CHICAGO | General Developments

[spyguy]

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/foun...html?id=186214

Poetry Foundation Builds a Home in Chicago

The Poetry Foundation announced today that it has begun construction of a new home (poetryfoundation.org/building) that will be Chicago’s first building dedicated solely to the art form of poetry and the first permanent venue for Poetry magazine in its nearly 100-year history in the city.

...The ground floor of the two-story building will be devoted to public use, including a multipurpose performance space expected to be one of the leading venues for the spoken word, a public garden, a 35,000-volume non-circulating collection that is currently in storage, and an exhibition gallery.

...The Foundation’s program staff, including the employees of Poetry magazine, the online, media, youth, and events initiatives, and the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, will be relocated from their current offices on Michigan Avenue to the second floor of the new building. In addition to housing current activities and the new library program, the Foundation’s new space will allow it to increase the number of public events it sponsors within its existing programs. Additional functions envisioned for the space include staged events combining poetry and the visual or performing arts; gallery exhibits from the Poetry archives; discussion groups with teachers and students; collaborations with other literary organizations; and audio and video archiving of on-site events.

[Loopy]

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[emathias]

Originally Posted by BWChicago

Wasn't the Sears Tower sign granite and the Willis fiberglass? That says a lot.

I think the sign is black granite (or close enough to fool me), but the letters are filled in with illuminated plastic instead of being just carved like the Sears name was. The plastic was installed so clumsily, too, that there were (are?) shadows cast by the internal wiring on the surface of them.

I'd also point out that the new flagpoles they have might be okay except that they're finished in bright brushed aluminum instead of polished stainless steel, so they match absolutely no other metals.

The other things I dislike is that the black cladding of the tower itself is only polished up to the second floor or so, so you get dark black at the bottom and weathered dark grey above that.

Quality has always been about details, and the current management of the Sears/Willis Tower have shown absolutely no interest in maintaining attention to detail.

[Baronvonellis]

Anyone know what being built at Western and Granville? There are signs up for retail spaces available and there are foundations already in the ground. Hopefully it's at least something around 4 stories tall.

[the urban politician]

^ Is it an active construction site or is it another one of those "ghost" sites killed by the financial meltdown?

[spyguy]

http://www.wednesdayjournalonline.co...rticleID=17265

Nonprofit moving forward with affordable housing on Madison
By MARTY STEMPNIAK

...Interfaith Housing Development Corp. hopes to buy the now-vacant Comcast building, 820 W. Madison, gut it, and transform the property into 51 apartments. The development would include retail on the first floor and make use of a former Comcast parking lot across the street on Grove.

...They plan to strip off the Dryvit façade and restore the property to some semblance of its original appearance. The building was originally built as a Cadillac dealership in 1927. It was designed by architect Albert Kahn.

[ardecila]

^ Note... that's 820 W. Madison in Oak Park, not Chicago... I was confused for a moment.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

^ Heh, me too. I was using the Bing bird's eye view and though there was something wrong with me.

[denizen467]

Last time around, Houston was the frontrunner, but now:


http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=37940

United-Continental combo would call Chicago home
By: Staff April 22, 2010

...

Both Bloomberg and the Chicago Tribune reported that Continental CEO Mr. Smisek, 55, would lead the merged company, with Mr. Tilton in a non-executive chairman's role. The Tribune also reported the new airline would be headquartered in Chicago, citing a person close to the talks.

...

[Baronvonellis]

^ Is it an active construction site or is it another one of those "ghost" sites killed by the financial meltdown?

It's looks active to me. There is a bunch of construction equipment at the site that wasn't there a couple months ago, and a new sign for Retail Space Available.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by denizen467

Last time around, Houston was the frontrunner, but now:


http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=37940

United-Continental combo would call Chicago home
By: Staff April 22, 2010

...

Both Bloomberg and the Chicago Tribune reported that Continental CEO Mr. Smisek, 55, would lead the merged company, with Mr. Tilton in a non-executive chairman's role. The Tribune also reported the new airline would be headquartered in Chicago, citing a person close to the talks.

...

Good to hear. If this goes through I wonder what the new brand name will be? To me, United seems like it has more brand awareness—Rhapsody in Blue, the painterly adverts, the great Saul Bass logo... Continental doesn't seem to have a strong identity.

