CHICAGO | General Developments

[the urban politician]

With the foreclosure finally going forward and the lender gaining access to the buildings across Cermak from McCormick Place, I'm surprised we're not hearing more from the preservation community.

Those are some nice and historic buildings, and frankly with all the vacant land in the area it seems criminal to tear them down for some sort of arena.

What I don't seem to understand is the continued delusion that sports arenas somehow revitalize neighborhoods, but that's a different topic.

Mr. D or anyone else, do you know if there has been any discussion from the preservation community?

[ardecila]

The American Book Company warehouse is already a landmark.

The only other historic building is the Harriet Rees House at 2110 S. Prairie, which is a beautiful romanesque greystone.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

With the foreclosure finally going forward and the lender gaining access to the buildings across Cermak from McCormick Place, I'm surprised we're not hearing more from the preservation community.

Those are some nice and historic buildings, and frankly with all the vacant land in the area it seems criminal to tear them down for some sort of arena.

What I don't seem to understand is the continued delusion that sports arenas somehow revitalize neighborhoods, but that's a different topic.

Mr. D or anyone else, do you know if there has been any discussion from the preservation community?

Obviously the ABC building isn't going anywhere. I could see the arena going on the next block and perhaps over Prairie Av to extend onto the half-block next to the ABC building.

The arena would certainly function for McCormick as well as DePaul. Additionally the Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island will eventually have to go away and the arena would provide a replacement and shift activity into a neighborhood that could use it.

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by ardecila

The only other historic building is the Harriet Rees House at 2110 S. Prairie, which is a beautiful romanesque greystone.

Considering that the Rees House is in such phenomenal shape (interior shots here) I would hope that the city, or landmarks, demands it be relocated, preferably to 2011 South Prairie, mating it to the William H. Reid House and backing up to the Wheeler-Kohn Mansion. The cluster could then be added to the Prairie Avenue Historic District and we wouldn't have to worry about losing any of them.

How much could it possibly cost to move it a single block?

[wierdaaron]

Demo on what will become Maggie Daley Park marches along. Almost everything is demolished except for two of the tennis court structures, which strangely haven't been touched (I'm pretty sure they're not part of the new park design, so they'll have to go eventually).





^- You can see the exposed roof of the mixed used/community center structure at the northern (closest to camera) edge. They used to be covered in dirt and grass into the form of a gentle sloping hill.




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There are a few images available at the official Maggie Daley Park website. Here's one of the used-to-be-a hill:

[Notyrview]

Thanks for the update!

[Mr Downtown]

American Book Co. and the Rees House are already Chicago Landmarks.

[Rizzo]

Would landmarks permit the relocation of the Rees House? You don't see too much moving of historic homes here in the city. I used to see historic homes moved at least once a year in Ann Arbor. In fact, they rebuilt a viaduct in part to support the heavy loads of large masonry buildings traversing across the bridge.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

American Book Co. and the Rees House are already Chicago Landmarks.

Well okay then. The Rees House was landmarked only last March... guess I must have missed it.

Looks like there's no problem with an arena, then. Let the bulldozing commence! IF they do build an arena, I hope they keep it dense and build to the property lines instead of sinking it back behind huge plazas. Nothing kills the streetscape like an object-building arena, especially if the design is some architectural fad. Mixed-use would be cool, too... The perfect model is Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

[killaviews]

Originally Posted by Hayward

Corner storefronts between Friday's Restaurant and Tumi on Michigan ave have construction plywood up to the second floor. Looks like a big retail arrival. Walgreens? Uniqlo?

Probably this:
http://chicago.racked.com/archives/2...-ferragamo.php

I think both Ferragamo and Zegna are expanding to two floors.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

Demo on what will become Maggie Daley Park marches along. Almost everything is demolished except for two of the tennis court structures, which strangely haven't been touched (I'm pretty sure they're not part of the new park design, so they'll have to go eventually).




]

Thanks for the photos. The section called peanut park the one in that above photo will get 6 tennis courts down from 12 courts in the other part of the park, so those courts that have not been demolished yet will go.

Here is a fun link on this project from Chicago architecture blog. Don't miss the Q & A section, its a blast.


http://blog.chicagoarchitecture.info...rk-renovation/


.

[wierdaaron]

I didn't know you could relocate tennis courts, but then again I guess I never really thought about it.

[ardecila]

They're not moving the actual courts, they're just building new ones in a different location.

[wierdaaron]

Oh, I thought maybe they hadn't demolished half of the courts was because they were going to relocate them over to peanut park. To be honest I have no idea how a tennis court is constructed, but it seemed like a reasonable solution to the mystery of why they left those 6 courts untouched after destroying the other 6 weeks ago.

[J_M_Tungsten]

I'm just happy the tennis courts are going to be out of the way. I actually enjoy playing tennis, but man, what a waste of space. Even in the spring and summer, they're not used from sun up to sun down.

[harryc]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

...snip...




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...snip...

The Lorax comes to mind.

[ardecila]

Harry, it gets weirder. The old tree trunks will be treated, encased in latex and used as sculptural objects in the park. Seriously.

[J_M_Tungsten]

^wow. Adaptive reuse, eh?

[J_M_Tungsten]

What was and what will be. This is going to be a huge transformation.





And incase this is the right rendering, I'll post it. A couple of minor changes and the tennis courts are angled for some reason.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by harryc

The Lorax comes to mind.

Looking at the before and after pics from J_M_Tungsten clearly shows most all of those trees are going down. Plans I have read said they will replant even more.

But those trees had to come down to fix the leaky garage top which was the primary driver of this whole operation to begin with. They were contractually and legally ordered to correct that problem due to that suck ass parking meter scam deal Daley stuck it too us for the next 75 years.

One of the worst things to happen to the city financially in well... it might be the worst [ one sided ] deal ever made in the history of the city.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/0...d-for-75-years