That's a mouthful.

With all the recent news of booming skyscrapers, I thought we could make a compilation list of all the smaller, maybe

less known buildings that relate to religion, the community, sports, or the arts.

So here are some of the projects I know of (a lot) and I hope that you can add to. Maybe this will refresh your memory

:)

Museum:
The Art Institute of Chicago expansion (http://www.artic.edu/aic/aboutus/newbuilding/)
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/8538/09big8kx.jpg

*Chefs of Cuisine Culinary Hall of Fame and Museum (http://www.chicagochefs.org/Article20.htm)

*The Chicago Art Foundation Museum (http://www.chicagoartproject.org)
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7231/chicagoartbz7.jpg

*Chicago Baseball Museum (http://www.chicagobaseballmuseum.org/)

Chicago Children's Museum (http://www.chichildrensmuseum.org/)
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/6648/childrensmuseumsb3.jpg

Richard H. Driehaus Museum of Decorative Arts (http://www.driehausmuseum.org/)
http://tinypic.com/f296a0.jpg

*Fire Museum of Greater Chicago (http://www.firemuseumofgreaterchicago.org/)
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/110/firehouseic8.jpg

Freedom Museum (base of Tribune Tower) (http://www.freedommuseum.us/)
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/779/1239313892dec73e5c3sa0.jpg
Photo by Frank Gruber, flickr

Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center (http://www.hellenicmuseum.org/)
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/9600/hellenicfm5.jpg

Hyde Park Art Center (http://www.hydeparkart.org/)
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3219/capcamp22sm.jpg

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center (http://www.hmfi.org) - Skokie
http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/218/newmuseumpic9ra.jpg

Kohl Children's Museum (http://www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org/) - Glenview
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5497/childrens2ry1.jpg

Michigan Avenue Bridgehouse Museum (http://bridgehousemuseum.org/)
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/4978/237833564dg.jpg

The Museum of Broadcast Communications (http://www.museum.tv/)
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/1195/23kinzeexterior60031ou.jpg

The National Public Housing Museum (http://www.publichousingmuseum.org/)
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/5840/phmuseum1il6.jpg

Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies (http://www.spertus.edu)
http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/3327/zbarenphotos024jk9.jpg
Photo from website

Stadium:
Chicago Fire Bridgeview Stadium (http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/MLS/chf/stadium/bridgeview/)
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/529/94cz.jpg

Sears Centre (http://www.searscentre.com) - Hoffman Estates
http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/7889/scnight3wx.jpg

Wrigley Field Expansion (http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/ballpark/expansion.jsp)
http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/1842/wrigleyfieldexpansion12zl.jpg

Religious:
Center for Jewish Life (http://www.centerforjewishlife.com/)
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/9283/centerforjewishlife4jv.jpg

Pacific Garden Mission (http://www.pgm.org/)
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1225/missionmu2.jpg
Photo from website

Community Center:
The Center on Halsted (http://www.centeronhalsted.org)
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/6081/centeronhalstedck8.jpg
Photo from Gensler

*Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center (http://www.kroccenterchicago.org/)
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3123/kroccenterfv4.jpg

*SOS Children's Village Community Center and Administrative Building

(http://www.sosillinois.org/chicago.htm)
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/259/b21gs1.jpg
Photo from Studio Gang

Gary Comer Youth Center (http://www.gcychome.org/)
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/5570/garycme9.jpg
Photo from website
Dance:

Hubbard Street Dance (http://www.hubbardstreetdance.com/)
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5272/hubbard01hh5.jpg
Photo from Krueck+Sexton

The Muntu Performing Arts Center (http://www.muntu.com/)
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6887/muntu2ma.png

Joffrey Tower (http://www.joffrey.com/)
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/6672/jbnewbuilding01za0.jpg

Education:
Columbia College
Media Production Center
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/9145/ud070825el6.jpg

Flashpoint Academy
28 North Clark (http://www.flashpointacademy.com/)
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/1874/flashpointyu3.jpg

Rush University
Rush University Medical Center
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/4135/rushmedwn2.jpg

University of Chicago
61st & Drexel Parking/Office Facility
http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/4642/61stdrexelrenderingw343ls6.jpg

Comer Center for Children and Specialty Care
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/1229/uccomerimage7wr.gif

New Hospital Pavilion
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9387/ucpavilion.jpg

New Residence Hall and Dining Facility
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/8236/residencehallqd7.jpg

Center for Biomedical Discovery
http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/5217/cbdfw1.jpg

Center for Physical and Computational Sciences

Joe and Rika Mansueto Library
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/549/080512libraryjahn1printrn4.jpg

Laboratory School - Renovation & Expansion

The Reva & David Logan Center for Creative & Performing Arts (http://artscenter.uchicago.edu/)
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/6753/uc1yw6.jpg

South Campus Chiller Plant
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/536/chillerplantoq9.jpg

West Campus Utility Plant
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/171/wutilityplantlv7.jpg

University of Illinois at Chicago
East Campus Recreation Center
http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/2306/0630r0220ecrc20perspectiveij2.jpg

Sport and Fitness Center
http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/4663/0953r0420wcrc20night20perspectivexk9.jpg

Stukel Towers C
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/361/stukeltowerja1.jpg

UIC Skyspace
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5202/gateway20plaza20aerialcx2.jpg

Misc:
Ford / Calumet Environmental Center
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/5736/b41nb8.jpg

McCormick Place West expansion (http://www.mccormick2008.com/)
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/6671/birdseye800nh6.jpg

Motorola GFRY Design Studio (http://www.artic.edu/saic/public/releases/Fall2005/release_gfry.html)
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/8866/13505motimagewa4.jpg

*Navy Pier Redevelopment (http://www.navypier.com)
http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/373/214259444cq.jpg

*Northerly Island

*Poetry Foundation HQ

Vietnam Memorial on the Chicago River
http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/4350/riverwalk8dy.png

Bridge:
35th Street pedestrian bridge (http://www.architecture.org/drivesite/epstein0.html)
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/6702/35stpe6.jpg

41st / 43rd Street pedestrian bridge (http://www.architecture.org/drivesite/ccad0.html)
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/9246/bridgelg01wx0.jpg

Chicago River pedestrian bridge (http://www.architecture.org/drivesite/wight0.html)
http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4562/cr4lgnt3.jpg
Chicago Spire bridge
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/6606/dusableparklsdpedbridgemv3.jpg

The Modern Wing bridge
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5626/pianobridgeop800x193jx6.jpg

North Avenue pedestrian bridge (http://www.architecture.org/drivesite/psa0.html)
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/628/n5lgbg5.jpg

North Avenue suspension bridge
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9951/bridge061706500si6.jpg

Solidarity Drive underpass
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3117/4609ayq3.jpg

*Queen's Landing
http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/6460/323qloverhead0gx.jpg

Sidewalk Studio:
ABC 7 Sidewalk Studio (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=stationinfo&id=3360722)
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/4642/abc73ot.jpg

CBS 2 Sidewalk Studio (http://cbs2chicago.com/pressreleases/local_story_096151037.html)
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/352/44653279m9uc.jpg


*= design competition still underway, funding, no images released, etc.

A rather impressive compilation Spyguy; until now I had lost track of several of these cultural projects. Where is the Hellenic museum?

Great idea.
Wow, so many of these have taken a back seat to the real estate boom. I love the Broadcast Museum, along with Center on Halsted. Hellenic musuem looks european, awesome.

^ The Hellenic Museum will be on Halsted along Greektown "row," I think. I thought the competition design for that museum was years ago. Still nothing has been built?

Wow!
Great work!

A rather impressive compilation Spyguy; until now I had lost track of several of these cultural projects. Where is the Hellenic museum?

looks like Halsted and Van Buren. Does anyone know where the Center for Jewish Life is supposed to be built?

Clark and Chestnut I believe.

^ The Hellenic Museum will be on Halsted along Greektown "row," I think. I thought the competition design for that museum was years ago. Still nothing has been built?

^Yeah, I've been waiting too. Perhaps they've been slow to raise funds

Might want to tack on the Vietnam War Memorial Construction. They were landscaping the terrace this weekend. Should look great when its completed - hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks. Perfect location (state and wabash on the riverfront).

^Yes, it's already there above the ABC Studio stuff. Does anyone have a recent photo of the site or a final rendering of the design?

I'm going to join in all the praise. Great thread! This will definetly be one I will check frequently.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Frumie, I'll take your suggestion and add this:

Proposals for a $45 million, 3.5 million volume capacity library addition for UofC :

SOM
Libeskind
Ross Barney Jankowski, Chicago
Murphy/Jahn
Polshek
Vinoly

Groundbreaking for June 07.

But even more exciting, the Chicago Art Foundation is planning on building a new museum that would only showcase the work of young and undiscovered artists in the hope of preventing talent from leaving Chicago for the coasts.

Although there's a lot of info on what they want to do with the space, which you can see on their site, here's their info on the building:

The facility is envisioned as a 30,000 square foot building on one to two floors with rooms for non-public areas (3 private offices and one open office for 6, exhibit preparation area, conservation room, collections storage room, and temporary exhibition storage space, video databank, media production room, library and archive). The public spaces include four larger galleries of slightly varying sizes which can be subdivided to eight, and used for rotating exhibitions and exhibition of the permanent collection. Two smaller project rooms will be included for regularly rotating exhibitions space. A 200 lecture / performance / workshop area hall, classrooms, a flatfile space and a gift shop.

^^^ Where do they want to build it?

^^^ Where do they want to build it?
Here is the PDF link to their website: http://www.chicagoartfoundation.org/CAF_final.pdf
I couldn't tell from any of the info there where they plan on locating & who would design the space. Still, an exciting project.

MAYOR DORA BAKOYANNIS OF ATHENS AND MAYOR RICHARD M. DALEY OF CHICAGO MAKE WAY FOR CONSTRUCTION OF NEW HELLENIC MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER!

GREEKTOWN, CHICAGO - Join the celebration as Mayor Dora Bakoyannis of Athens and Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago team up to strike the first blow toward demolition of the building at 333 S. Halsted, to make way for construction of the new Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center.

Take a late lunch and be sure to join us! You won't want to miss this historic event!

WHEN: Monday, October 24, 2005 - 1:30 pm
WHERE: 333 S. Halsted St., in the lot behind the building
WHAT: Music, children and the Greek community will be out to cheer as the Mayors of Athens and Chicago make the first strike with the wrecking ball to demolish the existing building.

The new museum was designed by the noted architectural firm of Pappageorge/Haymes and will be located in Chicago's Greektown at 333. S. Halsted Street, at the corner of Van Buren, and is planned to be completed in 2008.

The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center (HMCC) is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 national institution currently located at 801 W. Adams Street on the 4th floor of the Greek Islands building in the heart of Chicago's Greektown. Since opening its doors in 1992, HMCC has been designated by Mayor Richard M. Daley as the anchor of the Greektown Redevelopment Project, which is transforming the Halsted Street area into a world-class ethnic neighborhood.

http://www.hellenicnews.com/readnews.html?newsid=4225&lang=US

On another note, I was thinking of making subcategories for this thread (museums, religious, preforming arts, sports, etc) and also expanding it to University construction (since I'm seeing a lot of stuff for that lately). Any thoughts?

^^^ Where do they want to build it?

^ Most likely would be in River North, as my guess.

I think something like this would go well in the near west side--that area could use more cultural attractions...

Can you say OPAAA!

MAYOR DORA BAKOYANNIS OF ATHENS AND MAYOR RICHARD M. DALEY OF CHICAGO MAKE WAY FOR CONSTRUCTION OF NEW HELLENIC MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER!

GREEKTOWN, CHICAGO - Join the celebration as Mayor Dora Bakoyannis of Athens and Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago team up to strike the first blow toward demolition of the building at 333 S. Halsted, to make way for construction of the new Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center.

Take a late lunch and be sure to join us! You won't want to miss this historic event!

WHEN: Monday, October 24, 2005 - 1:30 pm
WHERE: 333 S. Halsted St., in the lot behind the building
WHAT: Music, children and the Greek community will be out to cheer as the Mayors of Athens and Chicago make the first strike with the wrecking ball to demolish the existing building.

The new museum was designed by the noted architectural firm of Pappageorge/Haymes and will be located in Chicago's Greektown at 333. S. Halsted Street, at the corner of Van Buren, and is planned to be completed in 2008.

The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center (HMCC) is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 national institution currently located at 801 W. Adams Street on the 4th floor of the Greek Islands building in the heart of Chicago's Greektown. Since opening its doors in 1992, HMCC has been designated by Mayor Richard M. Daley as the anchor of the Greektown Redevelopment Project, which is transforming the Halsted Street area into a world-class ethnic neighborhood.

http://www.hellenicnews.com/readnews.html?newsid=4225&lang=US

^Great! But what building are they demolishing for this thing?

Well doing a search for it I came up with "N. Turek & Sons Supply Co."
Does that mean something to you? :hahaha:

I just finished revampling the list, completely changing the order and adding new photos and projects. What I'm really having difficulty with is the Education section. There's probably a LOT more out there that I've forgotten about, so if you know of something, please post it here so it can be added.

Can someone explain Queen's landing?

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/6460/323qloverhead0gx.jpg

Any way to transplant this list to be on skyscraperpage.com also.

I was thinking of adding it to skyscraperpage, but what I think I'll do is wait for Chicago Shawn to clean up the "Mini Boom- under 12 stories" and then ask him to make a section for it on the front page perhaps.

Since the Driehaus Awards were just announced, I was checking out the Driehaus website, when I stumbled upon an announcement of a new museum to display Mr. Driehaus's collection to the public in the Nickerson Mansion in River North. The Mansion used to house the Love Art Gallery. I'm not sure what happened to that. But I'm very excited to learn that Chicago is apparently about to gain a house museum.

At the moment, I can't think of a single "house museum" in Chicago. (edit: wow I'm spaced out.. plenty of house museums that are architectural masterworks, e.g. Robie House, Glessner House, and FLW Home & Studio). But I guess few if any that are mainly there for the purpose of looking at the art on the walls, in addition to the architecture.) There are those that are the size of a small house (e.g. Smart Museum at UofC), but none that occupy a bona fide residence.

House museums are a lot of fun in that art is being displayed within the context of where it might be appreciated privately. I think there's more of a feeling of exclusivity to them, as if, upon being noticed peering into the luxurious living room of a Gold Coast townhouse, you had suddenly been invited in by the owner.

This sounds like really great news. New York has its JP Morgan mansion, which is excellent. Now Chicago can have one of its own.


http://www.hillmech.com/project_images/NickersonMansion.jpg

NEW YORK (ANA/P.Panagiotou) - Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis laid the foundation stone of a building that will house the Greek Museum and Cultural Centre in Chicago on Monday.

Bakoyannis referred to the significance of preserving Greek traditions and heritage and passing it unto younger generations in a speech she gave during the ceremony.

During her visit to Chicago, Bakoyannis met with the city's mayor Richard Daley with whom she discussed further strengthening of cooperation between the twin cities of Greece and the US.

On Monday evening she was due to arrive in Washington where she will meet with US government officials, Washington's mayor Anthony Williams and members of Congress.

They've been cleaning exterior of the Nickerson Mansion for the past year.

Ah- I was looking for information on the Greek Museum ceremony. I'll add the Nickerson Mansion thing too.

Update: 10/28/05- added Nickerson Mansion and Pacific Garden.

^I'm liking your list, Spyguy.

You may want to add renderings for that Creative Performing arts Center on 79th st. What was that called? I'll try to find out what it is and get back to you...

Oh, and the new arts center in Beverly--the Beverly Arts Center, another nice one, just recently built.

Art and Chicago go hand and hand. That's for sure

Can someone explain Queen's landing?

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/6460/323qloverhead0gx.jpg

Azn, I wasn't sure if you meant the name or the design. If you mean the name, this is where Queen Elizabeth II came assure in 1959 (I believe) on a trip to Canada and the US to commemorate the openning of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications Receives $250,000 Grant From the Tawani Foundation


CHICAGO, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tawani Foundation has awarded The
Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) $250,000 to fund a digitization
initiative that will make more than 600 programs on U.S. military issues
available to the public, both onsite and online. The grant will also support
two public programs exploring the media and the military.
"The Tawani Foundation shares the MBC's passion for collecting, preserving
and presenting significant moments in radio and television history, and many
of those moments relate to military history," said Bruce DuMont, MBC Founder
and President. "The Foundation also has passion for making important content
available for public access and debate and this partnership will allow the MBC
and the Tawani Foundation to meet its mission of education," DuMont added.
Edward Tracy, Executive Director of the Tawani Foundation, said, "Since
its inception in 1987, The Museum of Broadcast Communications has provided
superb resources for archiving broadcast media, developed strong educational
programming and has positioned itself for the transformational media worlds.
Tawani Foundation is proud to form this partnership with the MBC for the study
of U.S. military history."
The MBC has a diverse audio-visual collection of documentaries, national
news programs, and radio reports focusing on U.S. military history (World War
II, Vietnam War, and Persian Gulf War). Thanks to the grant from the Tawani
Foundation, this collection will be part of the Museum's digital library.
The digitized programs from the Museum's U.S. Military History collection
will be available on-site at the new MBC at 360 N. State Street, scheduled to
open in late 2006. Digitized programs will be available on the Ground Floor
(both in the Media Cafe and the A.C. Nielsen Media Research Center), and key
programs will be part of the third-floor exhibit exploring the genre of News.
The Pritzker Military Library, supported by the Tawani Foundation, will
also have access to the entire collection of digitized programs relating to
U.S. Military History. Select programs from the U.S. Military History
collection will also be available online at http://www.Museum.TV , which
receives over 4 million visitors a year.
The Tawani Foundation promotes knowledge and understanding through the
direct support of individuals and organizations dedicated to historical
preservation, health and wellness, and environmental conservation.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications is one of three broadcast museums
in the United States. Currently, it is building a new 70,000-square-foot home
at State and Kinzie streets in downtown Chicago. The new MBC will include new
interactive exhibit galleries, expanded archives with a media cafe, working
radio and television studios, and a gift shop.

This was a project that was proposed back in May. I'm doubtful any thing will happen, but i'm always coool with any studio gang building.

From the Chicagoist.com

Steel Mill Museum Comes Closer to Reality

When Chicagoist told you a few months back about a plan to convert Southeastern Chicago's abandoned Acme Steel Coke Plant into a museum, the scheme was fraught with big questions and few specifics. Things have taken giant steps forward for the project in recent months, however, culminating last night as architects unveiled a series of plans revealing the shape of things to come.

The Acme site offers about 100,000 square feet of exhibit space, and it's looking they'll be using all of it to cram in everything planned for the museum. According to the vision of Studio Gang architects (could this be the coolest name for an architecture firm ever?), plant buildings would maintain names related to their original function and house exhibits focusing on steel production and labor, as well as vocational classrooms and even a cafe (atop the coal ovens, naturally). The grounds of the mill are expected to be populated by plants that will help rid the earth of toxins left by years of industry presence, as well as a lab building for scientists to study these plants. Talk about a multi-use facility...

As for the mill itself, Chicago's Steel Heritage Project (the group of union leaders, steelworkers, historians and businesses that have joined together to drive this project forward) secured the site for the project three months ago through a $37,500 down payment. The mill and surrounding areas must now undergo environmental inspection for hazardous residues such as tar and oil, and though cleanup costs are expected to reach into the million dollar range, they will likely be covered by the state and federal grants that are helping this project become a reality.

Oh, one other issue standing in the way: an ordinance that calls for the coke plant and grounds to be used only for industrial or waste development (and, um, not museums). Tenth Ward Alderman John Pope expressed initial concerns about the museum project's site a few months back, but has not yet indicated which way his decision will fall regarding the zoning issue.

That would be pretty cool. And if Studio Gang is designing it should be a gem.

From the Chicagoist.com

Steel Mill Museum Comes Closer to Reality

Oh, one other issue standing in the way: an ordinance that calls for the coke plant and grounds to be used only for industrial or waste development (and, um, not museums). Tenth Ward Alderman John Pope expressed initial concerns about the museum project's site a few months back, but has not yet indicated which way his decision will fall regarding the zoning issue.
Looks like Alderman John Pope has got his shakedown working. :)

This was a project that was proposed back in May. I'm doubtful any thing will happen, but i'm always coool with any studio gang building..

^Thanks Third Coast. I think the idea of a Steel Museum is a great one. Chicago is in perfect position to develop a museum devoted to the great industrial era of America.

Steel Mill Museum Comes Closer to Reality..............



Johannesburg has something I visited akin to this that is a quasi amusement park/musuam that is located in an old gold mining site. I would say it is something like an outdoor Museum of science and Industry type of deal. Lots of interactive stuff that has to do with lots of heavy industry stuff as part of an educational and fun experiance. Something like that would be cool.

http://www.crainschicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=18636

Ald. Tillman quashes site for $135M center
Salvation Army's 25-acre project was to be adjacent to Robert Taylor Homes

The Salvation Army’s plans for a 25-acre, $135 million community center adjacent to the Robert Taylor Homes have been quashed by the site’s alderman, according to Lt. Col. David Grindle, the Army’s top Chicago official.

Mr. Grindle said that Ald. Dorothy Tillman objected to the project because she said her ward would be better served by retail and grocery stores on the site. He said he didn’t know if Ms. Tillman had lined up any potential retailers for the property.

Ald. Tillman didn’t return repeated phone calls for comment by deadline.

The project became public in spring 2004, when the Army’s Chicago chapter announced that it had received about $90 million from the estate of late McDonald’s Corp. heiress Joan Kroc.

Details weren’t – and still aren’t — set, but Army officials said the facility would be similar to scale to the original Kroc-funded center in San Diego, which features a gymnasium, ball fields, a skating rink, and a performing arts center.

Army officials said at the time that they were particularly excited about the symbolic value of erecting such a facility adjacent to the Taylor Homes, which for decades were known as one of the nation’s most hopelessly impoverished housing projects.

Mr. Grindle said Ms. Tillman had mentioned the prospect of a retail alternative in the past, but that those objections intensified greatly during the last two weeks.

“This came up, I’ll admit, rather recently,” he said. “But there are concurrent needs in the neighborhood, and it’s the alderman’s responsibility to balance them.”

Mr. Grindle says the Army’s next task to find a similar site and conduct due diligence in front of a Feb. 17 deadline from the national Salvation Army. “We’ll need a site with at least 20 acres in an area of great need that has adequate public transportation and visibility,” he says. “We’ve asked the planning department to find us seven or eight optimal locations.”

The latest developments also represent a setback for Mayor Richard M. Daley, who had personally recruited a fundraising board for the project, and worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to have the land to build it on transferred to the Salvation Army.

At the initial announcement of the project, Mr. Daley said: "It will be one of the largest social service facilities ever built in the state of Illinois. It will be a significant anchor on the south end of State Street . . . a beacon of hope in people's lives."

A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office referred repeated inquiries to the Department of Planning and Development. "We remain committed to the project," says a spokeswoman for the city's planning department. "We want it built in Chicago."

I cannot believe this. Space better used for retail???? Since Taylor homes were torn down, that area is basically 70% vacant lots. Am I wrong? Forgive me, but Dorothy Tillman sounds like a complete idiot. Something about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

I cannot believe this. Space better used for retail???? Since Taylor homes were torn down, that area is basically 70% vacant lots. Am I wrong? Forgive me, but Dorothy Tillman sounds like a complete idiot. Something about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

^Dorothy Tillman is the dumbest bitch of all. I can't stand her bullshit--she still lives in the 1960's.

As far as I'm concerned, she is a greedy, useless, selfish hag. She wants to keep her ward as dirt poor as possible because she knows that those are the people who will keep voting for her. She has never shown any interest in improving her ward despite plenty of opportunities, mostly because the moment more people move in they will vote her out.

Selfish and stupid, yet disguised as the great savior of poor blacks. Bullshit--she needs to leave

I know Daley usually delegates decisions about development to the aldermen in which the proposed development may occur. But aren't there cases where Daley uses some political capital to override the alderman's decision? Isn't this a case where Daley should make some waves? I mean, this is f-ing ridiculous. If Tillman wasn't a politician looking out for her own ass and no own else's, I would think she should be committed for opposing this project!

I really liked the fact that this was going up on State Street, because I wanted to keep the momentum of revitalization going all the way down this street. I was hoping that all the new developments -- the recently built police HQ, the new modernist apartments, the IIT State Street Village developments, and now this -- a real non-ghetto streetscape would start to develop, motivating further private development, and, I envisioned, a big Tribune trend piece charting it all say 10 years from now..

Good golly! That Dorothy Tillman is metally retarded! She is keeping her constituents stay poor and downtrodden. I don't think she has a serious conviction of serving her ward well. It seems that collecting hats is her best contribution she gives, for an alderman. :bash:

http://www.globest.com/news/425_425/chicago/140701-1.html
$200M Art Institute Expansion Grows By 34,000 SF
By Mark Ruda
Last updated: December 1, 2005 02:39pm

CHICAGO-The Art Institute of Chicago’s $200-million expansion is growing by another 34,000 sf. The third-floor addition to the art museum at 111 S. Michigan Ave. also will be 10 feet higher than originally planned.

Revisions to the Art Institute’s expansion plan, originally approved in 2004, were recently endorsed by the city’s plan commission. The third floor, visible from Michigan Avenue, will add a restaurant and sculpture garden overlooking Millennium Park to the north. The third floor will be accessible, with no charge, by an escalator from the Monroe Street side of the building, now 693,000 sf. The addition, designed by architect Renzo Piano, will add nearly 300,000 sf to the building.

The addition is expected to be completed in 2009. Art Institute officials say expansion is needed to hold the more than 270,000 objects in its collection.

The Art Institute of Chicago has embarked on a fund-raising campaign to raise money for the addition, as well as upgrading the heating, air conditioning and ventilation system in the entire building. In addition to $200 million in construction, the Art Institute hopes to collect another $87 million to support operations in the new portion of the building.

The project includes demolishing the current Goodman Theater and replacing it with a glass, steel and limestone structure topped with a “flying carpet,” a luminous sun screen that will appear to float in air. The expansion plans continue to get support from the Friends of the Park, Loop Alliance and Grant Park Conservancy, according to the Department of Planning and Development.

I know Daley usually delegates decisions about development to the aldermen in which the proposed development may occur. But aren't there cases where Daley uses some political capital to override the alderman's decision? Isn't this a case where Daley should make some waves? I mean, this is f-ing ridiculous. If Tillman wasn't a politician looking out for her own ass and no own else's, I would think she should be committed for opposing this project!

I really liked the fact that this was going up on State Street, because I wanted to keep the momentum of revitalization going all the way down this street. I was hoping that all the new developments -- the recently built police HQ, the new modernist apartments, the IIT State Street Village developments, and now this -- a real non-ghetto streetscape would start to develop, motivating further private development, and, I envisioned, a big Tribune trend piece charting it all say 10 years from now..

The funny part of it is that that ward votes her in to be a thorne in Daley's ass....all the while they are screwing themselves....years and years of neglect just to piss off Daley. Talk about shooting ones collective self in the foot!

The funny part of it is that that ward votes her in to be a thorne in Daley's ass....all the while they are screwing themselves....years and years of neglect just to piss off Daley. Talk about shooting ones collective self in the foot!

^Correct me if I"m wrong, but hasn't she been an Alderman for like 30 years, long before Daley was ever elected?

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2005/11/28/daily39.html?from_rss=1

Clear Channel chips in $100,000 toward new broadcast museum in Chicago

Clear Channel Communications Inc. donated $100,000 toward the completion of the new Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.

San Antonio-based Clear Channel made the contribution to help pay for construction of the Radio Hall of Fame exhibition area. The entire museum will consist of 70,000 square feet of space and will open in late summer 2006.

Clear Channel owns 1,200 radio station properties, making it the single largest radio station operator in the United States.

"Clear Channel is committed to honoring the people who make radio great, so it is thrilling that our company will have a role in opening the doors of the Radio Hall of Fame's new state-of-the-art home," Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays says.

"The new MBC will showcase respected radio talent in a more interactive and entertaining environment, creating a fitting tribute to the pioneers who shaped the medium," he adds.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications is one of three broadcast museums in the United States. It will feature a new interactive exhibit gallery, a media cafe, working radio and television studios and a gift shop.

I think one of the most interesting proposals is the plan for the Chicago Art Foundation museum. After going through their web site, I wasn't sure if (in their eventual 2009 plan) they were going to try to construct a site of 50k sq feet near millennium park, or if they were going to find an existing space. Anyone know the answer to that one?

chalk anouther one up for these guys----------

CHICAGO, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Museum of Broadcast Communications
(MBC) is announcing it has received a $50,000 grant from the Siragusa
Foundation in support of the Museum's capital campaign. The gift will be used
for exhibit development and for the expansion of the new media museum in
downtown Chicago.
With the grant from the Siragusa Foundation, the MBC will develop
"Inventors & Inventions" -- an exhibit that will showcase the technical
contributions to the development of radio and television by introducing the
inventors, inventions, and early manufacturers that shaped mass communications
in America.
"The support of the Siragusa Foundation in the development of 'Inventors
& Inventions' is fitting given the significant role Ross D. Siragusa played in
the evolution of consumer electronics in America," said MBC President Bruce
DuMont. "Ross Siragusa was a product development genius who led a major
effort to produce affordable television sets after World War II and he led
Admiral to the forefront of pioneering television manufacturers," DuMont
added.
Ross D. Siragusa founded the Admiral Corp. in Chicago in 1934 and
transformed it from a small radio and phonograph company into one of the
leading makers of televisions. By the 1950s, Admiral was a major TV brand and
one of the first to produce color sets. Admiral was also a major sponsor of
groundbreaking television programs like Sid Caesar's Admiral Broadway Review
(NBC) and Bishop Fulton Sheen's Life is Worth Living (DuMont).
In making the grant announcement, Irene Phelps, President of the Siragusa
Foundation, said, "We are excited to be a part of The Museum of Broadcast
Communications' educational efforts and recognize that the new MBC will
provide opportunities for young people to learn about the important role that
technology played in American broadcasting. And, this is a great way to honor
my grandfather."
Located near the new museum's ticketing area, the "Inventors & Inventions"
exhibit will feature a timeline and display vintage pop culture artifacts,
classic radios and televisions, period advertising and images of notables in
the field. A montage of audio and video clips will play on continuous loops on
the period pieces, progressing from early crystal radios to I-Pods and
plasmas.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is one of three broadcast
museums in the United States. Currently, it is building a new 70,000-square-
foot home at State and Kinzie streets in downtown Chicago. The new MBC will
open in the late summer of 2006. Visit http://www.Museum.TV for more
information.

^ Wow, the MBC is getting a lot of donations lately, albeit relatively small ones. What they really need is a good 1 million dollar slam-dunk from Motorola or Boeing, etc

http://www.nearwestgazette.com/1205-Greektown.htm

Ground broken for museum in Greektown

By Christine Mangan

(12/5/05) - Despite the rain and cold, dozens of people gathered in Greektown on October 24 to watch the demolition of the old Turek Hardware Store at 333 S. Halsted St. in order to make room for the future Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center.
“The weather may not be cooperating with us today, but a rainbow has just come out, and that is a very good omen for this project,” Endy Zemenides, a museum board member, said in his opening remarks.
Both Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis were on hand at the demolition, along with Andrew A. Athens, national chairman of the United Hellenic American Congress and president of the World Council of Hellenes, and 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett Jr., all lending their support to creation of the new museum.
“Mayor Bakoyannis and I share a similar vision for our cities,” Daley said. “We constantly strive to make our cities a better place to live, learn, work, and raise a family. It’s the family values and work ethic of the Greek-Americans in Chicago that make this new Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center so important to our community. This museum will provide a sense of pride for all Chicagoans for generations to come.”
Bakoyannis echoed Daley’s sentiment. Concerning the museum’s creation, she said “It was an odyssey and like Homer’s Odyssey, this journey has a happy end. This moment of inauguration is a group effort and required the support of Mayor Daley, the City of Chicago, the Greek community of Chicago, and many Greek-American organizations, both local and national.”
President of the Hellenic Museum John Marks said, “Today is a day that will go down in history. With this museum, we will have the greatest tribute to our heritage anywhere in the United States.”
A museum that currently houses a permanent collection of more than 6,000 objects, including artifacts relating to both Greek and Greek-American life, the Hellenic Museum has found temporary housing at 801 W. Adams St. on the fourth floor of the building that houses Greek Islands.
Founded in 1983, the Hellenic Museum opened its doors to the public in 1992. Ever since, the museum’s founders and board of directors have eagerly anticipated the day the museum would be a freestanding institution.
A national museum and the only one of its kind in the United States, it has had to move twice in the past before coming to its final “temporary” home. Very soon, it will be housed in its new and permanent 40,000 square foot home in the heart of Greektown, at the corner of Van Buren and Halsted Streets.
In 2000, under the Near West Side Area Land Use Plan, the Hellenic Museum was designated as the gateway to both Greektown and the Near West Side. Two years later, a redevelopment agreement that provided a $3.5 million Tax Increment Financing (TIF) subsidy was agreed upon for the Hellenic Museum. The new building’s design, inspired by the Stoa of Attalos in Athens, will be completed by the Chicago firm Pappageorge/ Haymes, which won a nationwide competition for the honor.
Once completed, the new museum will feature amenities including a library and technology center, an auditorium, a children’s center, classrooms, a gift store, and a major cultural center. It also will house multiple galleries for permanent and rotating exhibitions. The end result will help fulfill the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center’s mission “to be the nation’s foremost center of Hellenic history, culture, and arts, where the public can explore the Greek immigrant experience in America and examine the influence of Hellenic culture and people from antiquity to present.”
As the wrecking ball broke through the building, cheers rang out in anticipation of what was next to come. Though a representative for the Hellenic Museum was unsure when construction would begin, completion of the new institution is scheduled for 2008.
The Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center remains open at its temporary location; regular exhibitions are free to members, with $5 admission for non-members. For more information, call (312)655-1234 or visit www.hellenicmuseum.org.

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/6237/hellenickids73773cop1132848qv.jpg

Youngsters in traditional Greek garb were part of the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center.

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/5274/hellenicmuseum86163c1132814ct.jpg

The new Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center will be part of the gateway to Greektown.

^ Looks very cool. They should build more greek style buildings in this area.

http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=60&ArticleID=1140&TM=60362.11

Children’s museum eyes Daley Bi
Project could include rehab of forlorn fieldhouse

By HAYDN BUSH, Managing Editor

Hidden by a sloping green roof and located in a lightly traveled section of Grant Park, the Daley Bicentennial Plaza field house attracts the attention of few passers-by beyond those who come for its signature outdoor skating rink or the pedestrians who cross Frank Gehry’s winding bridge and briefly touch down in Daley Bi before returning to Millennium Park. A few blocks away at Navy Pier, the Chicago Children’s Museum sees considerably more foot traffic, with hundreds of thousands of youthful visitors passing through its doors each year. But Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Advisory Council, says officials with the children’s museum, in the search for more space, are considering a move to the parking garages adjacent to the Daley Bicentennial Plaza, which would conceivably include a major renovation and reworking of the park’s facilities.

"[The Chicago Children’s Museum] wants a central location," O’Neill said. "They may or may not do it. Who knows?"

Chicago Children’s Museum officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday, but at a Grant Park Advisory Council meeting Tuesday, O’Neill said he has met with Gigi Pritzker Pucker, board chair for the Chicago Children’s Museum, who O’Neill says is tentatively interested in the possibility of moving the museum to Grant Park. The museum is also mulling a proposal for a 20,000-square-foot expansion that would allow it to stay on Navy Pier.

