Champaign-Urbana Development News

[mohammed wong]

Sculptor's work finally in place in Urbana

Mon, 04/16/2012 - 8:00am | Melissa Merli



Photo by: Robert K. O'Daniell/The News-Gazette

A sculpture by John David Mooney is lit up for the first time in the plaza just north of the Urbana City Building in Urbana on Thursday, April 12, 2012.

URBANA — Artist John David Mooney believes dusk is the "magic hour," when the colored lights on his 33-foot-high abstract sculpture outside city hall are at their most effective. That's the time the LED lights inside the stainless steel piece appear as subtle shades of blue and orange — his nod to the school colors of the University of Illinois, where he obtained his master's of fine arts degree.

The lights were turned on for the first time Thursday evening, the day after the piece was installed by a giant-crane operator.The giant abstract tree, fabricated in the U.S., Mooney said — is the final major piece for the mini-park he designed for the north side of the City Building.

Webber said he's sure they would be pleased with the more subtle effects of the LED — light-emitting diode — lights. The mayor is delighted with them because the person who invented the LED — UI engineering Professor Nick Holonyak— lives in Urbana.Mooney's starting point for the mini-park — he views it in its entirety as a work of art — was the fact Urbana is a Tree City U.S.A. From there, he planned every detail of the mini-park down to the bricks and Cold Spring granite in the walkways, the stones along the paths, the bushes, and every tree.

Now only a few small pieces are needed to complete the park. They include lighting for the 12-foot, mirrored, polished stainless steel sculpture, "Falling Leaf." Described by Mooney as a "hidden surprise," "Falling Leaf" was placed several years ago in a fountain several yards behind the newly placed sculpture."Falling Leaf" is partly obscured by a semi-circular earthen mound, a reference by the artist to the native American earthen ceremonial ring that he mentally connects to the council chambers inside the city building.Also, bushes will be planted around the base of the huge sculpture out front, along Vine Street. And, finally, Mooney will have fabricated a table and benches of granite, for a circular, shaded space next to the City Building. The U.S. General Services Administration salvaged the granite while working on Chicago's Federal Plaza and gave it to the John David Mooney Foundation.


http://www.news-gazette.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/art/2012-04-16/sculptors-work-finally-place-urbana.html[/url]




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[mohammed wong]

Noyes Laboratory undergoing construction

http://www.dailyillini.com/index.php...o_construction

Carina Lee The Daily Illini

Posted: April 19, 2012 - 1:22 PM

Updated: April 20, 2012 - 12:43 AM

Noyes Laboratory is currently undergoing construction to repair parts of the building. Ken Wooldridge, operation manger of the school of Chemical Science, said that Noyes began construction on the outside of the building last Monday. “We are just starting the fencing of the exterior of the building for safety purposes,” he said. “They will start by cleaning the exterior of the building, starting to repair the brick and the motor joints around the external part of the building. “

Wooldridge also added that certain areas of the building will be restored and preserved during the construction “In conjunction with that, they will be rebuilding the chimneys above and around the parameter of the building,” Wooldridge said. “They are restoring those for historical value so they are trying to use the original brick as much as they can.” During the project, most entrances will be closed off, but the northeast corner exit will remain open so that the building will remain accessible for students with disabilities.
Bike racks have also been temporarily removed, but students can use the bike racks at the Illini Union, Chemistry Annex building, Morrill and the Burrill Hall.

[lfritz30]

Pretty cool - Lincoln Hall definitely needed some love - it'll be interesting to see what they do to bring it up to the level of other buildings on the Quad.

[lfritz30]

Neat - gotta love the addition of some public art to the downtown area.

[mohammed wong]

Originally Posted by lfritz30

Neat - gotta love the addition of some public art to the downtown area.

its been a couple of years since Ive been down there. I like to keep up with whats going on so that I know what to check out when I go back down again, when I get my act together I will post photos from the news articles. I havent been back down there since I started this thread.

Its the best area in Illinois outside of the Chicago Area IMHO.

[mohammed wong]

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/bus...moving-m2.html

CHAMPAIGN — Chicago Title Insurance Co. plans to move its Champaign office to the M2 on Neil building this fall, according to a release from One Main Development, the building's developer.

Chicago Title, now at 201 N. Neil St., C, would move a block north and occupy nearly 5,000 square feet on the third floor of M2, the release stated.The move is expected to take place in August or September, said Cynthia Faullin, One Main's vice president of development.

