CHICAGO | General Developments

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by harryc

Looks like they plan on taking the market out of Fulton Market.

2008

Wait... that's been happening for awhile now.

[ChiTownCity]

God I hate sterility....

[ChiPhi]

If the whole building is butt-glazed, there will be a really great effect such that the old section looks as if it has been sliced open and is now transparent on one side so that the lives of people on one side are on display behind those brick walls. And if the new segment is done the same way, it will appear a glass box lightly floating and complementing the weight of the old structure. Not to name drop, but I'm currently working with a committee at my school who hired Steven Holl on a similar adaptive reuse that should turn out very well with a similar idea to what I said above. Of course, if the glass is strips between each floor plate, or worst, has mullions, it will all be ruined.

[nomarandlee]

Originally Posted by Hayward

I love the Cold Storage proposal personally. Or maybe it's just the execution of these stellar renderings.

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

Whoa. I'm really stoked; I think it looks rad.
I hope the glass is more transparent than reflective, though. IMO, reflective glass looks so cheap next to brick. It's hard to gauge from those renderings which they're going for.

Mark me down in the excited column as well.

I think even with a reflective glass it could still look cool but I agree that a transparent glass would likely compliment the brick better.

[Chicago Shawn]

I noticed Fulton Street has an interesting texture in the renderings. Is the city going to be resurfacing the street in pavers? I assume if such a streetscaping would occur, it would be a form of branding to recognize the market's history after the place is swept clean of its declining meat market use.

I love the project, but i am saddened over the loss of Fulton Market's industrial character. After this project moves ahead, I assume most of the other meat shops will sell and move on.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

I noticed Fulton Street has an interesting texture in the renderings. Is the city going to be resurfacing the street in pavers? I assume if such a streetscaping would occur, it would be a form of branding to recognize the market's history after the place is swept clean of its declining meat market use.

I love the project, but i am saddened over the loss of Fulton Market's industrial character. After this project moves ahead, I assume most of the other meat shops will sell and move on.

I think it's about time for the city to start exploring permeable pavers beyond alleys.

[brian_b]

I would put the chances at greater than 50% that the original pavers are still sitting there, underneath the asphalt.

[headcase]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

I noticed Fulton Street has an interesting texture in the renderings. Is the city going to be resurfacing the street in pavers?

I would assume creative license on behalf of whoever created the renders.

SSDD

[spyguy]

Amazing that this still happens today.

Augustus Warner House
1337 N Dearborn
Gustav Hallberg, 1884

Today:

1337 N. Dearborn Parkway by Brule Laker, on Flickr

1951:

Charles W. Cushman/ Indiana University Archives

[bnk]

They better not demolish that.


I dont know if this was posted yet, it is from June 27th.

http://www.crainscleveland.com/artic...FREE/120629833


A rendering of Cleveland-based Windfall Group USA's proposed building in Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood.


Cleveland developer envisions six-story building in Chicago's Chinatown

By MICAH MAIDENBERG
2:50 pm, June 27, 2012

A Cleveland-based developer is laying plans for a six-story, 100,000-square-foot commercial building in Chinatown that would include retail, office space and potentially a new Chicago Public Library branch.


Eddie Ni, president of Windfall Group USA, says he is under contract to buy a property at the southwest corner of Archer Street and Wentworth Avenue for $5 million and is discussing financing with lenders to construct the $18 million building there.


Mr. Ni envisions a food court and supermarket on the ground level, with retail condominiums between 200 and 1,500 square feet on the second and third floors. The library branch would occupy the fourth and at least part of the fifth floor, should the venture come to terms with the library system. Offices would fill out the top level.

Retail vacancies in Chinatown are low relative to other Chicago neighborhoods, ...Mr. Ni likes the site's location, immediately west of an entrance to the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line station in the neighborhood.

“Everybody knows that site is the best site in Chinatown, the best location in the Chinatown area,” Mr. Ni says. “We've been trying to acquire the land for two or three years.”

The Windfall Group has a trailer open near the property and is marketing spaces for sale in the building. ....

[the urban politician]

I'm not too worried about the Gold Coast losses, mostly because at least in areas like that, at least you know that they will be replaced.

Not the same as when there is a demolition on the south or west sides

[jpIllInoIs]

Sun Times article
BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Staff Reporter/dhoekstra@suntimes.com July 6, 2012 2:31PM

The Cheap Trick Chicago restaurant, music venue and museum will be rockin’ by next summer if all goes according to plan.

The $13 million venue from developer Landmark America would be part of a former Buick dealership at 2245 S. Michigan and a key component of the Motor Row Entertainment District.

The first tier of the Motor Row project also includes a boutique Cadillac Hotel in a former Cadillac showroom, 2300 S. Indiana. The former Rambler dealership at 132 E. 23rd St. would house a jazz club and a coffeehouse.