"I think we need to explore it to find out whether or not it’s a good idea," O’Neill said.

At this point, O’Neill said, it’s far too early to know whether the museum will relocate from Navy Pier to Daley Bicentennial Plaza, adding that the Park District is just beginning to broach the matter. O’Neill stressed that the spartan Daley Bi field house could be in line for a major renovation if the museum were to relocate to the surrounding area, and stressed that the Park District was unlikely to close the field house permanently. Other bonuses, O’Neill pointed out, would include an influx of younger visitors to Grant Park, who would conceivably enliven the staid, modernist surroundings of Daley Bi.

O’Neill said he has tried for several years to find a way to get Daley Bicentennial renovated, and is intrigued by the prospect of the Chicago Children’s Museum becoming the 10th city museum to reside in a city park, joining the Art Institute, the Museum Campus and the Museum of Contemporary Art among others.

"They would get the synergy of being on Park District property," O’Neill said.

Some logistical problems remain, though. The building, per city regulations, could be no taller than the 98-foot height of the School of the Art Institute’s Allerton Building on the west end of Grant Park. In addition, designers of a new children’s museum would have to find a way to use the northern Grant Park parking garage space, O’Neill said.

"The biggest challenge with the design will be integrating the children’s museum into the garage," O’Neill said.

Noting the Pritzker family’s generous contributions to Millennium Park—including the eponymous pavilion—O’Neill said that if the museum does decide to move, Grant Park could land another signature building.

"This would be a huge endeavor," O’Neill said, adding that there is "a track record right across Columbus of [the Pritzker family’s] money going into an enormously popular asset."

Noting the Pritzker family’s generous contributions to Millennium Park—including the eponymous pavilion—O’Neill said that if the museum does decide to move, Grant Park could land another signature building.
Daniel Liebskind? Norman Foster? Jeanne Gang? Santiago Calatrava? Helmut Jahn? Adrian Smith?

No architect can say no to the Pritzkers if they want to be the recipients of the prestigious prize for architecture.

Museum seeks $63 mil. more

December 16, 2005

BY KEVIN NANCE Architecture Critic Advertisement
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-art16.html

The goal for the Art Institute of Chicago's capital campaign to fund its planned building addition, designed by world-famous architect Renzo Piano and scheduled to open in 2009, has risen to $350 million, about $63 million more than previously expected.

The Modern Wing will cost about $260 million to build, with an additional $90 million needed for an operating endowment, museum officials said this week. The previous estimate for construction and the endowment was $287 million.

Museum director James Cuno said the extra money is needed to pay for a previously announced pedestrian bridge connecting the wing's west pavilion with Millennium Park; an expansion of the third floor of that pavilion to accommodate a restaurant; the structural shoring up of the pavilion to support the third floor and bridge, and the additional endowment to operate those facilities.

So far, $250 million in gifts and pledges has been raised -- a record amount for any Chicago cultural institution -- including 15 gifts of $5 million or more.

$50 mil. buys Modern Wing title

The Art Institute had been soliciting a donation of at least $50 million for the naming rights to the new wing. But in a highly unusual development last month, a group of about half a dozen anonymous donors pledged a $50 million gift on condition that the building -- which will house the Art Institute's modern and contemporary art collections -- be called the Modern Wing.

"This was a group of individuals who came together to comprise that naming gift on condition that we should not name it for an individual but instead give it this new title," Cuno said. "That made perfect sense to us, since Chicago is the home of modern architecture. The coincidence of that with the plans for the contents of the new wing was just too great. I think the title lifts the museum in a way that a single person's name wouldn't have done."

John H. Bryan, a veteran Chicago fund-raiser and chairman of the Art Institute's board of trustees, admitted that he'd never heard of such a request, but he said it wasn't that surprising.

"There are people who give gifts of this size just for the recognition, and there are others who have no interest in the recognition," Bryan said. "The fact is that rich people come in all different stripes. They are occasionally harder to tolerate than ordinary people because they get illusions of power and importance because of their wealth. But there are some rich people who are genuinely not seeking recognition, and in fact shy away from it. That's what we have here."

He conceded, too, that accepting the $50 million pledge from the donor consortium might cause the museum to miss out on a similar-size pledge from a single individual. "There are probably at least a dozen people in Chicago for whom a gift of that size would be quite easy," Bryan said. "The assumption is that we've lost that opportunity."

A year-round bridge?

Since the new wing's groundbreaking ceremony in May, Piano has continued to refine his design, with special attention given to the bridge. It will allow pedestrians to enter near the center of Millennium Park and walk high above Monroe Street to reach the third floor of the Modern Wing's west pavilion, with its restaurant and sculpture terrace.

The underside of the stainless steel bridge, originally envisioned as flat, is now curved in a way that Cuno compared to the hull of a sailboat. "Bridges are normally not very nice when you see them from below," Piano said in a telephone interview from his studio in Genoa, Italy. "This bridge will be very much seen from below, so we're paying a lot of attention to that surface."

Piano said he is also exploring ways to make the bridge usable year-round, "even on an icy day" -- an apparent reference to problems with Millennium Park's Frank Gehry-designed BP Bridge, which has had to be closed during much of the winter.

"It's a problem when the bridge is closed, very frustrating," Piano said. "We're looking at the idea of using a system to melt the ice, or maybe a little machine that will keep the bridge clean and safe -- a little elf, you know, a little robot? We're not sure yet. Wait and see."

Daniel Liebskind? Norman Foster? Jeanne Gang? Santiago Calatrava? Helmut Jahn? Adrian Smith?

No architect can say no to the Pritzkers if they want to be the recipients of the prestigious prize for architecture.

That's very true. But not Calatrava because I'd rather see him focus on Fordham, and maybe a bridge to DuSable Park. Second, make sure that fraud Gehry doesn't touch it.

Foster woud be good but I'd like to see him design a tower on the river, maybe Wolf Point.

ALSO

We got a mention a few days ago on Archidose. Thanks for the mention, John.

http://archidose.blogspot.com/2005/12/beyond-big-and-tall.html

I don't think I've seen this animation before for the Freedom Museum.

http://www.imagefiction.com/anim-freedom.htm

George Bush Approves!

http://www.midwest.construction.com/2005/12/01/MC_12_01_2005_p17-07.asp
From Midwest Construction

U-505 Submarine Relocation
Award of Merit: Cultural
(12/01/2005)

The U-505 submarine has been an icon of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry for 50 years.


But the artifact had been in drydock outside the main pavilion, and the boat's condition had significantly deteriorated.

An enclosed, climate-controlled exhibit space was needed. The space was sited 40 ft. under the north lawn. Visitors enter the exhibit from the east pavilion, walking along a ramp around the submarine, starting at the bow.

A wall dedicated to the American seamen of World War II who patrolled the North Atlantic is at the end of the exhibit.

The space was designed to recall World War II-era bunkers and drydocks, such as exposed concrete walls and arched steel girders to define the structure surrounding the boat.

Accommodating the Site

The museum's 1995 master plan for growth included an underground exhibit space for the sub.

This alleviated concerns that the museum would grow beyond its historic profile or disturb the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed landscape around the building. The north lawn was returned to a pristine condition after construction.

The building's foundations from 1893 were taken into account, as well as the Lake Michigan water that could seep into the 40-ft. pit.

The 700-ton sub itself, which is a National Historic Landmark, is a unique element. The boat was fragile, and the move was carefully planned.

The unusual form of a submarine enclosure is a direct result of two elements: the physical forces applied by the site and the aesthetic needs of the object itself.

The axial roof loads applied to the perimeter buttresses intersecting with the horizontal loads of the enclosing earth dictated the angle of inclination for the perimeter wall structure.

The exhibit space is approximately 10 ft. wider at the roof than the floor. This shape shows the submarine at its best.

The project's construction took place simultaneously with the city's restoration of Lake Shore Drive and pedestrian underpasses at the edge of the museum's site.

The enclosure's arched steel roof provided the necessary force to hold up to 2 to 7 ft. of soil but also was erected quickly after the sub was moved. This limited additional time the sub was exposed and eliminated the need for concrete form enclosures to be built around the sub.

The jury said, "The process was so unique, not only building it but the logistics involved. Plus, they preserved an internationally famous artifact. What a project!"

Key Players

Owner:
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

General Contractor:
W.E. O'Neil Construction Co., Chicago

Architect:
Lohan Caprile Goettsch Architects, Chicago

Program Manager:
Jones Lang LaSalle, Chicago

Structural Engineer:
Halvorson & Kaye Structural Engineers, Chicago

MEP/FP and Civil Engineer:
Primera Engineers, Chicago

Acoustical Consultant:
Shiner + Associates Inc., Chicago

Updated the front page a little. Does anyone know if the Hubbard Street Dance project is UC or not?

These were on SSP, taken by Chicago3rd:
Center on Halsted
http://img496.imageshack.us/img496/3679/51740739l9sa.jpg
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/5192/51740749m4fq.jpg


There was a mini Spertus update on Archidose:
http://archidose.blogspot.com/2006/01/spertus-underway.html

From northsidesoxfan
MBC
http://images.snapfish.com/345949%3A9%3A%7Ffp336%3Enu%3D3248%3E9%3A9%3E937%3EWSNRCG%3D323342%3C536338nu0mrj

With the Field expansion which is under construction now will the building on the parking lot be developed at the same time or is this a while off?

http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/1842/wrigleyfieldexpansion12zl.jpg


Btw, this is an impressive thread

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0601190103jan19,1,7018931.story?coll=chi-business-hed

Early finish funded for addition at McCormick
West Building speedup for July '07 opening

By Kathy Bergen
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 19, 2006

The West Building addition to McCormick Place will open eight months ahead of schedule, in July 2007, under an accelerated construction schedule that will boost the cost of the project by $3 million.

"It's a small additional investment to have an additional eight months to bring in business," said Leticia Peralta Davis, chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which owns and operates the massive convention center. The speed-up was authorized by the authority's board late last week and was made possible, in part, because of good weather conditions.

Overall, the project will cost $882 million, or close to 4 percent more than the $849 million specified in the construction contract.

About one-third of the additional cost will pay for a storm water tunnel, which the City of Chicago originally had planned to fund separately. And the remaining sum will cover upgrades to high-tech cables for video conferencing and to the piping for steam and chilled water, Davis said.

The add-ons fall within the approximately $52 million available for contingencies, she said.

The West Building, with 250,000 square feet of meeting space and 470,000 square feet of exhibition space, is designed to attract meetings with associated exhibits, rather than trade shows.

Association and corporate meetings tend to be planned several years in advance, but the authority is hoping the accelerated opening will allow it to land some shorter-range corporate meetings.

"It may allow them to slot in a New Orleans conference that couldn't be hosted, or maybe a last-minute booking," said Ted Mandigo, an Elmhurst-based hospitality consultant who tracks the convention business.

But the biggest gain, he said, "is more of a perception, or an image, of an ability to deliver. A reassurance to those who have booked into the new facility."

As to the cost overruns, he called them "very reasonable."

"I've seen a lot worse," he said. "And given that Hurricane Katrina has raised the cost of construction materials substantially, and put pressure on all the labor trades, this is an indication of pretty good management of this construction project."

The project was financed with $1.1 billion in bonds, backed by pier authority taxes on tourism-related businesses, and when those are insufficient, by state sales taxes.

Due to the slump in travel post-9/11, tourism taxes have been insufficient to meet the obligations, and the authority has had to use about $29 million in bond funding reserves to make payments, Davis said. This should bring the reserve balance to less than $1 million when the fiscal year ends June 30. So far, the authority has not had to tap any state sales tax.

The authority is considering refinancing the debt to reduce its annual obligation, but has not pursued that option yet. With the recovery in the travel business, tourism-related tax receipts are trending upward, Davis said.

At this point, she said, it's uncertain whether the trend will boost tourism taxes sufficiently to meet bond obligations in the coming fiscal year.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060119museums,1,2839859.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Latest museum attendance: Shedd is No. 1

Published January 19, 2006, 2:59 PM CST

A coalition of 10 Chicago museums recorded a total of more than 7.6 million guests during 2005, an increase of 3 percent over attendance in 2004, officials announced Thursday.

"Even though several museums had major exhibits close during the year, attendance overall was strong, reflecting a steady rebound in tourism in Chicago," said Jacqueline Atkins, executive director of Museums In the Park, which consists of the 10 museums located on Chicago Park District property.

Atkins said that for the fourth consecutive year, the John G. Shedd Aquarium, which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, had the highest attendance of the coalition, with 1.88 million guests. That figure made the Shedd the nation's most heavily attended aquarium and Chicago's most popular cultural attraction of the year.

The Museum of Science and Industry posted the largest attendance increase, 40 percent, drawing more than 1.8 million visitors with special exhibitions on the human body and video games, plus the opening of its new home for its restored World War II German submarine, the U-505.

The Art Institute of Chicago attracted 1.45 million visitors in 2005, partly due to the popularity of the traveling show, "Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre," which opened in July, and its recently consolidated Gallery of American Art.

The 10 Museums In the Park members are: the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, the Art Institute, the Chicago Historical Society, the DuSable Museum of African American History, the Field Museum, the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and the Shedd Aquarium.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/custom/chicagotravel/chi-0601200301jan20,1,4538086.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Park backers decry extra pier parking

By Charles Sheehan
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 20, 2006

Of all the ambitious changes proposed last week for Navy Pier, from a massive water park to roller coasters and a monorail, what most unnerves park advocates and community groups are new parking spaces--too many, they say.

The design firm hired by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority proposed nearly doubling the number of parking spots from 1,700 by building floating lots north of Navy Pier and another lot in what is now a grassy area to the southwest.

Opponents of that plan say, "if you build it, they will come," referring to the thousands of cars they believe will travel through downtown neighborhoods to get to Navy Pier if there is more parking.

Pier officials, however, say the current situation has led to huge backups as people drive through downtown to the pier, then back into the city when they can't find parking.

"It's a chronic problem, the congestion that occurs as people drive around and around looking for parking, and then they drive back into the city," said Leticia Peralta Davis, chief executive officer of McPier.

In letters sent this week to McPier officials, the mayor and political representatives, the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents asked pier officials to abandon parking spaces in favor of more free shuttles.

"We like many aspects of the plan, but we feel strongly that parking is not a solution," said Gail Spreen, president of the Neighbors Action Task Force, a part of the Streeterville organization. "Development must follow transit."

About 1 million people each year use free trolleys to get to Navy Pier, but rising fuel and maintenance costs have become a larger burden, Davis said.

A week ago, McPier released details of a proposal to spend millions revamping Navy Pier.

The proposal includes a larger Ferris wheel, closer to the size of the original built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition; a monorail that would travel the length of the pier; and an 80,000-square-foot water park.

The proposal also includes two floating parking lots north of the pier that would be built to resemble an aircraft carrier and a steamship, part of designer Forrec Ltd.'s desire to tie today's Navy Pier to its nautical past.

Forrec suggested another parking lot be built in a grassy area southwest of the pier. The lot would be partly underground and topped by a sculpture garden.

No matter what form new parking lots might take, they would create traffic headaches for everyone, said Erma Tranter, president of Friends of the Parks.

"There are 9 million people that go to Navy Pier annually, and there are 1,700 parking spaces. That suggests to me that parking has not been a deterrent," she said. "The idea of doubling parking would create a problem that does not yet exist."

Lack of parking is the most common complaint of visitors, Davis said.

Friends of the Parks and community groups suggest that the drive to boost attendance infringes on city dwellers. They wonder whether pier officials are trying to do too much with a limited amount of space.

"They've maintained a nice balance in the past, but with [plans for] the roller coasters, the water park and everything else, you have to ask, How many amusement park attractions are too much?" Spreen said. "They need to remember that people go to Navy Pier because it is on the lake."

McPier will likely vote this year on whether to approve all or some of the design proposals.

If all proposals are accepted, it could take three to seven years to complete.

Pier officials said they would not discuss how redevelopment would be paid for until a feasibility study can better determine the actual cost.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0601200117jan20,1,5005734.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Changing history in Chicago

By Charles Storch
Published January 20, 2006

It's not only the galleries at the Chicago Historical Society that are being renovated, but the name of the institution itself.

A society spokeswoman said Thursday that there will be a "rebranding" to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the institution and the scheduled reopening of the galleries, both this fall. Sources said the name will be slightly teased, with the somewhat off-putting "society" dropped for a more welcoming "museum" or "center."

The spokeswoman declined to comment except to say that the new moniker and anniversary plans are set to be revealed Feb. 10.

------------

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0601200201jan20,1,2711968.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Renovation of Biograph is not quite a total victory

By Chris Jones
Tribune arts critic
Published January 20, 2006

"You'd think you could build a theater for 11 million dollars," says Dennis Zacek, the artistic director of the Victory Gardens Theater.

Indeed you would. But as anyone who has ever been in charge of a building project will tell you, the first rule of renovation and reconstruction is that the project will cost a lot more than you think.

And the second rule is that it will cost a lot more than you think.

So it has gone at the two new Chicago theaters likely to re-open, finally, during 2006.

Zacek is shepherding the renovation of the historic Biograph Theatre, the former movie house at 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. It is to become the new mainstage home of the Victory Gardens and was supposed to be open by now. It also was to contain two theaters--the 299-seat mainstage (with a balcony) and a 128-studio theater space--at a cost of around $9 million. Those, at least, were the facts laid out on a frigid December morning back in 2004, as reporters, playwrights and dignitaries stood around together on the sidewalk outside. That cost is now in excess of $11 million. The opening date now is slated for September. The mainstage no longer has a balcony. And instead of two theaters, the new building now will contain only one. The studio space isn't gone for good--the raw space still will exist. It just won't be finished until there is more money to do so.

"We had to simplify our design a bit," says Zacek. "We had to change."

The Biograph isn't the only project that had to change. The LaSalle Bank Theatre--the newly renovated version of the old Shubert Theatre in Chicago's Loop--also has yet to open, some three months after the projected opening date.

Eileen LaCario, the vice president of Broadway in Chicago, says the opening will probably be some time this spring. The delay, she says, is a consequence of the renovation proving more complex than first thought. "We are dealing with a vintage building," LaCario says, "and we found things we didn't expect to find. The building will be absolutely gorgeous when it's done."

The Chicago stop of the ever-touring "Annie" is listed as taking place at the LaSalle Bank Theatre from April 25 to May 7. According to LaCario, that's still the plan--but she won't say whether or not that will be the first show in the new theater. Maybe something will get slotted in before that. And if stuff ain't done, shows always can move.

Over at the Biograph, the plans still make up an exciting addition. The theater still will have 299 seats--they'll just be all on one level. And since Victory Gardens never has had a balcony, its audience is unlikely to miss the one they never saw. Zacek is also hopeful that the studio eventually will see the light of day as a performance space. More important yet, this theater isn't being built entirely on loans. Victory Gardens has come up with $10 million already.

But since the cost is $11.3 million, that still leaves $1.3 million. "We still have a ways to go, " Zacek says.

This new theater--balcony, studio and all--could have been financed by selling the old Victory Gardens--a valuable Lincoln Park building that this troupe owns, almost free and clear. But Zacek says he won't do that. He wants to rename the space the Victory Gardens Greenhouse (to imply cultivation) and continue to rent at least three of the theaters in there to small companies without their own homes.

One beneficiary likely will be Shattered Globe, which has a terrific revival of "The House of Blues Leaves" up and running in the old space.

"I feel this responsibility as an artist-citizen," says Zacek, "to keep our current building intact. And to keep it as a theater. The whole idea here is not so much that we are moving but we are adding to our creative canvas."

And to keep that noble philosophy whole, compromises had to be made. It's all a bit like renovating your kitchen.

From the Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-0601250253jan25,1,3272181.story?coll=chi-news-hed)

New bleacher features

Published January 25, 2006

Wrigley Field will have 1,702 new bleacher seats in place for the Cubs' home opener on April 7, increasing the capacity of the bleachers by almost 50 percent.

The bleacher expansion also includes a "batter's eye" center-field lounge and an access corridor along the perimeter of the park.

Later in the year, as part of an ongoing improvement program, the Cubs also plan to add a new structure adjacent to the park on Clark Street, which will include parking, stores and a restaurant.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8199/216131888mi.gif
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9444/216132441fg.jpg

Construction:
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3858/215986741bi.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/122/215987073fy.jpg

FARK I hate the Tribune!!!!! Sorry, had to express that more as a Cubs fan then an urbanst.


.......Is there anyway they build the parking garage as anything other then ugly? For a parking lot it doesn't look bad but blahhhh.....With how big of a tourist mecca Wrigley really is it is important to build proper around there with the best quality. It really almost be an extension of Navy Pier or Michigan Ave with how much exposre it gets. I would gather it is the 2nd most viisted sight in the city after Navy Pier. The Cubs and its neighbors shouldn't be allowed to build bullshite around there.

I don't know many awe inspiring parking garages, but it's certainly better then what's there now... Maybe in the future they can tear down the Taco Hell, or McDonalds and build something appropriate for the site...

^^^What would be appropriate? It's a ballpark, there shouldn't be a Spago or some kind antique shop.

I'm sure we can do better then some crappy fast food chains...

http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=60&ArticleID=1293&TM=64732.21

Kiddie makeover at Daley Bi?
Ice rink may be casualty of possible Children’s Museum move

By KATHARINE GRAYSON, Staff Writer

Although it sits in one of the city’s most prominent parks, the Daley Bicentennial Plaza fieldhouse long has been more a place for nearby residents to play than a destination for tourists snapping photos at Millennium Park. But for officials from the Chicago Children’s Museum, who are mulling a possible relocation from Navy Pier, the space occupied by the drab Daley Bi building has the sort of high-profile potential they’re looking for.

To that end, museum representatives, including architect Eva Wier, unveiled highly conceptual plans Tuesday for what a new, expanded facility may look like, if it’s ultimately built at Grant Park. Officials speaking before a group of neighbors gathered at a Grant Park Advisory Committee meeting this week said they are still considering expanding the existing 57,000-square-foot building at Navy Pier. Overall, however, they said they were looking for community support as they continue to investigate the feasibility of constructing the new building.

"When the site unveiled itself, everyone became very excited," said architect Weir, of the firm Jones Lang LaSalle, who is working with the museum on the project.

The plans, she explained, would call for tearing down the existing 1970s-era fieldhouse, which sits discretely below grade just off Randolph. The new building would take many design cues from the existing structure. Aside from a glassy, 2,000-square-foot, circular atrium entrance, the museum would remain tucked under a green roof. The atrium, facing Randolph, would feature a spiral entrance similar to the interior of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Weir said. The museum would occupy three floors, with the top two levels featuring windows, and a subterranean bottom floor. The footprint of the building would additionally stretch along the existing diagonal walkways that flank the fieldhouse’s existing main entrance.

A key component of the new project will also be a new and expanded fieldhouse, Weir said. That space would be housed where the northwest, diagonal walkway now juts out from the main entrance. The fieldhouse would nearly double in size, from 11,500 square feet to more than 20,000 square feet.

Grant Park Advisory Council President Bob O’Neill said he will be actively seeking neighborhood input on the design, but noted that the plans are cause for some measure of optimism.

"[The existing fieldhouse] has served the community well, but it’s in need of rebuilding," he said. "Through great design, wonderful things can happen with buildings in parks."

According to the plans, the existing ice skating rink at the park would be removed. Where it would be relocated remains uncertain, though Peter England, museum CEO, assured the crowd that the new rink at Millennium Park will not be considered a substitute. Museum representatives also said the tennis courts would not be affected by the plan.

The project, officials and neighbors noted, would also give the Millennium Park’s distinctive Frank Gehry’s bridge an actual destination.

Overall, the plans received a mostly warm reception, with caution from some neighbors that any new building should be respectful of neighbors and families who use the fieldhouse for recreation.

"I’m very much in favor of a facility of this kind, as long as it includes what’s important to our neighborhood," one neighbor said.

England said at the end of the meeting that the museum has not yet determined how much the project would cost. He said, however, that the museum would be responsible for fund-raising.

I'm sure we can do better then some crappy fast food chains...


The fact that there are fast food chains there doesn't bother me so much. In fact it makes some sense for some fast food chains to be around the park I guess. My bigger problem is that the lots and parking lots take up half a block across from one of the most visted landmarks in Chicago. If anything there shoudl just be some "express" fast food stores that are part of some mixed use buildings.

Chicago should have some density and nice looking buildings around the area that gets some high volume of visitor traffic.

Any fan that would pay 40 bucks to park in one of those lots during the games anway instead of taking the Red Line to the game are morons anyway who don't deserve a parking space. It is not like attendance would suffer if they didn't have those big parking lots at the Taco Bell and McDonalds there.

http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=60&ArticleID=1293&TM=64732.21

Kiddie makeover at Daley Bi?
Ice rink may be casualty of possible Children’s Museum move

By KATHARINE GRAYSON, Staff Writer

Although it sits in one of the city’s most prominent parks, the Daley Bicentennial Plaza fieldhouse long has been more a place for nearby residents to play than a destination for tourists snapping photos at Millennium Park. But for officials from the Chicago Children’s Museum, who are mulling a possible relocation from Navy Pier, the space occupied by the drab Daley Bi building has the sort of high-profile potential they’re looking for.

To that end, museum representatives, including architect Eva Wier, unveiled highly conceptual plans Tuesday for what a new, expanded facility may look like, if it’s ultimately built at Grant Park. Officials speaking before a group of neighbors gathered at a Grant Park Advisory Committee meeting this week said they are still considering expanding the existing 57,000-square-foot building at Navy Pier. Overall, however, they said they were looking for community support as they continue to investigate the feasibility of constructing the new building.

"When the site unveiled itself, everyone became very excited," said architect Weir, of the firm Jones Lang LaSalle, who is working with the museum on the project.

The plans, she explained, would call for tearing down the existing 1970s-era fieldhouse, which sits discretely below grade just off Randolph. The new building would take many design cues from the existing structure. Aside from a glassy, 2,000-square-foot, circular atrium entrance, the museum would remain tucked under a green roof. The atrium, facing Randolph, would feature a spiral entrance similar to the interior of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Weir said. The museum would occupy three floors, with the top two levels featuring windows, and a subterranean bottom floor. The footprint of the building would additionally stretch along the existing diagonal walkways that flank the fieldhouse’s existing main entrance.

A key component of the new project will also be a new and expanded fieldhouse, Weir said. That space would be housed where the northwest, diagonal walkway now juts out from the main entrance. The fieldhouse would nearly double in size, from 11,500 square feet to more than 20,000 square feet.

Grant Park Advisory Council President Bob O’Neill said he will be actively seeking neighborhood input on the design, but noted that the plans are cause for some measure of optimism.

"[The existing fieldhouse] has served the community well, but it’s in need of rebuilding," he said. "Through great design, wonderful things can happen with buildings in parks."

According to the plans, the existing ice skating rink at the park would be removed. Where it would be relocated remains uncertain, though Peter England, museum CEO, assured the crowd that the new rink at Millennium Park will not be considered a substitute. Museum representatives also said the tennis courts would not be affected by the plan.

The project, officials and neighbors noted, would also give the Millennium Park’s distinctive Frank Gehry’s bridge an actual destination.

Overall, the plans received a mostly warm reception, with caution from some neighbors that any new building should be respectful of neighbors and families who use the fieldhouse for recreation.

"I’m very much in favor of a facility of this kind, as long as it includes what’s important to our neighborhood," one neighbor said.

England said at the end of the meeting that the museum has not yet determined how much the project would cost. He said, however, that the museum would be responsible for fund-raising.

^ I don't get why everybody is so hung-up on the ice-skating rink.

There's a brand-spanking new one in Millennium Park. Get the fuck over it!

My bigger problem is that the lots and parking lots take up half a block across from one of the most visted landmarks in Chicago.
Yeah - I was about to make the same observation. That MickyD's parking lot adjacent to Wrigley is so sad. I mean, c'mon, McDonald's is headquartered in Chicagoland; they can do better for so prominent a spot in their own metro.
They can't all be Sox fans at HQ, can they?

Updated construction photos for the Bridgeview Stadium at 71st/Harlem.

http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/chf/imgs/stadium/bridgeview/construction_photos/2006/01_24_06/2.jpg

http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/chf/imgs/stadium/bridgeview/construction_photos/2006/01_24_06/5.jpg

http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/chf/imgs/stadium/bridgeview/construction_photos/2006/01_24_06/7.jpg

http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/chf/imgs/stadium/bridgeview/construction_photos/2006/01_24_06/4.jpg

If the Fire did become more popular is there anyway that the new stadium has contigencies so that it can be expanded?

Yes. it starts at 19,500 next season, has temporary expansion available for up to 28,000 and there is a planned expansion for an eventual second phase to raise it to 30,000.

I don't think they plan on the permanent expansion for 10 years or so. It's quite possible if not likely the stadium will sell 90% capacity over all of next season. The 58 suites are almost completely sold, and the 1000 or so $1100 club seats are something around 80% sold and the schedule hasn't even been announced yet for 2006.

http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=60&ArticleID=1318&TM=64969.4

Running out of real estate
Salvation Army wants to build a $65 million community center, but is there enough room on the Near West Side?

By HAYDN BUSH, Managing Editor

The Near West Side is one of four Chicago locations that the Salvation Army is considering for a 25-acre, $130 million community center, Salvation Army Maj. David Harvey told a gathering of the University Village Association on Jan. 26. But it remains to be seen whether the neighborhood has enough open space for the sprawling complex that has been proposed.

At last week’s UVA meeting, Harvey said that the Salvation Army has already decided to build a Chicago community center, with funds coming from a $1.5 billion gift from the late Joan Kroc, wife of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc. Joan Kroc helped build a community center in San Diego, which opened in 2002, and her estate gave the Salvation Army $1.5 billion in January 2004, with a directive to build 30 to 40 community centers across the United States. Harvey said that Joan Kroc was particularly interested in seeing the Salvation Army build a community center in Chicago; the first McDonald’s was opened in suburban Des Plaines.

While Harvey stressed that the plans will be contingent on the site Salvation Army chooses, he said the group typically builds a 25-acre site that has amenities including baseball fields, swimming pools, water parks, and soccer fields. He estimated that the site would cost roughly $65 million to build, with another $68 million set aside for an endowment to keep the building running. Roughly $90 million would come from Kroc’s estate; the Salvation Army of Chicago plans to raise an additional $22.5 million for the construction of the center, and $20 million for the endowment.

But despite the massive endowment the center would boast, Salvation Army officials have not pinned down a site for the project yet. Harvey said that the Salvation Army is considering four sites in Chicago, including the Near West Side, 119th and Morgan, 83rd and Vincennes, and the former Washburne Trade School site near 31st and Kedzie.

Harvey and several other Salvation Army officials who attended the meeting said they are seriously considering a site in the Illinois Medical District. Harvey said the Salvation Army is excited about locating close to the ABLA Homes, Pilsen, North Lawndale, and Little Village.

"We’re very excited about the Illinois Medical District," Harvey said. "We see ourselves not just as a community center but as a regional center."

Phillips pointed out that while the Salvation Army was originally considering a location near 39th and State, a Near West Side location would be centrally located within the city as a whole.

"We saw the hand of God lead us to a better place," Phillips said.

At the meeting, UVA co-founder Oscar D’Angelo pointed out that the IMD would need to decide that the community center constituted a legitimate medical use, which are the only operations allowed within the district’s boundaries. Still, D’Angelo argued that the Salvation Army could reach those requirements by including medical services, including a possible health clinic.

"This is a tremendous opportunity," D’Angelo said.

But Sam Pruett, executive director of the IMD, said later this week that while he’s impressed by the scope of the community center the Salvation Army is proposing, there simply isn’t enough room in the medical district for a 25-acre complex. A site of that size, Pruett pointed out, would be larger than the entire Rush University Medical Center complex. Pruett said he met with officials from the Salvation Army last month, and said he told them that the medical district simply wasn’t big enough for their purposes.

"We admired their vision, but it’s too big for our considerations," Pruett said. "There are a number of potential hurdles with that type of project in the IMD that the size and scope of project would preclude."

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4545/1318a4dz.jpg
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6476/1318b6wv.jpg

There was a small diagram of the Children's Museum I saw. Basically imagine a plastic cup with the rim on the ground, except it is a 4 floor glass cup :) It's not a ground breaking design, but better than what's there. They should get Libeskind or someone to design this feature.

http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/3764/grantpark6rq.jpg

^ Way cool.

Interesting how they didn't mention the Art Institute's expansion, but whatever

hmmmm.....it is only an initial design, right? It should require major revisions in order to complement the Millenium Park and Art Institute expansion.

wow, those renderings look pretty darn cool. I wish they were a little more creative with the whole "walk of stars" thing but overall the changes in Grant Park will be intreasting if not a major improvement. Still I would like to see more trees, trees, trees. Open space is good but I also want some areas that have a feeling of a "real park".

^^I actually emailed Bob O'Neill (Grant Park Advisory) a while ago talking to him about that. He agreed that Chicago deserved much better but I don't know if he can do anything to stop this garbage.

Here's the article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0602050249feb05,1,7758247.story?coll=chi-news-hed

New vision for Grant Park
Museum, sculptures, dog park among plans for city's `front yard'

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 5, 2006

Grant Park, the lakefront gem that languished while Millennium Park grabbed headlines, is poised for a makeover of its own.

Driven by a small group of longtime enthusiasts and growing legions of newcomers to the booming South Loop--and boosted by the acclaim that greeted the new park to the north--plans are under way for a series of new features.

Construction in Grant Park will begin soon for the city's most expensive dog park yet, gussied up with a doggy fountain and a canine refreshment stand.

The city's "front yard" also will become a new testing ground for skateboarders. An artist whose sculptures elsewhere in the city have become targets for skateboarders has been commissioned to create a skate park to lure boarders away from downtown plazas.

A private group hopes to install a "Walk of Stars" honoring local celebrities, while Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz is casting 100 9-foot-tall sculptures--towering, headless bodies--for the southwest end of the park.

More eye-catching still, at least from a financial point of view, the Chicago Children's Museum is pondering construction of a glassy four-level wonderland that could bring more than half a million people to the park annually.

It's all part of an effort by the city and Grant Park boosters to activate parts of the historic centerpiece that long have sat empty and overlooked.

The price tag?

Officials say they still are totaling up the figures, which likely will run into the hundreds of thousands, minus the much heftier cost of the museum.

As was the case with Millennium Park, a public-private partnership will pay for the cosmetic transformation, with the private sector picking up most of the bill. It's one of the things Grant Park Conservancy President Bob O'Neill picked up from the park to the north.

While public and private dollars flowed into Millennium Park, Grant Park got little more than the occasional fixer-upper: trees planted, gardens improved.

"Even though a lot of funds went into that as opposed to Grant Park, we looked at it as an inspiration," O'Neill said. "We wanted to spread that standard to more areas of Grant Park."

The Park District will spend public funds on the dog park, the skate park and on replanting and landscaping work on the south end of the park.

On the private side, the Motion Picture Hall of Fame Foundation hopes to raise $7.5 million for the Chicago Walk of Stars. The Polish and arts communities hope to raise $500,000 for the transport of Abakanowicz's pieces from Poland to Chicago. The sculptures themselves are $3.5-million gifts to the city from the artist and the Polish Ministry of Culture.

The Children's Museum, if it decides to move from its current home on Navy Pier, could raise money to pay not only for its building, but also for a new fieldhouse for Grant Park--a project that O'Neill thinks likely would run upward of $40 million. Museum officials declined to comment.

