CHICAGO | General Developments

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Wow. That's rather stunning. Now I'm racking my brain trying to think of anyone I might know who's interested in this stuff. I certainly can't think of anyone who would choose to call himself bashful.

He doesn't know you personally, he always said he had a good idea of who you were professionally and that you might recognize who he is in real life. Now I am pissed that Loopy knows him and I don't. Honte and I always seemed to have very congruent views. Its actually a shame that I don't know him simply because I think he shaped my views on architecture and design more than any other person on here. Heck, by the transitive property he helped me decide what I wanted to do with my life.

I'm sure he'll be back though, just glad he's not dead!

[denizen467]

Originally Posted by Loopy

the posts stopped about the time that he began working on a large project that demanded a great deal of his time. Being an all-or-nothing kinda guy, I suppose he just let it go.

I've got nothing more to say on this.

Chicago 2016 perhaps? Anyhow, for everyone other than Loopy who is still curious, remember honte mentioned he likes wearing red socks with a suit. Also he had said he had an extensive engineering background. Loopy, if you get hit by a bus, we may never know (unless we eventually meet some architect with red socks), so make a note of it in your will or something...

[ChiPsy]

The Sun-Times reports an interesting study today about the improved lives of families leaving the CHA high-rises -- still not great, but vastly better. Amazing that so many community activists/lawyers tried to stop the destruction of those places.

http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/278...residents.html

I mentioned it here before, but if you want to read an enlightening new book on this topic, check out "Blueprint for Disaster." It's mind-blowing, for instance, to learn that the Feds wanted to build 3 times as many CHA projects in Chicago as they ultimately were able to shove past Daley and the Board of Aldermen.

What a landscape that would have been...

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by denizen467

Anyhow, for everyone other than Loopy who is still curious, remember honte mentioned he likes wearing red socks with a suit.

I remember that comment! Really happy to hear the good news. Thanks, Loopy.

[VivaLFuego]

Is it me, or did the recent streetscaping on Broadway between Wilson and Montrose actually narrow the sidewalks, which were one of Broadway's key assets?

[emathias]

Originally Posted by denizen467

Chicago 2016 perhaps? Anyhow, for everyone other than Loopy who is still curious, remember honte mentioned he likes wearing red socks with a suit. Also he had said he had an extensive engineering background. Loopy, if you get hit by a bus, we may never know (unless we eventually meet some architect with red socks), so make a note of it in your will or something...

For the record, I like to wear red socks (or green, or bright blue, or orange, or yellow, or pink, or purple) with suits, too, but I'm not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the honte party.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by VivaLFuego

Is it me, or did the recent streetscaping on Broadway between Wilson and Montrose actually narrow the sidewalks, which were one of Broadway's key assets?

I don't know, but along that vein I'm glad to see that the missing Grand Red Line entrance on the SW corner of State/Grand was just a temporary situation and that the sidewalk and entrance will return to something configured close to the original.

[Loopy]

Hey, it's going to be a long, cold winter and there is not much development to talk about. So, in honor of our erstwhile "honte", I have created a thread in the Architecture section to discuss "Chicago Modernism and Design - past, present and future"

Come on over!

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...=1#post5094093

[Busy Bee]

Blair has a blurb about a meeting between South Works' ("Lakeside") developer McCaffrey and Danish awesomeness firm BIG:http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....uth-works.html


for me this casts even more doubt that the first phase of South Works about to begin, The Market Common, Lakeside will actually be the stale, pomo wreck we've all seen and complained about. I've got my fingers really crossed on this one that the Antunovich design was really a site plan and placeholder - and not actually what will be built, of please oh please oh please. Perhaps those sexy sexy renderings of the later phases of South Works may actually be closer to reality in phase one?

As a reminder of what the Antunovich designed 'Market Common' looks like:


<>



<>


<>


<>


More @ http://www.antunovich.com/ ---> On The Boards ---> Market Common Lakeside

[wrab]

^ This image is from the Burnham Centenary website:


http://burnhamplan100.lib.uchicago.e...orks_lakeside/

[denizen467]

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roe...art-owner.html

The owner of an industrial building on nearly 7 and a half acres at 2501 N. Elston is marketing the site for sale to big-box retailers. Could the property, near the bottlenecked Fullerton-Damen-Elston intersection, become the first big Wal-Mart on the North Side?

The local alderman, Scott Waguespack of the 32nd Ward, said the owner "came in a couple weeks ago and said he had a conversation with Wal-Mart about the site."

Owner David Reich appears to control the property through a trust and he asked for a zoning change to permit retail development. Waguespack said he told him the proposal "would be subject to a pretty rigorous review process." The alderman said he voiced concern about traffic gridlock.

Steven Restivo, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said the retailer is not pursuing any deal for the property, although it is looking at many others as it plots an expansion in Chicago.

Word surfaced last week that Wal-Mart is looking at 2840 N. Broadway for the first Chicago outlet of its smaller format stores, called Neighborhood Markets.

Even if Wal-Mart has no interest in the crowded Elston corridor, the zoning request indicates how the owner is positioning the property. Real estate sources said the furniture retailer Ikea is scouting the North Side as well.

