CHICAGO | General Developments

[ardecila]

Pilsen and Little Village (really one big contiguous neighborhood) are weird politically, though. Latino neighborhood groups are actively fighting gentrification and they are powerful and well-organized. It has rapid transit, great building stock, thriving businesses - really everything you could want in a city neighborhood, but because the powers in the neighborhood are solidly anti-development, the next decade or so will be very contentious, which will drive investment elsewhere.

Eventually the community groups will lose, since they can't win against back-to-the-city macroeconomic forces that make property close to downtown very valuable. They can delay it, though.

[the urban politician]

^ Both this and something similar around the Cell are badly needed.

If they build this project and a pink line stop gets built, I predict that some of the lots east of United Center will rise in value and we may even see them get developed, with United Center having the necessary cash to go vertical with some of their parking.

[scottxxon]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

I believe Loyola does own them, but I'm pretty certain they aren't going to become dorms.

If we are discussing these 4+1s (the newly painted ones north of Chipotle) on the southwest corner of North Shore and Sheridan, they are in fact becoming dorms. The link is to an article on Joe Moore's website concerning the project. They will be open for upperclass students in time for the Fall 2012 semester.

[Kenmore]

from most to least likely...

Avondale-Pilsen-Uptown-East Garfield

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by Kenmore

from most to least likely...

Avondale-Pilsen-Uptown-East Garfield

Uptown is probably a worse bet than Garfield. People have been saying "Uptown is going to develop" for decades and it is still a long ways off because of entrenched institutional problems related to massive Section 8, mental health, and elder care facilities that dominate the area. The area is a mecca for crazy bums because the city seems to have deemed this "their neighborhood" and those are uses that don't just up and move.

That said, Uptown could get better, but I just don't even see it cleaning up like Logan Square or Wicker Park have over the past 20 years or so. You'll always have those crazy guys who are there because the city has a halfway house there...

[Kenmore]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Uptown is probably a worse bet than Garfield. People have been saying "Uptown is going to develop" for decades and it is still a long ways off because of entrenched institutional problems related to massive Section 8, mental health, and elder care facilities that dominate the area. The area is a mecca for crazy bums because the city seems to have deemed this "their neighborhood" and those are uses that don't just up and move.

That said, Uptown could get better, but I just don't even see it cleaning up like Logan Square or Wicker Park have over the past 20 years or so. You'll always have those crazy guys who are there because the city has a halfway house there...

Preaching to the choir here but those past decades all had one alderman, since she's left we've already seen one large mental health facility go (Somerset) and another is in the process of being foreclosed/sold (Lawrence House). I don't think it's fair to compare the past 20+ years of failure when so much has changed. Not to mention it's already significantly safer than Garfield already.

[HomrQT]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Uptown is probably a worse bet than Garfield. People have been saying "Uptown is going to develop" for decades and it is still a long ways off because of entrenched institutional problems related to massive Section 8, mental health, and elder care facilities that dominate the area. The area is a mecca for crazy bums because the city seems to have deemed this "their neighborhood" and those are uses that don't just up and move.

That said, Uptown could get better, but I just don't even see it cleaning up like Logan Square or Wicker Park have over the past 20 years or so. You'll always have those crazy guys who are there because the city has a halfway house there...

Uptown has been designated a TIF neighborhood as well which should force things to move along.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Pilsen and Little Village (really one big contiguous neighborhood) are weird politically, though. Latino neighborhood groups are actively fighting gentrification and they are powerful and well-organized. It has rapid transit, great building stock, thriving businesses - really everything you could want in a city neighborhood, but because the powers in the neighborhood are solidly anti-development, the next decade or so will be very contentious, which will drive investment elsewhere.

Eventually the community groups will lose, since they can't win against back-to-the-city macroeconomic forces that make property close to downtown very valuable. They can delay it, though.

The thing is though, Pilsen Alliance (the anti-development group for Pilsen) really hates Alderman Danny Solis, whom is viewed to be very pro development by them. Little Village (South Lawndale) is too far from any rapid transit to really be pressured into full gentrification, but North Lawndale for sure is poised for investment; the new Police Station on Ogden has already spured investment.

I think the Pilsen wild card will be what happens to Fisk Generating Station when it goes offline next year. I would love to see a urban high rise cluster with riverfront amenities (perhaps a marina). It could be connected to the Halsted Orange Line via a elevtaed pedestrian pathway or people mover; of course that would be too ambitious for anyone to attempt, or is it.

[lawfin]

I don't know about Garfield Park or northlawndale, I have a theory that deeply poor black neighborhoods are much more difficult to flip than other areas. Whether it be racism, building stock destruction via the riots and urban renewal, higher levels of entrenched crime, and deeper levels of generational poverty and government subsidized living extremely poor black neighborhoods just don't gentrify unless the population is essentially forced out....ie Cabrini, starting to see it in parts of Bronzeville and the developments in Kenwood tied to the removal of the very poor black population in Oakland & Ida B Wells.