Bringing rooms back to life

Grant Park, originally named Lake Park, was designed in the French Renaissance style of formal outdoor rooms. The park is the legacy of architects Daniel H. Burnham and Edward Bennett and civic-minded businessmen Aaron Montgomery Ward, who sought to keep views of the lake open.

Construction on Grant Park, once an eyesore of swampy landfill and railroad tracks, began in 1915, but it came in spurts of activity and delays.

Parts of the park remain incomplete, while other plans changed radically: The Field Museum, for instance, was intended to sit where Buckingham Fountain now stands.

In his 1909 plan, Burnham envisioned the park as the civic and cultural heart of the city, but it remains empty much of the year, fully alive only during summer festivals.

The new plans are designed to bring life to different parts of the park by creating attractions in various outdoor rooms.

In the summer, the Park District hopes to have an urban garden show in Butler Field. A Solti Garden featuring a bust of Sir Georg Solti, the renowned Chicago Symphony conductor, will be created in one room along Michigan Avenue.

Another room will feature the Abakanowicz sculptures to bring pedestrians to the southwest corner of the park, portions of which were added only recently.

For years, Grant Park "drizzled to an end" at 12th Place and Michigan Avenue. About a decade ago, Central Station developer Gerald Fogelson donated Illinois Central Railroad property he purchased to Chicago, helping the city connect Roosevelt Road from Columbus Drive to Michigan Avenue and allowing Grant Park to square off its south end.

Abakanowicz's cast-iron figures, each weighing 1,100 pounds, will be assembled in a forest-like display by the artist in a space along Michigan, between Roosevelt Road and 11th Street. Pedestrians are meant to interact with the pieces.

Abakanowicz's outdoor installations, most of them groupings of similar beings, are located in Poland, New York, Paris and Israel. Recently, the artist was given the lifetime achievement award in contemporary sculpture by the International Sculpture Center.

The Walk of Stars also could pull tourists south.

The Motion Picture Hall of Fame Foundation is planning to install as many as 500 red stars, each one 3 feet by 3 feet, along a four-block promenade between Harrison and 11th Streets.

Costing $15,000 apiece, the stars would honor civic leaders, pioneers, humanitarians, congressional medal recipients, literary heavyweights, athletes and celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Quincy Jones. Notorious Chicagoans such as Al Capone need not apply.

The south end is also where the new dog park and skate park will be located.

A neighborhood park

For more than a decade, developers have been building residential complexes such as Central Station on the south end of the park and converting office buildings on South Michigan Avenue to luxury condominiums. Empty nesters from the suburbs and former Gold Coast residents are filling up the more than eight new developments under construction along the park's borders.

Grant Park has become their neighborhood park.

Their calls for more trimmings will result this spring in the construction of the $300,000 dog park, to be one of the largest in Chicago.

As is the case with other dog parks, a neighborhood group raised $75,000; the Park District will match that and seek the remaining funding from donations. The dog park may even have a gazebo devoted to selling doggie treats.

Nearby, three old tennis courts will be converted into a skate park. Vache Kodjavakian, the director of Grant Park's skateboarding committee, said fellow boarders liked skating on the "benches" designed by artist Dan Peterman that sit outside the Museum of Contemporary Art. They suggested that the district ask Peterman to create new sculptures with wheels in mind.

There are also plans to replant flowering trees and elms around Hutchinson Field, using a portion of the money generated last year by the Lollapalooza festival. There also has been talk of bringing artist Dale Chihuly's trademark glasswork to Congress Plaza.

Beyond those plans, some backers want to see the city cover the remaining Metra railroad tracks on the park's south end.

But what has park conservancy president O'Neill most excited these days is talk that the Children's Museum may move to Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

The museum unveiled a plan last month for a subterranean building with a glass atrium. The new site would lie on the other side of the BP bridge, which currently leads visitors east from Millennium Park--and sends many of them back when they realize there is nothing on the other end.

The museum's plans also call for a new fieldhouse in the east wing, almost doubling the size of the existing building, which is in dire need of replacement. If the museum decides to move ahead, Park District approval also would be needed.

At a recent meeting, museum officials unveiled their preliminary plan to area residents to gauge their interest. Neighbors expressed concern that a favorite ice skating rink would be removed and that fieldhouse programming would be displaced temporarily.

But when museum President and Chief Executive Officer Peter England asked the crowd of 50 what they thought of the museum moving into "a sacred site," resounding claps filled the room.

wow, a few hundread thousand dollars compred to Mill Park sounds like a bargain....Getting some Chihuly pieces would be awesome.

the chicago walk of stars best use chicago (six-point) stars. It would help maintain the walk as being more local and unique than just being an LA ripoff.

The more I think if it, the more I realize that the Children's Museum should move to Bicentennial Plaza.

Navy Pier will be fine. Use the space for more restaurants and clubs or something, or another ride.

Think about it how amazing it would be, plus it would put the museum closer to transit options. People in Millennium Park can cross one pedestrian bridge and go to a Children's Museum, or they can cross another bridge and go to the Art Institute. The proximity of such attractions would really add to the experience

the chicago walk of stars best use chicago (six-point) stars. It would help maintain the walk as being more local and unique than just being an LA ripoff.


Yeah, I think they will. There would simply be no relevance for them to do non-chicago related stars. The idea itself seems kind of dumb to me, but it would be even dumber if they didn't use Chicago related stars.

However, I hope I am wrong, and that it turns out to be a cool feature.



The chilren's museum for bicentennial is a good idea, I think. Chicago would be well served the more and more that Grant Park becomes a culture park.

I know they use beveled 6-point stars in the sidewalks in the loop a few places. If it;s like that it'll be fine.

It's be cooler if they did instead of stars, municipal devices. The Y in the circle. That would be unique and since the device is supposed to mean "I Will" it ties in with the significance of the people honored.

i wonder why they used 6 pointed stars in the chicago flags? the only reference i know to 6 pointed stars is the star or david. but the six pointed stars on the chicago flag is shaped a lil dif.

chicago star:
http://introvert.net/images/2004/04/chicago_stars/stars-tew-proper

star of david:
http://www.phillyist.com/attachments/philly_nicole/starofdavid.jpg

"The Walk of Stars also could pull tourists south.

The Motion Picture Hall of Fame Foundation is planning to install as many as 500 red stars, each one 3 feet by 3 feet, along a four-block promenade between Harrison and 11th Streets.

Costing $15,000 apiece, the stars would honor civic leaders, pioneers, humanitarians, congressional medal recipients, literary heavyweights, athletes and celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Quincy Jones. Notorious Chicagoans such as Al Capone need not apply."
Why not honor Al Capone, a name much more associated with Chicago than Harrison Ford (I think he attended Northwestern but his career has basically been in LA) or Quincy Jones (raised in Seattle, lives in LA).

If you want to make an imitation "Hollywood Walk of Fame", at least use genuine Chicagoans. Mayor Daley, Paddy Bauler, Hinky Dink and Bathhouse John, the Everleigh sisters, Jesse Jackson, Roger Ebert, Oprah, Bugs Moran, etc. Immortalizing the notorious ex-citizens will do more for tourism and raising the city profile than putting out stars for folks who were born in Chicago and left as soon as they could. (Hemmingway, Ray Bradbury, etc.)

"The Walk of Stars also could pull tourists south.

The Motion Picture Hall of Fame Foundation is planning to install as many as 500 red stars, each one 3 feet by 3 feet, along a four-block promenade between Harrison and 11th Streets.

Costing $15,000 apiece, the stars would honor civic leaders, pioneers, humanitarians, congressional medal recipients, literary heavyweights, athletes and celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Quincy Jones. Notorious Chicagoans such as Al Capone need not apply."
Why not honor Al Capone, a name much more associated with Chicago than Harrison Ford (I think he attended Northwestern but his career has basically been in LA) or Quincy Jones (raised in Seattle, lives in LA).

If you want to make an imitation "Hollywood Walk of Fame", at least use genuine Chicagoans. Mayor Daley, Paddy Bauler, Hinky Dink and Bathhouse John, the Everleigh sisters, Jesse Jackson, Roger Ebert, Oprah, Bugs Moran, etc. Immortalizing the notorious ex-citizens will do more for tourism and raising the city profile than putting out stars for folks who were born in Chicago and left as soon as they could. (Hemmingway, Ray Bradbury, etc.)

^ Agreed.

It is a waste to honor Harrison Ford and the rest. What do they have to do with Chicago?

It is a waste to honor Harrison Ford and the rest. What do they have to do with Chicago?

Harrison Ford was born in Chicago and grew up in the Chicago-area (went to high school in Park Ridge).

the article mentioned nothing about Queen's Landing. Does anyone know if plans for the area are developing? An underpass under LSD was considered although the most dramatic plan has LSD covered with a deck for an above ground walk from Buck Fount to QL.

^ Agreed.

It is a waste to honor Harrison Ford and the rest. What do they have to do with Chicago?

Well, if you want to include celebrities, and include only those still living in Chicago, you won't need many stars. I don't live in Chicago now, and consider myself a Chicagoan for life. Regardless, this walk of fame thing is not really important to me. It falls into the "whatever" category.

the article mentioned nothing about Queen's Landing. Does anyone know if plans for the area are developing? An underpass under LSD was considered although the most dramatic plan has LSD covered with a deck for an above ground walk from Buck Fount to QL.

I believe the underpass was ruled out since it would be lower than the lake level and thus causing drainage/flooding problems. They would have had to raise the level of LSD to accomodate it. They thought of doing above ground but they didnt want to obstruct views of BF and the skyline from LSD. I am curious about Queen's Landing as well.

I found this article - Seems pretty cool if they can get it done! Sounds like IDOT is on board. I have worked on a road improvement project in Chicago where it was an IDOT route within the city... IDOT basically let the city make all the calls. Sounds like IDOT will fork over some cash if the city wants this.

http://www.grantparkconservancy.com/pages/9/

Another website with a few pictures of twin bridges designed by our buddy Santiago Calatrava that would flank Buckingham. A little extreme for Buckingham:

http://www.epstein-isi.com/portfolio/transportation/transportation_2.htm

Epstein performed analysis and design of a pedestrian bridge that would cross Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive between Buckingham Fountain and Queen’s Landing. The project also looked into the reconstruction of Lake Shore Drive between Monroe and Balbo. Epstein teamed with world-renowned bridge architect Santiago Calatrava on the design and engineering of this proposed pedestrian bridge.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-park08.html

Navy Pier's kids museum weighs Grant Park move
February 8, 2006
BY ANDREW HERRMANN Staff Reporter

A cornerstone of Navy Pier for 20 years, the Chicago Children's Museum is exploring a move to a new building just east of Millennium Park.

Museum officials today will ask the Park District Board's permission to study the feasibility of relocating to Grant Park's Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

Supporters tout the move as a way to shine some light on Daley Bicentennial Plaza, a lonely patch of Grant Park.

The Park District hasn't signed off on the move yet. But officials are intrigued with the plan that would provide the district with a new 20,000-square-foot fieldhouse, courtesy of the Children's Museum, said parks spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner.

Sketches show 4-story structure

The current fieldhouse at 337 E. Randolph was built in the mid-1970s and suffers from a leaky roof, said Bob O'Neill of the Grant Park Advisory Council, which supports the move.

Preliminary sketches for a new Children's Museum reveal a four-story structure, though much of it would be underground. The museum would grow from its current 57,000 square feet at Navy Pier to 100,000 square feet at the proposed location.

In an interview Tuesday, museum president and CEO Peter England said "as of today, Navy Pier is still an option'' but he noted that the current location becomes very crowded during the peak summer months.

England did not estimate the cost of a new museum but said construction would take about 18 months. He hoped the feasibility study would be complete in a few months.

"It's a win-win for the Park District,'' said England.

Parks group backs concept

O'Neill said some questions have been raised about the future of an existing ice rink at Daley Bicentennial Plaza. O'Neill acknowledged that there is an ice rink at Millennium Park just a couple of blocks away but said that rink serves tourists while the Daley skating area is geared toward neighborhood use.

Erma Tranter, president of the watchdog group Friends of the Parks, said the group "supports the concept'' of the museum as long as it is primarily below grade. During construction, the museum also would need to find space to host park activities currently being held at the Daley Bicentennial Plaza building, she added.

The museum was founded as a nonprofit organization in 1982 in response to program cutbacks at Chicago Public Schools. After operating at a variety of sites around the city, including a Park District facility in Lincoln Park, the museum moved to Navy Pier in 1986. It draws 500,000 annually to its hands-on, education-focused exhibits.

The chairman of the museum's board is Gigi Pritzker Pucker, a member of the Pritzker family, which donated millions for the construction of Millennium Park. The BP Bridge connects Millennium Park to the proposed museum site at Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/nance/cst-ftr-lasalle08.html

Secrets uncovered at former Shubert
February 8, 2006
BY KEVIN NANCE Architecture Critic

The Shubert was always the red-headed stepchild of Chicago's great Loop theaters -- smaller, grubbier and far less ornate than the Oriental, the Cadillac Palace, the Auditorium and the Chicago. Producers coveted it for its scale, which is similar to Broadway houses, but many theatergoers groaned at the thought of an evening at the 100-year-old Shubert, with its drab colors, its paucity of bathrooms and its congested, claustrophobic bottleneck of a lobby.

But the Shubert, which began life as the Majestic and has now been renamed the LaSalle Bank Theatre with a reopening set for the week of May 20, is getting an extreme makeover. Its much-delayed $14 million renovation, part of a $40 million project that includes the rehabbing of the connected Majestic Building as a hotel, streamlines and expands the lobby to more than twice its original size, triples the number of restrooms and restores the theater's decorative details to their original splendor.

Best of all, the renovation -- overseen by George Halik of the Chicago firm Booth Hansen -- has uncovered a number of architectural details that had been hidden from public view for as much as half a century. From above false ceilings, behind drywall and underneath layers of flaking paint, the theater is turning out to have been a chamber of secrets worthy of Harry Potter.

This architectural windfall took Lou Raizin, president of Broadway in Chicago (which owns and programs the LaSalle Bank Theatre and three other Loop venues), by surprise. "We're basically bringing a piece of history back," he said during a tour, "that the majority of us who have operated this theater and worked in it for years really never knew existed."

For example, the former one-story lobby turned out to have a second story that had been covered up, complete with classical-style columns with ornate capitals. Above the lobby expansion -- formerly occupied by retail businesses and soon to contain the theater's new ticket booth and bar/concession area -- was another hidden space, this with an ornamental vaulted ceiling.

In another discovery only last week, the decorative plaster ornamentation beneath a marble banister was found not to be made of plaster after all. It turned out to be made of brass, which had been thickly painted many decades ago -- apparently to keep the material from being stripped out as scrap metal and used to support the war effort during World War II.

"We'll soon be seeing it," Raizin said, "for the first time in a long time."

The theater renovation, originally scheduled to have been complete last month -- frustrating theatergoers and Broadway in Chicago, which had to reschedule shows and/or shift them to other venues -- has been trickier than expected, in part because of the discovery of the hidden architectural details.

Another factor in the delay included a greater-than-expected amount of hazardous materials (especially lead paint and asbestos, which coated the old wiring) that had to be removed. Then there was the complexity of retrofitting the 1906 building with modern mechanical systems that it never had before, including a sprinkler system in the public areas and an internal elevator.

"Every space in this building is used," Halik said. "The challenge was not only finding the space [for the elevator], but dealing with the problems of creating that new shaft. We had to find ways to weave these new systems into the nooks and crannies."

The stage itself will be largely unaffected by the renovation, but the auditorium is getting new wiring and new carpeting of a rich red color with flecks of gold. There will also be new seats, whose number will have been reduced by as many as 120 from the original 2,000.

Perhaps the most noticeable new feature of the auditorium will be its yards of carved decoration around the proscenium arch and side walls, which is being painted, glazed and highlighted with gold leaf. In the lobby, ceiling ornaments that had been painted what Raizin called "various shades of mud" will now be a bright gold to match those inside the auditorium.

Decoration in this staircase turned out to be brass that was disguised as plaster to save it from being stripped during World War II.

"The ornament in this building is going to be spectacular -- people who've been in this building before will never know it's the same theater," Halik said. "You really didn't appreciate what was here before. Just now, as we start to decorate this, do you really see what's there."

In addition, much of the building's exterior terra-cotta cladding is being restored or replaced.

"When you restore a theater like this, you want to do it right," Raizin said. "It's not like you can go halfway and say, 'OK, it's time to open.' You've got to take it to completion, and that's been our goal all along."

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8884/shubertpaint0208062855al.jpg
A workman restores ornamental details in the LaSalle Bank Theatre auditorium, which is undergoing a major makeover as part of a $40 million renovation. (JEAN LACHAT/SUN-TIMES PHOTOS)

THE BASICS

Theater opened: 1906, as the Majestic; renamed the Shubert in 1945, then the LaSalle Bank Theatre in 2005

Lobby: expanding to twice original size

Number of restrooms: tripled

Interior ornaments: repainted, highlighted with gold leaf

Newly discovered: ornamented ceilings, decorative work beneath banister

Mechanical systems added: internal elevator, sprinkler system in public areas

Cost: $14 million; part of a $40 million project


http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7248/shubertcolumn0208062855rf.jpg
The LaSalle Bank Theatre's old lobby ceiling had covered up this second story above it, complete with elaborate Ionic columns.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/1982/shuberthalik0208062851lz.jpg
Architect George Halik (below, left) and Lou Raizin, president of Broadway in Chicago, discuss the LaSalle Bank Theatre project.


http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/2447/shubertstairs0208062852ln.jpg
Decoration in this staircase turned out to be brass that was disguised as plaster to save it from being stripped during World War II.

According to Chicago Tribune's webpage, Chicago Historical Society is renamed as Chicago History Museum.
If anyone here cared enough about the name change. :sleepy:

According to Chicago Tribune's webpage, Chicago Historical Society is renamed as Chicago History Museum.
If anyone here cared enough about the name change. :sleepy:

Historical Society was better. Ah well.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0602230063feb23,1,5595779.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Jahn to design extension of U. of C. library

Blair Kamin
Published February 23, 2006

Chicago architect Helmut Jahn and his firm, Murphy/Jahn, have been picked to design a $42 million extension of the University of Chicago's Joseph Regenstein Library.

The selection marks a shift for the university, which has relied on architects from outside Chicago for major recent buildings such as its Graduate School of Business. Jahn won the job from a field of 28 firms.

The extension, which will house 3.5 million volumes of print material, a conservation area and a reading room, will use high-density automated shelving instead of open stacks. It will be west of the library, completed in 1970 to the design of architect Walter Netsch, and south of Henry Moore's sculpture "Nuclear Energy" along Ellis Avenue between East 56th and 57th Streets, a university spokeswoman said.

Jahn is preparing a final design, the spokeswoman said. A groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for August 2007.

OK that is nothing short of fucking awesome. Kamin says this "marks a departure" for U of C. Well, not really, in the most important sense. The U of C hires stellar architects, and Jahn is no exception to that. The fact that Jahn works in Chicago is incidental. I doubt the University officials said, "let's pick a local architect for this one." This was not a case of doing a global search for an architect and then conveniently choosing the local guy. Jahn could win this on merits alone. Of course it wouldn't have hurt him that the new State Street Village dorm at IIT is so close by, providing constant reminder of Jahn's ability to kick some major architectural ass.

My question is how this building is going to interact with the Regenstein. Will it be an entirely separate structure? I am worried about the Reg changing, because I am absolutely in love with its assymetric form at the moment. Its my understanding that a lot of people dislike the Reg, but I find its design exhiliarating, even better than Netzch's Northwestern library of similar design.

I walked by the Art Institue on my lunch hour and am happy to report that cassion work has started on the new wing!

There is still some demo work to do and they are still driving sheet but the cassion rig was definitely on site and actively drilling.

There is just so much construction going on this city. It's become a total fact of life. (well, moreso than before)

That's great news. I hope we get to see what the bridge looks like soon!

Does anyone have any pics of the old Shubert lobby/auditorium to compare? I've never had a reason to go there, so never seen it.

This is truly great news. I agree about the bridge, though--still no renderings...

http://images.snapfish.com/34668%3B635%7Ffp346%3Enu%3D3233%3E533%3E642%3E2324533733642ot1lsi

http://images.snapfish.com/34668%3B635%7Ffp346%3Enu%3D3279%3E%3A85%3E266%3EWSNRCG%3D32336245%3B%3B%3C76nu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/34668%3B635%7Ffp344%3Enu%3D3279%3E%3A85%3E266%3EWSNRCG%3D32336245%3B%3B%3C77nu0mrj

Thanks for the shots. I'm glad that the people who donated that large chunk of cash were smart enough not to name the wing after themselves.

If you don't mind I'm going to steal your Spertus images and put them here as well:
http://images.snapfish.com/34668%3B555%7Ffp342%3Enu%3D3233%3E4%3C8%3E558%3E23244%3C86495%3B6ot1lsi

http://images.snapfish.com/34668%3B555%7Ffp346%3Enu%3D3279%3E%3A85%3E266%3EWSNRCG%3D32336245%3B%3B%3C79nu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/34668%3B555%7Ffp343%3Enu%3D3279%3E%3A85%3E266%3EWSNRCG%3D32336245%3B%3B%3C7%3Cnu0mrj


Nickerson Mansion from Lynn Becker (http://lynnbecker.com/repeat/nickerson/nickerson.htm)

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/2999/nickerson211ao.jpg

I challenge you guys to say the name of this thread really fast 3 times in a row

I think I'm too hungover to say it once slow...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0604040273apr04,1,5755543.story

By Charles Storch
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 4, 2006


Before starting his first day as head of the Chicago Children's Museum, Peter England recalled, "I looked in the mirror and thought, `This is stupid. What right do you have to be coming to this place, which is a museum, which is about children, and you don't even know what they do?' "

Almost five years since then, this former corporate globetrotter may still find children mystifying -- even those three grown ones who are his own -- but neither he nor anyone else questions his suitability to lead this museum. He has helped to restore its finances, improve its appearance and underscore its role in early learning.

But all this has been child's play compared with what the museum's president and chief executive must now accomplish.

The museum is considering moving from its anchor position at hectic Navy Pier to a lightly traveled but prized site in north Grant Park, Daley Bicentennial Plaza. England must reach out to the many constituencies that guard every shrub in "Chicago's front yard" while not losing his footing in dealings with the pier -- a stretch worthy of the game Twister.

Since the museum went public in January with its preliminary proposal for Grant Park, the tall New Zealander with the sandy hair, deep-lined eyes and soft voice -- "I'm often accused of mumbling or speaking in a strange language," he acknowledged -- has been presenting the museum's case before park advocacy and neighborhood organizations and officials of the Chicago Park District, which has jurisdiction over Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

The reception so far has been mixed, all the more reason for England not to give notice at the pier. He has been negotiating with pier management for additional room at the popular lakefront attraction -- space the museum claims is its by right and should already be occupying. Though both sides contend talks have been amicable, their differing views on the use of the space suggest some tension.

"They have a lease to stay, and we are happy to have them stay," said Leticia Peralta Davis, chief executive of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the state-city agency known as McPier that oversees the pier. "If their feasibility studies determine they would be better off somewhere else, we would be happy to accommodate them however we could."

At one time, the concerns of a midsize Midwest museum would have had no importance to England.

Born 61 years ago in Christchurch, New Zealand, where his parents ran a country grocery store, he roamed the world in a 33-year career with Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant. He held increasingly prominent positions in various Unilever personal products lines, lastly as president and chief executive of the Elizabeth Arden prestige cosmetics and fragrances unit.

In his five years at Arden, he was credited with restoring profits and brand image. But Unilever reportedly was impatient with the progress and decided to divest Arden. England resigned in January 2000, a year before Arden was sold.

At Unilever, he became friends with Ron Gidwitz, who in 1996 had followed his family-controlled Chicago firm, Helene Curtis Industries Inc., into the Unilever fold, but stayed only two years.

"He and I used to sit in the same Unilever meetings," England recalled. "He used to tease the senior management of Unilever in an extraordinary way."

Good sense of humor

During a break from his recent, failed bid for the GOP nomination for Illinois governor, Gidwitz said of those meetings, "If I thought things were wrong, I would speak my mind. Peter was quite good. Very politic, in the sense he wasn't bombastic. He has a good sense of humor, in an understated way."

After Unilever, England, his wife, Carol, and their son lived for 18 months in Australia. From there, they moved to Chicago, where they had only visited before but where their two daughters were living.

"We decided to reunite the family in Chicago," he said.

When a friend suggested him for the CEO's job at the Children's Museum, he resisted. But he met with its board and was won over -- although the $185,000-a-year compensation was, for him, quite modest.

"Probably my motives at the beginning were a little selfish, a way of introducing myself to Chicago," he said. "Since then, I've developed a real feeling of passion for this place."

Under his watch, the museum has reversed years of operating deficits and found new sponsors for exhibits. It also collaborated with early-learning experts to reformulate its mission, putting more emphasis on linking learning and play and on involving parents in their child's play-learning experience.

Dolores Kohl Kaplan, founder and former head of the Kohl Children's Museum -- which last year moved from Wilmette to larger quarters in Glenview -- said England successfully leveraged "his highly developed skills from the business world into his work at the Chicago Children's Museum."

As did Kohl's, England's museum felt the need for more room to fulfill its ambitions. The museum, which was founded in 1982, had relocated to Navy Pier in 1995, signing a 99-year lease at a token $1 a year. But with its attendance growing to about 500,000 a year, the museum at times felt squeezed in its 57,000 square feet there.

According to England, the museum in 2004 exercised an option in its lease to assume 20,000 square feet of nearby space, used by McPier for offices.

Peralta Davis said the museum had submitted plans that called for new exhibits and programs in that space. She said McPier was prepared to relocate its offices so the museum could break ground.

"Then [the museum] wrote us and said, `We don't have the funding secured,' and that they weren't going to do the expansion that we had been working on for about a year's time," she said. "With that notice, we're sort of on hold right now."

But England said he wanted the space primarily for offices and storage, freeing up room in the museum proper for more exhibits and programming, including children's theater. He said the museum was prepared to invest about $31 million in the expansion.

"We were due to break ground last August. Around May of last year, the pier decided that they were looking at the whole plan for the facility and put ours on hold," he said, referring to a proposed pier makeover. "At that stage, we and the board said, `Let's explore other options.'"

Even if the museum decides to leave the pier, it could take years before plans for a building elsewhere were approved and construction completed. Knowing it will be at the pier for a while at least and wanting to use that 20,000 square feet in the interim, the museum must proceed delicately with McPier as it explores other options.

Move to Grant Park

England would not say who first proposed moving to Grant Park, but Gigi Pritzker Pucker, the museum's chairman and a member of the powerful Chicago clan, is believed to have advanced the notion with city and park officials. Daley Bicentennial Plaza is east of Millennium Park, across a pedestrian bridge from the Pritzker Pavilion.

Pritzker Pucker declined to comment.

The museum has been looking at the site of a fieldhouse nestled near East Randolph Drive. With project manager Jones Lang LaSalle, the museum has devised a concept plan for a 100,000 square-foot structure that would burrow into two levels of the Monroe Street parking garage directly below. A glass atrium rising about 45 feet above Randolph would serve as the entrance and help light the three museum floors below.

The museum has proposed building a substitute fieldhouse nearby that would be twice the size of the current one, a 30-year-old structure in need of repair.

Neighborhood and parks groups that have heard the museum's pitch generally like the idea of having such an amenity in the plaza. But they have expressed concern about having such paid-admission activities in the park, attracting additional traffic, replacing fieldhouse programs and relocating a small but heavily used skating rink just outside the fieldhouse.

"I have committed to saving the ice skating rink," vowed Robert O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy.

England wouldn't project a new museum's cost, saying plans are too preliminary. He said he finds "scary" the prospect of having to raise tens of millions of dollars. Luckily for him, a Pritzker is at his side.

He speaks animatedly of a stand-alone museum, new exhibits and collaborations with the Park District and cultural institutions near the plaza.

"This should be a place of wonder, joy, beauty and magic for children," said England. It is a favorite line for him, but one he credits to a museum patron with a superior aesthetic.

"I'm a New Zealander," said England, all Kiwi modesty. "My idea of culture is a little agriculture."

----------

cstorch@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0604050181apr05,1,3952803.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Museum puts freedom 1st
A new Michigan Avenue attraction pulls no punches in its effort to inspire visitors to value what many take for granted

By William Mullen
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 5, 2006

Freedom, as a new museum in Chicago takes pains to say, is an inalienable right of all humans that is difficult to achieve and sometimes disagreeable to live with.

The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, opening to the public Tuesday in Tribune Tower on North Michigan Avenue, is designed to make visitors confront some uncomfortable, sometimes volatile topics.

Do high school students have the right to wear T-shirts to school showing their support for gay rights? Can the Nazi Party stage an uninvited march into a town heavily populated with Jewish people? Were the lyrics to the Everly Brothers' 1950s hit song "Wake Up Little Susie" so morally subversive that it should not have been played on public airwaves?

Built at a cost of more than $10 million, the museum primarily focuses on the 1st Amendment freedoms granted to all Americans by the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights. That amendment guarantees five basic freedoms--of speech, of religion, of the press, of assembly and to petition for redress of grievances.

The two-story, 10,000-square-foot museum avoids sanctimony and flag-waving, instead offering a candid look at 1st Amendment ideals and how difficult they are to uphold. It is funded by the McCormick Tribune Foundation, an independent, non-profit foundation with substantial stock holdings in Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune.

"We view our mission as a fairly straightforward," said Dave Anderson, the museum's executive director. "We want to get our visitors to understand, value and protect freedom."

The museum employs an array of audio-visual and interactive technology to examine incidents in which 1st Amendment freedoms have been challenged. Visitors are nudged to make up their own minds on the issues.

Engaging for all ages

Its primary audience, said Anderson, is middle school and high school students, whom the museum hopes to bring in by the busload. But museum designers also want to attract a significant public audience beyond students and sought to make its exhibits engaging for all ages.

A national survey commissioned by the museum for its opening showed that Americans can name the five main family characters in the cartoon "The Simpsons" far more easily than they can name the five 1st Amendment freedoms.

"The museum is an idea that grew out of the Tribune Co.'s past with [former editor and publisher] Col. Robert McCormick, who was a great, powerful advocate for the 1st Amendment and civic involvement," said Anderson. "His interests melded perfectly with the Freedom Museum."

Anderson, who said he believes his museum's location at 445 N. Michigan Ave. is "ideal," acknowledges there are some critics who question "whether or not folks on Michigan Avenue are in a frame of mind to want to go into a museum."

Some thought the 2004 closure of the Terra Museum of American Art two blocks north of Tribune Tower was due to its location, though others blamed a weakly conceived vision of the museum's purpose.

Officials at the Loyola University Museum of Art at 820 N. Michigan Ave., which opened Oct. 8, believe it owes much of its success--17,500 visitors to date--to being on the busy avenue.

"It has been really wonderful," said Lisa Torgerson, the Loyola museum's director of development. "Being on the avenue gives us a lot of exposure to tourists and shoppers looking for a little bit of culture."

Julie Burros, director of cultural planning for the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, said she thinks the Freedom Museum will benefit greatly from its location.

"There is a tremendous amount of foot traffic there and big windows to peer into to see what's inside," she said. "Tribune Tower is such an important building, an icon of the city that people go out of their way just to see, so that helps too."

The museum relies on exhibit techniques rather than artifacts to get its ideas across. Burros called it "the first museum in Chicago that works with ideas and not with stuff."

A 21st Century concept

"It is a sort of 21st Century concept for museums that also should attract people," she said.

The museum also will feature a revolving collection of historical artifacts connected to 1st Amendment issues, most on temporary loan from other museums and individuals. Among them is one of 25 existing copies of the Dunlap Broadside, the Declaration of Independence as it was published by Philadelphia printer John Dunlap on July 4, 1776. It is on loan from the Chicago History Museum.

Visitors 6 and older will be charged a $5 admission fee. "We have seen research that shows visitors appreciate the museum more if a value is assigned to the visit," Anderson said.

But any passerby can look for free at the museum's dramatic centerpiece in its entryway rotunda: a two-story sculpture titled "12151791," taking its name from the date the 1st Amendment was ratified, Dec. 15, 1791.

The work of San Diego artists Peter Bernheim and Amy Larimer, it is composed of 800 reflective, stainless-steel plates the size of a piece of writing paper, suspended from the ceiling by steel cables. Each cable represents a 5-year segment of history following the amendment's ratification, and each plate is inscribed with thoughts on freedom by people living in that time. It will be added to until the 250th anniversary of the ratification on Dec. 15, 2041.

All school groups will be admitted free, and teachers will be offered free curriculum plans to prepare their students for the visit. The museum is offering bus scholarships to qualifying schools to pay for bus rentals.

So it opened today. I saw something about it on FOX, seemed pretty good.

Isn't that whole Museum a big slap at Daley?

Has any more detailed information come out about the proposed Children's Museum? The building itself, I mean. The way it is currently, the shape of the "3-story atrium" is not pleasing at all. I'm hoping they get a major redesign, if indeed they do decide to move.

Centre on Halsted this past Sunday:
http://wilthe3rd.smugmug.com/photos/63938868-L.jpg

Great...

Considerable change has taken place concerning the plans and expectations of the Chicago Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center.

A number of issues have arisen as follows:

* The location of the project has been rescinded and alternate sites are being considered.
* The parameters of the proposed construction budget have been altered and are being re-evaluated within The Salvation Army.
* The program expectations are under review and will be dependent upon evolving budget and site parameters.
* The anticipated timeline is, of course, now invalid given the impact of the changes to budget and site.

Pursuant to these issues, and in keeping with the parameters stated in the ‘Competition Regulations’, Paragraph 15, The Salvation Army does herein give notification that The Salvation Army is exercising the right to not proceed with the project planned for 47th and State Street.

The Salvation Army wishes to thank all interested parties and participants for the time and energy expended during this process and will make available information when appropriate to do so - when a new project site, budget and program have been defined.

Please direct any inquiries to The Salvation Army Metropolitan Division.

Isn't this old news? The Salvation Army community center project was scrapped because 3rd Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman blocked it. Yes, I think she is certifiably nuts.

^That witch! Maybe she thinks it is funny and cool in making her constituents stay poor.

Here are some pics I took at the Spertus Institute's construction site yesterday while at school.

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/884/14ww.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/5579/22zt.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3438/37vf1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/4092/40es.jpg
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5570/51uy.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5664/60fi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Tower Crane going up at the Modern Wing of the Art Institute

http://images1.snapfish.com/34699%3B%3B%3C8%7Ffp33%3A%3Enu%3D3279%3E%3A85%3E266%3EWSNRCG%3D32336%3A8%3A7%3B385nu0mrj

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0605080167may08,1,1654231.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed

Children's museum faces fight over move
Grant Park neighbors fear added traffic

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 8, 2006

When Peggy Figiel moved into a high-rise next to Grant Park nearly 11 years ago, it seemed the perfect place for her and her husband to raise their two children.

It was close to the beach and the Magnificent Mile, and across the street was a quiet playground, a Chicago Park District fieldhouse and a little-known skating rink.

"It was just this wonderful little hidden gem of a neighborhood," Figiel said.

But for Figiel and a group of other residents in the high-rises just north of Grant Park, their gem is now at risk of being overexposed. The Chicago Children's Museum hopes to move across the street into Daley Bicentennial Plaza--the northeast part of Grant Park--bringing with it hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

The residents' group, called Friends of Daley Bicentennial Park, is gearing up for a fight against the museum's proposed move.