Adrian Peppers, area manager for Chicago Title, was not immediately available for comment. The local Chicago Title office employs about 15 and provides title examination, title insurance and real estate closing services, according to the release.

Another downtown Champaign business, Alpha-Care Health Professionals, moved its office from 115 N. Neil St., C, to the third floor of M2 earlier this year. The nine-story mixed-use building has a bank office and three restaurants on the first floor, office space on the second through fifth floors and residential condominiums on the sixth through ninth floors.

[mohammed wong]

Champaign OKs hotel deal; also approves step toward research park extension

Tue, 05/01/2012 - 9:28pm | Patrick Wade, staff writer,

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/bus...search-park-ex


CHAMPAIGN – The city council on Tuesday night green-lighted one of the first steps toward continuing development of the University of Illinois Research Park to the east.A $4.9 million, state-funded project will allow officials to extend a network of roads to the east of First Street, including South Fourth Street from St. Mary's Road to Windsor Road. City council members unanimously signed off on the project.

Construction was to be funded with just over $6 million with money from the state's capital program, Illinois Jobs Now!. Project bids came in about 35 percent under an engineer's estimate, which leaves more than $1 million to fund other Research Park capital projects. City officials say the University of Illinois is drafting a list of projects for which that extra state money might be used.

In other business, the city council formally approved a seven-year, $3 million tax rebate program for a proposed downtown hotel. The hotel, scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2013, will be located at the corner of Church and Neil streets, where a 2008 fire destroyed the historic Metropolitan Building.City officials believe developing that corner will strengthen the downtown area's business climate. The agreement give administrators the authority to rebate up to $3 million in tax revenue the hotel business generates in its first seven years.
“There is so much value in us getting rid of that hole,” said council member Tom Bruno. “That is worth so much to us, that that alone is worth the investment to the city.”

[mohammed wong]

Im trying to post my first image.
Wow its about TIME!!!

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/bus...att-place.html


Downtown Champaign hotel would be Hyatt Place
Tue, 05/01/2012 - 8:00am | Don Dodson, staff writer,
Photo by: DLR Group



CHAMPAIGN — The developer of a proposed downtown Champaign hotel said he has applied to have it branded as a Hyatt Place.Hans Grotelueschen called Hyatt Place "an upscale, select-service brand" well-suited for the project proposed for the southwest corner of Neil and Church streets.Hyatt Place hotels are generally mid-sized properties, with 125 to 200 rooms, often located in suburban areas or near airports. They offer limited services, compared with the larger Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt brands.As proposed, the Champaign hotel would have 145 rooms, with rooms located on the top five floors of the nine-story building.Parking would be on the second through fourth floors, with the lobby and a small bar-cafe on the main floor.

According to the Hyatt website, Hyatt Place properties generally have a Bakery Cafe that offers pastries, coffee and wine and a Guest Kitchen that serves complimentary breakfasts. Guest can also order soups, salads and sandwiches there.Hyatt Place, a brand launched in 2006, now has more than 160 hotels in the U.S., catering to both business travelers and families.The hotels have meeting rooms for small corporate events. Guest rooms are equipped with 42-inch high-definition flat-panel TVs, complimentary wi-fi and a supplemental sleeper-sofa.

Tuesday night, the Champaign City Council will consider approving $3 million in rebates on tax dollars generated by the hotel during its first seven years of operation. Here is a link to the 70-page pdf of the document the council will consider.Grotelueschen said he has not yet completed a franchise agreement, hired a builder, hired an operator or secured financing for the project, pending the council vote.The local project would be the first Hyatt Place in downstate Illinois. There are several in the Chicago area — Hoffman Estates, Itasca, Lombard, Schaumburg and Warrenville — as well as several in surrounding states, including two in Indianapolis and Milwaukee, and one each in Fort Wayne, Ind.; South Bend, Ind.; Des Moines, Iowa, and Madison, Wis.

Grotelueschen — who announced the project in September 2011 and disclosed details of it in February — said he would like to break ground for the Champaign hotel in the next 30 to 60 days, with hopes of completing the project by Aug. 15, 2013. Previous timetables had mentioned a slightly earlier target for completion.The developer has said he plans to tear down the YG Financial Group building at 115 W. Church St. to make room for the hotel, which would be built on the site formerly occupied by the Metropolitan Building.That building was destroyed by fire in 2008, and an adjacent law-office building to the south had to be torn down due to structural damage. Some of YG Financial Group's offices have already relocated to the renovated Blue Line Station building at 804 N. Neil St., C.