[lawfin]

Originally Posted by denizen467

http://www.suntimes.com/business/roe...art-owner.html

The owner of an industrial building on nearly 7 and a half acres at 2501 N. Elston is marketing the site for sale to big-box retailers. Could the property, near the bottlenecked Fullerton-Damen-Elston intersection, become the first big Wal-Mart on the North Side?

The local alderman, Scott Waguespack of the 32nd Ward, said the owner "came in a couple weeks ago and said he had a conversation with Wal-Mart about the site."

Owner David Reich appears to control the property through a trust and he asked for a zoning change to permit retail development. Waguespack said he told him the proposal "would be subject to a pretty rigorous review process." The alderman said he voiced concern about traffic gridlock.

Steven Restivo, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said the retailer is not pursuing any deal for the property, although it is looking at many others as it plots an expansion in Chicago.

Word surfaced last week that Wal-Mart is looking at 2840 N. Broadway for the first Chicago outlet of its smaller format stores, called Neighborhood Markets.

Even if Wal-Mart has no interest in the crowded Elston corridor, the zoning request indicates how the owner is positioning the property. Real estate sources said the furniture retailer Ikea is scouting the North Side as well.

God....that's all we fcukn' need

[lawfin]

As to the SOuth Works...any idea on howmany residents they envision.....for some reason I think I read somewhere between 30-4oK residents.....which would yield about 40 - 50,000 / sq mile give or take


If they could approach that density.....that would be awesome

[OhioGuy]

Anyone have any updates on the potential streetscaping of Lawrence Avenue between Western & Ashland?

[pyropius]

I just read comments on a Sun-Times article complaining that former CHA tower residents change the makeup of the neighborhoods into which they move. Unfortunate as this sentiment is, I suggest we harness it. Encourage Section 8 tenants to move into "pomo wrecks" so that the public forever associates postmodern architecture with lower socioeconomic status. Before you know it you'll have NIMBYs rallying at town halls at the mere suggestion of a pomo tower...

[Busy Bee]

What do you call this alternate reality in which you seem to exist?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Blair has a blurb about a meeting between South Works' ("Lakeside") developer McCaffrey and Danish awesomeness firm BIG:http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....uth-works.html


for me this casts even more doubt that the first phase of South Works about to begin, The Market Common, Lakeside will actually be the stale, pomo wreck we've all seen and complained about. I've got my fingers really crossed on this one that the Antunovich design was really a site plan and placeholder - and not actually what will be built, of please oh please oh please. Perhaps those sexy sexy renderings of the later phases of South Works may actually be closer to reality in phase one?

I doubt it. "Market Common" is a proven format for McCaffery. All of the Market Commons to date have used Antunovich for design, and all have shared certain lifestyle-center characteristics. In retail, you just don't mess with a winning formula - it helps to attract tenants, because they feel safer knowing the formula has worked in other cities.

Don't forget that Market Common will open first, so it has to attract people from across the South Side, not just the future, wealthy/yuppie residents of South Works.

I wouldn't be surprised if McCaffery wants to invite BIG to work on the residential components, though - SOM's renderings already indicated that McCaffery is not afraid of modernism.

[spyguy]

^I was going to say the same thing regarding the Market portion. I suppose BIG could redesign the towers of phase 1 or some smaller portion of Southworks. But for some reason I doubt they're going to spend money designing towers that won't be marketed or delivered for decades. I'm hoping that McCaffrey will use them on a project near downtown so we avoid future Bernardin or Flair Towers.
---

YoChicago has a post up (with video) mentioning that Belgravia is submitting a proposal for redeveloping Children's Memorial (today is the deadline). No specifics are given but in the video the representative from Belgravia kept stressing density and open space. He also mentions that there may be a sizable amount of retail in the project and they're looking to possibly preserve the buildings on Orchard. They've created a new website to gather input from the community.

[pyropius]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

What do you call this alternate reality in which you seem to exist?

"Ireland," where my poor countrymen sell their children as food (stewed, roasted, baked or boiled) to the rich.

[Busy Bee]

IT just seems intriguing that McCaffery would be in talks of some sort with an kickass Dutch design team a 3-4 years before market common is schedualed to get underway.... I'm just saying, I think there is something more going on here.

Per Globest.com:

The city has approved a master plan, and a plan ordinance for the first phase called Market Commons, about 800,000 square feet of retail and residential units on 76 acres on the northwest portion of the property between 79th and 83rd streets.

First, the city has to finish a reflow of Lakeshore Drive around the project. The entire six-phase plan with all its phases will take more than 25 years to complete, if it starts on time in 2013.


McCaffery obviouslt "gets it" when it comes to the potential of South Works and sounds like he has good taste in architecture, which makes the choice of Antunovich for phase one but then rendering the rest of the project in this sleek hip Norther European modernist style. Very peculiar. Also from Gobest.com:

“Chicago needs game changers,” McCaffery says. “Beautiful projects have been built here, but few projects offer the potential such as this one. This will change the entire face of the South Side, which now has the perception as not being a nice place to go. I saw a map the other day, a basic Chicago map, that ended at 74th Street. We need to do something to lift up these peoples lives and do something special.”


Perhaps he realizes that some passe pomo wreck with a lame site plan isn't exactly a 'game changer' and he is indeed working with BIG on a redesign before construction is set to begin in 3 years? Seems perfectly plausible to me. I'm holding out hope on this one.