Nearly 300 signatures have been collected by the residents--mostly parents of young children--in their "Save the Park" campaign. They will hold a public meeting Wednesday to marshal support for the campaign and have invited Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd).

In what the residents consider a pre-emptive strike, museum officials will hold their own public meeting Monday to update the community about their plans. "A coincidence? I think not," said Figiel, 44. "They just decided to have this meeting two days before ours."

Museum officials denied any such motive. They said they were invited by the Grant Park Advisory Council to update the community with results of a traffic study and plans for hiring an architect.

"Once we have selected an architect, we will have a series of meetings where a select group of people from the community can come and sit with the architects and be part of the process, give us their input," said Breelyn Pete, museum spokeswoman. "We see this as a collaborative community partnership."

Too big for Navy Pier

The museum has outgrown its location in Navy Pier and is looking to expand. Earlier this year, museum officials presented a conceptual plan for the Grant Park site that called for a subterranean three-story museum where the Daley Bicentennial Fieldhouse now sits. On top would be an atrium at street level.

The leaky fieldhouse would be rebuilt next door to the museum. Under the museum's plan, the one-story fieldhouse would double in size.

The residents say they want the new fieldhouse--just not the museum.

They are concerned that with 500,000 visitors a year to the museum, their already high-traffic neighborhood would be flooded.

As it is, drivers speed down Randolph Street and blow through stop signs, said Kerri Johnson, 32, who has three young children.

East of Michigan Avenue, "Randolph is not a through street," Johnson said. "We have a lot of traffic turning around. So with the increase in Children's Museum traffic, it'll be more dangerous for children, [the] elderly, pets and anyone who is visiting the neighborhood."

Many residents also worry about what will happen to an outdoor skating rink where their children have learned to skate in the winter and bike in the summer. Museum officials said they are committed to rebuilding the ice rink somewhere in the plaza. Park officials estimate the cost of replacement at about $1.5 million.

Besides the residents' group, Friends of Downtown has also come out against the proposal.

The group cites retail magnate Aaron Montgomery Ward and his long legal battle to keep Grant Park open space. Allowing the Children's Museum to build in the park would set a dangerous precedent, the group says.

"Because of all the successes the mayor has had with downtown, that pressure will continue," said Tom Wolf, vice president of Friends of Downtown. "If they get to do something in Daley Bicentennial Plaza, there will be other institutions, cultural and otherwise, that will want to build on the south end or the north end. And we don't think that's a road that we want to go down."

Park District backing plan

The Park District has said it supports the museum's proposal but is waiting for the museum to gather comments from the community.

Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Advisory Council, worries that if critics stop the museum's proposed move, the community will lose its chance to have a new fieldhouse.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get it done," he said, adding that rebuilding the fieldhouse is not a priority for the Park District at this time.

But that urgency is not shared by many area residents. For them, the museum's deal comes attached with aggravation.

"This is turning our residential neighborhood into a tourist attraction," Johnson said.

I also can't believe I forgot the South Shore Drill Team Center by John Ronan
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1416/r21gz.jpg

There was an article recently about it, I'll try and find it if I can

I just don't get why people move downtown and then fear traffic...

I just don't get why people move downtown and then fear traffic...

^I'm not so against the NIMBY's on this one. They have a legitimate claim. Grant Park really is a park--lets not forget that.

Their concern seems to be that too much traffic will make it a dangerous place for children to cross streets to go to the park, etc.

I still would like to see the museum there, but I can't say they don't have a legitimate point

No, the people who say that the Gehry bridge leads to disappointing nothingness have a legitimate point. These people want to stop a project that is only in its infant steps, thus ending another *potential* landmark if the right architect is chosen as well as a boost to Chicago's museums/culture and upgraded facilities for all to enjoy, including their kids.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0605160223may16,1,7918237.story

THE BUILDING ISN'T FINISHED, BUT AT LEAST THE ART IS READY

By Blair Kamin
Tribune architecture critic
Published May 16, 2006

Attention, readers: The new Hyde Park Art Center is officially open, but the building may not be finished for at least a month. So this is a limited preview, not a full-scale review, of a building that, despite its lack of completion, has at least one dazzling thing to see: a striking work of computerized art that unfurls across its facade like a giant blue-and-white bar code.

Elsewhere, the $6 million center looks very much like a work in progress.

As of last Friday, big panes of exterior glass had not been installed. The main entrance was sheathed in white-painted plywood. More than $100,000 still had to be raised for the perforated metal

Ask the center's executive director, Chuck Thurow, when the center is going to be finished, and he laughs. "You've seen the movie 'Money Pit'?" he says, referring to the film about a young couple that tries to repair a hopelessly dilapidated house. Repeating what contractors keep telling the couple, Thurow exclaims (knowing he's not telling the truth): "Two weeks! Two weeks!"

The center has long been an adventurous place, having mounted legendary shows in the 1960s that launched artists such as Jim Nutt and Ed Paschke to international renown. In keeping with that freewheeling identity, it brought on Garofalo, who has built a national reputation as one of the so-called "design digerati." That's shorthand for the adventurous group of architects, including Frank Gehry, who excel at using digital tools to shape buildings in highly unconventional ways.

Garofalo, who will be featured in an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago that starts June 17, has employed the computer to realize fluid, biomorphic shapes called "blobs." One of his most memorable efforts so far wraps an undulating wall and roof clad in silvery titanium around a brightly colored southeast Wisconsin farmhouse that is a getaway for the noted Chicago art collectors Lew and Susan Manilow.

In truth, however, there aren't any blobs in the art center, a recycled printing plant at 5020 S. Cornell Ave. While the renovation gives the center roughly four times as much space as its old home, which was inside the former Del Prado Hotel at 5307 S. Hyde Park Blvd., the budget was relatively tight. So Garofalo couldn't float a titanium roof over the low-slung box, as he'd hoped to do. Besides, Thurow didn't want the building to look like a Gehry wannabe.

So Garofalo did something different: He sliced projecting, diorama-like openings of glass into the brick exterior. One reveals the interior of a ground-level cafe that isn't open yet. The second opens onto the center's second-floor offices. The third, an 80-foot-long expanse of glass, sprawls across the facade's second story, exposing a long, corridor-like space known as a catwalk. The catwalk overlooks the art center's main display space, a two-story room where, Thurow says, the University of Chicago Press used to store course catalogs and other material.

The big stretch of glass is much more than a window, however. When motorized shades drop behind it, it becomes an enormous projection screen, visible from inside and outside. Ten projectors hanging from the ceiling of the gallery can shoot an endless variety of computer-controlled images onto the screens.

For the opening, Chicago artist Inigo Manglano-Ovalle designed a computer-driven piece called "Random Sky" that consists of blue and white horizontal bars that move from left to right or vice versa. The width, height and movement of the bars change subtly according to weather data (wind speed, humidity, etc.) fed to six computers from a weather vane attached to the building's exterior.

The display is mesmerizing. And it packs added visual punch because, when people stand on the catwalk as the projectors run, their shadows are cast as strikingly graphic silhouettes on the facade. People on the catwalk, though not those outside, can hear an equally intoxicating soundscape by Rick Gribenas. "Random Sky" appears every night from 7:30 to 10 p.m.

When the center held its opening weekend festivities on April 29 and 30, it got 10 calls from people in the neighborhood who complained about the noise from the party, but not a single complaint about "Random Sky," Thurow says. No one, in short, seems to think that the work of computerized art is the equivalent of an oversize TV screen that keeps them up at night.

On the other hand, there's still the knotty matter of getting the building finished by mid-June.

"If it's not done by then, I'll slit my wrists," jokes Thurow, the former director of the city's landmarks commission. "You'll find a story: `Former governmental official found dead on Cornell Avenue.'"

--------
Renderings:
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8235/capcamp18sw.jpg
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3219/capcamp22sm.jpg http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/7673/capcamp44eb.jpg

A Daily Dose of Architecture recently had a little "dose" on the new Little Black Pearl (http://www.blackpearl.org) designed by K2 Architects.

You can find some good photos here:
http://www.archidose.org/May06/051506.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0606030283jun04,1,2605226.story?coll=chi-news-hed

New youth center in Grand Crossing a beacon of optimism
Lands' End founder Gary Comer taps architect John Ronan to craft an innovative new space

By Blair Kamin
Tribune architecture critic
Published June 4, 2006

If only every inner-city neighborhood had an angel like Lands' End founder Gary Comer. In his old Grand Crossing neighborhood on the South Side, the 78-year-old casual clothing magnate has funded a new $30 million youth center that, despite a sometimes-garish exterior winningly stitches together social conscience and striking aesthetics.

The center's architect is John Ronan, one of the young talents who has infused Chicago's design scene with fresh energy. Two years ago, Ronan beat such international stars as Thom Mayne of Santa Monica, Calif., last year's Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, in a competition for a public high school in Perth Amboy, N.J. His out-of-the-box design, now on hold for lack of funds, calls for a school with five towers, each housing communal facilities such as a gym and set off with vibrant graphics.

His youth center, located near the Chicago Skyway at 7200 S. Ingleside Ave. and topped by an 80-foot-tall tower with an LED sign, is cut from the same cloth as the planned New Jersey high school -- a beacon of hope for an area that needs it. At the May 25 dedication for the building, Comer joked that the 42-year-old Ronan got the job because he was the only one of three potential architects who answered his own phone.

Genlass was verbot

The center offered Ronan challenges that are unheard of in the expensive private homes he's designed since he opened his practice in 1997. "The building users didn't want any glass in the building. I was really struck dumb," Ronan says. But "that's the reality they live with. The question was how do I keep this building from being a bunker?"

Lots of bulletproof glass along the outside walls, for starters. And plenty of skylights that bring in light from above.

Those are two elements in the building that demonstrate why Ronan deserves a spot on the design map -- and how his approach to architecture differs from those of other Chicago up-and-comers, such as Doug Garofalo, who uses the computer to create fluid, biomorphic shapes called blobs.

"I'm interested in more of a spatial complexity than a formal complexity," Ronan replies when asked why he clings to seemingly old-fashioned right angles and rectangles.

Formally known as the Gary Comer Youth Center and providing a permanent home for the previously itinerant South Shore Drill Team (as well as programs for children at the nearby Paul Revere School), the building illustrates the fundamental soundness of Ronan's approach.

The center's context is urban decay -- a variety of modest homes (some well-kept, others ramshackle), vacant lots, storefront churches and heavily trafficked roads. Ronan wisely sees no need to imitate these surroundings, as postmodern architects might have done 20 years ago. That's the past. His building aggressively asserts the future.

Convertibility a core value

At its heart is a gymnasium that can be converted into a 600-seat theater with movable tiers of seats, motorized theater curtains and motorized stage doors that reveal an 80-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep stage. The handsomely proportioned, light-filled room serves as the drill team's main practice and performance area.

Wrapping around it, like a series of long, evenly spaced bars, are a variety of facilities, including a cafeteria, a recreation room, a dance room, an arts and crafts room and an exhibition/lecture hall. Outside, a parking lot also serves as the drill team's practice parade ground, one of numerous flexible spaces both inside and outside.

In a typical youth center, interior walls would segregate this rich assortment of uses from each other and the activities would not be expressed on the building's exterior. The excitement within the building would dissipate.

In a far more creative unity of form and function, Ronan uses large expanses of glass to open views from one room into the other. He puts areas such as the dance room and the exhibition room on vivid display, using cantilevers to thrust their glass walls beyond the building's perimeter. Seeking to express the youthful energy of the inhabitants and the optimism of the community, he clads the steel-framed building in brightly colored cement panels (which come in seemingly random patterns of red and blue). If one of the panels is damaged, workers can take out the rivets that hold them in place and easily install a replacement.

It is, on the whole, an effective exterior, with a strong civic presence despite its lack of outlandish, look-at-me shapes.

The cantilevered rooms and their vast expanses of bulletproof glass endow the building with sculptural force. The steel-framed tower leavens their dominant horizontality, suggesting a modern version of an old-fashioned church steeple with its ghostly steel mesh cladding and an LED sign that advertises events at the center. The building effectively echoes the monumentality of the nearby Revere School, with its castlelike top, rather than imitating it.

There are subtle pleasures, too, such as the way Ronan bridges the second floor over sheltered outdoor foyers to create a graceful path inside. Most important, the action on the inside is communicated to the outside. The building does far more to express its activities than its structure. That showcases the center far more effectively than any sign.

Exterior panels a problem The innovative exterior panels, however, turn out to be a mixed blessing. True, the panels animate what otherwise would have been an enormous windowless mass. The blue panels even have a cool sophistication that joins with the smokestacklike form of the tower to suggest a sleek steamship. But the red ones are simply garish, resembling an oversize version of the pinkish and reddish asphalt shingles once attached to aging wood frame houses around Chicago. One wonders how they'll look in 10 years. For now, the cladding is more exuberant than elegant.

Inside, despite the need for the protective exterior, the center manages to be light and open.

The interior spaces work not simply as individual rooms but as interlocking zones that simultaneously create a sense of openness, enhance the center's sense of community and offer a form of security because people can be watched. A good example is the view from the cafeteria to the gymnasium. Shared maple flooring makes the two rooms seem like one. The glass between them is less a wall than a screen. The fact that the gym is sunken below ground level only adds to the spatial drama.

"The idea was to feed off the energy of the drill team and let that permeate the building," Ronan says.

The gym is an apt demonstration of what he calls "programmatic sustainability." Translation:

By combining two normally separated uses, a gym and a theater, into one, you save both money and energy. Of course, multipurpose buildings, such as the combined football and baseball stadiums of the 1960s, have failed before. In that regard, the acid test is going to be how the gym works as a theater -- whether its acoustics are effective, whether sound from inside the room doesn't disturb quiet spaces elsewhere in the building, whether its seats are comfortable and the machinery that moves them doesn't break down.

Flexible interior design

But there are no such caveats for the rest of the interior, which is both tailored to its occupants (the dance room, for example, is twice the normal height to let the drill team practice rifle and flag throwing) and flexible enough to accommodate future unanticipated uses.

Among the finest spaces are an exhibition/lecture hall (another flexible space) and the arts and crafts room, both of which allow children to rise above the everyday and look back down on their neighborhood -- its churches, its schools, its housing. The best space, however, is the roof garden, which is flanked by offices for the center and a corridor leading to the exhibition/lecture hall.

Like a conventional green roof, this one works against the urban heat-island effect by replacing heat-generating asphalt with heat-reducing plants. But it offers the advantage of being habitable, a place where kids growing up amid gangs and drugs can instead plant flowers and vegetables and watch them grow.

You can feel a sense of possibility here that you can't on real ground. Good architecture can do that. It doesn't just create new possibilities for how we use the world. It opens up new ways of seeing the world. That's what happens when an angel such as Gary Comer remembers from whence he came.

http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/372/237509914ee.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0606070140jun07,1,146899.story?coll=chi-news-hed

House on the river bridges 8 decades
Hidden world will soon become museum

The fascinating and long-hidden world inside one of Chicago's stylish bridge-tender towers soon will be opened to visitors

By William Mullen
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 7, 2006

Elegant and slightly mysterious, the bridge-tender towers that have stood sentinel alongside the Chicago River's drawbridges for nearly a century often tickle the fancy of Chicagoans and tourists who wonder what it's like inside.

Beginning Saturday, one of the most beautiful and celebrated of them all will open permanently to the public as a vest-pocket history museum that tells the story of Chicago's relationship with the river.

Officially known as the McCormick Tribune Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum, the $950,000 facility will be housed inside the striking, 86-year-old Beaux Arts-styled bridgehouse on the southwest corner of the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

Because the museum's content is modest, the real draw may be the chance to see the bridgehouse itself. Looking out from bridgehouse windows, visitors will be treated to dramatic scenes of the river, the city and the bridge that few but bridge tenders have seen before.

With five tiny floors accessed by a single, narrow metal staircase akin to those in lighthouses, the building has only 1,613 square feet of usable floor space, including an entryway and a viewing platform.

For that reason, the museum may have trouble accommodating all the people who want to get in, as the Chicago Fire Department has ordered that only 34 visitors may be inside it at a time. Projecting that people will stay about a half an hour, officials believe the museum can handle roughly 510 visitors a day.

If admission lines repeatedly grow long, administrators will consider selling timed tickets, said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, an environmental group operating the museum. Because of the stairs used throughout the small building, the museum will not be accessible to the handicapped.

The viewing platform overlooks the giant gears that raise the bridge for ships and sailboats too tall to pass under the bridge when it's closed. The system is a mechanical marvel, so delicately balanced that it uses only a small, 140-horsepower electric motor to lift the 4,000-ton roadway.

"Bascule is the French word for `teeter-totter,' and that is what this bridge is, essentially," said Brian Steele, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation. "The bridge leaves that carry traffic are balanced on the other side of a trunnion--an axle--with giant counterweights, and it takes only a small horsepower motor to turn it up or lower it down.

"It is so sensitive that it has to be rebalanced each time that it gets a new coat of paint and in the winter with accumulation of salt or snow during a storm."

The story of the river begins at the lowest level of the tower, starting with the days when it was just a prairie stream dribbling into Lake Michigan before the first European explorers came through.

As soon as he saw the site in 1673, explorer Louis Jolliet saw the potential of cutting a canal between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers, enabling boats to travel from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.

The next four floors tell how Jolliet's vision was prophetic. Chicago saw explosive growth after the U.S. built Ft. Dearborn in 1803, less than 2 feet from where the bridgehouse now stands. By 1890, more than a million people lived here, thanks to the strategic location.

"The museum is designed to celebrate the natural river and the commercial development of the stream, which became the central feature to Chicago's phenomenal growth as a city," Frisbie said.

Before the bridge was built in 1920, Michigan Avenue ran only as far north as the river. An old swing bridge linked it to Rush Street on the north bank, and what is now North Michigan Avenue was then Pine Street. Both banks of the river were lined with wharves, warehouses and industrial plants.

Daniel H. Burnham, as part of his 1909 "Plan of Chicago," co-authored with architect Edward H. Bennett, wanted to extend the grandeur of the Loop and South Michigan Avenue north of the river by building a magnificent bridge to Pine Street.

Bennett himself designed the magnificent, neo-classical limestone bridgehouses, each adorned with a bas-relief historical sculpture. Only two were needed to operate the bridge, but the city built four as a matter of aesthetic balance.

"Decorative features and sculpture must be provided to make the Chicago River attractive like European watercourses, and an object of beauty instead of ugliness," said Charles Wacker, chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission in 1921.

"This treatment of public thoroughfares will ... have a decisive influence on the character of the buildings along Michigan Avenue from Randolph Street to Chicago Avenue."

In the days when great office towers like the Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower began rising as North Michigan Avenue opened up, the bridge spans were raised more than 3,000 times a year for shipping.

Until the 1970s, tenders staffed the bridges 24 hours a day. Now, the bridges are opened only a few dozen times a year to let recreational sailboats with soaring masts pass between their summer and winter berths. Those openings are tightly scheduled, and three tender crews leapfrog one another to operate the bridges ahead of the boat procession.

The tower the museum occupies was purely a decorative structure from the first, as is the bridge's northeast tower. The controls for running the bridge are in the northwest and southeast towers; the others were used occasionally for storage.

The Michigan Avenue bridge towers weren't the first, as several others went up even earlier, including more Beaux-Arts beauties on LaSalle Street.

In the late 1990s, the city for a couple of years used the southeast bridgehouse at State Street to house a gallery, though only in the lower part of the structure. There was no public access above the sidewalk level.

The McCormick Tribune Foundation, the major donor behind the formation of the new museum, is named for longtime Tribune publisher Col. Robert R. McCormick, a great supporter of the Chicago River. As president of the Chicago Sanitary District and alderman in the early part of the 20th Century, McCormick participated in early efforts to clean up the river.

"The River Museum has a great tie to the history of our foundation," said Don Cooke, the foundation's executive vice president. "It tells a very important Chicago story, so it is important for the foundation to be a part of it."

- - -

If you go

What: McCormick Tribune Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum.

Where: 376 N. Michigan Ave., at the Chicago River. The entrance is at the bottom of stairs leading to the river from Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive.

When: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, through autumn.

Admission: $3 suggested.

Information: 312-977-0227 or www.bridgehousemuseum.org.

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/4978/237833564dg.jpg
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/4096/237833575qo.jpg
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/9908/237833584qu.jpg
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/7025/237833876vi.jpg
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/9291/237833883fa.jpg

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-ftr-attendance07.html

Chicago arts attendance holding its own
June 7, 2006
BY KEVIN NANCE AND MIKE THOMAS Staff Reporters

There's a suspicion in the land -- and specifically in Chicago -- that these are dark days for the arts. We live in the digital age, so surely television, movies, iPods and especially the Internet are kicking the stuffing out of live theater, classical music, opera, dance and art museums. It's all about "Desperate Housewives," not "I Am My Own Wife," right? Britney, not Britten, right?

Not exactly. Pop culture remains mass culture, of course, and people who consume entertainment with the help of electronics continue to outnumber those who prefer the real thing. But the doomsayers who expected the arts to be swept away in the "digital tsunami" of the past decade, as it's been called, turn out to have been gratifyingly off the mark.

Attendance at Chicago's largest arts institutions has actually held steady or grown over the past 10 years, with several groups recently bouncing back from a post-9/11 downturn.

The decade was especially kind to theater, with many groups -- including the Goodman, Steppenwolf and Chicago Shakespeare Theater -- capitalizing on the excitement of a move to impressive new facilities. Steppenwolf's audience grew by 46 percent over the period -- impressive but not unique. "Everybody's audiences grew," says the company's executive director, David Hawkanson. "This has always been a great theater town, and it continues to be one of the strongest parts of the entertainment fabric."

Classical music hasn't been quite as fortunate, but on balance, it's holding its own. Attendance at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has declined slightly, from 94.7 percent capacity in 1994-95 to about 82 percent capacity last season, but that number has been stable for three years, with the current season's numbers expected to top 83 percent. Best of all for the CSO, single-ticket sales are 10 percent ahead of last season's. And memberships to the summer classical concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park have sold out three years running -- this year in record time.

Despite the death of its legendary general manager, Ardis Krainik, in 1997, Lyric Opera of Chicago has stayed remarkably stable, never selling less than 96 percent of its available tickets. Last season, the Lyric sold 98 percent of capacity, making it by far the best-attended opera company in the nation in terms of percentage of seats sold.

Dance groups have also begun to stabilize their attendance numbers, thanks in part to greater consistency in their performance venues -- the Joffrey at the Auditorium Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at Millennium Park's Harris Theater.

To combat the attendance downturn of the 2001-02 season, for example, Hubbard Street successfully combined its move to the Harris with sharper marketing and advertising. The result: an uptick from 19,728 patrons to almost 30,000. "We went through a positioning process, a branding statement and put more money behind it," executive director Gail Kalver says. "Lo and behold, our numbers picked up."

'Peaks and valleys'

Of all of the major arts institutions, museums in Chicago have experienced the greatest volatility at the box office, primarily because of its direct relationship to programming. This has been especially true at the Art Institute of Chicago, where attendance has seesawed over the decade -- from a high of 2.3 million in the 1996 fiscal year to 1.2 million in 2002, then back up to 1.6 million in 2004 and down again to 1.3 million in 2005.

The Art Institute has lived and died, in short, on "blockbuster" temporary exhibitions, which -- the touring King Tut show currently at the Field Museum notwithstanding -- appear to be losing steam. (A Monet retrospective drew 964,000 people in 1995, compared with a Manet show that attracted 204,000 in 2004 and a Toulouse-Lautrec show that had about 268,000 visitors last year.)

"If I were seeing general attendance drop precipitously, I'd be very, very worried, but it's been pretty consistent at between 1.3 million and 1.5 million," museum director James Cuno says. "What's dropped precipitously over the last 10 years has been attendance at special exhibitions, which is why I want to reduce our dependence on them. I would rather there be consistently high attendance than the peaks and valleys that come with the episodic blockbuster exhibition."

The Museum of Contemporary Art has also experienced a jumping around of attendance figures, but the volatility is less troubling because it's within a narrower range and on a smaller scale. It helps, too, that the numbers for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, promise a significant bump up from last season's 223,577.

"We feel very comfortable that we have a steady, committed group of people who are coming -- and besides, we have a huge buzz in the museum right now," associate director Greg Cameron says. "We have the Andy Warhol exhibit [which continues through June 18 and has already been seen by more than 50,000 people], which has been very well received critically and by the public, exceeding our attendance projections."

'We're running harder'

Chicago's interest in and support of the arts mirror the national trends, which generally find arts attendance going strong. According to the most recent survey of arts participation by the National Endowment for the Arts, almost 40 percent of American adults (about 81 million people) attended at least one jazz, classical music, opera, theater or dance performance in 2002, up from 76 million in a poll conducted a decade earlier.

Classical music continues to thrive nationally, both in terms of live performance and sales of recordings. Billboard magazine did report that classical album sales dropped 15 percent in 2005, but at the same time, there was a 94 percent rise in digital downloads of classical music on Internet services such as iTunes (where classical music now makes up an impressive 12 percent of sales).

A handful of U.S. cities, including Miami and Nashville, Tenn., are preparing to open new symphony halls, and most of the nation's orchestras are in stable financial shape, with 64 percent having a zero balance or surplus in 2003-04, up from 46 percent the season before.

Theater is also continuing to grow. American regional theaters have sustained a gradually upward attendance trend -- as has Broadway, which sold a record 12 million tickets in the just-concluded season, an increase of just over 4 percent from 2004-05. The success of the commercial theater is reflected in Chicago, where "Wicked" has been enjoying a lengthy open-ended run, to be joined next year in the Loop by "The Color Purple."

On the other hand, several signs point to mounting challenges for the arts in the next few years. One is the much-noted "graying" of the audience, a phenomenon confirmed by the 2002 NEA study, which noted that arts attendees grew older between 1992 and 2002. The median age of art museum patrons increased from 40 to 45 during that period, while the average operagoer aged from 45 to 48. Classical music lovers were the oldest, with a median age of 49.

The same survey also found that a lack of audience diversity continues to plague the arts. Women participate at higher rates than men, as do non-Hispanic whites compared to all other ethnic groups. Those trends reflect the findings of a recent University of Chicago study, which confirmed that museum audiences here are disproportionately Caucasian, educated and wealthy.

Moreover, many Chicago arts institutions are finding that they have to work harder -- and spend more on advertising and other forms of marketing -- to maintain their audience share.

"We're running harder to stay in the same place," says Susan Mathieson Mayer, marketing and communications director at the Lyric Opera. "With 9/11, I think there was a significant change, a permanent change. There's just less money out there for people who attend events like ours. That's important, because it's a myth that people going to the opera are all well-to-do. They're not. And because things cost more, people are more careful about how they spend their money."

Beyond economics, Mayer says, is the question of whether younger generations will embrace the arts at the same level as their parents and grandparents. "We're holding our own, but one wonders what's going to happen as a new generation that isn't so interested in reading comes up. What's that saying about the future?"

Courting new audiences

f the future looks dicey, some Chicago arts institutions aren't sitting on their hands waiting for the apocalypse. Instead, they're working imaginatively and aggressively to court young and more diverse audiences.

The CSO has added new series to its traditional subscription packages. These include series that offer added educational context for the music, that collaborate with theater and dance groups, and that (in the case of the "Classical Tapestry" series) reach out to African-American audiences.

Two seasons ago, the orchestra lowered ticket prices to as little as $35 for 40 percent of the seats on the main floor, and to as little as $24 for a main-floor ticket to some of the new series performances. Best of all, the CSO recently introduced an online purchase program for students (which allows them to buy tickets for $10 up to two weeks prior to the event) that has proved a major hit. "Since the online program started," says the orchestra's Synneve Carlino, "we have tripled the number of students purchasing CSO tickets."

For its part, the Art Institute is working to stabilize attendance by focusing its marketing efforts on the permanent collection and temporary exhibits generated by the museum's curators, rather than on touring shows.

"We have a consistent hum of activity around our permanent collection, and we just have to build on that," Cuno says. "I see this next fiscal year as highlighting how we see ourselves as we approach the new building opening two years later."

That would be the scheduled 2009 opening of the new Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing, which will increase the museum's exhibit space by a third and throw a fresh spotlight on its long-overshadowed modern and contemporary collections.

The potentially lasting value of a highly visible new building continues to be demonstrated by Chicago Shakespeare Theater, which is still going gangbusters six years after moving into its Navy Pier digs.

"We're lit from morning to night," says executive director Criss Henderson, noting that Chicago Shakespeare now gives 630 performances over 50 weeks each year. "So many people said when we were talking about coming out here that this wasn't the place for serious art. But that 65-foot marquee with Shakespeare's name in fiber-optics and Tivoli lights says to the 10 million people who visit Navy Pier every year that Chicago takes its arts and culture seriously."

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4580/attend060706580b9pd.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearwest/chi-0606140300jun14,1,2819186.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearwest-hed

Children's Museum may move farther south into Grant Park

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 14, 2006

The Chicago Children's Museum may be backing away from its plan to relocate to the northernmost end of Grant Park, Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd) said Tuesday.

The museum, a major attraction on Navy Pier, had proposed tearing down a fieldhouse in the Daley Bicentennial Plaza and replacing it with a three-story structure near Randolph Street. A museum spokeswoman said Tuesday that was still one option under consideration.

But with neighbors becoming more vocal in opposition to the Randolph Street site, Natarus said museum president Peter England told him last week of interest in a location farther south in Grant Park, near Monroe and Columbus Drives.

England was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

"They listened to me and the neighbors," Natarus said. "I was relieved to know they were not going on Randolph."

He said he was told museum officials would show him architectural renderings for the new site in a couple of weeks.

The museum's earlier bid to move to the site of the fieldhouse drew fire from residents living in high-rises north of Grant Park. They collected about 2,100 signatures opposing the proposal.

In a public meeting they organized last month, Natarus, who sits on the powerful Chicago Plan Commission, said he would not support the museum's plans because traffic problems would be exacerbated by a new residential development to the north. Natarus said he would support the Monroe plan.

The museum, which attracts 500,000 visitors a year, has outgrown its current location at Navy Pier. Last fall, museum officials announced they were interested in moving to Grant Part.

Earlier this year, they unveiled plans for a building that, like the fieldhouse, would be subterranean. It would occupy some of the Monroe Street garage below it.

Bob O'Neill, Grant Park Advisory Council president, said a museum official told him Tuesday that executives are exploring the south end of Daley Bicentennial Plaza upon the alderman's suggestion, but have not dropped the previous proposal.

Museum spokeswoman Breelyn Pete said Tuesday officials were still excited about moving to the north end of Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

"We took the alderman's recommendation and are continuing to explore many options," she said.

The community might lose the opportunity to rebuild the fieldhouse with outside funding, O'Neill said. Chicago Park District officials estimate that rebuilding the current fieldhouse would cost $9 million. The project is not high on the district's list of capital improvements, officials have said.

"That's a very serious issue," O'Neill said.

And if the museum were to move to the south end of Daley Bicentennial Plaza, that would also put it diagonally across from a new addition under construction by the Chicago Art Institute and directly across the street from Millennium Park.

"So you would have on one corner three major buildings," O'Neill said.

Peggy Figiel, one of the residents who has organized opposition to the museum, said she was told by the alderman last week of the new site plan for the museum.

"We're very happy," she said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearwest/chi-0606140300jun14,1,2819186.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearwest-hed

Children's Museum may move farther south into Grant Park

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 14, 2006

The Chicago Children's Museum may be backing away from its plan to relocate to the northernmost end of Grant Park, Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd) said Tuesday.

The museum, a major attraction on Navy Pier, had proposed tearing down a fieldhouse in the Daley Bicentennial Plaza and replacing it with a three-story structure near Randolph Street. A museum spokeswoman said Tuesday that was still one option under consideration.......

I STILL SAY HELL NO! No more building on Open Space in any of our lake front parks!

Build the damn thing over the railroad tracks along Michigan Avenue for Christ's Sake! Cover that hole...don't cover the grass!

I STILL SAY HELL NO! No more building on Open Space in any of our lake front parks!

Build the damn thing over the railroad tracks along Michigan Avenue for Christ's Sake! Cover that hole...don't cover the grass!

That's a brilliant idea!

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
Skokie

http://www.hmfi.org/

Groundbreaking
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Area Holocaust Survivors Lead Groundbreaking for World-Class
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center

History was made when ground was broken on the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, fulfilling the dream of local Holocaust survivors to create an institution where visitors can reflect upon the lessons of history and apply them to the challenges of hate, intolerance, and genocide in our world today.

The day focused on hope for the future, with a joyous musical opening from the Soul Children of Chicago and speeches looking forward to the opening of the new institution. However, the ceremony was also commemorative, concentrating on remembering the past and creating a legacy of memory. With this in mind, over 30 Chicago-area Holocaust survivors sealed their stories, photographs and other keepsakes in a special time capsule. Led by Holocaust Memorial Foundation Board Vice Presidents Fritzie Fritzshall and Aaron Elster, the time capsule ceremony detailed the importance of creating a record for the future.

Project and Executive Director, Richard S. Hirschhaut began the ceremony by saying, “The ground that we break today will become sacred, for it will form the foundation of a powerful monument for remembering, conveying and preserving the legacy of the Holocaust. And from this ground will emerge a sacred obligation – the responsibility to create an institution that will serve as a bulwark against hate and indifference.”

Holocaust Memorial Foundation Board President, Samuel Harris addressed the significance of the day that signifies years of dreaming. He said, “This is a day long in the making. It not only represents nearly 7 years of planning, or the 25 years since the founding of the Foundation, but more than 60 years since the horrors of the Holocaust invaded our lives. This day assures that our stories, and those of our loved ones who are not here with us today, will be preserved for generations to come.”

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, Consul General of Israel Barukh Binah, and Museum Campaign Chair J.B. Pritzker, also spoke about the importance of the day and the necessity of remembering the Holocaust in a way that teaches future generations how to stand up to hate.

“It is with great joy that we invite the entire Chicago community into our museum family,” said J.B. Pritzker, Museum Campaign Chair. “I encourage everyone to become part of our campaign to create an institution that has the power to transform our world, not just for us, but for our children and our grandchildren.”

project of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois, the new Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is slated to open in 2008. The new Center will be a 65,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility and will be the largest center in the Midwest dedicated to teaching the universal lessons of the Holocaust.

The new Museum will reach students throughout Illinois and across the Midwest, educating them about this period in history and alerting them to the dangers of unchallenged bigotry. It will personalize the stories of the Holocaust to students in Illinois who are required, by the Illinois Holocaust and Genocide Education Mandate, to learn about the Holocaust and other genocides.

---------
Designed by Stanley Tigerman
http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/218/newmuseumpic9ra.jpg
http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/4292/buildingdesignpic10qv.jpg

..

^^^ It could be a lot worse. I'd rather have this than the ridiculous parking garage he designed at Lake and Wabash.

..

im not into it either

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearnorthwest/chi-0606280242jun28,1,7737878.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearnorthwest-hed

Persian treasure trove on the line at U. of C.
Suit over terrorism could force their sale

By Ron Grossman
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 28, 2006

A federal judge has rejected a key defense by the University of Chicago in a lawsuit over rights to ancient Persian artifacts, a decision bound to ripple through the American museum community.

The next step, according to the Rhode Island lawyer who sued the university and several renowned museums: Seize an invaluable collection at U. of C.'s Oriental Institute--thousands of clay fragments with cuneiform writing that came from Iran. Then auction off the pieces to compensate victims of Middle Eastern violence on the grounds that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism.

