That's a great way to fill a prominently empty corner in Chinatown! (I'd say the most prominently empty, but Archer + Cermak has some weak edges.) Zoning has previously made it tough to develop flatirons (hard to park them, hard to meet setbacks and to get the FAR necessary to pay for the structure); I suppose this is one way to get around that. Another factor may be that this is a fairly wide flatiron and that Chinatown tenants are less hung up on big floorplates and adequate parking. It's also going to be interesting to see how getting to/from a fourth-floor library works out, although I suppose it can't be any worse than the effectively-third-floor HWLC.
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Originally Posted by Baronvonellis
I think it would be better for the area to have more street retail or apartments next to the subway. There is plenty of park space in that area so I don't think those little plasa would be missed.
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Unfortunately, building over/around the subway station is probably more expensive than market demand warrants, and the resulting leftover spaces are mostly too small to be of much use. (Of course, they could still be put to better uses than, say, a fenced off plot of fruit trees, but I lost that battle. Oh, did I ever.)
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Originally Posted by Buckman821
After seeing this sign I was less excited. Bickerdike is like the Peter Holsten of Latin neighborhoods. All they do is suck off the public teat and build heavily subsidized, TIF financed type of projects.
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That's because, unlike Holsten, they're a nonprofit CDC with a mission to build affordable housing on the northwest side. The building on Armitage took years of fighting NIMBYs who detested not only its density, but also (of course) the affordability. Bickerdike has also fought numerous hurdles to get a greater mixed-use component into its developments (federal regs make that surprisingly difficult), and to use rental subsidies in ways that create affordable homeownership (with the Harold Washington co-op), so try to give them some credit.
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