CHICAGO | Boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v5

[TransitEngr]

Soundproofing (or just sound dampening) is not terribly uncommon with highrises adjacent to the EL.

That brown condo tower immediately adjacent to the Clinton Green/Pink Line EL station has windows facing the EL with special sound dampening insulation.

It just depends on the developer, the City's vigilance, and buyers or potential renters.... the developer generally wants to avoid spending this cash, but if the units are sold (or rented) as luxury units it can be a good selling point.

"Numerous variables involved" is the short answer.

I'm very happy to hear this spot is being developed.... I hate seeing gas stations and their respective empty lots immediately adjacent to transit stations. To reiterate someone else's request.... any renderings yet?

[ardecila]

I noticed a drilling rig on the site of The Mondial yesterday. I'll try to get some pics from the train tomorrow.

Is there a sure-fire way to distinguish caisson drilling from soil testing?

[Dan in Chicago]

^ Oh wow, thanks for checking on the Mondial site. I don't think that one's on most of our walking circuits .

You can tell caisson drilling when you see 3- to 5-foot diameter rusty steel tubes embedded in the ground. These are the caisson shaft liners, and you can usually see a ring of rusty steel sticking about a foot or so out of the ground at various points on the site. In addition, you will see bright red or yellow mobile cranes with a steel shaft hanging straight down from the boom, and a spiral drill bit at the end of the shaft. The cranes will say "Case Foundation" if they're yellow, and "Revcon" or (rarely) "Thatcher Engineering" if they're red. Sometimes Walsh uses its own cranes for caissons, which I believe are white. And furthermore, the site will probably be littered with long sections of netted rebar which fit into the tubes, and a few unused tubes and drill bits will be lying around also.

Soil testing is usually done with a much smaller apparatus, just a truck with a little thing behind it that looks like an oil well.

If someone can look at this site today, try to see if they would have started drilling caissons before this weekend. I'm trying to keep track of the months when each high-rise starts, and for some reason a lot of them happen right at the turn of the month (which makes my task a bit aggravating).

[ardecila]

Yeah, good thing I was looking out the train windows. There's a cool loft building on the south side of Huron that I always enjoy looking at; that's when I saw the equipment and remembered the Mondial, which will soon rob my views.

[Chicago3rd]

Originally Posted by harryc

This is right at the turn to the El, does anybody know how they are going to address the noise ?

When I lived next to the opposite curve the noise was intense - we learned to stop talking as the trains screeched around the curve.

Noise is worth it though to be next to ( across the street from ) the El station. Heated !

I think the lot is on the right of this photo:


When ever I hear people ask questions about buildings going up right next to the el I think of these two buildings between the el and metra and then the probably hundreds of millions of dollars of developements built along the el line since I have lived here and conclude they don't ride the el much.

[harryc]

Yes the lot described is in the right of the photo.

This corner ( and the one just west of it ) is a right turn and the squeeling of the wheels is MUCH louder than anywhere else I have been on the CTA.

In the 80s I was paying $125/mo for a studio a block away, I bet it is a bit more expensive now.

A nice part of this proposal is it doesn't block anyone's view. The ugly thing on S.W. Dakin/Sheridan totally blocks the views of downtown from 1000-1010 (?) Dakin apartments.

Arnold's - Taco & Burrito House - Byrons Hot Dogs ... god I miss that neighborhood.

[SamInTheLoop]

[QUOTE=harryc;2930475]Yes the lot described is in the right of the photo.


A nice part of this proposal is it doesn't block anyone's view. The ugly thing on S.W. Dakin/Sheridan totally blocks the views of downtown from 1000-1010 (?) Dakin apartments.


Huh?? Ugly?? I assume you're talking about Lakeview Station by Loukas Development. I think not (even though it's by the often insufferable P/H) - it's a very welcome and needed addition to this neighborhood, which desperately needs additional significant shots of contemporary design....I'm hopeful the mid-rise really makes a forward-looking statement. Actually it doesn't even need to make a statement - I'll settle for a decent design that doesn't strive to pretend the building "has always been there" - one of the most idiotic design objectives you still hear spouted about sometimes....

Also - who cares who's view is blocked? There is a mechanism through which people can preserve their views - it's called air rights. (or you can purchase bordering a park, waterway, etc....)

[the urban politician]

Sorry Steely, but I couldn't help but snag this photo from 'that evil website'. It's from Walton on the Park's sales center:



2 questions:

1) Wasn't the highrise supposed to be facing directly away from the cathedral, et al in the back, as opposed to facing adjacent to them?

2) Is this going to be another blank parking podium or will there be some residential units flanking the street, as in Astoria Tower?

