CHICAGO | General Developments - Page 696

Rizzo · #**13901** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 1:15 AM**

For the first time in 2.5 years, the lights turned on in the lower part of the IBM building. Getting ready for the hotel conversion? I remember seeing those nice renderings last week.

denizen467 · #**13902** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 3:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryc

State And Jackson

Looks like this old classic will be rehabbed !

Just a block up there is a similarly major renovation going on -- a low-rise in between the Palmer House and the district cooling plant. Per Google Street View, it previously had Bakers Shoes in the base and basically windowless top floors. Now the facades have been completely ripped off. What is this building and what are they doing to it?

Edit: Unhappy to just discover this Feb 2011 article by Kamin:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....-problem-.html

Mr Downtown · #**13903** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 3:13 AM**

Thor Equities, owner of the Palmer House, also owns the Baker Shoes building. They are renovating it for an unknown retail tenant.

EarlyBuyer · #**13904** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 3:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lawfin

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,6386178.story

This is god awful....and BofA just adds acid to the wound

Oh no! So sad!

denizen467 · #**13905** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 3:43 AM**

^ It is so bad I'll bet they pull them after the 30-day period.

J_M_Tungsten · #**13906** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 3:47 AM**

I really hope so, but why would they do that? Public opinion?

FlashingLights · #**13907** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 3:50 AM**

Rahm really screwed up on the BofA signs. Along with his destruction of landmark commission he really hasn't been that pro architecture at all.

I am so glad to see 330 N Wabash getting new life into it. The base has been dead the last few years, its one of my favorite buildings in Chicago and competes only with Hancock for me.

untitledreality · #**13908** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 4:44 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardecila

God dammit. The greatest thing about the river corridor is how it reflects our civic awesomeness. There's no corporate sponsorship and no effing advertising.

Agreed. If this spreads it might even become more offensive than the "freegreencans" spread every 50 feet along the lakeshore trail. Selling off advertising/naming rights to the public domain, no matter where or what, is just a slap in the face to the taxpayers.

harryc · #**13909** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 11:52 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Thor Equities, owner of the Palmer House, also owns the Baker Shoes building. They are renovating it for an unknown retail tenant.

From Sept 27

(n.b. Iornwork on Left is from new Subway sta.)

If it uses I-Beams is it a landmark ?

The Older building next door - sandwiched between this and the Palmer House back in ?

spyguy · #**13910** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 8:07 PM**

^I thought that Baker was coming back along with a Mario Tricoci university?

The Greektown Museum looks really good. So much better than the vacant lot that sat there for years.
---

3600 N Halsted conversion and new construction - affordable LGTB senior housing and retail

harryc · #**13911** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 8:29 PM**

^^ Stayed there in the past - won't be staying there in the future ;-)

Chicagoguy · #**13912** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 8:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyguy

^I thought that Baker was coming back along with a Mario Tricoci university?

The Greektown Museum looks really good. So much better than the vacant lot that sat there for years.
---

3600 N Halsted conversion and new construction - affordable LGTB senior housing and retail

Thanks for posting spyguy....I have actually been waiting for a while to see what this proposal was going to look like. Have you heard any time lines of when they are aiming to start construction?

Ch.G, Ch.G · #**13913** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 9:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyguy

The Greektown Museum looks really good. So much better than the vacant lot that sat there for years.

...and a lot better than the two initial designs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyguy

3600 N Halsted conversion and new construction - affordable LGTB senior housing and retail

Fabulous.

ardecila · #**13914** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 9:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryc

^^ Stayed there in the past - won't be staying there in the future ;-)

Nowhereman1280 · #**13915** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 9:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

Fabulous.

O_o

I see what you did there...

untitledreality · #**13916** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 10:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyguy

3600 N Halsted conversion and new construction - affordable LGTB senior housing and retail

Looks to be far superior to the previous design for the building. Should complement well with the Center on Halsted.

Ch.G, Ch.G · #**13917** Posted **Nov 15, 2011, 10:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by untitledreality

Looks to be far superior to the previous design for the building. Should complement well with the Center on Halsted.

Right? It's great to see development in this area take a turn for the modern.

I didn't even know they were planning affordable housing for LGBT seniors. IMO, it's great to see the neighborhood's identity given a permanent, physical presence. The area seems to have increasingly become a destination for young families, not necessarily a bad thing except for the women leading the move because of some tacky bachelorette party at the Kit Kat Lounge they once attended and who now cringe at the thought of their six-month-old seeing a giant glittering dildo in a window display.

Mr Downtown · #**13918** Posted **Nov 16, 2011, 3:58 PM**

^The glittering dildos are for display purposes only. They'd be really uncomfortable and hard to clean.

I just wish someone would revoke the directive that all new institutional buildings must have random fenestration patterns. In 20 years we're going to laugh at them, just as we did last time. Lots of college campuses have a building from the 60s that, it's rumored, was specified to look like an IBM punchcard. (Of course, few people on campus or on this forum have ever seen an IBM punchcard.)

I don't have any credentials to wave around, but I've spent a lifetime thinking about what makes certain designs timeless and others a passing fad. I believe there's a deep-seated human desire for architecture to display regularity and pattern, precisely because that puts it in delightful counterpoint to the fractal randomness of nature.

Kippis · #**13919** Posted **Nov 16, 2011, 4:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

Fabulous.

^ Tim Gunn would be proud.

Haha anyway, I'm really liking the design as well. Are there any official renderings of this project as of yet?

Nowhereman1280 · #**13920** Posted **Nov 16, 2011, 4:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

I just wish someone would revoke the directive that all new institutional buildings must have random fenestration patterns. In 20 years we're going to laugh at them, just as we did last time. Lots of college campuses have a building from the 60s that, it's rumored, was specified to look like an IBM punchcard. (Of course, few people on campus or on this forum have ever seen an IBM punchcard.)

We still have boxes and boxes of them from when my Dad was a mainframe salesman in the 1980's and from his final project in his programming course he took in college. We use them as scrap paper to make lists on.

Edit: By we I mean my parents do at their house in WI.