Businessweek on east garfield in 2005-06 named it was one of hottest....prior to crash of course.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07...s/source/3.htm


I agree UT has peculiar local idiosyncracies....however some of that was tied to Schiller who is gone; But yes there are plenty of institutional issues in UT that challenge its ascendancy....it has gotten much much better than it was even 12 years ago when I lived there let alone since the 1970;s when it was brutal....I'd say cautiously optimistic.

Rogers Park has somewhat analogous institutional challenges as UT....with the senior living along Sheridan some of is subsidized and the amount of half-way houses and apts that house the mentally disturbed. As well as in parts a high concentration of subsidized housing....thinking most saliently about the crime cancer that is the Juneway Jungle centered around ashland and jonquil on the NOH area of Rogers Park, Northpoint apts, run by a company called Aimco ,are 304 subsidized apts that have had long running crime issues. The neighborhood would be much better if they left along with the halfway homes and subsidized senior homes along Sherdian.....Sheridan if developed properly could be prime RE....probably not in my lifetime.....too much political grab bag

[OrdoSeclorum]

For what it's worth, my girlfriend is a museum curator so I get dragged to a lot of underground art openings and studio visits. There are a ton of live/work spaces and studios in East Garfield park, as far as I can tell, more than any other place in the city when it comes to the "starving" artist type. It seems to be on the border of acceptable/cheap. I know that doesn't mean everything, but one positive indicator of pending development is when people who are cool but have no money plant their flags there. It's the only place she takes me that I'm surprised to be going.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

I think the Pilsen wild card will be what happens to Fisk Generating Station when it goes offline next year. I would love to see a urban high rise cluster with riverfront amenities (perhaps a marina). It could be connected to the Halsted Orange Line via a elevtaed pedestrian pathway or people mover; of course that would be too ambitious for anyone to attempt, or is it.

Stop tantalizing me!

In all seriousness, I hope they save the older parts of the power plant. Cool industrial settings are not exactly dime-a-dozen, and the place is a National Engineering Landmark. The original GE turbine at Fisk (1903) was once the world's largest steam turbine, producing six times more than the next largest turbine, and was the kickstart that made Chicago into the nation's most electrified city (the electric-multiple-unit train is also a Chicago invention).

Since the plant is not open to the public, I have no idea how much of the original Daniel Burnham plant still exists but utility companies generally don't tear down things until they become obsolete.


Images of Fisk

[Mr Downtown]

Burnham??? That's Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, with later additions by Holabird & Roche.

[ardecila]

Whoops, my bad. Burnham did Crawford and State Line, with later additions by Graham Anderson Probst & White.

Still, numerous examples both here and overseas show how these awesome spaces can be creatively reused. The Powerhouse High School at the old Sears campus is pretty tame by comparison.

As I mentioned above, though, the feasibility of preservation depends on how intact the original building is.

[george]

4-29

Halsted Bridge

[ChiPhi]

Originally Posted by george

4-29

SONO looks so sad amongst the strip malls...

[ardecila]

Oh wow, the thermoplastic striping is already peeling... I hope that's only some low-grade temporary stuff.

[Rizzo]

The striping is actually temporary. This isn't the lane configuration they are using. I've been on this bridge a few times. I haven't said much about it, but it feels really cheap. I'm not sure why the deck screeding looks so raggedy either. The new bridges in Chicago are not aging well.

[Chicago Shawn]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Stop tantalizing me!

In all seriousness, I hope they save the older parts of the power plant. Cool industrial settings are not exactly dime-a-dozen, and the place is a National Engineering Landmark. The original GE turbine at Fisk (1903) was once the world's largest steam turbine, producing six times more than the next largest turbine, and was the kickstart that made Chicago into the nation's most electrified city (the electric-multiple-unit train is also a Chicago invention).

Since the plant is not open to the public, I have no idea how much of the original Daniel Burnham plant still exists but utility companies generally don't tear down things until they become obsolete.


Images of Fisk

Absolutely. I am definitely one who believes Chicago is not preserving enough of its industrial heritage. Germany does a really good job of transforming industrial wastelands into new attractions. I'm pretty sure much of the old Fisk building facade from 1903 doesn't exist any more, but some elements like the smoke stack can surely stay and be transformed into something else. An observation tower with wind turbines perhaps? Or leave it as is and allow for artists to turn it into a 300+ foot tall mural; I stumbled upon that idea after watching the Serria Club folks scale the thing and paint "quit coal" in a vertical alignment. The plant sits on a huge property and even has a private slip on the south branch. Oh, the possibilities...

Of course the issue of the land being in a PMD would come up for non-industrial re-use, but it wouldn't be the first time land was carved out of a PMD, as it happened with Southworks after Solo Cup decided to stay put near Ford City.

[J_M_Tungsten]

Edit

[BWChicago]

Originally Posted by Chicago Shawn

I'm pretty sure much of the old Fisk building facade from 1903 doesn't exist any more.

http://binged.it/IA2K1D

From what I can tell most of what's shown on HAER is still there, save for the maintenance building and the fragment wall of the old boiler house.