Pam Gleichman, CEO of Landmark America, said the plan calls for ground to be broken in late fall for a 350-seat Cheap Trick music venue in an empty lot directly north of the Buick building, the current offices of Landmark America. She said the Cadillac and Rambler sites are on the same timetable.

“It’s moving slow, but it is the Cheap Trick way of doing things,” Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen said Thursday before the band opened for Aerosmith at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. “In Rockford [where he lives], after a show my friends are inclined to go sit at the Holiday Inn bar. So I’ve had Guns ’N Roses, Aerosmith, Hall and Oates, Kiss over to my house: ‘Let’s go to Rick’s.’ This will be a place where they can perform but they don’t have to perform.

Cheap Trick offices would be headquartered in the complex, and Nielsen’s ample guitar collection would be on site as well as Bun E. Carlos’s drum collection. “It’s a logical destination being so close to [convention hub] McCormick Place,” Nielsen said..............more in link

[the urban politician]

^ It's a good concept, but we'll see how it goes.

I certainly think it would be nice to "kick things off" with such a venue, although Cheap Trick brings to mind images of 50 year old suburban moms. Hopefully this 'motor row entertainment district' evolves into something more eclectic than this, if it is successful at all.

Also, at some point parking will need to be addressed. Some sort of multilevel garage near the district would probably be the best solution.

[orulz]

Originally Posted by bnk

I dont know if this was posted yet, it is from June 27th.

http://www.crainscleveland.com/artic...FREE/120629833


A rendering of Cleveland-based Windfall Group USA's proposed building in Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood.

The article mentions rerouting Wentworth potentially blocking this project. I'm assuming this has to do with the Wells/Wentworth connector, and as such I can't fathom any way that such a connector would have to involve acquiring this property at all. I would think that Wentworth would be widened and realigned by pushing EAST of its current alignment, so that it lines up with the ramps to the Dan Ryan, not to the WEST which is where this lot sits.

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

I'm not too worried about the Gold Coast losses, mostly because at least in areas like that, at least you know that they will be replaced.

Not the same as when there is a demolition on the south or west sides

That's a pretty lousy excuse. It will be replaced with garbage probably

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by spyguy

Amazing that this still happens today.

Augustus Warner House
1337 N Dearborn
Gustav Hallberg, 1884

Today:

1337 N. Dearborn Parkway by Brule Laker, on Flickr

1951:

Charles W. Cushman/ Indiana University Archives

I can't believe I'm actually writing this, but the property should be downzoned to eliminate the incentive to tear down an otherwise very large, salvageable rowhouse (even if the interior is rough, it could be gut-rehabbed) in order to build an even larger mansion.

If nothing else, I hope they save/re-use the facade. Hayward is right that any all-new replacement is most likely to be a wretched malproportioned piece of crap. If we're very lucky we could get a Ranquist/Dwell style piece of neo-modernism rather than the expected criminal mish-mash of pathetically attention-seeking opulence...

[BorisMolotov]

Well it looks at least from the outside nicer today than it did in the 50s

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

I'm not too worried about the Gold Coast losses, mostly because at least in areas like that, at least you know that they will be replaced.

Not the same as when there is a demolition on the south or west sides

Yea, itll be replaced by schlock, a pale imitation of the thing that we already had in the first place (and that most cities would kill for).

How can a person look at a house like that and consider it disposable. Absolutely blows my mind. These are the collective cuts that strip our city of the things that make us unique. And yea...we're unique for tearing places like this down without batting an eyelash too, but thats certainly not something to be proud of.

We've lost so many of these kinds of homes already. To simply shrug ones shoulders at the prospect of losing another...Ill never understand that mentality, and its the kind of attitude that continues to give David Lowe material for a lifetime.

[bnk]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

Yea, itll be replaced by schlock, a pale imitation of the thing that we already had in the first place (and that most cities would kill for).

How can a person look at a house like that and consider it disposable. Absolutely blows my mind. These are the collective cuts that strip our city of the things that make us unique. And yea...we're unique for tearing places like this down without batting an eyelash too, but thats certainly not something to be proud of.

We've lost so many of these kinds of homes already. To simply shrug ones shoulders at the prospect of losing another...Ill never understand that mentality, and its the kind of attitude that continues to give David Lowe material for a lifetime.

Thanks for the link but the title makes me sick to my stomach....

Lost Chicago....

What a loss it would be.... "death by a thousand cuts". I mean a mansion built in the late 19th century is something that can be thrown in the trashbin.. because it is not on the westside or southside?

No care about the buildings history or who lived there or who built it... Astounding.

Thanks for the stand up Via Chicago. Others had and others will. I hope that those at prefer keeping these buildings are not caste as NIMBYs .....

[Joe Zekas]

Sigh. We've seen many proposals from the McCormick / Motor Row group that never seem to materialize.

The media should be more skeptical, or at least note the history of failing to deliver.