Hopkins can be pro-development if there's not much NIMBYism, and Walter Burnett already said a couple months ago that he doesn't care about the concerns of residents from other wards about development in the North Branch. There still is a helluva lot of approvals needed from the city, but having to worry less about NIMBYs certainly makes it easier. Here's a reminder of how screwed up the wards are for this area:


Source: Chicago Map

What the fuck?!

[HomrQT]

Originally Posted by 10023

What the fuck?!

That's basically everyone's initial impression when they see that ward map. Politics is a dirty business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

[Near North Resident]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

^ I'm actually don't think much community input will be needed since there aren't that many 2nd ward residents surrounding the development. The 43rd ward NIMBYs are going to give a helluva fuss about it, but ultimately most of the North Branch is in the 2nd and 27th ward. We already know that Brian Hopkins can be pro-development if there's not much NIMBYism, and Walter Burnett already said a couple months ago that he doesn't care about the concerns of residents from other wards about development in the North Branch. There still is a helluva lot of approvals needed from the city, but having to worry less about NIMBYs certainly makes it easier. Here's a reminder of how screwed up the wards are for this area:


Source: Chicago Map

sorry but I crack up every time I see that 'ward map'

[ardecila]

^ Also Arie Crown Theater, United Center, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Theater, CharterOne during summers, Sears Centre, The Odeum, etc. Plenty of venues, especially when you consider Chicagoland as a metro and not just the city itself.

I still think Wintrust is a shaky proposition, but it doesn't matter because it's run by a government agency and because it's part of a larger McCormick Place ensemble. It'll get used, especially for large speaker events or entertainment as part of a convention.

A stadium at Lincoln Yards, I think, will have a more difficult time. There's certainly a need for an outdoor sporting venue that can host high school/amateur events and tournaments, etc. I just don't know if the "retractable roof" (whatever that means) is going to pay off. The whole thing seems poorly thought-out and more like a ploy to lure Amazon. Remember, Wintrust only works because McCormick already has massive parking capacity, easy access from all expressways, streets that are rarely congested, and a brand-new Green Line stop. Lincoln Yards has no infrastructure like that, and no concrete plan in place to build it.

[KWillChicago]

If it gets built, the bears should move into this for two years and rebuild soldier with more seats and a retractable roof. That way we CAN get a superbowl here. And yes old school fans, i say keep the roof open for regular season games.

[Randomguy34]

EPA probes pollution from scrap yard near potential Amazon HQ2 site in gentrifying Clybourn Corridor

One of the last industrial facilities in the fast-gentrifying Clybourn Corridor looks more like a set from "Mad Max" than the glittering, tech-friendly utopia portrayed in videos promoting Chicago for Amazon's second headquarters.

Nearly every day, claw-mounted cranes at the General Iron Industries scrap yard feed flattened cars, twisted rebar and used appliances into hulking shredders that reduce the metallic waste into chunks the size of a coffee can. Smoke pours out of the machines as semis and pickup trucks back into piles of metal, scrap is plucked off barges moored along the Chicago River, and tower-mounted sprinklers spray a fine mist across the wreckage.
....
As the area has gone upscale, neighbors have increasingly complained about metallic odors and noise from the scrap yard. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered General Iron's owners to conduct detailed air pollution testing within the next six months, the first step in what could be the third federal crackdown on the scrap yard since the late 1990s.

The EPA demanded the tests after Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, revealed that a University of Illinois at Chicago researcher had found alarming levels of lung-damaging particulate matter downwind from the facility. The researcher was enlisted by a Lincoln Park man who said he was fed up with pollution drifting into his neighborhood.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...228-story.html

Can't say I'm surprised by this. If General Iron is forced to leave, that can only be good news for Sterling Bay if they want to increase the number of parcels they own.

[ardecila]

Well, it was always going to be a matter of time until they left. Rising land values don't really square with low-value uses like scrapyards. They were only able to hold on this long because PMD zoning kept redevelopment at bay, but now Rahm's opened the floodgates to office development.

Of course, even if General Iron shuts down, they may land-bank their holdings and wait for a better price in ten, twenty years. The Labkon family that owns it is very spiteful.

[LouisVanDerWright]

That's a shame, general iron is awesome, I love the street just goes right through an active scrap yard. It's also a shame we don't get to see those cauldorns of molten metal at Finkl anymore too. But change is inevitable and good I suppose.

[Randomguy34]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

That's a shame, general iron is awesome, I love the street just goes right through an active scrap yard. It's also a shame we don't get to see those cauldorns of molten metal at Finkl anymore too. But change is inevitable and good I suppose.

The city has encouraging manufacturing industries in the North Branch to relocate to the South and West Sides, so it's possible they are still able to stay in the city

[the urban politician]

Sometimes while driving through a scrap yard I get aroused. Does anyone else experience that?

[HomrQT]

Like 2 weeks for the Amazon decision right?

[Freefall]

Originally Posted by HomrQT

Like 2 weeks for the Amazon decision right?

Definitely not a final decision in 2 weeks. We'll get a short list first.

[Reinsdorf Sucks]

Originally Posted by Freefall

Definitely not a final decision in 2 weeks. We'll get a short list first.

I believe I saw a shortlist in the newspaper, and Chicago was a part of it !

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Reinsdorf Sucks

I believe I saw a shortlist in the newspaper, and Chicago was a part of it !

Good eye! Nobody elsewhere has mentioned that nugget of news—at all!

[Randomguy34]

^ Wow, talk about a skyscraper jungle. This development reminds me of other projects going on in Brooklyn and London

Edit: Looks like there are also plans for a 24-acre riverfront park (more renderings in the article)


Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...314-story.html