[aaron38]

I though I'd share some pictures I took of downtown suburban Palatine. There's been massive redevelopment that I wanted to get on camera, and the snow made for good scenery.


Leaving home for the walk downtown.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/PalatineRd.gif


The corner quickiemart
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/Quickiemart.gif


The historic homes neighborhood.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/street.gif


Palatine has lots of houses that date to the 1870's.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/ClaysonHouse.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/Claysongarage.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/19thcenturyhome1.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/historic.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/PattenHouse.gif


The new condos and the old homes.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/providence5.gif


Entering downtown.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/Providence1.gif


Metra tracks to Chicago
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/tochicago.gif


And into downtown
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/downtown1.gif


Downtown Palatine businesses.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/jewel.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/Augie.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/vintagesign.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/providence2.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/Kramer.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/HengWing.gif

Waiting for redevelopment
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/redevelop.gif


In the age of Home Depot, Zimmer Hardware has been open 123 years!!
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/Zimmer.gif

It was Bears game day at Zimmer
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/gobears.gif


I don't know what this is, but it's been there forever.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/whatisit.gif


Residential on the southside
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/townhouses.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/retirement.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/oldandnew.gif


The cemetery creates a southern border
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/cemetary.gif


Moving back north, new condos on Johnson Street
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/condosonJohnson.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/townsquare.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/condos.gif


The town square
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/townsquare2.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/townsquare3.gif


New brownstones along Smith street
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/rowhomes.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/rowhomes2.gif


I really like the way this new building is walling off the end of the street and the square.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/smithandpalatine.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/rowhomes3.gif


Palatine Station is the new development on the old Metra station parking lot.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/palatinestation.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/rowhomes4.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/palatinestation4.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/palatinestationroof.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/palatinestation2.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/palatinestation3.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/rowhomes5.gif


Bears fans waiting for the train.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/palatinemetra.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/bearsfans.gif


http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/train.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/train2.gif

Transit Oriented Development
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/TOD.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/train3.gif


Durty Nellie's pub across from the Metra.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/nellies.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/nellies2.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/palatine.gif


More residential to the west along the tracks
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/condos2.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/condos3.gif


Someone here once asked if the rowhome was dead. Not in Palatine.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/rowhomes6.gif


A reservoir forms the western border. New condos line the edge.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/reservour.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/preserve.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/preserve2.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/preserve3.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/preserveroof.gif


Back to the center of town. The roof of that parking garage allowed for some 'arial' photos.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/train5.gif

From West to South to North-East
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/arial.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/arial2.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/arial3.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/arial4.gif


Into the heart of downtown, a mix of new and old.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/downtown.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/brockway.gif


This entire block was redeveloped and just finished in '06.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/block312.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/block31.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/lamps.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/providence3.gif
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r86/aaron38/Palatine%20in%20Winter/providence4.gif


And at that point my camera batteries died. So that's glorious downtown Palatine in suburban Chicago. But as you can see there's been a lot of new development, and it's very walkable.
I'll do another set in the spring.

[Chicago Shawn]

Nice Pics, the Bear-rape shot great! I have family up there, and have visited often, and am very impressed with the redevleopment. That commuter station was a dump less than 10 years ago. Are the new "brownstones" done by Toll Brothers? Amazes me that a McMansion developer could actually build something that tastefull, there is hope out there for the others to follow suit.

[Steely Dan]

it's really neat how all these old chicagoland towns are sort of "rediscovering" their metra stations and reinvesting in their town centers. no, we may not be seeing massive skyscraper developments in suburban chicago yet, but even these row house and mid-rise condo developemnts are a good step in the right direction of place-making. what a wonderful asset we have in metra, it's good to see the planners in the region taking note of that and acting upon it.

great shots aaron, even though i've lived in this metro my entire life, i've never actually set foot in downtown palatine, thanks for the tour.

[aaron38]

Thanks guys. When I moved here in '98, there was just an old Metra station, a HUGE parking lot, and a burned out strip mall.
They condemed the strip mall and built a parking garage and a mixed use office building with first floor retail, redeveloped the parking lot and it spread from there. Pretty much everything I shot was built after 2002.

Toll Brothers did Palatine Station, and they did a good job. The more traditional "brownstone" rowhomes were done by The Hummel Group, who also did the Brockway Chophouse building and that large entire block mixed use development at the end.

There's another whole block mixed-use, first floor retail condo building that's supposed to get started this year as well.

[ChrisLA]

Nice tour, its good to see some of the outter areas of the big cities. It really give you a overall picture of the metro I think. One reason I also clicked on this thread is because I drove over out of curiosity from Chicago to check out an apartment. That was 17 years ago (man does time flies) and at the time I didn't like what I saw. I thought it was too isolated for me and I was pretty much a city person. Now from what I see in your photos, I like whats going on with the new development. Those brownstones and row house are nice. What does a 2 or 3 bedroom go for in these newly developed homes?

[mind field]

Cool. My college room mate was from Palatine, IL. He and I went to Michigan Tech and he would sometimes make fun of Detroit-isms like the People Mover (the downtown monorail) when I would watch the local news. Or the fact that Highland Park is a very poor suburb in Detroit and Highland Park is a very rich suburb in Chicago.

[Wheelingman04]

I have never actually been in Palatine either, but it looks pretty nice. I am so glad many of these suburbs are rediscovering their downtowns again. I love some of those urbanist developments too.

[spyguy]

I applaud Palatine for actually taking steps towards building a healthy downtown. Let's hope it works and others take notice.

[boden]

Haven't seen the Village of Palatine on the forum before. Enjoyed the pics. Has that place ever grown!:cheers:

[OfCourse]

Nice. My dad used to deliver mail in the Palatine-Arlington Heights-Mt Prospect area in the '60s and '70s when he lived in Elgin before he came back to Texas. Never knew what it looked like.

[manatee]

Arlington Heights also built a huge condo building right next to the Metra station 4-5 years ago.

[brian_b]

I used to live in Palatine; moved to the city right around when Durty Nellies moved into their new building. The original had a lot of character, even though it was a dump.

It probably should be said that Palatine, like many of the cities with healthy downtowns, was not always a Chicago suburb. Palatine was a city that grew around a stop on the Union Pacific railroad. Only much later did the Chicago metro area grow to include Palatine.

[Marcu]

I think Palatine truly shows that urban rail-centered development is not politically a left vs. right issue but a change/progress to improve quality of life v. reactionary NIMBYism that fear change issue. Palatine has historically been fairly conservative. I believe Henry Hyde was the Congressman there. Yet the leaders and residents seem to understand the benefits of transit-oriented ped-friendly development. The best way to sell this kind of development is not to focus on the political talking points (eg eco-friendliness from the left or “small-town living” from the right), but to emphasize the quality of life. Everyone can agree on that.

[UrbanSophist]

I wouldn't mind living in one of those row houses. Actually, it probably takes about the same amount of time to get to downtown Chicago on the Metra from Palataine as it does to get downtown from the far north side on the red line...

[HockeyFan]

Sorry to revive the thread.. but great pics!

How much do those new townhomes/rowhouses/brownstones sell for typically?