Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
You talk as if, somehow, the CBD will eventually "fill up" and hit a wall, causing some kind of development crisis.
Chicago is a HUGE, HUGE city. If West Loop Gate fills up with shorter buildings, then office development will spread south of the Eisenhower, or to one of many remaining vacant lots west of the Kennedy, or to Wicker Park, or along the west bank of the North Branch (in the area around the Tribune plant).
I've always entertained the idea of developing a second office district around the United Center. This would create a unique neighborhood within Chicago - sort of Buckhead-ish - and add ridership to the underused Pink Line as commuters transfer from Metra or the Red/Blue/Brown lines.
The fact is, I honestly don't care what the height of these buildings are, because Chicago can accommodate office growth in many places, and this single-minded obsession on downtown actually is holding the office sector back from improving other areas of the city. Smaller cities need to focus on downtown because they struggle to maintain the critical mass downtown for lively streets and a pleasant, safe perception of their CBD. Chicago, on the other hand, has the ability to direct office development anywhere within a "greater downtown area" that stretches up to North Avenue, down to Cermak, and west to Western.
Now, for the 444 West Lake site - I believe it deserves a tall building because of its prominent location along the river. But don't try to apple the same rules to random sites along Desplaines and Jefferson.
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Uh, yeah, the CBD will "eventually" fill up. It's not an infinate amount of space. And I said nothing about a development crisis.
Yes, Chicago is a huge city, 227.2 sq mi to be precise, but only a fraction of that accounts for the central area and has high density zoning. THere's a chance that there will be expansion of office space south of the Ike, but on the east side of the river, the majority of development will be residential and west of the river, transportation kind of sucks.
Wicker Park, you must be delusional. There won't be any office development there. It's hard enough getting new residential density in that area. The west bank of the north branch also doesn't seem likely unless Goose Island is ever rezoned from a PMD and the redl line stub subway is ever actually built.
For all the sites you mention, public transportation would need to be vastly improved and whole areas would need to be rezoned, which isn't a small task. I don't see this happening around the UC because of all the low density residential. It's possible, but not probable.
If you have these views about development, maybe you should be so inclined to attend some of the meetings on development and city issues that tend to occur. There are so many people on here who are all talk and full of ideas, but lack action. I don't have a wife/kids/significant other but I work all day and I've managed to make it to 4 or 5 of the central area meetings.
Yeah, I will apply the same ideas and concepts to random sites along Desplaines and Jefferson. It's 4 blocks from the Sears Tower. Cracker box buildings in that area defeats the purpose of it being a part of the central area, especially after the city has stated that they want downtown to expand in that region. Would you put a trailer park in Kenilworth? I don't think so...