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Old Posted May 14, 2012, 7:07 PM
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ChiPhi ChiPhi is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Chicago, Philadelphia
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The Chicago Architecture Blog has a piece on 435 N Park. Apart from some errors (like an outdated picture of the building) and some points upon which I disagree (like classifying SOAR as a NIMBY group and calling it SORE - Seniors overlords of real estate - with the blogger's perennial sass), it had some interesting statements.

On Streeterville coming to terms with having towers built:

Quote:
...a recent public meeting on the building [435 N Park Dr.] was actually moved to a smaller space than originally planned, and there was still room to spare.
and

Quote:
As one woman put it at a recent community meeting, “For the most part, a lot of people around here don’t care about the height of a building anymore. A lot of people care about how it looks — the design. How it fits into the area.”
On the designs coming from SCB:

Quote:
When I interviewed [SCB CEO John] Lahey a couple of weeks ago, I asked him if he agreed with me that most SCB buildings look the same. He strongly disagreed when we were talking in private, and when I repeated the assertion in the open in front of some of his staffers, there was at least one audible snort of disapproval.
On our criticisms of these towers:

Quote:
Skyscrapers get more expensive as they get taller, and maybe DRW can’t afford to put up a statement building. “Go big or go home” doesn’t necessarily apply. It’s easy for the Chicago Architecture Blog and SORE and the rest of Chicago to throw stones at the design, but we’re not paying for it. At least not in terms of money.
Also, more proof from Crain's that we are seeing a rental bubble right now. We'll see if developers are restrained or we will see a crash in 2013...
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