The judge's decision comes as American museums are facing tough questions about how they acquired certain collections.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently agreed to return invaluable antiquities that Italian authorities said had been looted from that country. The J. Paul Getty Museum is negotiating a similar claim with Italy.

The judge's rebuke of U. of C. left several other lines of defense still to be heard. The case, which also involves the Field Museum, comes back to court for another hearing next month.

U. of C. had argued that it needed to protect Iran's rights to the property, even though Iran declined to come to court. The university said the Iranians were gun-shy because of bad experiences with the American legal system, a claim rejected by U.S. District Judge Blanche M. Manning in Chicago.

In a decision published Friday, Manning ruled the university's "brazen accusation that the courts of the United States are hostile to Iran and that, as a result, Iran should be excused from bothering to assert its rights, is wholly unsupported."

From the University of Chicago's perspective, this might be a case of injury about to be added to insult. David J. Strachman, attorney for the plaintiffs, said he will move to translate the judge's ruling into cash for his clients.

"Shortly, we are going to be asking for a judicial sale for the purpose of raising funds to satisfy the judgment," said Strachman.

In her ruling, Manning also took a poke at the U. S. government, which backed the university's side of the dispute. "The government relegates the [key] argument to a footnote," she wrote.

Charles Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said, "We are reviewing the court's ruling."

In several recent cases involving U.S. citizens and foreign nations, the Department of Justice intervened and claimed the national interest is better served if such disputes are resolved through diplomatic negotiations rather than legal suit, an argument revived in the University of Chicago case.

"The government came into court crying the sky will fall if Iran has to satisfy this judgment," Strachman said. He said his clients were pleased by the judge's decision, which rejected that line of reasoning.

"They had been disheartened that the government defended Iran," Strachman said. "It was very upsetting to them, because they were doing what the Congress said they should be doing to help fight terrorism."

The Chicago case--formally titled Jenny Rubin, et al vs. the Islamic Republic of Iran, et al--stems from a deadly bombing in Israel nearly nine years ago.

On Sept. 4, 1997, suicide bombers set off explosive devices in Ben Yehuda mall, a popular tourist destination in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the bloody attack, which killed five bystanders and left 192 people wounded.

Several of the survivors were American visitors who filed a federal lawsuit against Iran and Iranian officials. They claimed that Hamas was financed by Iran, making the country legally responsible for their suffering. Judge Ricardo M. Urbina agreed and noted that Iran has a ministry for terrorism and budgets "between $50 million and $100 million a year sponsoring various organizations such as Hamas."

When Iran didn't show up in court, the judge ruled for the plaintiffs by default, awarding them damages of $423.5 million. Though a victory for Strachman and his clients, that left him the task of collecting from Iran's assets in the U.S., among them the collection of Persian artifacts housed at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.

In response, the university invoked an ancient legal principle, known as sovereign immunity, which holds that governments can't be sued just like ordinary citizens. The university's lawyers argued that though Iran hadn't asserted that defense, it was doing it on Iran's behalf.

When a magistrate judge rejected that defense, the university appealed to Manning. But she agreed with the original finding.

Larry Arbieter, a University of Chicago spokesman, said that because the matter is still in court, the university declined to comment on the judge's ruling.

Joe Brennan, vice president and general counsel for the Field Museum, said that institution, though not directly affected by Friday's decision, disagreed with it. He looked upon the aftermath of the judge's ruling as an instance of living to fight another day.

"It was only one of several lines of defenses we've offered," he said. "There is another hearing coming up in July, and we're confident of winning."

---------

I'm no lawyer, but selling historic artifacts that are on loan to the museum and institute by a foreign country doesn't make much sense. Let's hope they eventually win.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0607050202jul05,1,4982728.story?coll=chi-business-hed

Culinary museum aims to boost city's reputation

By Jennifer Carnig
Special to the Tribune
Published July 5, 2006

Chicago's best-known contributions to the culinary world may be stuffed pizza and tomatoes on hot dogs, but the Chicago Chefs of Cuisine is looking to change all that.

The local chapter of the American Culinary Federation has announced plans to build a culinary museum and Chicago chefs' hall of fame, and has named Charlie Trotter as its inaugural inductee.

The group of 300 chefs, restaurateurs and corporate partners will vote every summer to add another culinary great to the hall of fame.

While the physical museum is little more than an aspiration now, the Chefs of Cuisine has visions of interactive kitchens and a Disney World-style hall of fame complete with animatronic chefs.

"We want this to be a destination museum," said John Castro, chairman of the advisory board overseeing the project. "It will be a place to honor all of the great things that our chefs of the present and of the past have accomplished, and to motivate our chefs of the future."

Part of what gives Chicago its great character is its food, Castro said. A place where international flavors mingle to create bold new tastes, Chicago and its cuisine are "totally unique."

With the Food Network rocketing chefs to celebrity status, Castro said that he anticipates that the Chicago museum will draw foodies from around the globe to see "why we're one of the best restaurant towns in the world."

To make that happen, Castro said the Chefs of Cuisine may need as much as $10 million. In the three months the organization has been fundraising, it has secured $150,000 in donations.

Perhaps most important, the hall of fame has been given the blessing of Mayor Richard M. Daley. In a letter to guests attending the Chefs of Cuisine's first hall of fame induction, a dinner honoring Trotter, Daley recognized the group for "promoting and celebrating Chicago's culinary history."

^ Great idea. I wonder where it would be located. I'm leaning towards the west or south loops--too many attractions are weighed towards the loop or River North. Besides, the west loop is known for so many great restaurants

http://midwest.construction.com/news/design/default.asp

Viñoly Initiates Concept for U. of C. Hospitals Pavilion

The University of Chicago Hospitals has engaged New York-based Rafael Viñoly Architects and Grand Island, N.Y.-based Cannon Design to begin the process of conceptual design for a new hospital pavilion that will be devoted to complex specialty care, with a focus on cancer and advanced surgical programs.

Viñoly recently completed the university's Graduate School of Business building in Hyde Park. Cannon Design brings national expertise in healthcare architecture.

This project, as currently conceived, could add approximately 500,000 sq. ft. of space and increase the hospitals' total clinical capacity by more than one-third.

The site under consideration is on the south side of 57th Street, between Cottage Grove and Drexel Avenues, adjacent to current UCH facilities.

The new building's design will place a premium on flexibility, the capacity to adjust to the rapid and unforeseen changes at the forefront of medicine in the 21st Century.

The architects are developing a building approach based on a grid system that is built from a standard structural cube. This cube element could be configured over time for a very wide range of purposes, from inpatient beds to radiology suites to surgical operating rooms, without changing the basic frame of the building.

"Our thinking thus far has focused on how we could build a new hospital pavilion that could accommodate the rapid-fire, hard-to-predict changes that have swept through medical science and technology in the last three decades and that continue to gain speed," said UCH president and CEO Michael Riordan.

If the pavilion concept is approved by the UCH and University Boards of Trustees, UCH would proceed with detailed design work, followed by the governmental review and approval process. The Trustees would make a final decision on whether to proceed with construction in 2007. If approved, the facility could open in 2011.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0607100232jul10,1,5197761.column?coll=chi-news-hed

No step taken to replace crosswalk
Jon Hilkevitch
Published July 10, 2006

New bridges exclusively for pedestrians and bicyclists are gaining a welcome foothold in Chicago, improving access and safety and adding beauty to the landscape from Millennium Park to the south lakefront.

The next installment to the series of spans recently built in the Grant Park area will be the new pedestrian bridge at Monroe Street, connecting Millennium Park to the new modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Plans for the gently sloping steel-and-glass Art Institute bridge, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, will be presented at a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Daley Bicentennial Plaza, 337 E. Randolph St.

But there is no progress to report on Queen's Landing, where Chicago officials removed the traffic signal and pedestrian crosswalk to Buckingham Fountain a year ago--without any public notice. The crosswalk near Monroe Harbor was installed in 1988 after a 13-year-old girl was struck and killed by a car.

Civic leaders who for the last year have unsuccessfully prodded the city to bring back the crosswalk are now beginning to focus efforts on forming a public-private partnership.

Their goal on this first anniversary of the crosswalk's closing is to raise some of the estimated $15 million needed to build a bridge or an underpass at Queen's Landing, named in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's 1959 visit to Chicago.

The civic leaders point to the city's ongoing strategy to sell corporate naming rights to the Chicago Skyway; to the approximately $15 million in private funding donated by Art Institute sponsors for the Monroe Street bridge; and to the Millennium Park bridge paid for in part by British Petroleum.

"This is an easy project to attract private dollars because with millions of people in cars on Lake Shore Drive, on foot and on bikes, it would be the most visible corporate sponsorship in the park area," said Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Advisory Council.

"With the obvious connection to Queen Elizabeth, I'm going to start by calling Richard Branson at the Virgin Group and British Airways," O'Neill said.

Chicago traffic authorities initially said it was necessary to remove the Queen's Landing crosswalk to more efficiently move the 139,000 vehicles a day that travel on Lake Shore Drive through the busy Grant Park area. [B]One pedestrian pressing the "walk" button there, changing a green light to red for 34 seconds, inconvenienced a hundred or more vehicles, they said.

Officials also promised to come up with a solution--a bridge or a tunnel--for pedestrians seeking access from Buckingham Fountain across the eight lanes of Lake Shore Drive to the water's edge, to Navy Pier and the Museum Campus.

Yet a Chicago Department of Transportation feasibility study, started before the crosswalk, is still in the conceptual phase.

"Our engineers are taking a look at the available space and concerns related to construction, sight lines and access points with respect to building either a pedestrian underpass or a bridge," said CDOT spokesman Brian Steele. "But we have not drilled down to the details yet."

Steele said there is "no real timeline" for moving the project forward, although the city intends to apply for federal funds later this year to eventually build something.

"Any large-scale project like this is always going to be a lengthy process," Steele said.

But other projects are under way.

The city has secured about $6 million in federal funding to add a pedestrian bridge over South Lake Shore Drive at 41st Street and to design replacement bridges at 35th and 43rd Streets on the Drive, Steele said. The bridges, whose winning designs were selected from a CDOT-sponsored international competition, will be built over the next several years, he said.

In addition, plans are set to build a pedestrian and bicycle underpass beneath Solidarity Drive near the Adler Planetarium on the Museum Campus. All $11 million needed for the project has been acquired, Steele said.

The work follows the 2003 completion of the 11th Street Columbus Drive pedestrian-bike bridge and underpass and the 18th Street pedestrian-bike bridge.

But the slow pace of progress at Queen's Landing is leaving some Chicago business and civic leaders dissatisfied. "Of all the bridges being discussed, this is the most important one, linking Grant Park and the lakefront," said Louis D'Angelo, chairman of the Chicago Loop Alliance. "It needs to be put at a higher priority."

In light of the already long list of corporate sponsorships in Millennium and Grant Parks, such creative financing at Queen's Landing could place the project on a fast track, said D'Angelo, a developer who is president of Metropolitan Properties of Chicago.

Five million people visit Buckingham Fountain each year, according to the Chicago Park District, which owns the land on both sides of Lake Shore Drive. Millennium Park, home to the BP Bridge that snakes across Columbus Drive, is visited by about 3 million people, according to Millennium Park officials.

The Park District plans to work with other city agencies to develop a workable solution at Queen's Landing that is aesthetically compatible with the historic nature of the park and improves safety for park users, said Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner.

A year after the crosswalk closed, people still occasionally risk their lives bolting across Lake Shore Drive, according to the Chicago Traffic Management Authority.

Snow fencing hastily erected last year to discourage pedestrians, bicyclists and joggers from darting across the roadway has been replaced by concrete bollards linked by decorative chains. But remnants of the striped pedestrian crosswalk are still visible in the pavement.

"I think the bollards are ugly and perfectly stupid," said Kathy Schubert, a member of Forever Free and Clear, one of the groups pushing for a pedestrian crossing that is separated from the traffic. "It's easier to climb over the bollards than to scale the snow fence. The situation is an accident waiting to happen."

Pedestrian crossings on Lake Shore Drive near Buckingham Fountain still exist at Monroe, Jackson and Balbo Drives and at 11th Street. But the distances to those intersections are longer than the average city block and, once there, pedestrians must contend with turning vehicles cutting through the crosswalks.

City officials are still defending their decision to close the crosswalk.Daily traffic counts have increased substantially, up 13 percent north of 18th Street, said Kevin Smith, spokesman for the Traffic Management Authority. That's due in part to Lake Shore Drive being an alternate to the Dan Ryan Expressway, which is under construction, he said.

"Generally, pedestrians have made the adjustment [to the closed crosswalk pretty well and it seems traffic is running better through the spot," Smith said. "We think the pedestrians have found there are alternate locations to cross safely."

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8784/243118146yt.jpg

maybe its time to call Calatrava and have him give the city a group rate on abouve a half dozen ped bridges across LSD for the city with a few additional for the river. One large bundle purchase for a discounted commission. You think Calatrava does discounts for bulk purchases? :D Likely not, oh well.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0607130349jul14,1,4898990.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Trusses, glass for museum hall
Art Institute passageway may get makeover as part of expansion, renovation

By Blair Kamin
Tribune architecture critic
Published July 14, 2006

As it approaches a crucial city vote next week, the Art Institute of Chicago is putting a new focus on a welcome element of Renzo Piano's original proposal for expanding and renovating the museum. On the north side of the passageway that runs over the Illinois Central railroad tracks, the Italian architect would strip off limestone walls and replace them with glass, exposing the passageway's trusses and opening views to Millennium Park as well as the trains running below.

Called Gunsaulus Hall and built in 1916, the two-story, east-west passageway houses arms and armor exhibits on its lower level. But it's dimly lighted and contributes to the sense that museum-goers are traveling through a giant maze. It's also something of an eyesore, a hulk of masonry that would be at odds with Piano's elegant steel, glass and limestone new modern wing, now under construction and scheduled to open in 2009.

With the Art Institute planning a Piano-designed pedestrian bridge that will begin near the southwest corner of Millennium Park's Great Lawn and bring parkgoers over Monroe Drive to the roof of the three-story wing, Gunsaulus Hall's shortcomings will become even more evident.

So it's good news that the 620-foot-long bridge, which has received appropriate refinements since it was unveiled last year, is just one aspect of the plans that Art Institute leaders will bring to the Chicago Plan Commission next Thursday. They also are expected to discuss the proposed changes to Gunsaulus Hall, which were spurred by the introduction of the bridge into the museum's plans.

The Art Institute's trustees have approved the changes in concept and are seeking cost estimates for the work. It would come on top of the estimated $350 million it will take to build and endow the museum's expansion, including the bridge.

Matched original building

Gunsaulus Hall was designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, the Boston firm that shaped the museum's refined, restrained temple of art along Michigan Avenue. The hall is essentially a bridge, covered in limestone meant to match the original museum. The wisdom of Piano's plan is that it would dispense with beaux-arts cosmetics, exposing much of the bridge for what it really is.

According to museum spokeswoman Erin Hogan, most of the north-facing limestone walls of Gunsaulus Hall would be removed. On the first floor, glass would be placed behind the bridge's steel trusses. A new interior wall of undetermined materials would be built above. The hall would continue to be a gallery, though it's unclear what it would house.

The plan, part of Piano's original 2001 Art Institute proposal and later put on the back burner, offers several advantages, though at this point it looks painfully sketchy and superficially resembles those bridgelike Illinois Tollway oases where highway drivers stop for fast food.

But its trusses are gutsier than those on the Tollway oases and the design, if properly detailed, would aptly echo both the modern wing's transparency and its clear expression of structure.

And by opening Gunsaulus Hall to daylight and views, Piano would considerably improve the east-west route that extends through the museum from the main Michigan Avenue entrance to Columbus Drive. That's in keeping with the broader import of his plan, which was never simply about adding a new building to the museum, but instead reconceived its interior as a small city.

The changes to the pedestrian bridge, Piano's straight-lined answer to the snaking curves of Frank Gehry's BP Bridge on Millennium Park's east end, also make good sense.

Design changes

Piano's pedestrian bridge has been widened to 15 feet from the too-narrow 8 to 9 feet of Piano's original plan. Its side walls have been changed to stainless steel mesh from glass to allow the wind to slip through them. Its underside is now rounded, like the hull of a ship, which seems right for a lakefront span. And it is to have a heating system beneath its aluminum planks, which should allow it to remain open all winter, unlike Gehry's bridge, which has been forced to close after heavy snows. The planks will be textured, the museum says, to improve pedestrians' grip and repel skateboarders.

As winning as all this sounds, there remain unanswered questions about a key aspect of the museum's plans: How it intends to get pedestrians who opt not to use the bridge across Monroe. There promise to be lots of them, including museum-goers who will park in Millennium Park's underground garage and take elevators to street level. Forcing them to double back to the bridge's entrance, a whole block north, makes no sense, especially in the winter months.

In the past, Piano has pushed for a midblock stoplight and crosswalk, but city transportation officials have been cool to the idea, saying it would slow traffic. For his part, the architect hasn't been keen on using an existing tunnel beneath Monroe to make the link between the garage and the modern wing. "There are currently no developments on alternate ways across or under Monroe," Hogan says.

The impasse offers the prospect of museum-goers dodging cars -- not a very artful way to enter the Art Institute.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060714/cgf024.html?.v=55

The Chicago Salvation Army Selects West Pullman Community for Construction of a New Kroc Center
Friday July 14, 10:39 am ET

Following months of speculation that began last November when the former Bronzeville site chosen for the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center (RJKCCC) became unavailable, Lt. Colonel David E. Grindle, divisional commander of The Salvation Army in Chicago announced the Army's choice for a new location.

"Great progress has been made in identifying a location for the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center," says Lt. Colonel Grindle. "Although some details regarding the location need to be finalized," he adds, "We are very pleased and excited that the Gano Park site at 1100 W. 119th Street in the West Pullman Community is our chosen location."

The site is bordered by 119th Street and Loomis Street, 119th Street and Morgan and Gano Park located on 117th Street and Carpenter. The West Pullman location was one of 27 potential sites identified by the RJKCCC and the City of Chicago's Department of Planning that fit the location requirements and were in areas of need as set forth in The Salvation Army requirements. However, many of the sites were too small and only six of the 27 met the size criteria.

The study and research that went into the selection process concluded that the Gano Park site more than met the requirements for the RJKCCC project.

In 2003, philanthropist Joan Kroc passed away leaving behind a significant financial gift to The Salvation Army in order to develop community centers throughout the nation. Mrs. Kroc, the widow of McDonalds founder Ray Kroc, had an extraordinary commitment to the community and a clear vision of the legacy that she wished to leave behind. Her wish was to create a center, supported in part by the community, where children and families would be exposed to people, activities and arts that would otherwise be beyond their reach.

West Pullman, a densely populated community with middle to lower income- level residents, speaks to the vision of Joan Kroc. There are very few supervised recreational centers with instructional activities within a 3-mile radius of the proposed Kroc facility.

The Salvation Army's selection of the West Pullman site reflects its socio-economic diversity and recognizes the limited number of community resources available to residents in the South region. The three miles surrounding the proposed site house a population of 255,225 which includes 72.9% African American, 18.3 % White, 7.3% Hispanic, and 1.5% Asian, and a third of that population (74,000) are under 18 years of age.

Mrs. Kroc's vision for these community centers was that they would be beacons of hope and peace. Because of the economic and racial diversity represented in a 3-mile radius of the West Pullman site, it is The Salvation Army's desire to offer a scope of services and programs that will appeal to a broad spectrum of participants in the South Chicago Region.

The RJKCCC is the type of project that will bring a positive future to the residents of the South Region of the Chicago Metropolitan area Pullman. The anticipated programs of the RJKCCC will provide educational support and encouragement and will include the Family Life and Educational Center, Sports Training and Recreational Center, and, the Academy for the Arts Center/Performing Arts Theater.

During the next several weeks, The Salvation Army will be conducting community assessments and marketing studies with resident stakeholders in West Pullman and surrounding communities to determine what types of programs can best serve the needs of the community.

Lt. Colonel Grindle anticipates making a formal press announcement of the site selection once approval is received from The Salvation Army's territorial headquarters. In addition, the formal announcement will contain architectural renderings and conceptual drawings of the program areas that will be offered to the public.

Near West Gazette

Millennium Park, Art Institute to get access bridge
By Marie Balice Ward

Architect Renzo Piano’s design for the Art Institute’s new Modern Wing includes a $25 million bridge connecting the museum with Millennium Park. Construction for the expansion already is underway, and workers will begin building the bridge in summer 2007.

Piano, an internationally celebrated Italian architect and 1998 recipient of the Pritzker Architectural Prize, also designed other elements of Millennium Park. The bridge will span from the middle of Millennium Park on the Michigan Avenue side of the Great Lawn to the third level (rooftop) of the museum’s new wing, crossing Monroe Street. Both the bridge and expansion should be finished in summer 2009.

At a meeting of the Grant Park Advisory Council, Art Institute and Millennium Park representatives discussed the bridge, which is fully funded by the Art Institute thanks to a $14 million donation by John D. and Alexandra C. Nichols.

Noting Piano’s “elegant” design, Art Institute President James Cuno said the bridge “will link the museum to Millennium Park, Chicago’s newest icon and the place where Chicago neighborhoods meet.”

Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Advisory Council and Conservancy, stated, “This bridge will repeat the standards set by Millennium Park and throughout Grant Park. The new bridge will afford pedestrians an incredible vantage point for breathtaking views of the city. This alone will make [the bridge] an incredible destination.” Although the bridge will traverse Grant Park’s operations yard, officials expect pedestrians crossing it most likely will focus primarily on the vegetation that will be planted within the park.

“The 620 foot long, 15 foot wide bridge will gently slope from the heart of Millennium Park to about 23 feet as it begins crossing Monroe Street,” explained Meredith Mack, vice president of finance and operations for the Art Institute. “Its final height will be 30 feet, when it will reach the sculpture terrace atop the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute.” The rooftop will provide a covered dining area, and glass enclosed escalators and elevators will operate between roof and street level.

Piano’s design specifies a textured steel walking surface for the bridge as well as artistic siding and handrails. Beneath the planked surface, a curved steel beam will serve for lighting and rain discharge.

“Handrails will also have lighting, which will point to the walkway,” Mack added. “The surface will also be heated for snow and ice during winter months.” The bridge’s surface will be factory- painted a pastel color yet to be determined.

Edward K. Ulhir, FAIA, executive director of Millennium Park Inc., said, “The bridge will be prefabricated and installed at its site. There are railroad tracks beneath the proposed bridge; however, there is currently no source of revenue for covering the tracks. We are hoping for some creative financing.”

The bridge will be open the same hours as Millennium Park, Ulhir added.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grant Bark Park opens with a flurry of activity
By Marie Balice Ward

Approximately 300 area residents and their dogs attended the July 15 grand opening of Grant Bark Park, the dog park in Grant Park’s south end approximately at 9th Street between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive.

“It’s a great day for the South Loop,” said master of ceremonies and neighborhood resident LeeAnn Trotter of NBC News.

Political leaders and more than 30 area businesses funded and supported the opening, which featured guest speaker Tim Mitchell, Chicago Park District superintendent. “This is an exciting day,”

Mitchell said. “A great premier class dog park is being opened, the 11th dog park in the City.” The park came about primarily through efforts by Gail Merritt and her South Loop Dog P.A.C., working in conjunction with community residents. During the ceremony, Merritt gave Mitchell a check for $75,000 that South Loop Dog P.A.C. raised by holding events and by selling bricks that now are situated around the fountain at Grant Bark Park. The City matched this amount to develop the dog park, which will be maintained by the South Loop community.

Park supporter and State Representative Ken Dunkin (D-5th) said, “The enthusiasm of Gail Merritt and her committee was contagious. I have been a strong supporter since the idea was presented. It’s a great example of government responding to the people.”

Alderman Madeline Haithcock (2nd Ward), also a staunch supporter of the dog park, provided treats for South Loop pooches and was represented by Cynthia Young, who works with the Alderman and lives in the South Loop.

“It’s been a long time coming,” stated Jackie Devereaux, a Dearborn Park resident and owner of Ivy. “It’s wonderful to be here on its completion day.” “It’s fantastic, worth the wait,” added another Dearborn Park resident, Terri Fron, owner of Lucky and Askum. “Kudos to Gail Merritt for her perseverance.”

Pat Miller, who lives in Printers Row and owns Amundsen (“Ami”) and Shackleton (“Shack”), said the dog park “is amazing, fantastic. It has been designed very well, with attention to detail including the benches along the perimeter.”

Merritt said, “All I can say is that I am thrilled…that the event went so well despite the heat, and that the park turned out so well after all this time and after so many wrinkles.

Most of all I am thrilled that the dogs are loving it and that people are taking care of it. It’s fantastic!” She added that there is still work underway with the Chicago Park District for the design of the official “donor board” and information kiosk. Soggy Paws, Pet Particulars, Jewel Food Stores, Starbucks, Chicago Community Bank, Burnham Park Animal Hospital, and The UPS Store were among the many businesses that contributed to the doggie treat bags and to defraying the event’s other costs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fire Museum seeks permanent home in Chicago
By Marilyn K. Anderson

New York City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Memphis, Kansas City, and even Aurora and Elgin have one. Can it be that the city that was ablaze with the Great Fire on Oct. 8, 1871, does not have a permanent home for its fire museum?

Instead, Chicago has an old classroom at St. Gabriel’s Elementary School at 4500 S. Wallace St. that had been used for storage.

“We don’t want to just have dusty helmets in a case,” said Frank McMenamin, vice president of the Fire Museum of Greater Chicago. He dreams instead of a state-of-the art museum.

Meanwhile, the current fire museum essentially is a library, serving the fascination and genealogical research of many firefighter enthusiasts from near and far. Up on the third floor of the school, the museum’s location is a far cry from an ideal space that could be displaying antique fire engines, including a 1918 Mack Bulldog high-pressure truck that was part of a fleet that replaced the old horse- drawn fire vehicles and a 1923 Seagrave water tower that was in service from the 1920s to the early 1960s. These unique examples of firefighting memorabilia currently are housed in two separate facilities, one on either end of the city.

Enough is enough. The 980 dues-paying members of the Fire Museum of Greater Chicago, an independent organization incorporated as a 501(c)(3) not-forprofit, want to properly display their collections under one roof. They have set their sights on Engine Company 18 at 1123 W. Roosevelt Rd., which at age 133 is the oldest firehouse in the city still in service.

“Whether at the 18th House or not, this has been going on too long,” commented Andy O’Donnell, the museum’s treasurer and a retired Fire Department chief, who ran the Fire Department Academy for the last nine years of his 34-year career. Having enlisted the help of a pro bono fundraiser, O’Donnell and the other 18 members of the museum’s board are gearing up to launch a capital campaign.

Timing is everything. Recently, Company 18 broke ground on a new building at Blue Island and Racine Avenues, which will leave the structure on Roosevelt available in the next two years unless the City wants it to be put up for bid. “We’re hat in hand in front of them” [the Fire Commissioner and Mayor], said McMenamin.

McMenamin joined the Fire Department in 1971 after serving in Vietnam and stayed on as a firefighter for a dozen years, getting his undergraduate degree and going to dental school while a member of the department. Now retired, McMenamin has been consumed with the museum for the past seven years. He wants it to be a place tourists can get to easily, and he wagers tourists would stay an extra day in the city to see the museum, which would boost hotel and restaurant business.

“We provide the genealogy service to the Fire Department,” he said. “We’ve been the historians, squirreling this away for decades and decades.”

McMenamin explained that when people retire or pass away they give their memorabilia to the fire museum. “They don’t want to lose it, and they don’t. They can visit it any time and still enjoy it.”

With an architect’s plans for 18th House ready to go, the 100% volunteer-staffed fire museum awaits a decision. “We’re not asking the City to give us a building,” said McMenamin. “We want to use it— for a nominal fee. We’ve been told that’s about all the help we’ll get.” “It’s a shame previous generations hadn’t started one” [a fire museum], said O’Donnell. “But we’re bound and determined to get it working.”

What can the public do to help? “We’d like to see people join at the $30 basic membership,” said McMenamin. A membership campaign will be underway soon. While the firehouse on Roosevelt would be ideal, “we’re hoping somebody with a garage building or service station could come forward,” added Phil Little, president of the fire museum for the past six years and a volunteer firefighter since he was a teenager.

Little’s father, a senior fire alarm operator, always was doing research, taking photos, and chasing fires. One of nine siblings, Little always tagged along. Today, he is a facilities manager at Newsweb Corp., although “now I get to drive antique fire engines,” he chuckled. “I’m still playing fireman!”

Little hopes someone will step up to give those fire engines, not to mention all the memorabilia and historical records, a permanent home. The fire museum president summed it all up, “We’d be nice tenants, with the coolest toys!”

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/9357/newsst16lc2.jpg

I'm not sure if this is just a concept for the Chicago Art Project's new museum or what.

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7231/chicagoartbz7.jpg

Also, the first page has been updated and expanded.

^ Another great find, Spyguy. Using your link, I found some specific links about this project that are of interest, for those who know nothing about it (as I did up until a few moments ago):

http://www.chicagoartproject.org/html/business_plan.html

http://www.chicagoartproject.org/html/1st_reader_article.html

By the way, Spyguy, I had no idea you were continually updating the first page. It is a VERY impressive list (some projects I had never heard about). It kind of reminds me of a smaller version of Steely's gargantuan highrise boom compilation. Perhaps you should introduce this as a compilation thread at SSP as well

^ Another great find, Spyguy.

By the way, Spyguy, I had no idea you were continually updating the first page. It is a VERY impressive list (some projects I had never heard about). It kind of reminds me of a smaller version of Steely's gargantuan highrise boom compilation. Perhaps you should introduce this as a compilation thread at SSP as well
I strongly second TUP's suggestion.

This is good if they were to revise the project and make it better (consideirng Wrigley is the likey the biggest tourist attrication outside of downtown). I am not counting on it but I am hoping that will end up being the case or they could make cut backs and make it a worse then the vision already laid out for the space.


http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-wrig22.html

Short of cash, Cubs postpone parking garage

August 22, 2006

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter



Wrigleyville will apparently have to wait for the 400-space parking garage that was supposed to follow a 1,790-seat expansion of the Wrigley Field bleachers: The $30 million project is on hold because of rising costs.

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said the Cubs have told him they're "looking for some additional financial resources" to build a five-story, triangular building expected to house a parking garage, upscale restaurants, retail stores and rooftop garden above ground and batting cages, pitching mounds and workout facilities for Cubs players below.

Construction was supposed to start this fall and last for at least 18 months. Now, nobody knows when ground will be broken -- or whether the Cubs will be forced to scale down a project tailor-made to ease the Wrigleyville parking crunch and turn an eyesore into a neighborhood asset.

"It's a big project. It's an expensive project. They're a little concerned about finding the money. . . . They're committed to building it. They're just concerned about the cost of it," Tunney said.

"They're looking to find some partnering opportunities with other companies in the city, possibly some naming rights. I would assume they might try to bring in somebody who wants their name on Wrigley Field."

Tunney said neither the City Council nor community residents would have approved the long-stalled bleacher expansion without a guarantee that land currently used to provide surface parking for 200 cars would be turned into a 400-space garage for year-round use by residents and businesses.

"The issue is, they've got 1,790 seats without any additional parking. That's the concern the community has and I have. It's a two-way street. They've got to find the resources to build this thing. This 400-car garage right on Clark Street will help the retail corridor immensely," he said.

No public money, Cubs say

"I'm not at all concerned that it will never happen. It's postponed. They've got a commitment they made to the community, and we're going to make sure they stand by it."

Mike Lufrano, vice president for community relations for the Cubs, acknowledged the timetable and design are in limbo.

"The Cubs very much want to build the project. We know it would be a great asset to the team -- and it helps the community. Like many construction projects, though, the costs have gone up and we need to make sure we understand the economics and build the right project," Lufrano said.

Lufrano denied that the construction delay has anything to do with financial problems that have beset Tribune Co., corporate owner of the Cubs. "It's about the cost of the project and having it make economic sense," he said.

Lufrano was asked whether the Cubs might ultimately request a taxpayer subsidy for the $30 million project. "That's not something we've ever done. . . . Everything at Wrigley Field has always been privately funded," he said.

Jointly designed by Kansas City, Mo.-based HOK Sports Facilities Group and Chicago restoration architect John Vinci, the original plan called for the Cubs to fill the property with a triangular building with rounded edges and a rooftop garden.

The 400-space garage would have provided a net increase of 200 spaces from the surface lots it would replace. The building would have been linked directly to the stadium by a pair of overhead breezeways -- one open-air, the other covered.
Cubs have until 2008



The brick-lined pedestrian promenade patterned after the one at Fenway Park in Boston would have been located between the stadium and the new building on land that was once a continuation of Seminary Avenue. The company paid $2.1 million to purchase the land from the city.

The Cubs have used the land for decades as a players parking lot. A search of century-old documents determined that Chicago taxpayers owned the land and that the Tribune Co. bought it for $150,000, shortly after purchasing the Cubs in 1982, from a railroad that didn't have the right to sell it.

The triangular building was included in the "plan development" that paved the way for the bleacher expansion. It requires the Cubs to provide at least 179 new parking spaces -- one space for every 10 new bleacher seats -- before the start of the 2008 season. If the garage shrinks below that number or is eliminated entirely, the Cubs must provide enough surface parking to replace those spaces.
fspielman@suntimes.com

"They're looking to find some partnering opportunities with other companies in the city, possibly some naming rights. I would assume they might try to bring in somebody who wants their name on Wrigley Field."


OVER MY DEAD BODY!! :bash:

I say the Wrigley Company should buy the naming rights if the Tribune Company is stupid enough to go ahead and sell them.

OVER MY DEAD BODY!! :bash:

I will not underestimate the stupidity of the Tribune Co. and the Cubs but I don't think they mean to sell the naming rights of Wrigley. I think they are more giving out feelers for the naming rights of just the extension/complex that they are talking about building kind of what they did with the "Bud light bleachers" stupid thing.

The Tribune's fortunes are sagging these days. Making money doesn't seem a dumb thing for profit-making entities like the Tribune and Cubs. Since we can only speculate, perhaps they could find a sponser/owner of the proposed parking garage with prominent naming rights; it could only enhance the Wrigley experience without marring the Wrigley Field image. :)

http://www.chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=60&ArticleID=2184&TM=5149.703

No salvation in sight
Near West Side’s loss is Pullman’s $130 million gain

By LAURA PUTRE, Editor

It's official: the Salvation Army will build its $130 million recreation center in, drum roll … West Pullman.

That announcement, confirmed this week by Salvation Army Public Relations Director Bonnie Johnson, means Near West Side residents will not have a 25-acre campus with swimming pools, baseball fields, water parks, and soccer fields for public use in their backyard.

Earlier this year, the Illinois Medical District, located on the Near West Side, was one of six city sites the Salvation Army seriously considered for the recreation center after Third Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman shot down a plan to locate the center in Bronzeville.

The center, which will be located at 1100 W. 119th Street in Gano Park, will be funded by a gift from the late Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc.

John Chandler, president of the University Village Association-the neighborhood group for the Near West Side-said that the choice of West Pullman was a "tragic loss" for Near West residents.

"I think it would have served the economically marginalized, disenfranchised residents of Little Village, Lawndale, and the Near West Side," said Chandler. "It would have had a very fine synergy with all of the important programs going on in the Medical District, with the four major hospitals that are there."

Chandler said that if the board of the Illinois Medical District had put forth more effort to land the recreation center, the neighborhood would have had a good shot. He said IMD board members claimed that they could not provide 25 acres for recreation center because it would not provide direct economic benefit to the medical district according to the district's bylaws.

