CHICAGO | Highrise Projects & Construction, v7

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

Very interesting. The two low-rises that can be redeveloped - are they adjacent (having difficulty visualizing the block at the moment)? Could anything of scale be built? Regardless, it will be awesome to get the adaptive reuse/restoration/reactivation on this block - really looking forward to that!

Yes, they're adjacent (in the middle of the two historic high-rises).

[SamInTheLoop]

^ got it.....this could be interesting......

thanks

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

Yeah - count me among the perplexed whenever he makes that comparison.....I've never understood it.....

I didn't make that comparison. This discussion started from a quote in an article from an attendee at the 740 N Rush proposal community meeting who said "we don't want to recreate midtown Manhattan".

Not that I apologize for making such comparisons in the past. River North is Chicago's nascent midtown Manhattan. Deal with it.

[HomrQT]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

I didn't make that comparison. This discussion started from a quote in an article from an attendee at the 740 N Rush proposal community meeting who said "we don't want to recreate midtown Manhattan".

Not that I apologize for making such comparisons in the past. River North is Chicago's nascent midtown Manhattan. Deal with it.

I always thought of the Gold Coast/Streeterville as our Midtown Manhattan... or maybe the Loop since they are both gigantic CBD's.

[maru2501]

another large soil tester at Illinois and Rush site of mall expansion or whatever we are calling it. the surface lot

[Lakeviewguy]

Excellent point, cyked3. I agree entirely. In the meantime, it's more and more clear every day that River North needs a real park, and the McDonald's lot is the perfect spot for it.

[BuildThemTaller]

Originally Posted by maru2501

another large soil tester at Illinois and Rush site of mall expansion or whatever we are calling it. the surface lot

I walk past this site a few times every week. I think that soil tester has been all over that parking lot for about 2+ weeks at this point. It's surprising that the lot is still there after all those holes.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by HomrQT

I always thought of the Gold Coast/Streeterville as our Midtown Manhattan... or maybe the Loop since they are both gigantic CBD's.

There are buildings, row homes mostly in some parts of Gold Coast and Lincoln Park that look like some of the row homes on my block and surrounding blocks in Upper West Side. Not all of it, but some of them. At least if the stairs to them from the sidewalk were 2X longer and the entrances that much higher. I find that the side streets in UWS have more in common with these of Chicago than UES.

I don't think Gold Coast is anything like almost anywhere in midtown. I guess you could say that in 5 years, Streeterville could be like Hudson Yards if Hudson Yards was way more residential or something.

[RyanChi92]

Long time stalker, first time poster. I know it was mentioned a post or two above, but I snapped a pic of the soil testing truck on 3/20 - early afternoon. This is the Northwest corner of the lot. It later moved to the Northeast corner, and then the Southeast corner of the parking lot.

Is there any concrete info on what will be included in this expansion?

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Lakeviewguy

Excellent point, cyked3. I agree entirely. In the meantime, it's more and more clear every day that River North needs a real park, and the McDonald's lot is the perfect spot for it.

The planning is that the USPS will eventually leave the facility between Clark and Dearborn, Grand and Ohio, and that a park would go there. But who knows when the USPS will move from there. If they do, it is also a good place for a park being exactly SE of the McDonald's site. If they don't then the McDonald's site would also be a good location, especially if the surrounding blocks were redeveloped into taller, pedestrian-friendly buildings.

[ChiHi]

Originally Posted by emathias

The planning is that the USPS will eventually leave the facility between Clark and Dearborn, Grand and Ohio, and that a park would go there. But who knows when the USPS will move from there. If they do, it is also a good place for a park being exactly SE of the McDonald's site. If they don't then the McDonald's site would also be a good location, especially if the surrounding blocks were redeveloped into taller, pedestrian-friendly buildings.

Considering every tower in the area had a parking podium that takes up 1/2 a block and provides about a half acre or more of outdoor space I'd say the park is little more than a visual thing than a livable necessity.

[Near North Resident]

Originally Posted by RyanChi92

Long time stalker, first time poster. I know it was mentioned a post or two above, but I snapped a pic of the soil testing truck on 3/20 - early afternoon. This is the Northwest corner of the lot. It later moved to the Northeast corner, and then the Southeast corner of the parking lot.

Is there any concrete info on what will be included in this expansion?

pretty sure that's going to be a mall expansion, 403 N Wabash is south of that lot just south of 405 N, not sure if that one is getting built for sure or not

[Rizzo]

It would be a damn shame if residential or hotel is not included with the mall expansion.

[maru2501]

^agree. Maybe it will since I recall them paying a fortune for the lot, which remains a blight on the universe

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by Hayward

It would be a damn shame if residential or hotel is not included with the mall expansion.

Gensler designed a cool mixed-user for that lot. Sadly, I think it's gonna be more mall.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by ChiHi

Considering every tower in the area had a parking podium that takes up 1/2 a block and provides about a half acre or more of outdoor space I'd say the park is little more than a visual thing than a livable necessity.

It will be nice to have a block-sized, fully public park right in the middle of River North. The few (in River North, very few of the towers actually have publicly-accessible park-like space) slivers of private parks are not heavily used because they're private and the private owners intentionally make using them somewhat intimidating. A block-sized park enables festivals and other more public things that private parks aren't good at accommodating.

[the urban politician]

River North could use a good sized public park

[J_M_Tungsten]

^Post office site....

[gebs]

It's just too bad the blocks are all so small. The post office site is no bigger than Washington Square park. It'd be great to combine the surface area of the Post office, Rainforest Cafe, Best Western, and Rock & Roll McDonalds and make one large park out of all of it, connecting each other with pedestrian bridges.

Ah, to dream ...

[emathias]

Originally Posted by gebs

It's just too bad the blocks are all so small. The post office site is no bigger than Washington Square park. It'd be great to combine the surface area of the Post office, Rainforest Cafe, Best Western, and Rock & Roll McDonalds and make one large park out of all of it, connecting each other with pedestrian bridges.

Ah, to dream ...

I wouldn't want a large park in River North, one block worth is a good size. Abandoning the tax revenues of all the areas you describe would not be worth the gain. One benefit of the Post Office site is that it's already off of the tax rolls. Some of the best urban parks in the country are about the size of a River North park. Jamison Square and Tanner Springs parks in Portland, Oregon, are great urban parks of about that size. For that matter, Pioneer Courthouse Square is great urban plaza in Portland, too.