CHICAGO | General Developments

[Rizzo]

Originally Posted by Link N. Parker

Perhaps part of it can be made into a "Food Truck Park", and the other part can be a grassy park with places to sit and eat the food? Just an idea.

That's not a bad idea. These do exist and the ones I've seen are actually well designed spaces, not just a parking lot.

[wierdaaron]

That corner used to be a common food truck stop, but I think they may have had to move due to the proximity to restaurants. A truck park would be pretty cool, especially if they could offer power hookups so the trucks didn't have to run loud/dirty generators. But who would pay for all that? And do the landowners even want to sell? Maybe the parking lots make them enough money to cover the taxes.

Even using the land for farmers markets would be nice. The river north association should look into this. Is that in Reilly's zone?

[JMO_0121]

The metromover here in Miami runs right thru a relatively new tall building? So why not just build up? I havent passed by this corner in more than seven years so I dont remember it very well. Would it even be possible there?

[wierdaaron]

I suppose it'd be possible to build up and around it with a podium and split lobby. I don't know if CTA has ever gone for something like that.

[Rizzo]

The Millender Center in Detroit

[BVictor1]

11/27/13

The continued demolition of Pierce Hall in Hyde Park.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

I suppose it'd be possible to build up and around it with a podium and split lobby. I don't know if CTA has ever gone for something like that.

Yes, they have.

http://goo.gl/maps/1mJbV

[LouisVanDerWright]

Has anyone else been following that stadium collapse in Rio? This is probably wayyyy off topic and a bit ridiculous, but I bet the IOC is starting to have second thoughts about tossing Chicago out in the first round a few years ago...

Again, probably a ridiculous thought, but I wonder if there is any chance that the 2016 games could be pulled and relocated if the 2014 World Cup goes haywire in Rio? It is probably too early for anyone to panic, but it seems that they are encountering worrisome execution issues.

[wierdaaron]

Could we do any better than they could on such late notice? At the speed most civic construction proceeds in this town I don't think we could get new stadiums and fields through the alderman process by 2016.

I wonder if Rahm & friends could think of any prominent politically connected businessmen who have experience handling late notice Olympics relocatings.

[ardecila]

I don't think the IOC is having second thoughts at all. You're just feeling a little schadenfreude. Rio is a great world city and it will be a good host for the Games - I'm sure the IOC considered the possibility for corruption, displacement of the poor, etc and still deemed it worthwhile to bring the Games to South America.

The Olympics are just an extension of the megaproject mentality gone awry; the same wasteful impulse that's leading the Braves to ditch their 15-year-old stadium and build new at taxpayer expense. Chicago doesn't need the Games to reshape our city. The Games are not the only way, and probably one of the worst ways, to "make no small plans". It's a political expedient and nothing more.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

[george]

11-28

Virgin Hotel

[george]

11-28

Maggie Daley Park

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by ardecila

I don't think the IOC is having second thoughts at all. You're just feeling a little schadenfreude. Rio is a great world city and it will be a good host for the Games - I'm sure the IOC considered the possibility for corruption, displacement of the poor, etc and still deemed it worthwhile to bring the Games to South America.

I'm not talking about corruption or displacing the poor, I'm talking about the reports that the venues for both the Cup and the Olympics are perilously behind schedule. Let's fact it, the IOC is just like any other NGO, they really don't actually give a crap about poor people in favellas or corruption (they held the games in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and most recently China for pete's sake). They care about furthering their own organization which means ensuring a successful Olympics every four years. You can have a mass displacement of poor people and still have a successful Olympics (you can have an embryonic holocaust and still have a successful Olympics).

What you can't have is incomplete or inadequate venues and a successful Olympics. That is the question I am raising here. I'm sure there is no chance they will relocate it, but after that crane collapse I really wonder what the IOC is thinking now. I definitely am feeling a little schadenfreude about the whole situation. It's kinda funny to me that both Chicago and Rio have been having problems with roving bands of thugs causing problems on their beaches lately though, lol.

The Olympics are just an extension of the megaproject mentality gone awry; the same wasteful impulse that's leading the Braves to ditch their 15-year-old stadium and build new at taxpayer expense. Chicago doesn't need the Games to reshape our city. The Games are not the only way, and probably one of the worst ways, to "make no small plans". It's a political expedient and nothing more.

I disagree with you on this, but that's an entirely different discussion and definitely off topic for this thread so I won't go there. It's a moot argument anyhow until Chicago decides to mount another run at the games (and who knows if that will ever even happen).

[spyguy]

Originally Posted by wierdaaron

I used to work in River North and had angry thoughts about this parking lot daily. The L tracks cutting through it definitely preclude any kind of vertical development, but it wouldn't be a bad spot for a small park or outdoor plaza with places to eat lunch on nice days. Since River North is turning into such a food and startup mecca, it might be a good way to showcase both.

Never say never. A proposal by Hirsch (cropped image from their Facebook):

[XIII]

Originally Posted by spyguy

Never say never. A proposal by Hirsch (cropped image from their Facebook):

Those are some mighty sharp eyes you've got there.

Fingers crossed!

[ardecila]

Wow, spyguy. Mighty fine sleuthing.

With River North the hottest neighborhood in the city, maybe the time has finally come to develop these unusual/sub-optimal sites. I'm interested by the possibility for some plaza space on the corner beneath the tracks.

[Busy Bee]

Would still love to see the L pass THRU a building in Chicago though. Most obvious location I can think of besides this one would be the Wabash block behind the Columbia dorm.

[ardecila]

It already does, at Rush Hospital. IIT's Campus Center too, but the tube is really just a sound control device.

[harryc]

On the West side - Nordstroms.
Understated - or underwhelmed ?




On the East - new walkway.


A building so ugly the burgers must be good.


Light Beige - of course.

[harryc]

...wrong thread .....