"There are many people who share my viewpoint that the Illinois Medical District passed up on a very important opportunity," Chandler said.

But Sam Pruett, executive director of the IMD, said the IMD board thought the recreation center "a beautiful, beautiful facility that would have been a great asset," and the missed opportunity had nothing to do with the bylaws. Rather, the IMD does not own 25 contiguous acres on the Near West Side, Pruett said, and the private property the IMD would need to acquire for such a facility could take up to five years to secure through eminent domain. That was too long a wait for the Salvation Army, which was looking for immediately available land, said Pruett.

Speaking for the Salvation Army, Johnson said in an email that "the chairman of the board of the Illinois Medical District, as well as the other members, were all very helpful and cooperative and really wanted the Kroc Center, but the area did not have sufficient acreage to accommodate [it]."

Johnson added that West Pullman was selected for its proximity to public transportation and lack of recreational opportunities. The fact that many low-income families relocated to West Pullman after the razing of the Chicago Housing Authority's Robert Taylor Homes was also a factor, according to Johnson.

"The area is often referred to as the forgotten South Side because it has not received the resources that many of the areas closer to the Loop have received," Johnson wrote.

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/356/army1avh2.jpg
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/9152/army2qs0.jpg

The South East Corner of Grant Park will soon be transformed in to a massive Sclupture Garden.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2125.jpg

ARTIST RENDERING
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/79.jpg

Cranes will soon be used to set 106 nine foot hollow iron sculptures on cement pads around the Roosevelt and Michicagn Avenue site. The seamless pieces are untreated iron and they will naturally rust, giving them a reddish hue. The general contractor said that a November 16th Dedication is planned. Additionally the 3 "fairies" that have been on the site for a few years will be removed.



Fencing arrives this morning
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2126.jpg


To find out more:

Event: Agora: 106 Figures to Grace Grant Park
Date: Oct 12, 2006 12:15 pm - 01:15 pm
"Agora: A Meeting Ground" by world-renowned sculptor Magdelena Abakanovich is a $3 million gift from the artist, a private foundation and the former minister of culture of Poland. It will be installed in the fall at the corner of Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue in Grant Park. Cindy Mitchell, commissioner of the Chicago Park District, and Chris Gent, Department of Planning for the Chicago Park District, discuss the artist, how the sculpture was created, what the sculpture means and what it doesn't mean 12:15 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Theater. In addition, the speakers will explain how the work, comprised of 106 9-foot individualized human figures, came to be a gift to the city of Chicago. Presented by Friends of the Parks and Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

How long are these "sculptures" supposed to last? Honestly, I think it's kind of boring and I actually like the "fairies" or whatever they are called - they're much more graceful and interesting to view.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060927museum,1,4917780.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Kids' museum moving to Grant Park

Tribune staff report
Published September 27, 2006, 1:48 PM CDT

A $15 million gift from Allstate Insurance Cowill allow the Chicago Children's Museum to move from Navy Pier to Grant Park, city and corporate officials announced today.

Allstate also will donate $10 million to the Museum of Science and Industry for related children's educational efforts, city and corporate officials announced this morning at a Navy Pier news conference.

A time frame for the Children's Museum's relocation was not disclosed.

Its new, two-story building will be constructed on land provided by the Chicago Park District at the south end of Daley Bicentennial Plaza in Grant Park, near Monroe Street and Columbus Drive, WGN-Ch. 9 reported.

The facility will occupy [/b]100,000 square feet, nearly double the 57,000 square feet of its current quarters. Its new name will be[b] "Chicago Children's Museum at Allstate Place," and its theme will be, "Kids Reinvent Chicago," WGN reported.

"This is a tremendous location for the new museum, within walking distance of Millennium Park, the Cultural Center, the Symphony Center, the Art Institute, the Field Museum of Natural History, Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium," Mayor Richard Daley said.

"No other city in the world has such a concentration of cultural institutions in one location, and now we'll have one more," Daley said.

Allstate Chief Executive Edward Liddy told WGN, "We wanted to make a statement that made a commitment to the City of Chicago, and we're supporting in a very large way two of Chicago's great institutions," ensuring a linked "science curriculum from kindergarten through high school."

The museum previously had proposed moving to a three-story structure that would replace a fieldhouse at the northern end of Daley Bicentennial Plaza, near Randolph Street. But residents of high-rises north of Grant Park objected, collecting about 2,100 signatures in opposition.

Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), who sits on the Chicago Plan Commission, said in June that he would not support a museum at the north end of the park because of potential traffic problems.

The Children's Museum attracts 500,000 visitors a year and has outgrown its current location at Navy Pier. Museum officials announced in the fall of 2005 their interest in relocating to Grant Park.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0609280275sep28,1,7945696.story?coll=chi-news-hed

New children's museum site
Navy Pier attraction gets Grant Park spot, but some skeptical

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 28, 2006

The popular Chicago Children's Museum has settled on a new site in Grant Park after ruling out several other options, including a controversial plan for the north end of the park.

Mayor Richard Daley announced Wednesday that the Navy Pier fixture will move to a site northeast of Monroe Street and Columbus Drive currently occupied by an underground parking garage.

He said the move would put the children's museum within walking distance of other downtown attractions, such as Millennium Park and the Shedd Aquarium.

Museum officials expect to build a two-story, 100,000-square-foot building, nearly double the size of the museum's current space. They hope to break ground in 2007.

Beyond that, few details of the latest plan have been fleshed out. The architect chosen for the new museum said that no design or details have been drawn.

Museum officials declined to put a timetable or cost estimate on the project. Wednesday's announcement also included news of a $15 million gift from Allstate Insurance Co. that will help defray a total project cost that could exceed $40 million.

Officials hope to get around restrictive lakefront protection ordinances by keeping parts of the new museum structure underground, building into parts of the parking garage below.

"We need to be respectful of the park," said Chicago Children's Museum President Peter England. "We won't have a high profile."

Last year, the museum had proposed replacing the fieldhouse in the Daley Bicentennial Plaza on the northeast end of the park with a subterranean structure that would house both the children's museum and park functions.

Residents living across from the site on Randolph Street complained, gathering hundreds of signatures against the proposal. Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), a member of the Chicago Plan Commission, refused to back the plan and proposed an alternate location.

But the new site may provoke more controversy, some warned.

Grant Park Advisory Council President Bob O'Neill said since the announcement Wednesday, he has fielded several negative calls about the proposal. He, too, is skeptical about the plan.

"It's problematic," he said, citing several legal decisions that have kept others from building in Grant Park, dating to the early 20th Century. "It's another building in the park, and before we were getting a one-for-one replacement."

O'Neill also bemoaned the fact that under the plan, the museum will no longer be solving the problems with the leaky fieldhouse.

But Randolph Street residents who led the charge against the museum's early proposal are relieved.

"We accomplished what we wanted," said Kerri Johnson, a mother of three who, like other young parents in the area, was concerned that a museum would attract more traffic to Randolph.

Richard Ward, president of the New East Side Association of Residents, said he too supported the change in location.

The museum has hired a new architect for the site--Krueck & Sexton, architects for Millennium Park's Crown Fountain. The firm is working on the new building for the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies on Michigan Avenue.

Mark Sexton, principal for the firm, said he is still trying to gather facts from the museum, such as what officials would like on the inside.

In a meeting last month, Sexton tried to create a metaphor for the building by showing an image of a tree with roots spreading out horizontally, a bit above and bit below the surface of the ground.

"This was a visual image on how we thought the museum in the park should work," he said. "It should not be a separate object. It should be integrated into the park."

He hopes to bring some of that integration with nature by using the park's natural slope. Monroe Street is up to 15 feet above ground level near Columbus Drive, and the Daley Bicentennial fieldhouse is approximately another 15 feet higher than that, he said. England said he does not want the new building to be any taller than the proposal for the fieldhouse site, which was largely underground.

It could be a building similar to the Daley Bicentennial fieldhouse with a green roof that people could walk over and a southern glass wall that brings in light, said Ewa Weir, a vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate firm working on the project.

Sexton said the fieldhouse does not bring in enough natural light, something he would like to address in the new museum building.

The museum's earlier proposal was estimated at $35 million to $40 million, sources said. Sexton said without a design it's hard to determine what the new building will cost; prices can also be driven up by environmental costs and the desire to build deep below ground.

During Wednesday's news conference, Allstate also announced a $10 million gift to the Museum of Science and Industry for a new exhibit.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0610040055oct04,1,3854997.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

U. of C. has $100 million idea to raise arts profile

By Blair Kamin and Patrice M. Jones
Tribune staff reporters
Published October 4, 2006

Best known for its star-studded lineup of Nobel Prize-winning economists and scientists, the University of Chicago wants to raise its arts profile--and, some say, shed its nerdy image--by erecting a $100 million creative and performing arts center along the south side of the Midway Plaisance.

To symbolize its ambition and spur fundraising, the university is holding a design competition for the still-unfunded project among five architectural heavyweights, university officials told the Tribune Tuesday. They include Daniel Libeskind, the planner for the reconstruction of New York's World Trade Center, and three winners of the field's most prestigious honor, the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Citing a litany of star arts alumni--among them novelist Philip Roth, film director Mike Nichols, composer Philip Glass and the writer Susan Sontag--Danielle Allen, dean of the university's humanities division, said: "We'd like to see a building that will raise the profile of the really exciting--but heretofore stealth--arts world on our campus."

Even the university's competitors hailed the idea, saying it would uplift some arts programs that, in their view, don't merit a four-star rave.

"If someone said to me they were interested in being a theater major and asked me what I knew about the U. of C., I would say, `They don't have much,'" said Dominic Missimi, executive director of Northwestern University's American Music Theatre Project.

"In doing this, they may round out their appeal for some students. They have something of a nerdy image," said Robert Baker-White, chair of the theater department at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.

A nerve center for the arts

U. of C. officials characterized the proposed 100,000-square-foot facility as a nerve center for the arts, saying it would allow students and faculty in disciplines from cinema studies to computer animation to study, create, rehearse and perform under one roof.

Besides Libeskind, whose addition to the Denver Art Museum opens Saturday, the architects in the design competition include the three Pritzker Prize winners--Hans Hollein of Austria, Fumihiko Maki of Japan and Thom Mayne of Santa Monica, Calif.--as well as New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.

The architects, who toured the campus Sept. 15, are to present two models and six illustrated boards next month to a jury composed of the original selection committee for the project and additional representatives from the university community, U. of C. officials said. The jury is to select a winner in January.

Following a well-worn path for architecture competitions, the university hopes this one will jump-start fundraising.

"We are working hard on securing a naming gift," Allen said, adding that university officials have started "several open conversations" with potential donors. Asked if the prospective givers include Chicago's billionaire Pritzker family, sponsors of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, she said: "No comment."

A family member, Thomas J. Pritzker, is on the university's board of trustees.

University officials said that a key fundraising threshold--25 percent of the total project cost--must be crossed before the U. of C. could hire an architect. A little more than $1 million has been raised, they said, leaving the project about $24 million short of that threshold.

But Tom Wick, the university's senior director of development, said the university planned to run the design competition at the same time it undertook "the quiet phase" of the fundraising campaign. The idea, he said, is to cultivate "the major donors so that we will be able to close the major gifts in the next few months to meet that threshold."

Meant to house a 350-seat multipurpose performance hall and three black-box theaters, as well as music practice rooms and a recording studio, the art center would be used primarily by students and faculty, adding to rather than replacing the university's Smart Museum of Art and the university-associated Court Theatre.

University officials envision the arts center and a 900-bed dorm that is scheduled to be completed in 2008 at 61st Street and Ellis Avenue as a hub of student life on the southern end of the campus, much as the new Ratner Athletics Center and a neighboring dorm have created a hub on the campus' north end.

Hyde Park role envisioned

The center would provide an amenity not only for campus residents but also for residents of the surrounding Hyde Park neighborhood. "The building should be a gem that the city, and the South Side should be proud of," Allen said.

The center would rise at the western edge of the Midway, the greensward that joins Jackson Park on the east with Washington Park on the west. It would occupy the same block as--and likely be connected to--a landmarked, L-shaped cluster of historic buildings known as the Midway Studios.

The studios, which consist of a barn and a Queen Anne-style three-story home, were the home and studio of sculptor Lorado Taft, whose "Fountain of Time" monument punctuates the Midway's western end. Along with later additions, the studios are the home of the university's department of visual arts.

Other notable modern designs along the Midway are the university's School of Social Service Administration, a black, steel-and-glass box designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle, a modern complex designed by Eero Saarinen that evokes the university's historic quads.

Other campuses have arts centers, but U. of C. officials envision a unique variation on this theme, a place where artists can collaborate with people from different disciplines.

Grant Park Advisory Council public meeting

Chicago Children's Museum's proposed, two-story new building for Grant Park

Monday, October 16, 2006 - 6:30 p.m. Daley Bicentennial Plaza - 337 E. Randolph just east of Columbus Drive.

The Chicago Children's Museum has proposed building a two-story building on the northeast corner of Monroe Street and Columbus Drive in Grant Park. This would be diagonally across from the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago currently under construction. We need to hear from you at this first, public meeting on the proposed building for Grant Park.

Thank you very much for your interest and participation.

Phone: 312-829-8015

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/5329/newsccmzt6.jpg

From Crains:

Oct. 12, 2006
By Lorene Yue

Art Institute gets $19-million donation


(Crain’s) — Chicago hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin and his wife are giving $19 million to help build a new Art Institute wing, one of the largest private donations ever made to the museum.

The gift, announced Wednesday by Mr. Griffin and his wife, Anne Dias Griffin, will be used to fund the $350-million Modern Art wing, scheduled to open in 2009.

The 264,000-square-foot wing will house the museum’s modern, contemporary and architecture and design collections and will feature a two-story central court that will be named the “Kenneth and Anne Griffin Court.”

Mr. Griffin, 38, is a trustee for the Art Institute and president and founder of Citadel Investment Group. He declined to comment beyond remarks in an Art Institute press release.

Advertisement


Related Article Topics | Related Industry News
“Anne and I are delighted to be able to help the Art Institute build the Modern Wing, a freestanding addition to the museum campus that we believe will be one of the world’s great museum buildings,” he said in the statement. “We visited the Art Institute on one of our first dates. For us, our relationship with this great, encyclopedic museum can be described as ‘love at first sight.’”

Ms. Griffin is managing partner and founder of Aragon Global Management, also a Chicago-based hedge fund.

Together, the couple has emerged as prominent players in Chicago’s art community, lending pieces from their growing collection to the Art Institute and making monetary donations.


"Green Dancer," Edgar Degas
The Griffins recently bought “False Start” by postwar painter Jasper Johns from media mogul David Geffen for what the New York Times reported was $80 million.

That painting will be loaned to the Art Institute for its “Jasper Johns: Gray” exhibition, which opens Nov. 4, 2007, at the Art Institute. The exhibition also will be shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Griffins also donated $500,000 to support the exhibition.

Other works the couple have recently acquired include “Curtain, Jug, and Fruit Bowl” and “Self-Portrait” from 1895 by Paul Cezanne, “Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen” and “Green Dancer” by Edgar Degas and “Water Lilies” of 1905 by Claude Monet.

Mr. Griffin ranked 512th on Forbes magazine’s 2006 list of richest people in the world. He ranks 207th among the 400 richest Americans, according to Forbes magazine

^ Chicago needs more of these guys.

^ Chicago needs more of these guys.

^ He's under 40 and is Chicago's newest billionaire.

Actually, it's either him or Morningstar's Joe Mansueto. Can't remember which came first..

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2223.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2225.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2222.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2221.jpg

..

I'm going to withhold judgment on this one until they finish the site. My hope is that there is more done to the site than just cement pads for these things to stand on: benches, landscaping, and berms. Do you just come upon them or is there a point of entry? How are they lit?

It’s hard to get a sense of the impact that 106 9 foot sculptures will have. This isn’t an instillation that you judge on the individual piece, but in the entirety of the composition.

I have to agree with Loopy, there is a huge spectrum of public art that goes well beyond the Disney feel of Millennium. Like most public art in Chicago over the last 30 years including millennium there is bound to be public outcry. Face it most people to "get it" whatever the work is. But take heart Chicago - We have one of the most impressive collections of public outdoor art in the world.

The South Loop and Museum Park is going to have find a way to embrace this installation as our own!

Stalled museum seeks a name
For $8 mil., donor can be immortalized on facade

By Gregory Meyer

Organizers of a planned broadcast museum in River North are reaching out to big donors, and offering naming rights, to save the troubled project.

Construction stopped on the building at State and Kinzie streets five months ago after the contractor said it was due millions. Now the Museum of Broadcast Communications is trying to find someone to pay $8 million to be immortalized on its facade, says Bruce DuMont, the museum's founder and CEO.

The museum's board approved the naming initiative in April as Pepper Construction Co. halted work. In August, Pepper filed a lien for $4.5 million in unpaid bills.

Two candidates have already turned the museum down, but more are being courted, Mr. DuMont says.

Overtures were made to Oprah Winfrey, whose foundation has already kicked in $250,000, he says. A spokeswoman for Ms. Winfrey says, "She has no plans to make any additional contributions to the museum."

After moving out of the Chicago Cultural Center in December 2003, the museum broke ground on the 70,000-square-foot building. Budgeted at $20 million, the price has ballooned to $33 million.

Mr. DuMont, a local radio and TV host, says he's raised $14.5 million from private donations but needs more to secure remaining financing from the state and private contributors.

SETTING THE PRICE

Naming rights is a common fund-raising tool for non-profit organizations, but determining a price can be tricky. Asking too much could repel potential donors.

But, "you don't want to give the name away," says Don Fellows, president and CEO of Marts & Lundy Inc., a consultant to non-profits. "You want to protect it, make sure the value is appropriate."

Mr. DuMont insists the price is right. "You can have your name on this institution in perpetuity for $8 million. So, you'll be up there with Shedd and Adler and Field. We're looking for someone of vision," he says.

^^^I figured...I have emailed them five or six times now to see why they had stopped construction with no response...hopefully something will happen, it sure is an unfinished eyesore right now. Can't we just drape an ad over it for now?!http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=401933

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/Grant%20Park/DSCN2320.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/Grant%20Park/DSCN2327.jpg

No to the scrap metal... I hope and predict that this installation will be gone in 5-10 years, a victim of sabotage or "safety concerns".

It's just an opinion, and I speak only because this "art" is being inflicted on Chicago by my fellow country-woman. Why does she punish America like this? Let's put this ugly thing in Germany instead... they deserve it more. :)

I know, the point is that it should be ugly, and here I really have a fundamental disagreement with people who think that public space should educate or "shock." No, it should invite, it should edify. Public space is generally bad enough in America as it is, we don't have to make it worse. No strip malls, no surface parking, and no scrap metal sculpture.

Abakanowicz is quoted as saying in the above article: "I'm not making a decoration... I'm making a statement, a statement about nature and our consciousness." I think this is just so wrong. Anything can be a "statement." The dilapidated Metra station at Roosevelt is also a "statement", is it not? So is the vacant response of the Columbian at street level on the corner of Roosevelt and Michigan. And so on...

BTW, any new OMP pics, Chicagotom??? Thanks! :)

Jaroslaw, I respect your opinion and your eye for the asthetic. Never the less, I have to disagree with you on this one. It's still too early to tell. With the fencing around it your not able to get any long view. I have looked at it from the Metra bridge and through the fencing and I can't wait for the grand opening on November 16th. There is a good post SSP with some very good close ups from the Trib.

I think this will turn out to be another internationally recognized addition to Chicago's World Class outdoor sclupture Collection.

Also I updated OMP1


http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2360.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2359.jpg

City could land floating museum
Non-profit group hopes to turn Coast Guard vessel into a riverfront attraction

By William Mullen
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 30, 2006


Long a welcome sight to mariners experiencing trouble on Lake Michigan, the recently retired U.S. Coast Guard cutter Acacia should soon be familiar to strollers and tourists along the banks of the Chicago River.

The decommissioned 180-foot icebreaker and buoy tender was donated to the state of Illinois, which is working with Chicago and the non-profit, locally based American Academy of Industry to make it into a riverfront museum dedicated to the city's rich maritime history.

Moored temporarily at Burns Harbor in Indiana, the 62-year-old Acacia is still outfitted with almost all its working gear--minus machine guns and ammunition.

"The Coast Guard sailed it in here, tied off and left it with us with the engine still running and food in the fridge," academy president Dan Hecker said as he showed off the vessel on a recent Sunday afternoon after the deal was announced.

The boat is to be shifted soon to a Chicago location for the winter. Both the city and the academy would like to have the ship open as a museum by next summer, Hecker said.

Hecker, 46, said he and his brother, Marty, 40, founded the academy in 1995 with the goal of turning a vessel into a maritime museum. Initially, the group boasted more than 200 members. But after years of failed attempts to find a ship, the active number dwindled to "maybe a dozen," he said.

"I was beginning to give the idea up when I got a call last April from a state official asking me if we would be interested in the Acacia," Dan Hecker said.

Plans to sell the ship to an African nation apparently had fallen through, and Coast Guard officials, reviewing their options, pulled a letter from the academy from their files. By law, the Coast Guard could not convey ownership to the academy but arranged to do it through state officials.

City sees benefits

City officials see the Acacia as an asset in their efforts to spruce up the Chicago River's image and are looking at several mooring spots, said Brian Steele, spokesman for the Transportation Department.

Ideally, he said, the ship would go along the river's main branch, perhaps between Clark and Dearborn.

"The concept of the ship becoming a maritime museum is a very appealing one," Steele said. "There are myriad issues that have to be settled in choosing a site for it, including easy public accessibility, making sure the ship does not disturb normal river navigation and incorporating it with city plans for a river walk."

Plans are for much of the ship to be maintained as a time capsule, showing how it worked up to the time of its retirement.

"The initial primary artifact for the museum is the Acacia itself," said Marty Hecker, a Coast Guard naval architect in Maryland. "It is an exceptional ship."

I disagree here. There are stretches of the North Branch (around Kinzie) and of the South Branch (between Van Buren and Roosevelt) that would be perfect for a ship like this. Why the Main Branch?

http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_release.php?id=15852

Landmark Defender Building Could Be Chicago Gospel Museum

Nov. 1, 2006

International Gospel enthusiasts have come up with a plan to preserve a historical Chicago landmark while attracting a tourist base to the area.

The Sun-Times described in vivid detail in an article entitled "Sounding the alarm for Chicago landmarks," the deep concern of Preservationists about the former Chicago Defender headquarters. Reporter Kevin Nance noted, "Since the Defender's departure in January, the building has been vacant and subject to vandalism. Windows have been broken out, and copper gutters and downspouts have been removed for salvage value." In addition, the article pointed out the possibility of further damage from Chicago's freezing winter.

With buyers evaluating the building for purchase discouraged primarily by its location in the Motor Row Landmark District - along with facing difficulties with local authorities in subjecting the facility to any changes, the solution is seems to be pointing to the City of Chicago. By acquiring the building, restoring and converting it into an International Gospel Music Museum, Chicago stands to create the greatest archives of the cultural impact gospel music made in America.

Widespread misconceptions abound about the origin of gospel music - which was, in fact, influenced by the Negro spirituals and Christian hymns but is an art form in itself originating from and spread from Chicago by Thomas A. Dorsey, the Roberta Martin Singers, Salllie Martin, Mahalia Jackson, the Caravans, Soul Stirrers, Norfleet Brothers, James Cleveland and Albertina Walker. A January 2006 fire destroyed the historic and beautiful Pilgrim Baptist Church on South Michigan Avenue, and much of the original and irreplaceable Thomas Dorsey / Pilgrim Baptist Church memorabilia.

Additional 1950's development of Lake Meadows, Prairie Shores, Dan Ryan Expressway and later changes have left only a few of the classic and significant buildings in Bronzeville intact - the Defender building is by far the most unique. Built in 1936 by the Illinois auto dealers on Michigan Avenue's Auto Row, and serving as the 50-year home of the Chicago Defender newspaper, this building has strong cultural and architectural appeal. It would be a fitting tribute to this glorious music genre to transform the former Chicago Defender headquarters into an international tourist attraction in the historic Bronzeville area, since Gospel music is popular worldwide.

With an ideal location - near the Loop and McCormick Place - acquisition of the building by The City of Chicago would solve the immediate problems associated with vandalism, preserve it for future years and add to Chicago's diverse cultural attractions.

Persons interested in forming a committee to study and present a proposal to the City of Chicago to save and preserve the former Chicago Defender Headquarters are invited to join Gospel Music Capitol of the World Productions and Toyota on Western.

^ That's a great idea

- edit

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0611200219nov20,1,7459489.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Ando takes down-to-earth, witty look at architecture

By Blair Kamin
Tribune architecture critic
Published November 20, 2006

Competition for U. of C. project

Five heavyweight architectural firms will be in Chicago on Monday and Tuesday as they compete for the plum job of designing the University of Chicago's creative and performing arts center.

The five are Hans Hollein of Vienna; Studio Daniel Libeskind of New York City; Morphosis of Los Angeles; Fumihiko Maki and Associates of Tokyo; and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects of New York.

Hollein, Maki and Thom Mayne of Morphosis are winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Libeskind is best known as the master planner of the World Trade Center site. Williams and Tsien are highly regarded for such projects as the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

The proposed $100 million creative and performing arts center would be on the south side of the Midway Plaisance, housing the full range of the arts, including a 350-seat performance hall.

The architects are to show drawings and models of their designs in a private session to the jury, which is composed of university administrators and faculty. The winner is to be announced early next year.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/Grant%20Park/DSCN2327.jpgSo I popped by today to size up the installation and I thought it was brilliant. It was absolutely nothing like what I expected. It does require a little thought to really get it, but it's well impressive.

The density of the pieces varies across the installation. The best part for me was being in the densest bit. From a little distance, it looks as if the figures are placed too tightly to navigate in between them, and I suppose for a majority or the larger asses in America, it's a proper barrier, but once in the thick of it, you realize that you aren't as alone as you thought you would be. You keep encountering others who were in there too, only slightly out of view for the moment. Even with 100+ sculptures, I would have liked it even more with three times as many. It was proper childlike fun, to keep "finding" strangers in the thicket.

In reading the Trib's review, it sounded sort of monumental and maybe even overpowering, but it's really rather intimate. If we get the Olympics, they'd look rather sassy if dolled up for each country. Something like that. Headless, armless representations that they are.

Oh, right, and it does rather need a tighter context. Sort of floats on the lawn right now. I'd say either buck up for another 200 sculptures or do some proper design so it has some edge. It's a great little place right now, but it doesn't quite engage the city yet. Love the fuck out of it. It has the potential to be massive.

Are there any plans to spruce up the installation in the future, like lighting or benches? That might add quite a bit as well.

http://www.nearwestgazette.com/update1206.htm

Last ABLA residents gone; museum considered
Susan S. Stevens

Chicago’s oldest housing project, the low-rise Jane Addams Homes in ABLA, is vacant after 69 years of sheltering low-income residents. Built in 1937, they were intended to last 60 years.

The last of what had once been 990 families in the Addams Homes part of ABLA moved Oct. 27, said Karen Pride, assistant press secretary for the Chicago Housing Authority. In the week leading up to the total shutdown, 14 families were relocated, she said. The moves had been delayed to allow the families to remain in the area; some moved into the Brooks Homes.

All but possibly one building will be demolished in the coming months to make room for mixed-income housing in the Roosevelt Square development. The structure that may remain is the two-towered power plant at Taylor Street, which may become a public housing museum. Deverra Beverly, president of the Local Advisory Council for ABLA Homes, has been working to create a museum and negotiating with deep-pocketed allies to preserve the power plant for that purpose.

“Once we get some answers, we will know where we are going,” Beverly said.

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, which funds small museums and other civic and artistic projects, has enlisted museum experts to make suggestions for the public housing museum.

If the museum moves forward, it might use only part of the power plant complex. “We are thinking we maybe don’t need as much of the building as we thought earlier,” Beverly said.

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/1893/update1206ed9.jpg

http://www.nearwestgazette.com/Archive/1206/newsstory12062.htm

Children's Museum still looking for a home
By Marie Balice Ward

Controversy continues to envelop the Chicago Children’s Museum’s relocation, as two proposed sites have met with opposition.

In June, museum President Peter England announced at a Grant Park Advisory Council/Grant Park Conservancy (GPAC/GPC) meeting that Daley Bicentennial Plaza’s field house area east of Michigan Avenue on Randolph Street was deemed the best new location for the museum.

In moving there, the museum would have rebuilt the field house, which is in dire need of renovation, at its own expense and incorporated it into the new site. Of the location’s 325 acres, 20,000 square feet would have remained Chicago Park District property; the remainder would have held a 95,000 square foot museum and 5,000 square feet to be shared with the field house and an ice rink. Also, the museum would have housed field house and ice rink services and operations.

Alderman Burt Natarus reportedly received complaints about the plan, as did Chicago Park District spokesperson Jessica Maxey Faulkner.

Then, at an October press conference, England unexpectedly announced the museum would relocate to the southeast corner of Monroe Street and Columbus Drive in Grant Park instead. He noted it would be renamed the Chicago Children’s Museum at Allstate Place to reflect a reported $15 million contribution from Allstate Insurance.

Museum leadership had high hopes for the second site and still would like to build there, but GPAC/GPA and several other business and civic organizations have deemed it unsuitable for a variety of reasons.

At a mid-October community meeting, the majority of attendees spoke against the Monroe Street location. Bob O’Neill, GPAC/GPC president, said he had received an overwhelming number of e-mails opposing the idea, mainly because it would “hard-scape” Grant Park, meaning the museum would be a non-green area within the park.

'Dangerous precedent'

“It would set a dangerous precedent,” O’Neill said. “Subsequently, it would be difficult to deny other institutions from building within the Grant Park property, and there would be an unacceptable loss of green space at this particular area.”

Several community members, including Louis D’Angelo, said at the October meeting they believed political pressure and “political expediency” brought the Monroe Street choice under consideration. He added he has reviewed the Grant Park Framework Plan and believes erecting a building within the park is not allowed.

Other groups, including Friends of Downtown, Friends of the Parks, Chicago Loop Alliance (formerly Greater State Street Council), Open Lands Projects, and the Metropolitan Planning Council, joined GPAC/GPA in opposing the Grant Park location.

“These groups unanimously agree that the new proposed location for the Chicago Children’s Museum is illegal, is contrary to the Montgomery Ward’s court decisions (Oct. 16, 1890) regarding green space, violates the Lakefront Protection Ordinance, and would set a bad precedent for building permanent structures within Grant Park grounds,” stated O’Neill.

“We are scheduling meetings with the Mayor, with Alderman Burt Natarus, with the Chicago Park District, and, of course, with the Chicago Children’s Museum to reach an agreement as to the location of the expanded museum,” O’Neill explained. “We will continue working toward maintaining communication with all parties involved.

“Grant Park Advisory Council and Grant Park Conservancy believe the location at the current Daley Bicentennial Plaza would be ideal for the Chicago Children’s Museum, but not all of the other groups are in agreement about where the museum should be located. However, everyone firmly believes that the Monroe Street at Columbus Drive site is unsuitable.” O’Neill plans to hold additional community meetings on the subject.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/159138,043nws3.article

'This area is almost forgotten'

Heiress' hope to help low-income neighborhoods may bring Salvation Army to South Side

December 4, 2006
By Courtney Greve Staff writer

The application for a proposed Salvation Army community center on Chicago's South Side filled a pair of six-ring binders.

"It's extensive," Col. David Grindel, the Salvation Army's divisional commander, said of the 1,800-page document. "Only hospitals do as much in-depth planning."

Nearly 30 months after announcing plans for the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, approval is expected in January for the project in the city's West Pullman community that will cost about $127.5 million to build and endow.

"This center will impact a wide-ranging area of need and provide huge opportunities for literally thousands of people," Grindel said.

Construction could begin as soon as fall 2007 at the 29-acre site -- a vacant lot and overgrown park -- near 119th and Loomis streets just east of Interstate 57, he said.

"This area is almost forgotten," Grindel said. "It's a working man's neighborhood with great people. They are a proud people, but they lack opportunity."

About 250 jobs will be created at the center, which will provide after-school programs, adult education and job training. An estimated 2,500 people are expected to use the center daily, Grindel said.

The center will include a 2,000-seat auditorium, a field house with three full-size basketball courts, outdoor athletic fields and an aquatic center with a fun park and 25-meter swimming pool, Grindel said.

A bowling alley and ice rink could be added later, he said.

The bulk of the project will be financed with $90 million from the estate of McDonald's heiress Joan Kroc, who left the Salvation Army $1.5 billion in her will for community centers to be built in low-income neighborhoods.

The money will be evenly divided for construction and operating costs. An additional $22.5 million must be raised for the center's endowment and at least another $15 million for construction, Grindel said.

Green roofs and energy-saving systems will be used in the center's buildings, Grindel said.

The center initially was slated to be built at 47th and State streets next to the Robert Taylor Homes in the Bronzeville neighborhood.

When Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) said she wanted a retail development at the site, the Salvation Army looked at another 27 locations before settling on West Pullman.

"Many (sites) were too small, not available or did not meet our criteria for an area that lacked opportunities," Grindel said.

The Salvation Army held several community meetings to get input about the project.

"The general perception is that the money runs out before it hits 85th Street and never reaches the neighborhoods on the far South Side," he said.

"The only thing the South Side lacks is opportunity," he said. "Give them opportunity and families can accomplish a lot."

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/nance/161151,CST-FTR-art06.article
Mexican art museum gets a new name

December 6, 2006
BY KEVIN NANCE Art Critic
After two decades of steady growth in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum is celebrating its 20th anniversary by changing its name to the National Museum of Mexican Art.
The switch is intended to reflect the museum's status as the nation's largest Latino arts organization and the only Latino museum accredited by the American Association of Museums, along with the fact that it now has annual attendance of more than 200,000 from more than 60 countries.

"We have been doing things on a national level for a while now," said museum president and founder Carlos Tortolero. "On a recent trip to Mexico, we mentioned our new name to colleagues, and their response was, 'It's about time.' "

Cesareo Moreno, the museum's visual arts director, agreed. "The change is finally acknowledging all the work we've been doing the last 20 years. 'Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum' is a great name, but it more accurately reflects the beginning 20 years ago. The new name recognizes what we have become."

What the museum has become is a force to be reckoned with. Its permanent collection is one of the five largest collections of Mexican art in the country. Sixteen of the museum's exhibitions have toured -- six of them to Mexico, including "The African Presence in Mexico," which opened in Monterey last month.

"We are very proud of our Mexican history and culture, and we want to share that on an international level," Moreno said. "We celebrate a culture without borders."

At the same time, he said, the museum will maintain its strong connection to its neighborhood, to Chicago and to the city's community of Latino artists. "They're the foundation on which we're built."

The museum's 2007 anniversary event schedule includes a new exhibit of traditional Mayan textiles, "Arte Textil Maya: Collections of the Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya," opening Jan. 19.

..

http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2420

Miracle on 72nd Street
Gary Comer and John Ronan create a stunning citadel of hope on Chicago’s troubled South Side.

