CHICAGO | General Developments

[honte]

^ God that's a heartbreaker. So sad to see this incredible building go. And for what? A monument to greedy NIMBYs and shamefully poor city planning.

You can thank WLCO and their sleaze for this. They'll all rejoice that the best architecture in the neighborhood is being lost, and parade their designer mutts around.

[denizen467]

What is that 1- or 2-story concrete bunker that hoards the entire block immediately northeast of that block? Using that block for the park would've been a much more desirable redistribution of space than this.

[harryc]

Originally Posted by honte

^ God that's a heartbreaker. So sad to see this incredible building go. And for what? A monument to greedy NIMBYs and shamefully poor city planning.

You can thank WLCO and their sleaze for this. They'll all rejoice that the best architecture in the neighborhood is being lost, and parade their designer mutts around.

From September








When labor was cheap - and standards high.

[TWRWatcher]

The building to the Northeast is either the main offices or manufacturing plant for H2O+ which is a body products company, makes soup and stuff I think. But regardless, its thier facility.

[i_am_hydrogen]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ What's supposed to go up there?

[Dr. Taco]

^^ holy cow, that building is beautiful. sad.

[Taft]

Originally Posted by i_am_hydrogen

Nice! That park might actually be usable after this rehab.

Taft

[Mr Downtown]

^Usable for what? Dog poop? What's the point of another piddly little unprogrammed, noisy plaza 150 feet from the one at DePaul and 200 feet from the one at the Federal Center?

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Usable for what? Dog poop? What's the point of another piddly little unprogrammed, noisy plaza 150 feet from the one at DePaul and 200 feet from the one at the Federal Center?

Hey, it's better than a fenced-off field of bums.

[honte]

Funny, the site plan for Pritzker Park looks vaguely like the plan for the Children's Musem.

[wrab]

^ Snap! I still think that this would be the best site for the kiddie museum, across from the library & adjacent to the L. And it's already Pritzker territory.

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Usable for what? Dog poop? What's the point of another piddly little unprogrammed, noisy plaza 150 feet from the one at DePaul and 200 feet from the one at the Federal Center?

Law student nap lawn!

[wrab]

Originally Posted by harryc

The city really needs to get its act together with adaptive reuse - bigger, tastier carrots for developers might be a good start. If we're to successfully continue to market the city as North America's architectural nirvahna - and there are big tourist dollar revenues to be had here in doing so - then we need to take better care of the architectural legacies that we already have.

[honte]

^ Yes.

I believe Preservation Chicago actually commissioned at their own cost an adaptive reuse study for this building - to be used as a field house for the park. But the community groups and the alderman wanted nothing to do with it.

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by honte

^ Yes.

I believe Preservation Chicago actually commissioned at their own cost an adaptive reuse study for this building - to be used as a field house for the park. But the community groups and the alderman wanted nothing to do with it.

According to PC's blurb, UIC refused to give any blueprints upon which to base the study. The fix has been in on this building for a while, there was probably nothing that could be done to save it short of an alderman who actually cared passionately about architectural preservation.

There are some excellent Art Deco details on the building. Hopefully one of the various scavengers gets his hands on them and aren't they just crushed.

[BVictor1]

Congress Parkway Improvement Project Meeting-October 23rd at 6:30pm

Details:

When: October 23rd 2008 at 6:30pm

Where: University Center Chicago-525 S. State-The Lake Conference Room

Why: To receive information and provide input on the upcoming Congress Parkway Improvement Project. CDOT will present the current proposal and seek input from the community.

[BVictor1]

Redevelopment of the Old Post Office



Thursday, November 6th at 12.15 pm

Chicago Cultural Center
Washington & Michigan
Millennium Room, 5th floor east

Vacant since 1996, when the Postal Service moved across the street, the 17-story, 2.5-million-square-foot limestone edifice just west of the Loop sits on the bank of the Chicago River with the Eisenhower Expressway running through the middle of the building. Numerous proposals have been offered; Walton Street Capital has been developing its approach for the last decade. Raphael Dawson will discuss his firm's conversion plans: rehabbing the Van Buren building as office space, retaining the building's Art Deco features; a luxury hotel on the eastern portion of the site; and residential units in the southern building fronting Harrison Street. Demolition of a portion of the building's central core will provide an open, landscaped area for office building tenants, hotel guests and residents.

This event is free and open to all. No reservations needed.

[ardecila]

If the central part of the building will be demolished, that provides a golden opportunity to build part of the West Loop high-speed rail tunnel, which splits off from the tracks into Union Station at about Harrison and cuts westward to Clinton Street.