BTW, those "evil bastards" are reporting this as 30% sold

[honte]

^ I just love how the tower gets more plain and more boring as it rises. Brilliant new design concept.

[ardecila]

I wonder if they are gonna build the podium, then reserve the second tower for a second marketing drive/construction like 500 N LSD?

[ardecila]

Monday, July 2, 2007

Allure at K Station

A worker grinding the concrete (okay guys, anybody know what he's actually doing?)


An interesting gate in the Kinzie Street viaduct...






400 North Fairbanks



The Mondial











Reebie Lofts



Trio



Vetro

[Chicago3rd]

[QUOTE=SamInTheLoop;2930761]

Originally Posted by harryc

Yes the lot described is in the right of the photo.


A nice part of this proposal is it doesn't block anyone's view. The ugly thing on S.W. Dakin/Sheridan totally blocks the views of downtown from 1000-1010 (?) Dakin apartments.


Huh?? Ugly?? I assume you're talking about Lakeview Station by Loukas Development. I think not (even though it's by the often insufferable P/H) - it's a very welcome and needed addition to this neighborhood, which desperately needs additional significant shots of contemporary design....I'm hopeful the mid-rise really makes a forward-looking statement. Actually it doesn't even need to make a statement - I'll settle for a decent design that doesn't strive to pretend the building "has always been there" - one of the most idiotic design objectives you still hear spouted about sometimes....

Also - who cares who's view is blocked? There is a mechanism through which people can preserve their views - it's called air rights. (or you can purchase bordering a park, waterway, etc....)

[forumly_chgoman]

I am confused as to this model I thought from an earlier model the building had two tower section shaped sort of like this |_|,

I must have been mistaken

[10023]

Chicago really needs an ordinance specifying that parking must be built underground. By the end of this boom that city is going to be nothing but parking garages at street level. The skyline looks great but walking around River North is awful.

[Pandemonious]

If you are referring to the Walton on the Park model, it will have two towers. It seems this model depicts that it may be phased, where one tower and the shared podium is built first, and then the other tower added later.

[the urban politician]

http://www.hpherald.com/

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by 10023

Chicago really needs an ordinance specifying that parking must be built underground. By the end of this boom that city is going to be nothing but parking garages at street level. The skyline looks great but walking around River North is awful.

^ Agreed, but I'll ask this question again: Didn't somebody once say that Walton on the Park will have residential units flanking the garage?

[honte]

Thanks for the HP article TUP. Gang's work is always pretty strange to me at first - never know where they're coming from.

This surely would be the most horizontal "high-rise" on page 1 if it goes anywhere.

[2PRUROCKS!]

Honte and TUP, where did the article say or how do you know this is a Gang project? I didn't see the architect mentioned anywhere? I believe this is a different proposal from the Gang proposal in HP.

[spyguy]

http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=25547

Edgewater Dominick's site up for sale

A Dominick’s Finer Food LLC store near the lakefront is being marketed as a development site, where the grocery chain would anchor a new, 400-unit residential project.

The 2.3-acre parcel, at the corner of Foster Avenue and Sheridan Road in the Edgewater neighborhood, could accommodate a nearly 500,000-square-foot development under current zoning, according to a brochure distributed by real estate firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P., which is handling the sale.

Oak Brook-based Dominick’s has leased the store, at 5235 N. Sheridan Road, since the late 1970s when it was built, says Ernest Schwartz, who developed it.

Mr. Schwartz says Holliday has been hired by Chicago-based Ansonia Properties LLC, which has a contract to buy the store from him.

“That area is prime for redevelopment,” says Mr. Schwartz, who is now retired, but has owned the property since the early 1950s. “It’s a very nice area, and the area needs that grocery store.”

Matthew Lawton, senior managing director in Holliday’s Chicago office, declines comment. An executive with Ansonia could not be reached for comment.

While the new-construction condominium market is in a steep decline, many developers have turned to apartment projects, in part because condo conversions have reduced the supply of top-quality apartment properties in the area.

“There are so few rental buildings east of Sheridan that are truly lakefront type assets,” says Lee Kiser, a principal in Chicago-based Kiser Group, which specializes in the sale of apartment buildings.

Under one possible scenario, the existing Dominick’s, would be demolished, replaced by one of the chain’s “lifestyle” stores, a format that emphasizes fresh produce, baked goods and prepared food, according to the Holliday brochure.

The plan also proposes two residential towers on the north end of the site, with retail shops on the ground floor. The terms of Dominick’s lease could not be determined.

A spokeswoman for Dominick’s, a subsidiary of Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc., declined comment on the terms of the lease but confirmed that grocery chain is considering "options for updating the store."