By John Hockenberry
Posted December 6, 2006

If you meander southward from the glittering architectural trophy case that is the Chicago lakefront, you pass by (and under) the vast steel rectangles of McCormick Place and the Ionic columns of the Field Museum. Farther south you come upon the domed nineteenth-century Beaux Arts palace housing the Museum of Science and Industry. Turn west and the landscape quickly becomes a low-rise wasteland of crime and shabby retail. Stores promise easy credit for ghastly furniture. Carryout food is prepared behind thick panels of bulletproof glass. Every street has a liquor store. Vacant lots punctuate an alarming streetscape of poorly constructed box residences and the occasional brownstone holdout. A multifamily building on 72nd Street South stands blackened and vacant from a recent fire. The bitter smell of burnt plastic still lingers in the air, and the building’s exterior vinyl siding has been warped into the sagging signature of old Venetian blinds.

As you pass the fortress of Paul Revere Elementary School, where a man was recently arrested for child abduction and public indecency, the view abruptly changes: 72nd Street appears to dead-end into a wall mosaic of colored panels. Surrounded by grim warehouses and a couple of solo boarded-up buildings with moats of weeds and garbage stands a three-story apparition of whimsical-looking bricks that might have been conjured by some child daydreaming of Lego blocks. An 80-foot tower with a moving LED display spells out messages in colored lights. As you get close you can see slitlike recessed windows, but it’s difficult to tell what is going on inside until you enter the double doors, check in with tough but friendly Sam at the security desk, and take a few steps into a multitiered atrium of absolute magic.

Nothing can quite prepare you for a visit to the Gary Comer Youth Center, named for the man who paid for its construction, the billionaire founder of catalog retailer Lands’ End. The center opened this summer on the site of an abandoned warehouse at the corner of 72nd Street South, Ingleside, and South Chicago Avenue. Designed by local architect John Ronan, the building is an arresting, alluring mystery by day. (Taxis frequently stop to ask pedestrians, “What the hell is this thing?”) By night it’s a warmly lit gathering place for a neighborhood that for decades has known only fear after dark. The facility is so beyond any familiar notion of a “youth center,” YMCA, or Boys’ Club, that it takes some getting used to. It is discreetly secure, as bulletproof as any neighborhood mini-mart, but this is no bunker. As modern as a contemporary art museum, it still manages to retain a casual human scale.

Its structure is formidable, built for constant use, not occasional visits. A steel frame holds massive trusses that allow high ceilings all around and support large skylights and a freestanding roof garden with more than 18 inches of soil and a full irrigation system. The structure is concealed behind walls and exterior surfaces decorated with festive and sophisticated graphics—but make no mistake, this building is designed to do battle with the forces of neglect and vandalism much in evidence on these streets. So far it seems to be winning: there is not a spot of graffiti anywhere. Perhaps the most amazing quality of the building is how radical it is on every level. It is the only new construction of any kind for years in this part of Chicago.

No timid trial-balloon seed development, the $30 million facility boldly announces its intention to be here a century from now. This neighborhood, called Grand Crossing, was in January the largest in Chicago without a public library. Today it boasts an architectural landmark as distinct in its own way as Sears Tower.

Comer attended Paul Revere Elementary School 70 years ago, when the neighborhood was a polyglot immigrant community whose labor fueled Chi-cago’s industrial expansion and was hit hard by the Great Depression. After the success of Lands’ End, he became one of Chicago’s biggest local philanthropists, focusing his resources on the streets and parks where he once played without any thought of bullets or gangs. Comer’s three giant gifts, totaling more than $84 million, to the nearby University of Chicago Medical Center established a children’s hospital, a specialty-care facility, and a mobile pediatric unit for the neighborhood, but he yearned to get closer to the streets of his childhood. He walked them alone back in the late 1990s to get a feel for the needs of Grand Crossing, which then had a 55 percent dropout rate and one of the highest levels of violent crime in the city. With the quiet expertise of a retailer observing his customers, Comer studied the area until a plan began to form. One afternoon in 2003 this newly street-smart entrepreneur of change took his then modest plan to an architect.

Ronan can clearly recall the day when an unassuming elderly man stopped by his firm’s hip offices in Chicago’s River North. “He was just a nice guy with an idea for a building,” he says. “I was on the phone when he came in and made him wait for about five minutes, and I never do that. I had no idea who he was. He was wearing a sweater and khakis from Lands’ End, but I didn’t put anything together.” Eventually Ronan did, but he’s still reeling with amazement over what the project became. Although he has a solid portfolio of buildings under way around the world, the architect comes close to matching Comer’s unassuming style. He even quickly disavows a widely reported story that Comer was attracted to him because, unlike other big-name architects, Ronan answers his own phones. “That’s just a rumor,” he says with a twisted modesty. “I answer my own phones, but that’s not why Gary picked me.”

Modest or not, the collaboration between Comer and Ronan has produced what Chicago architect Brad Lynch calls the most transformative building to be constructed in the city in at least a decade. “The center does everything superior architecture is supposed to do,” Lynch says. “And it’s not because of some dazzling Koolhaas- or Gehry-style design elements. It has already changed lives. You go down to that urban war zone and spend time in that building, and it goes bang. It’s that powerful.”

The idea that Comer originally brought to Ronan was much more humble than the multiuse complex standing at 72nd and Ingleside. The original plan was to make a practice facility for the 26-year-old South Shore Drill Team, a precision parade team famous for its steely discipline and spectacular synchronized rifle throws and spins. The team was founded by local educator Arthur Robertson to keep his brother from dropping out of school. Robertson’s kids are taught to pursue goals and stick together, and are required to maintain a C average. The award-winning drill team has performed all over the world—the Indy 500 Parade, gubernatorial inaugurations—but it had never had a home. Robertson had been scrounging for space for his expanding group for years.

“We sat down with them and said, ‘Hey, what do you want in this building? Because you can have anything you want,’ ” Ronan recalls. “They asked for really basic things like ‘a building with heat—that would be good.’ ” Comer kept asking Ronan to go beyond the basics, and the idea of a full-fledged youth center began to take shape. “One week it was a health clinic and then it was a preschool, and then that went out the window. It had this make-believe quality to it.” Three months into the project Ronan made up a laundry list, trying to pin Comer down, including some easy things like arts and crafts, a game room, and a library for homework. He also put in some things that were more out there, such as a recording studio, a computer lab, a fully wired lecture hall capable of broadcasting onto the Internet, a workout space, and a dance studio. Ronan gave the list to Comer and expected him to look it over and give him some feedback. Instead Comer decided on the spot to do it all.

“Usually somebody comes to you with a site and a program, and a budget way too small to do the program,” Ronan says. “Here we had no program. We could make it up ourselves. We could pick any site we wanted because Gary had basically bought up the whole neighborhood. Money was not an issue, ever. I mean it was like a school project or something. It was a dream.”

Comer’s dream was going to have some severe design limitations. An early mock-up with lots of exterior glass was unveiled before a community group and flopped. “Basically they told us they wanted no glass at all,” Ronan says. “‘Glass is impossible down here,’ they said.” So he devised thick concrete walls with colored panels, to keep the building from looking like a bunker. Ronan quietly added recessed windows of bulletproof glass and lots of skylights and interior glass to capture and diffuse all available daylight. Halfway into the design process Comer abruptly demanded a third floor to the building. Each addition increased Comer’s and Ronan’s passion for the project.

But there was something else driving this endeavor that Ronan discovered long after his first encounter with Comer. Midway through the project, the philanthropist was stricken with a recurrence of bone-marrow cancer. Ronan says he could feel the importance of the project to Comer as the months passed and construction began. Although Comer never would explicitly say it, this project represented his legacy. “He gave a lot more money to the hospitals,” Ronan says. “But there it was just hand over a check and the doctors did the rest. Here Gary had a hand in all of it. His heart was really into this center.”

Comer created an endowment for the building to be maintained long after his death, and there is a long list of Chicago institutions eager to carry out programming and activities there. Pamela Bozeman-Evans, senior program director, left a job with the rising political star Senator Barak Obama to join the center. She says this is her first community-service job where fund-raising is not the primary responsibility. “This building is already a major player in the revitalization of the neighborhood. Just look around.”

When the building was dedicated in May, Comer was in a wheelchair, too weak to walk. “Isn’t this going to be the greatest thing for the kids?” he whispered to one of the local reporters who covered the event. Ronan says Comer had his hands in the critical details right up to the end. “I remember we showed him the color tiles for the outside not knowing what he would think, if he would even like them at all,” Ronan recalls wistfully. “He of course told us to make them brighter, bolder.”

On an October afternoon, kids begin wandering in from nearby schools to do homework at the clean tables in the cafeteria, where others are *getting a hot meal at the line up front. Above, windows all around reveal rooms for one-on-one tutoring, art classes, a library, a dance studio, workout equipment, a recording studio, and a computer lab. Through a wall of glass, visitors peer down into the building’s centerpiece, a beautiful gymnasium (which converts with the push of a button into a 640-seat theater), and watch three groups of boys and girls playing basketball. On the roof the working garden is still producing some late crops destined for a culinary-arts class. Everywhere is color, warmth, smiles, and laughter. The multilevel see-through interior seems to create an infectious *factory of work and play where anything could happen. As I look around only boredom seems an implausible activity here.

“This place is clean and fun, and you can do activities here, not just sit around and watch TV,” 11-year-old Marc Franklin says, munching on some chicken while explaining that his favorite activities involve the game room and homework help. A crowd gathers. Everyone is eager to explain to a stranger what this building means to them. “It’s clean and nice and important-*looking—that’s why nobody puts graffiti here,” 12-year-old Tyrenza Stevenson explains, until Marc suddenly interrupts her: “It’s like you don’t worry about getting shot over here. That’s the main thing.” He’s stocky and a little sensitive about his weight, which he blames partly on spending too much time in his house, off the dangerous streets. “I plan to slim down,” Marc says. “They have treadmills and all kinds of weights and things for exercising.”

The subject shifts to what people want to be when they grow up. They all chatter at once, but there’s no boastful thuggery, no references to video games and hip-hop celebrities, or other typical preteen acting out. The talk around these tables ranges far and wide, as though the building has quietly given them permission, as though it’s suddenly OK to dream. The kids are excited but not overawed by this place. They speak of it as something they deserve to have, not some outlandish, intimidating piece of good fortune. A member of the drill team says, “This building is here because we were so determined, and that’s what got us noticed.” It’s an attitude that suggests that the center will be around for a long time. Every kid knows about the man who made it possible. “We love Mr. Comer,” they say, even though none of them has the faintest idea what Lands’ End might be. “Mr. Gary Comer used to live around here and wanted to do something to make the neighborhood better,” Tyrenza says. “He sure enough did that,” Marc says confidently. “If I was really rich I would put a youth center in every neighborhood.”

Comer died in early October at the age of 78. Ronan says one of his last appearances was in September by video link to a live performance of the radio show A Prairie Home Companion in the center’s theater. “You should have seen it,” Ronan says. “Kid volunteers were parking cars. The drill team was fantastic.” It was a thrilling experience to see a building that he designed so alive and bringing people from all over the city to a neighborhood they never knew existed. He speaks reverently of the client who walked into his office out of the blue and changed his life. “I consider myself lucky to have found Gary Comer, but he lucked out to get me,” the architect says quietly with a fierce emotional pride. “He trusted me, and he was right.” Outside as night falls, the interior lights of the youth center spill warmth out onto what were very recently mean streets. On the tower above the center the lights spell out a somber message: “Thank you Gary Comer.” This newest detail on Chicago’s skyline can be seen for miles.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/thebusiness/061229/

Bought, Sold, Still on Hold

Updates on some unfinished arts biz

By Deanna Isaacs
December 29, 2006

BEFORE WE KISS off 2006, here’s a checkup on some of the year’s loose ends—deals finally done, controversies gone cold, mysteries still unsolved.


THE DUNCAN YMCA Chernin Center for the Arts, created less than a decade ago in a burst of optimism about the bonding and earning power of the arts, was sold this week to its neighbor, Saint Ignatius High School. It was never on the open market. Metro Y spokesperson Lee Concha said she was unable to release the price at press time, but noted that proceeds from the sale will be used for general programming at other locations. The Center, at Roosevelt and Morgan, got an 11,000-square-foot addition eight years ago that included a state-of-the-art 220-seat theater and scenery shop as well as dance, recording, and art studios. Funded by the Chernin and MacArthur foundations, among others, the Duncan Y was intended to bridge class boundaries in the rapidly changing neighborhood (near UIC) and provide arts training for kids citywide. Word on the street is the building was never properly managed; in recent years, as its real estate value rose, there was noticeable neglect. But YMCA officials said the facility just didn’t take: in Concha’s words, “we built it and they didn’t come.” The center officially closes after the final performance of Congo Square Theatre Company’s Black Nativity, on December 31.

AFTER MONTHS OF e-mailed distress signals about its impending homelessness, the Chicago Photography Center got over the hump and purchased its space at 3301 N. Lincoln last week for $1.2 million. It’s a milestone for the group, which formed after Hull House effectively booted Richard Stromberg’s program four years ago. But don’t look for the cash call to stop anytime soon. CPC board secretary Roger Rudich says Friends of the CPC, an ad hoc corporation of about 20 do-gooder investors, put up $360,000 for a down payment on the two-floor commercial condo. That money is due to be paid back with 5 percent interest in five years—and it’s not likely to be raised solely in class and rental fees. Rudich says they expect to secure a significant portion through “a major fund-raising campaign in planning right now.”


THE THREE ARTS Club is officially on the block. Development and marketing director Mark Becker says the Gold Coast landmark was listed in October with Cushman & Wakefield, and broker Brian Pohl says he expects to close a deal worth $13 to $15 million within the next 60 days. The board’s loopy plan to turn the legendary residence for women in the arts into a cultural center (with a new home for TimeLine Theatre to be dug out under the courtyard) and “affordable” condos for a few fortunate artists was scuttled after city officials held up funding earlier this year. Now Becker says proceeds from the sale will help turn Three Arts—which has always been all about its physical presence—into that most ephemeral of entities, a grant-making foundation. Former residents, who said from the get-go that the changes wrought by this board would result in the loss of Three Arts’s primary mission and the transfer of the building to a developer, aren’t surprised.


BY THE TIME WBEZ unveiled its new schedule earlier this month the protest against its threatened mass dump of music programming (which included an online petition with 4,600 signatures) had faded to a whimper. In the new lineup, which launches January 8, Afropop Worldwide and Passport survive, airing once a week on Fridays, and Dick Buckley’s Sunday gig is reduced to one hour. Other nighttime music programs have been replaced by reruns of Eight Forty-Eight, Worldview, Fresh Air, and the inane Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! Disgruntled listeners like local blues musician Matthew Skoller say there’s no consolation in this schedule for supporters of the music that’s indigenous to Chicago: “It’ll have an effect on the clubs and the musicians who work in them.” Still pending: the exact shape of what’s being touted as radical new programming on Chicago Public Radio’s recently juiced up second frequency, WBEW. Initially conceived as the place where all the music would go, it now looks to be another entry in the burgeoning realm of DIY media. Due to launch in April, its format is still under discussion at secretradioproject.com (http://www.secretradioproject.com/).


THEATER ON THE Lake artistic director Hallie Gordon says 2007 will see a renewed push to promote and restore the dilapidated 300-seat lakefront treasure. Friends of Theater on the Lake—a group of about 20, looking for more—had their first meeting in October. They’ve already heard from architect John Morris, whose plans for a $6 million renovation that would enclose the theater in glass have been on the shelf for nearly two years now. “These people are passionate about Theater on the Lake,” says Gordon. “It’s more than just a theater to them—it’s a long-standing tradition, and they want to make sure it continues.” The group’s next meeting is slated for 6 PM January 16 at the Margate Park field house, 4921 N. Marine Drive; call 312-742-7994 or e-mail adtotl at gmail.com for more info.

MUSEUM OF BROADCAST Communications president Bruce DuMont says this could be a golden moment for Governor Rod Blagojevich: now that he’s got four more years in Springfield, he could step forward and release funds DuMont says the state has promised the museum. That would allow construction to resume on MBC’s future home on State Street, which has been standing halfdone since May, and solve the catch-22 DuMont’s been battling: he can’t get the building finished without donations, but he can’t get donations while the construction’s stalled. “We have clarification in writing [from the state] calling for us to raise an additional $7 million before they’ll release the $6 million they promised,” DuMont says, but the boarded-up building is a “psychological block for potential donors.” His offer to name the museum “in perpetuity” for anyone who coughs up the whole $7 million still stands. Meanwhile, he says, CBS Chicago has committed half a million and the Cox Foundation has come through with $100,000. A freight elevator will be installed in January and work on exhibits is “going forward.” DuMont says the museum could open eight months after construction resumes.


LOOKS LIKE THE Merchandise Mart and Art Chicago won’t have to worry about a competing art fair at Navy Pier in 2007; DMG World Media has pulled the plug on its plan to hire a director and mount what producer Mark Lyman had said would be a “world-class show” at the Pier. Lyman says that after polling a number of key dealers internationally, DMG decided the best thing for Chicago would be to “sit tight a bit and let time take care of some things.” a Gay Games Chicago is still looking to raise about $25,000 to close the gap on its $8.8 million cash budget through donations (to be matched by an anonymous benefactor) and proceeds from the Gay Games VII DVD. The final financial report won’t be out until March. Meanwhile, Repent America has filed a civil suit against the city, charging that the rights of three volunteers were violated when they were arrested during demonstrations at Gay Games events. A motion by the city to dismiss the charges was denied earlier this month.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0701090327jan10,1,5493389.story

Columbia College Chicago has picked four finalists for the college's proposed media production center, including Santa Monica, Calif.-based Morphosis, whose principal Thom Mayne won the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Two Chicago firms are among the finalists: Studio Gang, headed by Jeanne Gang; and Brininstool + Lynch, led by partners Brad Lynch and David Brininstool.

The fourth finalist is New York City-based Helfand Architecture, headed by Margaret Helfand.

A selection committee will meet with the finalists in February, asking them to discuss their design philosophies and other issues. A decision is expected in early March, according to a university spokeswoman.

The media production center is proposed to be built at the southwest corner of State and 16th Streets on a vacant lot now owned by the City of Chicago.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0701090327jan10,1,5493389.story

Columbia College Chicago has picked four finalists for the college's proposed media production center, including Santa Monica, Calif.-based Morphosis, whose principal Thom Mayne won the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

The media production center is proposed to be built at the southwest corner of State and 16th Streets on a vacant lot now owned by the City of Chicago.

This is great news for an area of the south loop that just can't seem to find its bearings. Investment of anykind on South State and Wabash is a good thing.

..

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/skylinenews/news/205477,sl-theater-011107-s1.article

Theater on the Lake seeks new 'friends'

January 11, 2007
By FELICIA DECHTER Staff Writer

Love Lincoln Park's Theater on the Lake, 2401 N. Lake Shore Drive?

If so, you can get involved in its future by becoming a member of the newly-formed Friends of Theater on the Lake, whose next meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16 at the Margate Park Fieldhouse, 4921 N. Marine Drive.

According to the theater's artistic director, Hallie Gordon, this is the first-ever Friends group for TOTL, comprised of Park District associates and theater subscribers. Gordon started Friends, "...because I realized that we already had a strong group of subscribers who are passionate about Theater on the Lake and want to help carry on the tradition of summer theater.

"This is incredibly important for the future of TOTL," said Gordon. "It will help raise awareness within the city, and the Park District and the community directly surrounding TOTL."

The Friends' goals for 2007 include improving the quality and mix of the season's line-up, increasing audience development and re-energizing patrons' experiences, and improving the cafe. In addition, according to Krista Bryzki Richard, program and event manager for the Park District, the Friends will also help raise funds for the $6.5 to $7 million theater renovation.

"This building is really falling apart," said Richard, also the theater's managing director. "It's got this great history, and it's quaint and it's old, and in a beautiful location. It has a campy, rustic charm, but it's still falling apart."

Theater on the Lake was built in 1920 as the Chicago Daily News Fresh Air Fund Sanitarium, a breezy building for babies recuperating from tuberculosis and other diseases. Built on landfill, the Prairie-style structure was designed by Dwight H. Perkins of Perkins, Fellows, and Hamilton, which also designed several Lincoln Park properties, including Cafe Brauer, the Lion House in the Lincoln Park Zoo, and North Pond Cafe.

The pavilion housed 250 basket baby cribs, nurseries, and rooms for older kids, and doctors and nurses contributed their services. Free health care, milk and lunches were provided to more than 30,000 children each summer until the sanitarium's 1939 closing.

During World War II, the building bustled as a USO Center for soldiers from Fort Sheridan and sailors from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. When the war ended, then-popular barn dances were held.

In 1952, the space was converted into TOTL, showcasing productions staged by Park District community theater organizations. The open space on the building's south end was enclosed, productions were in the round, and audience members sat on canvas beach chairs.

The Park District operated costume and scene shops, but technical conditions were far from ideal, and any given performance could be interrupted by bats, bugs, motorcycles, bad mufflers and power outages.

In 1996, the Park District changed group's focus, and invited professional theater companies to remount their works. Today, some of the city's best-loved Off-Loop companies -- including Steppenwolf and Second City -- are showcased at the theater, which has about 800 subscribers.

According to Richard, two meetings have already been held by the Friends, and the group is seeking to come up with a mission statement and goals.

She added that the renovation focus will be the "beautiful location," but said that between the Lake Shore Drive ramp and cigarette boats on Lake Michigan, sound is also a big issue. Therefore, the revamp will include improving acoustics, as well as tuck-pointing, renovating bathrooms, and increasing seating from 331 seats to approximately 350-375.

The hope is also to move the theater's entrance to the lakeside, and the current lobby and green room--on the building's west side--would become backstage space. The plan could also include doors that could close, Richard said, and special events could also be held.

Although the Park District can help, it can't completely pay for the renovation, so Richard said the group is seeking contributions from foundations, individuals, and the government. After an open bidding process, the local John Morris Architects & Planners were chosen to do the work, with a "great plan to modernize and make the space as great as its programming," Richard said.

She added that the plan will maintain the theater's charm, and no work will be done until funds are raised. The work could be done in phases.

http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/4071/sltheater011107p1ppfeedph4.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0701300489jan31,1,6148755.story

Lakefront bridge proposals are moving slowly

By Blair Kamin
Tribune architecture critic
Published January 31, 2007


There was optimism in the air two years ago when the City of Chicago held a lakefront pedestrian bridge competition and announced winners for five sites -- North Avenue, Lake Shore Drive at the Chicago River, 35th Street, 41st Street and 43rd Street.

Not much visible has happened since then, much to the relief of historic preservationists who want to save the existing North Avenue Bridge, a 1940s classic with an elongated steel arch. Meanwhile, just a year after introducing the idea, the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006 won city approval for a pedestrian bridge designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano that will span busy Monroe Drive. Private donors last year gave $14 million for the 620-foot-long bridge that will link the museum's under-construction Modern Wing with Millennium Park.

"Private pocketbooks are easier to pry open than public pocketbooks," said Brian Steele, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation, explaining the relatively slow pace of the city-sponsored bridges.

City transportation officials, it turns out, are grinding forward on the South Side pedestrian bridges selected in the design competition. They have commissioned preliminary engineering studies for those spans -- a curving, single-tower suspension bridge at 35th Street by Teng, a Chicago architectural and engineering firm, and a pair of S-shaped bridges for 41st and 43rd Streets by Chicago architects Cordogan, Clark & Associates.

The combined cost of the studies is about $2 million. Ground for these bridges may not be broken until 2009 or 2010, Steele said. Developers in the reviving North Kenwood and Oakland neighborhoods consider the new bridges crucial to improving lakefront access from the areas--and, thus, their real estate prospects.

Less clear is the fate of the other winning designs: the Lake Shore Drive pedestrian bridge, by Wight & Company with Edward Windhorst Architects, a moveable span that echoed historic Chicago River bridges with a single swooping truss, and a replacement North Avenue Bridge, by PSA-Dewberry's Chicago office, which called for a boldly curving profile inspired by sand dunes.

The city hasn't commissioned preliminary engineering studies for either bridge, Steele said, adding that they were always lower on the priority list than the South Side bridges.

The winning design for the Lake Shore Drive bridge, he added, does not rule out architect Santiago Calatrava's proposal for a towering, cable-stayed bridge at the same location because the city is not contractually obligated to build the competition winners. Calatrava included the bridge in his latest plans for the 2,000-foot Chicago Spire, which would rise nearby.

Saying that much has changed with the site, including the Chicago Spire proposal and the planned development of nearby DuSable Park, Steele said city officials would be open to reviewing Calatrava's concept. But so far, he added, "we simply don't have enough detail to know whether it's something to move forward with."

----------

bkamin@tribune.com



Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Image in Tribune....
41rst and 43rd St. bridges
http://www.cordoganclark.com/projects/municipal/41st_43rd/page.html
http://www.cordoganclark.com/projects/municipal/41st_43rd/1.jpg

Aha! So that explains why the North Ave bridge is still standing, even though a temporary bridge has been in use for over 6 months.

Aha! So that explains why the North Ave bridge is still standing, even though a temporary bridge has been in use for over 6 months.

I think you are talking about two separate projects. You are referring to the North Ave bridge that crosses the river up by North/Clybourn corridor, right? The planned location of the vehicular suspension bridge? I don't know the hold up there, but I think they are talking about bridging LSD on the South end of Lincoln Park. I could be wrong, i wasn't really around when judging was done. But the article does say "pedestrian' bridges.

SSDD

Wow, Can't believe I missed this amazing thread!

After spending an hour on it, I want to offer a big thanks to spyguy!!, you rock. As an expat Chicagoan (of sorts) who spends only a couple of months a year back home, I had no idea about most of these projects.

Keep up the great work, very informative!

^Thanks :)

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2007/01/fdr_new_deal_sp.html

Broadcast museum needs own new deal

Eric Zorn

DuMont could use a new deal of his own right about now. His old deals - the ones he thought were in place to create a dazzling new shrine to the legacy of radio and television - aren't getting it done.

Mbc2 DuMont, a veteran local air personality and nephew of famed TV pioneer Allen B. DuMont, opened the Museum of Broadcast Communications in the Burnham Park neighborhood in 1987, moved to a wing of the Cultural Center downtown in 1992, then closed that space in late 2003 to prepare to move into a 70,000-square-foot, four-story facility (nearly five times its former size) planned for the site of a parking garage at the southwest corner of State and Kinzie Streets.

Renovation costs were pegged at $22 million. Ambitious, yes, but even in its old, modest digs, the MBC was a top-15 local tourist attraction with its collection of artifacts, tapes and reference materials.

Delays, disputes and misunderstandings related to funding halted construction in May, 2006, when the new building was only 60 percent finished, DuMont said. He figures the current shortfall at a little under $7 million -- not so much, really, for a proven civic attraction with naming rights still available for purchase.

With a little luck -- OK, a lot of luck -- private and public sources will come through with enough "distress relief" to get this project re-started before the opportunity for a world-class broadcasting museum in Chicago slips away.

In his landmark speech in Chicago, FDR - who was born 125 years ago Tuesday and will be posthumously inducted into the MBC's Radio Hall of Fame at July's gala -- called for "common sense and business sense" to come together to save the day.

Those words will hang heavily in the Auditorium Theater if the very museum that honors them is still facing the prospect of also fading into history.

^ That's very distressing to read.

I wish someone would front the cash for this thing. Considering how much money went into Millennium Park, 7 mill seems like chump change

^^ I really hope that they can quickly resolve the financial issues with the museum. It would be a shame to see it dissapear, when it is already more than half way complete.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070206globes,1,2912204.story?coll=chi-news-hed

City plans global warming-themed street art

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
Tribune staff reporter
Published February 6, 2007, 6:22 PM CST


One globe sculpture will advocate hybrid cars. Another will push wind farms.

A total of 100 globes will be scattered along the downtown lakefront this summer to bring awareness to the need for solutions to reduce global warming

Much like the popular Cows on Parade, each 5-foot-wide globe will feature an artist's design

Mayor Richard Daley unveiled plans Tuesday for the walking exhibit called "Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet," which will crop up in the grassy area from Buckingham Fountain to the Field Museum.

A United Nations report released this month finding that humans have "very likely" caused the Earth to become warmer confirmed the urgency of the issue, Daley said.

"We all share responsibility for global warming," Daley said. "We can all be a part of the solution."

The globes will be on the lakefront from June to September. They will then be auctioned off to raise funds to pay for the expansion of conservation clubs at Chicago public schools.

The sculptures will be accompanied by plaques with messages—some from well-known people such as former President Bill Clinton and actress Jodie Foster, organizers said. A few of the globes will surface at Navy Pier and possibly along Michigan Avenue and in Millennium Park.

Daley introduced the program at a breakfast seeking donors to add to the growing list of corporate sponsors involved in the project, which is the brainchild of local philanthropist Wendy Abrams.

The mayor said he has tried to keep Chicago in the forefront on environmental issues, pointing to programs such as adding hybrid buses to the city's fleet and building "green" libraries, police stations and public schools.

The walking exhibit will serve as a call to action to get people involved in easing climate change, said Abrams, an environmental activist.

"The public understands it's a problem we need to address," Abrams said. "Now they want to know what to do about it."

The city's Department of Environment, the Field Museum and Exelon Corp. are coordinating the educational display, which backers say is the first of its kind in the country.

Exelon CEO John Rowe thanked Daley at the breakfast for his efforts to make Chicago "a cleaner, greener place to live." Corporations also have a responsibility to reduce emissions and to help reduce global warming, he said.

"The trick is to deal with this problem effectively," Rowe said. The school district already has after-school conservation clubs at 22 schools and hopes to have 50 by the end of the next school year. The clubs perform service projects dealing with the environment.

Art teacher Turtel Onli is the club sponsor at Kenwood Academy High School on the South Side. At weekly meetings, his 30 students survey waste on their campus and monitor indoor air quality, he said.

"We want to help children make the transition from consumers to committed, passionate citizens," Onli said.

The "Cool Globes" program will also include a business roundtable to discuss corporate responsibility and a contest for children to design pâpier-maché globes for display at the Chicago Children's Museum.

im all for street art but hellooooo go outside it aint warm!!

A total of 100 globes will be scattered along the downtown lakefront this summer to bring awareness to the need for solutions to reduce global warming.

It'll be plenty hot in July. (Oh, man... July... :drool: )

Global warming is a misleading, crappy term. Whatever you call it, the huge amounts of greenhouse gases that we spew annually into the atmosphere are gonna cause major climate change all over the world. Yes, some places will get warmer. The poles will get slightly warmer. Other places may actually get colder.

turns out that the ozone is accualy getting better . if any ice caps do melt we will see the oceans rise mabey a foot . and thats pushing it! manhattan aint gonna be drowning trust me. but to get back at the topic at hand .. cool globes all spread accross the lake front and parts of downtown...nice :)

Art Insititute expansion news, a engineer friend of mine working on the project told me yesterday that steel erection is slated to begin in March and said it should rise very quickly considering that it's only 3 floors above grade.

Tomorrow 2/14 12:15 @ 224 S. Michigan

CAF Lunchtime Lecture
February 14
The Spertus Institute’s New Glass House
Mark Sexton, Krueck & Sexton Architects

Today:

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6982/artinstitutejp1.jpg

- edit

Several very large sculptural pieces have been installed in what I think is known as the Boeing Galleries. Anyone have the details on who they are by?

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2689.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2688.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2686.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2681.jpg

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSCN2684.jpg

^^ ^^
They are the work of abstract artist Mark di Suvero. They will be there for nearly a year. There is more about it on the Millennium Park website (http://www.millenniumpark.org/artandarchitecture/boeing_galleries.html).

Wow....those are awesome. Too bad they are temporary.

..

Just like the good old days
ART CHICAGO | Show reminds galleries of boom years on Navy Pier, but some feel excluded
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/365060,CST-FTR-art01.article

May 1, 2007
BY KEVIN NANCE Critic-at-Large

Happy days were here again. On Thursday, the opening-night crowd at Art Chicago was so huge that veteran exhibitors were reminded of those heady years in the 1980s and early '90s when the Windy City hosted the most important art fair in the nation, if not the world.

"I felt like it was the old Navy Pier show again," Chicago dealer Thomas McCormick said, "where you couldn't even get in the booths."

Several of the elite galleries that had abandoned the ailing fair in recent years were back, and the art they brought with them was impressive. The question was whether the dazzling display would translate into significant sales at the 2007 fair, the first under the new management of the Merchandise Mart.

"It's about 10 notches up from last year," Chicago photographer Dawoud Bey said of the quality of the exhibitors list. "I just hope the money's here."

Not to worry. If money failed to change hands at the fevered pace of the fair's heyday, business was brisk enough to leave several elite dealers pledging to return next year. Sales figures were not released, but red dots signifying SOLD appeared like measles on labels in the high-toned galleries of Chicago's Richard Gray and Montreal's Robert Landau, where prices often soared into the millions.

Landau, whose booth featured several paintings with price tags of more than $1 million (including a Modigliani rumored to be on offer for $20 million), said he had sold more than 30 paintings to collectors from all over the country.

"We've sold eight or nine things now, which is pretty good so far," David Juda of Annely Juda Fine Art of London said on Sunday. "I am seriously impressed with the quality here -- there are some pretty good things on offer, and it's been quite interesting how many of my colleagues from New York have been in to check out the fair.''

Jack Shainman of New York's Jack Shainman Gallery (which represents Chicago artists Kerry James Marshall and Nick Cave, among others) agreed. "The fair's been terrific for us. There certainly have been crowds, including a lot of people from out of town that I didn't expect."

And Pamela Hill of the Hill Gallery in the Detroit area reported "very serious sales, with other things pending. I think this is going to become a major, major event."

'Go big or go home'
It was difficult to say exactly how many people attended Art Chicago and the four concurrent Artropolis shows held at the sprawling Mart complex, which includes the adjacent 350 West Mart Center, in part because there were so many points of entry.

But prior to the weekend, Mart president Chris Kennedy had said he would consider it a success if Art Chicago drew 25 percent more people than last year's edition, which had 21,600 attendees. "I think attendance is going to be 50 to 100 percent better than last year, somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 people," he said.

But he's not resting on his laurels. Although the Mart's 10-foot ceiling on the seventh floor didn't seem to bother dealers or collectors much, Kennedy is planning to move next year's show to the 17th floor, where the ceiling is about three feet higher.

"We'll create a space that has the openness of a trade-show hall and the permanence of a gallery setting," he said.

And in an even bolder move, Kennedy announced that the Mart is buying one of Art Chicago's leading competitors, the Armory show in New York. He has also bought Volta, a juried show of emerging galleries that runs concurrently with Switzerland's Art Basel, the world's most popular art fair.

"Go big or go home, as Mayor Daley used to say," Kennedy said. "I think we've embraced that."

The left-out locals
Not everyone in Chicago's art world was thrilled last weekend. Although Kennedy's team courted the Art Dealers Association of Chicago last year as part of its rebuilding of Art Chicago, several of the association's member galleries were upset when they found themselves omitted from the exhibitor list.

"In the planning stages, someone said, 'The art fair you want is a fair that you may not be able to get into,' and that's pretty much what happened," says Natalie van Straaten, the association's executive director. "It would have been nice if a few of those galleries had been included, but I think the Mart really stuck to the plan of building an international roster, which meant it couldn't be dominated by Chicago galleries."

One of the angriest of the left-out locals was the Aldo Castillo Gallery. On the eve of the fair, Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado released a statement criticizing Kennedy for excluding Castillo, a leading dealer in Latin American art.

"If Chris Kennedy truly wants to make a difference and put Chicago on the international art stage," Maldonado said, "then he needs to de-politicize Art Chicago's selection committee and choose members who truly understand the importance of Latin American art."

Mart vice president Shawn Kahle said in a statement, "There are many Latin American artists and galleries represented in Artropolis and Art Chicago. Decisions as to galleries participating in Art Chicago were made by an independent selection committee."