Right now, it would be built at a diagonal underneath several heavy buildings with caissons, including Congress Center and the Old Post Office. If the central part will be demolished, then the building's columns can be reconfigured to allow for the tunnel to be built underneath at a later date.

What I don't like about this most recent plan, though, is that very little concern is given to preserving the monumental face of the building as you approach from the west. A giant brise-soleil would accomplish this effect while still allowing the plaza to be built behind. The grid of the screen could even be configured to "echo" the facade that was once there. This, I think, would be more elegant and forward-looking than simply keeping the west facade and stripping the floors behind it, since the west facade was never meant to receive sunlight and water from its east side, which for 70 years has only opened up into interior space.

[aic4ever]

Originally Posted by ardecila

If the central part of the building will be demolished, that provides a golden opportunity to build part of the West Loop high-speed rail tunnel, which splits off from the tracks into Union Station at about Harrison and cuts westward to Clinton Street.

Right now, it would be built at a diagonal underneath several heavy buildings with caissons, including Congress Center and the Old Post Office. If the central part will be demolished, then the building's columns can be reconfigured to allow for the tunnel to be built underneath at a later date.

You're funny.

[ChicagoChicago]

^^

I absolutely love the Art Deco details on this building. Chicago doesn't have much Art Deco reference left short of the taller masses along the river. Sad to see this one go.

[spyguy]

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscent...architect.html

Goettsch Partners Will Design New Music Building
October 21, 2008 | Campus

Northwestern University has selected Goettsch Partners, Inc. as the architectural firm to design the new building for the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music on the University’s Evanston campus. The project will emphasize a sustainable design approach throughout, with a minimum of achieving LEED Silver certification. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2010, with completion expected in spring 2012.

The announcement follows a four-month search for an architectural firm for the project.

Northwestern will construct the state-of-the-art School of Music building facing an arts green that will replace the existing Arts Circle on its Evanston campus. Envisioned as a signature building for the University, the new facility will enable the Bienen School of Music to consolidate all of its programs in one area for the first time in more than 30 years.

Goettsch Partners is a Chicago-based design firm that provides innovative architectural, interior, planning and building enclosure design services to clients worldwide. Led by seven partners, the 90-member firm has completed projects throughout Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The firm also maintains an office in Shanghai, China.

Goettsch Partners has a strong Chicago connection with one-of-a-kind institutional projects that have included the Museum of Science and Industry’s U-505 Submarine Exhibit and the Lincoln Park Zoo’s Regenstein Center for African Apes, as well as 111 South Wacker, UBS Tower, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Headquarters. Among numerous international projects, the design firm’s work includes the new Abu Dhabi stock exchange building and financial center in the United Arab Emirates and the Diamond Exchange Tower in Shanghai. (For more information on the firm, visit http://www.gpchicago.com.)

The new music building will be located just south of the School’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall and Regenstein Hall of Music on the southern end of Northwestern’s lakefront campus. The structure is projected to have spectacular views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline.

The new building will include classrooms, teaching labs, academic faculty offices, teaching studios for choral, opera, piano and voice faculty, practice rooms, student lounges and administrative offices. There also will be a choral rehearsal room and library, an opera rehearsal room/black box theater and a 400-seat recital hall.

Toni-Marie Montgomery, dean of the Bienen School of Music, said, “The new building will bring a sense of community that facilitates collaboration among our many excellent programs. We look forward to working with Goettsch Partners in planning a building that is both architecturally stunning as well as programmatically well-designed.”

“We chose architects we believed could develop an iconic design for the facility while respecting the campus context,” said Gordon Segal, chair of the Board of Trustees Educational Properties Committee.

“Goettsch Partners submitted a design concept that takes full advantage of the site’s lakeside setting and the views to the city of Chicago,” said Ronald Nayler, Northwestern’s associate vice president for facilities management. “We believe that refinement of that concept will result in an extraordinary building that will meet the needs of the Bienen School of Music faculty, staff and students.”

“This project presents an exceptional opportunity for our firm,” said James Goettsch, FAIA, president of Goettsch Partners. “Northwestern has set high expectations in terms of the architectural design of the new building and arts green, especially in light of the site’s dramatic lakefront setting.”

The School of Music has been named the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music in honor of the retiring University president and his wife. President Bienen, who announced in March that he plans to retire next year, and his wife, Leigh, are avid music-lovers and strong supporters of the arts, including the School of Music.