[ChicagoismynewBlog]

New photo of the new park going up in the West Loop. Monroe to the North, Adams to the South, Peoria to the East, and Sangamon to the West.

http://ChicagoismynewBlog.wordpress.com/

[trvlr70]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Good to hear. If this goes through I wonder what the new brand name will be? To me, United seems like it has more brand awareness—Rhapsody in Blue, the painterly adverts, the great Saul Bass logo... Continental doesn't seem to have a strong identity.

It's already been noted that the combined airline would be called United. Apparently, the brand equity of United is far greater than Continental.

This is great news for Chicago!!!

[nomarandlee]

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/newr...eply&p=4808618

Originally Posted by jpIllInoIs

If I had a choice for capping anything I would choose to cap the ICRR through Grant Park.

I was going to say the same thing. It is not only a more important but also would be inordinately less expensive to do so as well. Perhaps you could even bury intermittent parts of LSD along N.LSD and stretches of S.LSD/IC tracks on the south for the same price or even a good deal less.

[harryc]

Originally Posted by spyguy

http://www.wednesdayjournalonline.co...rticleID=17265

Nonprofit moving forward with affordable housing on Madison
By MARTY STEMPNIAK

...Interfaith Housing Development Corp. hopes to buy the now-vacant Comcast building, 820 W. Madison, gut it, and transform the property into 51 apartments. The development would include retail on the first floor and make use of a former Comcast parking lot across the street on Grove.

...They plan to strip off the Dryvit façade and restore the property to some semblance of its original appearance. The building was originally built as a Cadillac dealership in 1927. It was designed by architect Albert Kahn.

Thanks SpyGuy - I had no idea there was a nice facade under that oppressively ugly building.

[left of center]

Originally Posted by denizen467

Last time around, Houston was the frontrunner, but now:


http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=37940

United-Continental combo would call Chicago home
By: Staff April 22, 2010

...

Both Bloomberg and the Chicago Tribune reported that Continental CEO Mr. Smisek, 55, would lead the merged company, with Mr. Tilton in a non-executive chairman's role. The Tribune also reported the new airline would be headquartered in Chicago, citing a person close to the talks.

...

Chicago probably became the frontrunner because of United's move downtown. They got favorable tax incentives to move downtown that the company probably would not want to lose, and at the same time they need to remain there for X amount of years otherwise they'd have to give up those credits and pay a penalty. Atleast, thats why i assume they changed their minds about moving the combined company to Houston.

Either way, awesome news for Chicago!

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

^ Let's not count our chickens before they're hatched...

[jpIllInoIs]

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

^ Let's not count our chickens before they're hatched...

Yep, Especially when dealing with or bidding against Texas. I remember in the mid to late 80's when the U.S. was contemplating developing a supconducter collider to compete with the CERN accelerator on the Swiss/Franco border. All the expert said best plans was to put the collider in Illinois as an add on to the Fermi lab, it would have used Fermi's accelerator as a feeder. And the cost savings of the Fermi proposal vs. the Texas project was a huge bonus for the US taxpayer. But Texas "won" the project with GHB in the White house. Of course the build out never was completed as costs soared well beyond the Texas bid, and eventually it was completely shut down. Then the recent Coal gasification plant that Illinois won in a runoff with Texas an during GWB last year mysteriously lost Federal funding when Matoon, Ill was selected.

Even with an Illinoisan in the White House dont count out Texas with its 32 members of the US House. And they will get their hands dirty and noses bloodied to keep the HQ in Houston.

[denizen467]

^Great reminiscent walk through history, but those were federal projects, so the political process swayed the locations. The UA HQ decision is a private corporate one, to be made inside a boardroom.

Also, the federal projects required authorization by Congress (for their federal funding), so TX Congressmen could try to sway things. The UA-CO merger could be swayed by federal approval really only in the area of antitrust review, which is under the Executive Branch and has nothing to do with Congress. Happily in this case, the Executive Branch is under the control of a guy from IL.

[Busy Bee]

YoChicago has an excellent example of everything that is wrong with the realtionship between the public and architecture in Chicago: http://yochicago.com/talks-continue-...roposal/14909/