^ Now that this guy has bought two other art fairs, hopefully the selection next year will be even higher quality and garner more international attention. One component of the Olympic bid is to have some art and cultural festivals. If this Art Chicago thing grows into a prominent art show, it can only help our chances in the Olympic effort. Heres to Chicago's continued success!!

..

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070502globes,1,2846667.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Worlds come to Chicago

By Kristen Kridel
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 2, 2007, 9:25 PM CDT

Atlas buckles beneath the weight of the Earth.

The sculpture, soon to be on display in Chicago as part of an exhibit about global warming, shows the mythological figure's knee nearly hitting the ground as he strains to hold up a globe 5 feet in diameter. Continents covered by protruding rocks underscore the magnitude of the load.

"That's really heavy," artist Chris Campagna said as he chiseled the muscles of Atlas' abdomen. "It's time for us to stand in. We need to step up."

Campagna's globe and at least 120 others have been designed to teach the public about possible solutions to global warming. The globes, which each cost several thousand dollars to produce, will be on display from June to September at the Field Museum, Navy Pier and several other sites around Chicago.

The project, called "Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet," is more than an art exhibit with a theme, creator Wendy Abrams said. The art, sponsored by numerous businesses, is the way the environmental activist chose to spread her message.

"This is a problem we can solve," Abrams said. "This is a call to action."

When the display opens, "Cool Globes" will launch a Web site, where visitors can pledge to implement the solutions illustrated by the globes in their everyday lives and business practices. The site is www.coolglobes.org.

In the fall, the sculptures will be auctioned off to raise money to fund the expansion of conservation clubs at Chicago public schools.

People across the country have been wondering what they can do to fight global warming since Al Gore's 2006 documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," raised awareness about the issue, Abrams said.

"This is the 'So what do we do about it?' " she added.

The sculptures, which were designed and created by local, national and international artists, promote solutions ranging from solar power to recycling and encourage activities such as walking and taking public transportation.

One of the globes is completely covered by a blue sweater. The artist used 32 pounds of yarn to knit the suggestion that people put on more clothing instead of turning up the heat in the winter, Abrams said.

Lisa Fedich decided to focus on wind power, which she said is a potentially valuable resource for the Windy City, and decorated her globe with 110 pinwheels. She solicited the help of hospital patients she teaches art to through the Snow City Arts Foundation.

The patients, ages 3 to 28, painted the pinwheels and supplied drawings and quotations describing wind. Fedich projected the drawings onto the globe and copied them. A muscular, winged creature called the Windmaster dominated one portion of the sculpture.

The words of Autumn, a 9-year-old patient, weaved in and out of the illustrations and pinwheels: "I think air comes from people, big people up in heaven."

Like many of the artists, Fedich used up the $2,000 stipend she received from her sponsor in art supplies and labor. But she said she decided to join the time-consuming and costly project for the children.

"There are so many solutions and education that will come out of here," she said.

Joe Compean, another artist, said he has been waiting for an opportunity and reason to create an outdoor stereoscopic viewer, which displays photographs in 3-D. The "Cool Globes" exhibit became the catalyst.

Compean is using solar power to run his globe, which lights up internally and provides views of 3-D photographs of nature. Small stars surrounding the globe give the viewer the impression that he or she is looking at the Earth from outer space, Compean said.

"I want to remind people that there is only one Earth," the Chicago native said.

kkridel@tribune.com

Anybody out there with recent pics of the addition to the Art Institute? :)

^There is a webcam if that helps:
http://oxblue.com/archive/9b35f7af965c42dcc84247ad5b0e3472/1024x768.jpg

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070503uofc,1,2131506.story?coll=chi-news-hed

U. of. C. gets $35 million gift for art center

By Charles Storch
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 3, 2007, 11:17 PM CDT

A Chicago investment banker and his family are giving $35 million to the University of Chicago for a planned $100 million arts center that is to serve the campus and its South Side neighbors.

The gift by David and Reva Logan and their family is one of the larger single donations made to the U. of C. and is the biggest earmarked for the arts there, the university said Thursday.

University President Robert Zimmer said the donation "will enable us to proceed with the building in an expeditious way." He said the center, eyed for the south end of the campus, is expected to be a "transformative facility" for the school, widely known as a bastion for Nobel Prize-winning research in economics and science.

The Center for the Creative and Performing Arts is to be named for the octogenarian couple, who met while attending the U. of C.

David Logan received his undergraduate and law degrees there. Reva Logan delayed her education because of their marriage but later completed her degree at Roosevelt University and became a teacher.

David Logan is managing partner of Chicago-based Mercury Investments. He also is a stalwart advocate for the arts in Illinois and was on the Illinois Arts Council from 1976 to 2006. His wife's family also has been active in the arts: Her brother Allan Frumkin was a prominent gallery owner here and in New York. The couple collect photography and artists' illustrated books.

David Logan said he and his family approached the U. of C. about the donation. He said he was asked whether they would like to fund a theater or some other piece of the center. He replied that he wanted to do something far more ambitious.

He said he was making the gift for his wife, who is in declining health, and in memory of his mother. David Logan's mother wanted her son, who grew up in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and used to pal around with Saul Bellow, to go to the best school possible.

"I have been amazed at what I have been able to do in philanthropy and work," he said. "It's a great tribute to America."

In addition to the arts, the Logans have donated to education, religious, scientific, journalism and community causes here and around the country.

The arts center has been proposed for a site at 60th Street and Ingleside Avenue. It would be south of the Midway Plaisance and on the same block as the Midway Studios, where sculptor Lorado Taft once worked.

It is to include a multipurpose performance hall, three small theaters, music practice rooms and a recording studio and will serve students, faculty and Hyde Park residents.

Five prominent architectural teams are vying for the commission, and one is to be selected later this spring, Zimmer said. The center is expected to be completed in 2011.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/370502,CST-FIN-poetry04.article

Poem's verses of fortune
REAL ESTATE | With Lilly backing, poetry group closes on prime home

May 4, 2007
BY DAVID ROEDER droeder@suntimes.com

Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Home to a Place where People who like Poetry can Meet.

Pardon the desecration of Carl Sandburg's lines, but it is inspired by a literary turn in the Chicago real estate market. Poetry has bought property, and will put up a building. The Muse is news.

Chicago's Poetry Foundation, which publishes the 95-year-old Poetry magazine, has closed on the purchase of the southwest corner of Dearborn and Superior for $6.7 million. The site includes two small buildings and a parking lot, which the foundation plans to replace with a "national home" for the art it celebrates.

"We certainly hope the building will reflect our vision, which is to give poetry a greater presence in our society," said foundation spokeswoman Anne Halsey.

It could also become a testament to Chicago's role in the national culture. Harriet Monroe founded Poetry magazine in 1912, giving a platform to writers before they became famous, and getting under the skin of Easterners who couldn't imagine anyone on the prairie thinking refined thoughts.

Banish the thought that rhyme and reason are missing in Chicago's construction boom.

Where did Poetry get the money? Alas, think drugs.

Ruth Lilly, in her 90s and an heiress to the Eli Lilly and Co. drug fortune, in 2002 began lavishing money on the foundation's forerunner. She never attached strings and, judging by ensuing litigation, seldom followed the rituals of estate planning.

The gift, paid as an annuity, has a present value of $175 million, Halsey said. It is intended to ensure Poetry can publish in perpetuity, and has helped the foundation launch conferences and readings locally and around the country.

It also caused an intellectual imbroglio among people who thought the windfall would change the foundation, and cause it to champion a populist style of composition that they detest. Others were upset that the foundation took the trustee of Lilly's estate to court, seeking damages when a loss in the value of Eli Lilly stock cut the size of the bequest.

Two courts in Indiana treated the foundation's complaint like it was doggerel, and handed down rejection slips. In March, the Indiana Supreme Court declined to issue its own review.

Halsey said the issue has been put aside, and that the foundation remains grateful for Lilly's support. The goal is to have the building open by 2010, she said.

U.S. Equities Realty, a firm well versed in the Chicago market, advised Poetry in the transaction. Halsey said the foundation is interviewing architectural firms, and hopes to pick one this summer.

The job is small but with epic aspirations. The foundation is mandating an ecologically friendly building that translates some of poetry's enduring spirit into glass and steel. Halsey said the project will include a garden, a reading room, and free access to the foundation's collections that are now in the Newberry Library. She compared it to New York's Poets House.

The property was acquired from owners affiliated with a law firm Serpico, Novelle & Petrosino, that has offices there.

So yes, it was poets negotiating a land deal with lawyers. There's enough material there for a poem of Wordsworthian scale, or maybe a grand opera.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/1554/050407poetryjpg20070503tc2.jpg

^ I hope that building isn't exactly as tall as those nice buildings it will replace. What a damn shame that would be. Here's something of interest:

http://www.nearwestgazette.com/Archive/0507/citybeat0507.htm
Pressure Point Recording Studio hopes to return city to musical glory

By Jennifer Nunez

It has been more than a few years since Chicago was the musical epicenter of the Midwest, but the people at Pressure Point Recording Studios at 2239 S. Michigan Ave. plan to bring back the days when the city had a prominent place in the music industry.

In the mid-20th century, most of Chicago’s record companies and distributors were located just south of the Loop on a 12-block stretch from 12th to 24th Streets, commonly known as Record Row. It was the center of the city’s flourishing popular music industry and comparable to Detroit’s Motown.

Before 2239 S. Michigan became part of musical history, the space was used as a speakeasy. Gangster Al Capone could be found there frequently in the early 1930s, said studio manager Chris Schneider.

Pressure Point opened in 1998 with one studio on the lower level, which is known today as Studio B. The studio has a small control room and recording booth used mainly for vocals and some single-instrument sessions.

In 2002 the studio began major renovations and built Studio A on the second floor. Acoustic consultants Kirkegaard Associates, architects Krueck & Sexton, and lighting consultants Schuler Shook aided the renovation effort. The team’s goal was to build a creative environment that could rival any place in the world to make a record, Schneider said.

The studio completed construction in 2004, and on June 17 Mayor Richard M. Daley came by for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Later that year, Mix magazine, an important music industry publication, recognized Pressure Point as Studio of the Year.

State of the art

Studio A houses a tracking room, live room, drum room, and midi room as well as two vocal booths and a large control room with a state-of-the-art console—a 72-channel SSL 9000 K. It was the third studio in the world to own one.

The design team exercised great care in providing isolation detailing that took the building’s floor-to-floor height into consideration. For example, a second window isolates the room acoustically from Michigan Avenue street noise without altering the historic facade.

The space also offers a wide range of acoustic conditions that can be altered easily. One room features an adjustable wall of hinged panels, allowing recording artists to choose a surface that is reflective, absorptive, diffusive, or a combination of the three. Also, curtains can be drawn over the rough mosaic wall to provide diffusion, reflection, or absorption.

The tracking room features natural lighting courtesy of second-floor skylights that employ a three-layer system designed to keep external sound out and maximize isolation on the third floor. On that third level, the studio built a small venue to host parties and musical showcases, which makes Pressure Point not just a studio but is a multi-use facility.

“We wanted to build not only a beautiful place but a place technologically superior that has all of the elements to enhance the creative process for our own artists as well as other artists who come here,” Schneider said.

A sanctuary

Designer Jason Fate incorporated Moroccan themes throughout the space, creating a sanctuary for artists to hone and express creativity. The live room, although functional, is furnished with a mosaic wall of the Tree of Life. Other features include a pillow-filled seating area and a multi-colored lighting system.

Artists such as Mariah Carey, Smokey Norful, Timberland, Rihanna, and Chicago’s own rock band Dearborn are just a few of the names that can be found on Pressure Point’s client roster.

Although Pressure Point has the newest technology available in the studio, it values old-fashioned equipment as well. Schneider favors old-school microphones like the E-Lamp 251, which was made in the 1960s.

Hit-maker Larry Sturm, who worked on Dearborn’s album The Old Way there recently, said the studio used two-inch analog tape to record Dearborn’s record. “I wish more people were doing analog,” he said. “It’s getting to the point now that most of the schools that train these new engineers don’t teach that anymore. They don’t even know how to set up a tape machine.”

Sturm’s work can be heard on Twista’s Kamikaze album, Michelle Williams’s new record, and Beyonce’s song Crazy in Love. He also has worked with Destiny’s Child, Mary J. Blige, Buddy Guy, and Disturbed.

Former Chicago Bears coach and football hall of famer Mike Ditka produced an album at Pressure Point last year for artist John Vincent. The album, entitled Eleven, includes ten remakes—nine of Frank Sinatra songs and one of Louis Armstrong’s. The eleventh track is The One, a country-blended song by Vincent.

Justin Timberlake recently visited the studio to lay down vocals for 50 Cent’s forthcoming album. Schneider added he was fortunate enough to work with one of his idols, Ray Davies from the Kinks, last summer. “In my mind, he is one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived,” Schneider said. “I was in awe, but I had to treat it like any other session.”

A lifelong calling

Schneider is not only the studio manager but an in-house producer for Pressure Point. He has been involved in music since age six, when he would grab chimes out of the music box in school before anyone else could. He said he liked them best because each made a distinctively different sound and he could create music with them.

Schneider has played in bands since he was 12 and was offered a record deal at 16. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in music.
From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, Schneider played guitar and sang vocals for the Euro-influenced pop and rock band The Ultra Violets. They toured the nation and became well known. They even had a Top 40 single in the United Kingdom, No One in Here, that played on MTV.

Pressure Point’s label is the home of Margo, its latest artist, who is bringing back classic R&B. Pressure Point is working on her website, which will be up soon.

“We never wanted to be just a recording studio,” Schneider said. “We also have a production company and our own label. We want to put Chicago back on the map as a music town.”

He believes “every musical road there has ever been in modern-day popular music, whether it’s gospel, jazz, rock, hip-hop, you name it, it has come to Chicago. They have either originated here or have been touched by the city in a way to make it a…unique thing, and it has impacted what we call American pop music.”

http://cms.colum.edu/newsandnotes/archives/005453.php

Jeanne Gang to Design Media Production Center
May 4, 2007

Columbia College Chicago President Dr. Warrick L. Carter and Allen M. Turner, chairman of the board of trustees, announced today the selection of Jeanne Gang & Studio Gang Architects to design Columbia’s Media Production Center (MPC), the first new construction project undertaken by the arts and media college.

Gang, whose Chicago-based firm is emerging as one of the most innovative practitioners in architecture today, was chosen from an initial field of 29 firms from across North American that were invited to submit qualifications for the project. In December, the field was narrowed to four finalist firms: Helfand Architecture of New York, Morphosis of Los Angeles, Brininstool + Lynch and Studio Gang, both of Chicago. Since that time, members of the selection team have been working with the architectural firms to determine the best fit.

“Jeanne Gang’s portfolio clearly demonstrates an understanding of each of the clients with which she has worked as well as a fresh and original approach to public architecture. However, our choice was about more than innovative design,” said Turner. “While we certainly want a building that makes a distinctive statement consistent with the image of Columbia as a cutting edge arts and media school, we were also determined to select a firm who we feel confident will bring the project in on budget, on schedule and who will work well with our in-house team of academics, administrators and creatives, while emphasizing environmental sustainability.”

“During the meetings with the finalists it became clear that Jeanne is very committed to this project and understands fully what it means to the college,” said Doreen Bartoni, dean of the School of Media Arts. “The level of research she conducted, not only on materials and program requirements, but on the history of Columbia as an educational and cultural institution and the history and current cultural currency of media arts, was truly impressive.”

Gang, who makes her own home in the South Loop not far from Columbia’s campus, is excited to be working on project that, she says “will look at the intersection of academics, media and architecture. From both a conceptual and a practical standpoint Studio Gang has an opportunity to create a building that not only meets the client’s functional needs but also expresses the importance of media arts in today’s society and the emergence of Columbia College as a major educational institution.”

A commitment to sustainable design was another important element in the search and selection. “To this point Columbia’s contribution to Chicago’s rich architectural heritage has been to rehabilitate and retrofit some of the South Loop’s most important historic buildings,” explained Carter. “In this way, we have served as stewards for Lakeside Press, now one of the college’s residence halls, and [William LeBaron] Jenney’s Ludington Building at 1104 S. Wabash. With the MPC as our first new construction, we intend to add to the City’s collection of significant buildings with a structure that is innovative in terms of the relationship between architecture and media but that also meets the commitments of an environmentally responsible institution. Jeanne Gang is eminently qualified to deliver on that goal.”

The Columbia Media Production Center will be an approximately 40,000-square-foot facility featuring two sound stages, a motion-capture studio and an animation lab and will further serve to enliven an area of the city that has enjoyed a recent boom in residential growth.

The MPC is proposed to be built at the southwest corner of 16th and State on a vacant lot currently owned by the City of Chicago. The land sale to Columbia, allowing for the construction of the facility, must be approved by the Community Development Commission and the City Council.

“I am very pleased that of all the firms we considered from across the country and Canada, Studio Gang, a Chicago-based firm was clearly the best for this project,” Turner added. “Over the years Columbia has become a major force in the educational and cultural landscape of the city and is recognized as an anchor institution in the booming South Loop. Working with a Chicago firm further demonstrates our commitment to the city and the talent we have here.”

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2007/05/new_downtown_th.html

New downtown theaters looking more and more likely

At the opening of "The Color Purple," I talked to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Now, this was a causal conversation rather than a formal interview, but, still, he knew with whom he was speaking.

"Mr. Mayor," I said. "The theaters downtown are all full. Are you thinking of building any more?"

"I got a lot of criticism for doing these theaters," said the mayor.

That's true. Five years or so ago, Daley took a lot of flack in the media for what looked like a lot of high-price, renovated theaters that were sitting dark. I wrote at least one such story myself. Crain's Chicago Business did another. Clearly, that still rankles. Clearly, Daley's decision to invest in the theater district now looks prescient. Then Daley continued.

"We're working on a couple more," he said. "Don't worry about it."

And that was it. He was gone. I scribbled it all down.

...

Broadway in Chicago is interested in doing shows at the Reskin (formerly the Blackstone Theatre) and has been talking to DePaul about various ways that could happen, and various ways the building could be renovated to improve audience amenities. A renovation study, I hear, already has been completed. Stay tuned on that score. This seems to me like a deal almost certain to happen in some form.

Haymarket monument makes a comeback
Targeted statue to reemerge after decades of police protection

By RYAN GALLAGHER
Medill News Service


The statue honoring the policemen killed in the Haymarket riots of 1886, presently in protective custody after repeated attempts to blow it up, will once again be put on public display.

Once located in downtown Chicago, the monument has been relocated more than five times. It is scheduled to publicly reemerge this month outside the new police headquarters at 3510 S. Michigan Ave. Since 1976, it has been inaccessible to the public in the courtyard of the police academy at 1300 W. Jackson on the Near West Side.

The statue, much like the era it symbolizes, has a volatile past.

It honors seven officers killed in the Haymarket Riot on May 4, 1886, a day in which worker protests ended in bloodshed during the peak of the American labor movement.

"[The riot was caused by] people not trusting other people, misunderstandings, suspicions and lack of tolerance," said Tim Samuelson, a Chicago historian.

The tragedy was set in motion on May 3, when police killed at least two strikers at a workers' rally. Tensions ran high the following day as a demonstration for workers' rights started peacefully but erupted into a chaotic riot between more than 170 police officers and the angry mob of protestors.

A bomb was thrown at the police, who responded with a hail of gunfire into the crowd of protesters, killing an undetermined number of citizens.

The statue, which shows a policeman bravely holding up his arm in the face of danger, has been a target of attack throughout its 118-year history.

"It's just a very contentious issue," said Peter Alter, a curator at the Chicago History Museum. "If you show the policemen, you're presenting a certain kind of interpretation. Policemen did die at that event, but so did workers and innocent bystanders."

Many consider the monument a deserved tribute to the men in blue, while others have criticized it for depicting only one side of the historic event. The statue has been either bombed or defaced on more than five separate occasions.

But after numerous repairs, the statue remains intact. It is a testament to the city's efforts to honor the officers killed, matched only by the opposition's attempts to destroy the commemoration of police on that tragic day.

"If you look objectively at Haymarket today, it was everybody's tragedy," Samuelson said. "People died on both sides."

Mark Donahue, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, says the statue is not just a memorial for fallen officers, but also a reminder of law enforcement's role in the labor movement.

"It's interesting that the same issues the labor movement was striving for in the 1880's is the same movement the police force has been driving for," Donahue said, mentioning the department's past efforts to gain employment rights for their officers.

A separate monument erected in 2004 commemorates the Haymarket Riot from the labor movement's perspective. A Haymarket martyrs' monument stands in Waldheim Cemetery, honoring the workers who claimed their innocence, but were executed in a trial following the riot. More than 100 years after the incident, the name Haymarket holds a meaningful place in history.

"The important part about Haymarket was it wasn't just about the city," Samuelson said. "Chicago became the escape valve that reflected the issues of labor management and capital that was going on throughout the country."

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=special_coverage&id=5304519#


The Downtown Mansions
By Ron Magers

In the heart of the priciest real estate in downtown Chicago there is a row of historic mansions. They could have been lost to time or high-rise development but one man is on a personal mission to save them.

One of the buildings will one day be open to the public as a museum.

...

The mansion is now being filled with the Driehaus decorative arts collection and by fall it is expected to be open to the public as a monument to the arts and architecture.

---------

Great videos inside and out
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=special_coverage&id=5304532

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=special_coverage&id=5304519#


The Downtown Mansions
By Ron Magers

In the heart of the priciest real estate in downtown Chicago there is a row of historic mansions. They could have been lost to time or high-rise development but one man is on a personal mission to save them.

One of the buildings will one day be open to the public as a museum.

...

The mansion is now being filled with the Driehaus decorative arts collection and by fall it is expected to be open to the public as a monument to the arts and architecture.

---------

Great videos inside and out
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=special_coverage&id=5304532
Here's a preservation effort I can get behind 100%. Thanks for directing us to this site. :)

..

Yikes that is unfortunate. I wonder what happened, why the design was changes (perhaps money, considering that the second rendering shows a smaller building).

^^ Actually Loopy I just noticed on the second image it lists the locations "Loop Gold - Coast - Lincoln Park"; perhaps the two renderings are of two different locations??

hhmm...two very differant concepts indeed. Hopefully its the first one that gets the go ahead.

I am thinking the "Loop Gold - Coast - Lincoln Park" may be to signify which neigbhorhoods it is supposed to serve? I have a hard time thinking they would be building two centers at the same time. They do look like they are in two differant locations possiably though so who knows.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-museum16may16,1,922305.story?coll=chi-newslocalwest-hed

Museum revises plan for new site
Children's facility would be built in north Grant Park

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 16, 2007

The Chicago Children's Museum is revisiting plans for a new museum on the north end of Grant Park.

This time, the museum hopes to win the hearts of nearby residents, who fought an earlier proposal for the site, by occupying less park space and building farther underground, said Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) who has seen the museum's plans.

Museum officials would not discuss details of the new plan. They said they are working to finalize design concepts and will share them next month.

A rendering shows a staircase from Randolph Street going down to Daley Bicentennial Plaza, Reilly said. The staircase would separate two green roofs -- one for the museum and another for a new fieldhouse the museum still plans to build, he said.

The main entrance would still front Randolph, but there would be another entrance on the plaza, facing south into the park, according to sources. Buses would drop off visitors on lower Randolph.

Museum officials say pedestrians would be coming to the site from the parking garages or walking east from Millennium Park, Reilly said.

Reilly, who initially opposed plans for the site, says he's willing to give it another chance.

"It looks like they've reduced the size of the footprint," he said. "It remains to be seen if it will pass muster with the neighborhood."

He added that plans would need approval by neighborhood residents for his support.

Finding a home in Grant Park has been a tough road for the children's museum.

In 2005, the museum began looking to expand, having outgrown its current location at Navy Pier. The first plan called for replacing the Daley Bicentennial fieldhouse on Randolph with a new museum.

Much of the structure was to be built underground with a main entrance on the first floor of a foyer, fronting Randolph.

But residents living in high-rises just north of the site opposed the move, saying the area would be deluged with traffic.

The alderman at the time, Burton Natarus, had promised residents that he would oppose the Randolph plan when it came before the Chicago Plan Commission.

Then last fall, museum officials, the mayor and Natarus announced new plans for a children's museum at Monroe and Columbus Drives.

Almost immediately, civic groups like the Grant Park Conservancy and Friends of the Parks opposed the plans. Some said the plans went against the intentions of Montgomery Ward, a retail magnate who fought for the park and its views to the lake to remain open.

Natarus lost his seat in February.

Now some residents wonder if Reilly will have the power to block the Randolph plan.

They worry that the museum will flood the area with traffic, which is expected to increase as new residents move into nearby condominium buildings under construction.

"We have to start all over again," said Peggy Figiel, who led the fight against the museum's initial proposal on Randolph.

But for Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy, who opposed the proposed Monroe location, the museum's latest efforts address the residents' concerns.

"I'm very happy it's going back to Randolph," he said. "I don't believe they could have gotten support of any downtown civic group on the Monroe site."

Grant Park Advisory Council and Grant Park Conservancy public meeting

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - 6:30 p.m.

Daley Bicentennial Plaza - 337 E. Randolph just east of Columbus Drive.

Chicago Children's Museum

Please come out and give us your input on the newest plans for the museum.
Thank you very much for your interest and participation.

Please contact:
Bob O'Neill
Phone: 312-829-8015

Taken today:
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2339/artinstitute1bw1.jpg

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/403974,CST-NWS-child28.article

A view of Children's Museum
GRANT PARK | Latest design wouldn't spoil lakefront look

May 28, 2007
BY ANDREW HERRMANN

Chicago residents can get a look Tuesday night at a new design for a proposed children's museum in Grant Park.

The Chicago Children's Museum, currently at Navy Pier, plans a move to Daley Bicentennial Plaza, just east of Millennium Park.

The latest design, by Mark Sexton of Krueck and Sexton Architects, has two stories aboveground but has a lower profile when viewed from the elevated Randolph Street. The design is apparently intended to address park traditionalists wary of scene-spoiling lakefront construction.

$40 million to build

When viewed from the below-street-level plaza, looking north, the museum has a glassy, curvaceous style about two stories high. The scheme moves the proposed site from the south of Bicentennial Plaza and incorporates a new, 20,000-square-foot field house.

Two stories of the proposed museum are underground, said Jim Law, the museum's vice president of planning.

The 100,000-square-foot museum will cost more than $40 million, Law said, and while officials seek private funds, Law did not rule out trying to tap public dollars.

Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Advisory Board, which is hosting the community meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the existing Daley Plaza field house, said the project is appealing because it includes a new field house.

Because the new museum would replace an existing building, O'Neill said he thinks there will be less objection from preservationists.

However, high-rise neighbors have balked at increased congestion in the area caused by the museum, which draws an estimated 500,000 people annually to Navy Pier.

"Building in that environment takes incredible sensitivity," O'Neill said.

Last September, Mayor Daley expressed support for the nonprofit museum's move from Navy Pier at a news conference announcing a $15 million construction donation from Allstate Insurance.

$100 million gift to University of Chicago

By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune higher education reporter
Published May 30, 2007, 7:12 PM CDT

A University of Chicago graduate has pledged $100 million, the largest gift ever to an Illinois university, to eliminate student loans for hundreds of undergraduates.

The cash gift, from an anonymous donor who graduated in the early 1980s, will provide full scholarships each year for about 800 students whose family incomes are less than $60,000. Another 400 of the college's 4,400 undergraduates, whose family incomes are less than $75,000, will have roughly half their loans replaced with grants.

Full story (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ucaid_31may31,1,7541221.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true)

Taken today:
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2339/artinstitute1bw1.jpg

hydrogen, i don't see any of the foot bridge to Mil Pk in the construction area. Is that one still on (I assume it is; the city seemed pleased by the concept)? Also, isn't it supposed to line up with the western end of the new addition? and will the entire area on the north side of the AI have a new cover over the Metra tracks?

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l221/Mansmith_2006/DSC_0276.jpg

http://chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=25188

Meeting on Children’s Museum gets heated
By Lorene Yue

The public unveiling of new designs for a new Chicago Children’s Museum proposed for Grant Park turned a community meeting into a near-shouting match, as residents sounded off about the controversial project.

The Daley Bicentennial Field House at 337 E. Randolph St. was packed to capacity as the Grant Park Conservancy showed updated renderings for the proposed 100,000-square-foot museum and fielded questions from a sometimes hostile audience, said Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy.

“It was probably our most challenging meeting to date,” Mr. O’Neill said. “There has been a lot of misinformation and a lot of e-mails traveling around.”

The Chicago Children’s Museum has met with steady neighborhood opposition since it proposed in 2005 moving to a site in the park along Randolph Street from its current location at Navy Pier. The new facility would be located in Daley Bicentennial Plaza, just east of Millennium Park.

Mr. O’Neill said much of the opposition voiced at the packed meeting Tuesday night came from area residents concerned about increased pedestrian and vehicle traffic overwhelming the north end of Grant Park. He says those concerns are unfounded, saying Randolph Street is not swamped with cars because it does not feed into Lake Shore Drive and all buses and cars would access the Chicago Children’s Museum on Randolph Street’s mid-level.

Randolph Street’s three tiers is one reason the Grant Park Conservancy pushed for the museum’s relocation to be switched from the original plan at the northeast corner of Monroe Street and Columbus Drive, Mr. O’Neill said.

“There are groups of people who don’t want change,” he said. “But change is coming.”

Concerns about increased traffic should be alleviated when the museum conducts its public meetings in June, said Jim Law, the museum's vice-president of planning and external affairs and former executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Events.

Attendees at the Grant Park Conservancy gathering were shown renderings that depicted a lower roofline but broader profile for the proposed museum at 337 E. Randolph St. The design still calls for a two-story facility that would include a new field house to replace the dated Daley Bicentennial Field House, but now there is a publicly accessible plaza on the grounds, Mr. O’Neill said.

Mehta Brown, who lives across from the proposed Randolph Street location, is among the residents who firmly oppose any structural additions to Grant Park. She and other neighbors frown at the idea of a two-story atrium rising up across the street from their homes.

"I don't want anything to be built," said. Ms. Brown, who runs the Save Daley Bi blog. "This location is treasured and valued as is."

Eric Frost, who runs the community Web site New-Eastside.com, said the area around the proposed museum location is becoming too overdeveloped for his taste.

"We don't want to attract more (development)," he said. "It's just going to get busier."

Mark Sexton, a principal at Krueck & Sexton Architects, declined to comment on his firm’s recent tweaks to the Chicago Children’s Museum. Chicago-based Krueck & Sexton is the architect for the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies and has worked on Millennium Park’s Crown Fountain.

Aided by a $15-million grant from Allstate Insurance Co. and a land donation from Chicago’s Park District, the new Chicago Children’s Museum will be nearly double the 57,000 square feet it currently occupies at Navy Pier.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/arts/01arts.html?ref=arts

New Arts Center in Chicago

The New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien have been chosen to design a $100 million arts center at the University of Chicago, the university is to announce today. The design, still in the conceptual phases, calls for a glass and stone building with several quadrangles, narrow rectilinear windows and a tower described as a “beacon of light.” The center — to be called the Reva and David Logan Center for Creative and Performing Arts, after major donors to the project — is scheduled for completion in 2011. It will rise on the southern sector of the campus, alongside Frederick Law Olmsted’s historic Midway Plaisance Park. The building will feature studios, classrooms and art exhibition space; rehearsal and a black-box theater space for productions and teaching; music practice rooms and performance space; a film vault and screening hall; digital media and editing labs; and media classrooms. University trustees selected Ms. Tsien and Mr. Williams from among six firms in an international design competition.

Here is a rendering:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2007-06/30213785.jpg

I REALLY like this project; I hope we'll be able to see all of the other finalist entries. You beat me to it ChivDevil, thanks ;)

http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/6753/uc1yw6.jpg
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/5474/uc2bm6.jpg
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/7439/uc3hd7.jpg
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/6751/uc4fh0.jpg
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/275/uc5zc8.jpg
http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/9827/uc6lu1.jpg
http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/9958/uc7aq6.jpg
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/3516/uc8bc1.jpg
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/5193/uc9gg2.jpg
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/147/uc10oo5.jpg
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/39/uc11np9.jpg
http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/3531/uc12ch8.jpg
http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/4472/uc13xh4.jpg
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/2281/uc14xe8.jpg

I like this design a lot and I hope they don't change it too much before construction.

http://chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=25188

Meeting on Children’s Museum gets heated
By Lorene Yue
at Navy Pier.

Would be curious to see results of a traffic study as a fair share of the museum business is suburban. As well, how are the projections on existing garages? Are the Grant Street & Monroe garages already at capacity or would this help their utilization?
Navy Pier is not really efficiently accesable by public transportation, other than bus (which is fine if you live in the city), so the attendance figures of Navy Pier are pretty astounding considering that. The Museum is thankful to have the Navy Pier draw...would be interested in their new projections if they move.

Fits in well at bad string of 70's & 80's stuff that Northwestern erected inspite of their orginal quality (ode to occupied East Germany), but University of Chicago???

It may all depend on the quality of material they will actually use. If they want to compliment with the glass, fine, but the black slate? I don't know.

For example, the new Student Center and changes at IIT along the Green Line work, in my opinion, because they did not appear to skimp on the modern material quality of the glass and stainless steel used, especially for the tunnel project.

Are the Grant Street & Monroe garages already at capacity or would this help their utilization?

Why is the Children's Museum insistent upon building an incredibly expensive building where it's legally prohibited from doing so? Well, the East Monroe garage is underutilized, and a cynic might imagine some connection between the well-connected garage operator and the mayor's support for a location in Grant Park--or between a park location and tapping the Museums in the Park public funding.

The designs envision a direct connection from the underground garage to the museum. Yes, nothing enhances a child's understanding of Chicago and the world like going straight from a minivan to a cloakroom, bathed in flourescent light. Maybe there'll be a diorama in the corridor of Montgomery Ward, with a tear running down his face.

Why is the Children's Museum insistent upon building an incredibly expensive building where it's legally prohibited from doing so? Well, the East Monroe garage is underutilized, and a cynic might imagine some connection between the well-connected garage operator and the mayor's support for a location in Grant Park--or between a park location and tapping the Museums in the Park public funding.

The designs envision a direct connection from the underground garage to the museum. Yes, nothing enhances a child's understanding of Chicago and the world like going straight from a minivan to a cloakroom, bathed in flourescent light. Maybe there'll be a diorama in the corridor of Montgomery Ward, with a tear running down his face.

Agreed 100%, just trying to figure out the argument and financial outlook from the supporters and city. I like how they present a single option for public opinion (not multiple), knowing they are going through the motions for public input, like this will be stopped.

I agree also. Why don't they just fix that park and maybe make it similiar to the millenium park. Once you start building on grand park even if is small building who knows what will be next a highriser next to buckingham fountain.

Maybe there'll be a diorama in the corridor of Montgomery Ward, with a tear running down his face.

Yes, with him pointing towards Grant Park atop a Randolph Street highrise saying, "I didn't envision this to be a neighbhorhood park or bedroom community."

I agree also. Why don't they just fix that park and maybe make it similiar to the millenium park.

Well K+S are very good architects, and I think they are an appropriate choice considering that this will be connected to Millennium Park, which will be connected to Renzo Piano's Art Institute expansion. This will finally give people something to do after they cross the BP Bridge as well.

Once you start building on grand park even if is small building who knows what will be next a highriser next to buckingham fountain.

That's a little exaggerated. This plan has two stories above ground.