Quote:
Originally Posted by aaron38
I keep looking at the map and I keep on not seeing the problem. The major Metra transit hubs are all between the Kennedy and the River. If west of the Kennedy doesn't make sense, east of the river doesn't make sense either.
But east of the river does make sense, so...
From the west, get off at Morgan. From the NW, get off at Grand, walk down. From the north, transfer to the Green, too bad. From the South, take the Green to Morgan. From the burbs, walk the same distance west you'd walk east.
For burbs to the west, put in a Green Line station at Western, allow for Metra to CTA transfers at Western.
The West Loop around Morgan is not some isolated transit desert only accessible by fleets of cars. It's just not, and I don't understand this thinking.
As for residential around Morgan, it's the same. The west loop there has great transit access. Residential is best put further out on the spurs. There is tremendous room for residential growth west on the Green Line, and elsewhere. Build, build, build.
I've said it before, I'll say it again. Don't build residential districts within a 15 minute walk of Ogilvie/Union Station. Nor Morgan. Some scattered infill residential is fine. But the west loop around Morgan is not a place for families trying to raise kids. It's fast becoming an office district, just embrace the change and go with it.
Case in point: WeWork is taking office space at 167 N. Green. That's a 10 minute, 1/2 mile walk from the Ogilvie exit on Clinton.
I've walked from Ogilvie to the WeWork office at 332 S. Michigan Ave. That's a 27 min, 1.3 mile walk. So which one makes more sense for the most people?
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Nope. A couple misconceptions. It's not just about Union Station and Ogilvie. You have to also obviously factor in the core CTA routes. And then, you split the difference. This makes your focal point around the Wells Street corridor (perhaps LaSalle?, but I'll just say Wells). So, as the crow flies, this makes the very eastern edge of Fulton Market (Halsted), equidistant to this transit nexus as roughly the park at Lakeshore East. There's a reason office never gained traction at Lakeshore East (although admittedly there was the BCBS building expansion that it's only fair to note) - and that is because it's a bit too far from removed from (roughly) Wells St. Same goes for Fulton Market, despite one CTA line that spurs off the Loop with two stations just to the South of Fulton. Conversely, there's a reason, the Wacker-Franklin stretch became the most signifiacantly dense concentration of modern office in Chicago over the last 15-20 years - because it is super proximate to this transit nexus.
But, that's just as the crow flies. In terms of perceived (psychological factors - which happen to be important to humans) distance, it's even further to Fulton Market, and not a pleasant walking experience. This is because you have to go over the barren expanse of a massive expressway, and some area on either side that is just not really pedestrian inviting. So, it's even further factoring this important perception in....what would be the adjusted equivalent? LSD maybe? For some people, the expressway overpass walk may be so unpleasant, the adjusted equivalent might even be Lake Michigan.
But again, even without the psychological factor, the easternmost edge of Fulton is as far from Wells as Columbus (the very easternmost large-scale office downtown)
On another topic re 800 Fulton:
Is this going to be the rare concrete frame office building in Chicago? Some of the renderings appear as that will be the case. If so, I wonder what tipped the developer in that direction here?
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The setup of the CTA network actually isn't as bad for Fulton Market as you imagine it to be, there's a solid connection to every rail line except Red. If CTA ever invested in better downtown connections, it would benefit not just Fulton Market but also The 78 (assuming Related opens a new subway stop there). 
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