CHICAGO | General Developments

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by BrinChi

Agree with the sentiments above about 730 W Randolph. The city should figure out how to incentivize this approach to development as favorable to knocking down the neighbors and going big.

Separately, I've been looking at homes in Bronzeville. The lowest models from the Parade of Homes are build by Inishfree Builders. Curious if anyone is familiar or knows how I could find out more about their track record. I'm super nervous to buy a POS new construction.

They sound like one of the hundreds of small Irish builders. Most of those guys focus on construction and rely on realty teams to do all the marketing and branding, so you probably won’t find much under the name Innisfree.

Quality for these guys can be all over the map, and even a master builder GC can sometimes be sunk by poor quality subs.

Know your rights though, as a new home buyer in Illinois you are covered by an Implied Warranty of Habitability addressing major and minor defects. Many builders will ask you to waive the “implied warranty” as written in state law and substitute a warranty with terms written by the builder, but it still has to provide a certain level of protection to you by law.

I did quality control for a builder for 3 years, many if not most builders are cooperative with warranty claims as long as you document them carefully and submit them in one or two batches.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by 10023

Let’s see when it’s more than a rendering.

But this is the argument for midrise development. Real materials, nice narrow street frontage, no curb cuts or parking, and the second floor is actually used rather than a blank concrete wall.

I would fill the rest of the city up with these before ever having another highrise built, if it meant no more parking podiums would ever be built either. For the urban fabric at street level, it would be vastly better. Narrow some street widths and deviate from the grid here and there, and we’re really in business.

Fortunately this lot is inside the Fulton-Randolph landmark district so they have to pretty much conform. Not a whole lot of shortcuts to take.

We'll see what it looks like when done but I'm optimistic.

[jjk113]

......I really like the cobble stone intersections that the city is installing along Fulton Street

[Busy Bee]

^Agreed. They look pretty fantastic.

[Via Chicago]

They look like they'll be hell for cyclists tho

[Busy Bee]

If the Tour can go over cobblestone roads at 40mph, I think local cyclists can handle this.

[harryc]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

They look like they'll be hell for cyclists tho

fact

[LouisVanDerWright]

Whatever it's like 30' of stone, lift your ass up and coast. Like 50% of paved roads in Chicago are this bad or worse anyhow.

Let's focus on how it will discourage motorists from driving like jagoffs and killing peds and cyclists.

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by harryc

fact

But as I am sure you agree the look is worth it. Bikers have to deal with this in a lot of cities in Europe and even in NYC.

[jc5680]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Whatever it's like 30' of stone, lift your ass up and coast. Like 50% of paved roads in Chicago are this bad or worse anyhow.

Let's focus on how it will discourage motorists from driving like jagoffs and killing peds and cyclists.

One of the intersections in particular was installed pretty rough though (the Sangamon intersection, I think) They were still doing work on the joints in all the intersections and brick inlays in the sidewalks last week, so maybe they will come back to fix it? But that one is really bad. Hard to walk across, let alone bike.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by jc5680

One of the intersections in particular was installed pretty rough though (the Sangamon intersection, I think) They were still doing work on the joints in all the intersections and brick inlays in the sidewalks last week, so maybe they will come back to fix it? But that one is really bad. Hard to walk across, let alone bike.

Green St is the worst one IMO. The other ones seem better, but it’s hard to tell because all the private construction in the area has put a few layers of mud and sand over the cobbles.

[Rizzo]

It doesn’t seem all that bad biking over the cobbles. It’s the least of my problems biking.

[spyguy]

150 N Clinton (aka building with the most interesting entrance) - they may be erecting an office addition on the parking lot next door


1220 W Van Buren - The Oxxford - rooftop addition to this office conversion

[BonoboZill4]

Oh my god SpyGuy, the word play

[BorisMolotov]

Just looked up the building and I must say, it's um... unique

[ChickeNES]

Someone on Reddit was asking about the lot on Michigan where the YWCA building used to be, and in the comments someone else claims to have seen plans for the lot. Anyone heard anything about this?

[harryc]

Nov 21

[BonoboZill4]

Originally Posted by ChickeNES

Someone on Reddit was asking about the lot on Michigan where the YWCA building used to be, and in the comments someone else claims to have seen plans for the lot. Anyone heard anything about this?

I'm guessing they are just remembering that glass, skinny tower that had been proposed before the recession. If not, then that's exciting, but I'm doubtful

[spyguy]

Beef 'n Brandy no more. Looks like the current hideous building on State Street will be restored into a small Sonder "hotel" and retail.

There's some other buildings on State that I would like to see get the same type of treatment.

[ardecila]

We’ve definitely seen that rendering before. The new news then is Sonder’s involvement?

TBH it’s probably a good model for lodging moving forward. Erect a small apartment building, maybe with some modest facilities for housekeeping etc, then get the entire building operating as a limited service “hotel” under the category of vacation rentals which are allowed in all B/C zoning. That way you avoid pissing off permanent residents in existing residential buildings while sidestepping questions of taking housing stock off the market.