Quote:
Originally Posted by pilsenarch
Fitzgerald: One of the best designs that has ever come out of that office (I know, that's not saying much), brick base is obviously relating to the church... I very much appreciate the restraint of the big 'black' box... have to see more renderings to evaluate the rest...
Ralph: Yes, this is just a holding-mechanism rendering... however, I am very concerned about the townhomes sitting to the south of River City in the shadow of both Roosevelt Collection massive wall and the Randolph viaduct...
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Have you seen a development of this scale in Chicago that
didn't include townhomes? It's a standard part of the developer playbook, because townhomes target a different segment of the market from condos and you can market a townhouse development next to a condo development without competing much.
The only development of this size without a significant townhouse component is Lakeshore East. Over there, Magellan can only build one or possibly two condo towers at a time, but they have sites for 16 towers. Combine that with the cyclical nature of the housing market and you've got a project that will literally take generations to complete.
From an urban design standpoint, you can put midrises next to highrises and achieve a successful mix of scales. From a developer standpoint, those highrises and midrises contain the same condo housing product - you're putting all your eggs in one basket. I know P+W tried to split the difference at River South with some clever architecture, but I believe these were eliminated.