Quote:
Originally Posted by hawainpanda
IMO its crazy how poorly developed the southloop in comparison to west loop or river north, that entire complex south of dearborn station is ridiculous, its literally a suburb inside downtown area with walls to the streets, hopefully with the 6 towers planned along the river in south loop, the dev of wabash and state south of loop then south loop will eventually be a more vibrant area.. Hopefully they're redev the area south of dearborn station
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I see a lot of hate for Dearborn Park on this board, and to some extent I agree, but I think the harsh criticism of its scale and function is a little unfounded.
I don't feel that the development is given enough credit for its time. Dearborn Park was built on bombed out railroad yards in the late 70s-mid 80s, some 20 years before media started considering our downtown 'revitalized'. The people who decided to live in that neighborhood were far, far ahead of the game in rooting themselves and their families that close to downtown. It also anchored most of the community in the South Loop for the twenty or so odd years before the building boom ten years ago.
Let's remember that most of downtown outside the Loop was filled with massive parking lots when it was built, so the inefficient land use wasn't considered as thoughtfully as it should have been. That being said, cheers to some (much of it) being thoughtfully redeveloped for the new South Loop.