A drawing of the proposed Hyatt Place hotel at the corner of Church and Neil streets in downtown Champaign.

[mohammed wong]

Originally Posted by araman0

It would be great to see some pictures of all this developement. I have never been to the city and am dying to see some streetscape photos. (Google streetview has covered a whole 2 streets in all of downtown.)

OKay, years later I finally got my act together.

[The Urban Politician]

Now THIS is what I call development thread..

[mohammed wong]

THanks Urb.
I think the number of views for this thread will now jump up considerably.
They always say that a picture is worth a thousand words.
A man can not live on text alone.

[araman0]

Originally Posted by mohammed wong

OKay, years later I finally got my act together.

Thank you Mohammed, that hotel looks like it will be an amazing addition to downtown. I wish I could find an excuse to travel through that area to see the city for myself. Thanks for posting the picture!

[mohammed wong]

Originally Posted by araman0

Thank you Mohammed, that hotel looks like it will be an amazing addition to downtown. I wish I could find an excuse to travel through that area to see the city for myself. Thanks for posting the picture!

No problem. Nice enough addition to Champaign which WARRANTED me getting off my lazy but to figure out how to post a picture, which is very very easy. Too bad C-U doesnt have the state capital in it, then it would be very similar to Madison, still C-U is a very cool little area that is doing quite well for itself.

[The Urban Politician]

Originally Posted by mohammed wong

No problem. Nice enough addition to Champaign which WARRANTED me getting off my lazy but to figure out how to post a picture, which is very very easy. Too bad C-U doesnt have the state capital in it, then it would be very similar to Madison, still C-U is a very cool little area that is doing quite well for itself.

^ Ann Arbor, MI is an example of a college town that doesn't need to also be a state capital to be hip and fun.

I've never been to C-U so I can't compare, but if it's anything like Ann Arbor I would definitely like to check it out

[mohammed wong]

True Urb., But Ann Arbor also is close to Detroit and Detroit burbs, which does help it out.

C-U is different in that its about 2.5 hours south of Chicago
and is pretty isolated, but that can be a good thing too. Its a fun place to visit. I would like to see more going on there, hopefully
the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies gets built some day.

http://www.uif.uillinois.edu/storydetail.aspx?id=909

[mohammed wong]

speaking of Roger Ebert here are some pics from the recent film festival
down there in Champaign Urbana


http://www.news-gazette.com/multimed...-festival-2012


It wont let me post the photos, there a couple good ones, The Virginia is a beautiful OLD MOVIE theatre,
the way movies WERE MEANT to be watched. I will have to go down there one year, very cool film festival
of overlooked films

[mohammed wong]

http://www.dailyillini.com/index.php...ovating_campus

Year’s busiest work period underway for construction crews renovating campus

Nathaniel Lash Managing Editor of Reporting

Posted: June 3, 2012 - 11:07 PM


Construction crews are at their busiest period of the year on campus, working on 34 separate projects across the University’s grounds.
Some of these construction projects involve putting the finishing touches on longer standing efforts, like the $60 million renovation of Lincoln Hall.
The restoration that began in 2009 with millions of dollars of renovation funds coming from the state is coming to a close, as faculty and staff from the College of LAS have started settling into the renovated building. The move-in started May 14, and staff are currently making the preparations to ensure that the hall is ready for students in the fall as construction crews finish up the first-floor classrooms.

LAS Associate Dean for Administration Matthew Tomaszewski said that the dean’s office is already fully moved in, and other departments, like Sociology and the college’s student office, will be getting settled throughout the summer. “It’s been a long process, but it’s been a good one. … The improvements are fantastic,” Tomaszewski said. “The classrooms are brought up to the standard you’d expect for construction in the 21st century.” The renovation includes new electronics as part of “smart” technology in the refurbished classrooms, as well as mechanical and electrical upgrades to air conditioning and plumbing. Tomaszewski said that pending improvements to the building will also include a cafe on Lincoln Hall’s lower floor. Still absent from the main entrance of the hall is the eponymous bust of Abraham Lincoln. There is an empty alcove awaiting the recently refurbished bronze sculpture of the former president that is currently housed at the Spurlock Museum.

“It’s a fabulous clean space. Despite the dust, it feels much better,” said Julie Woolsey, assistant to the head of Sociology, while moving into the new office space on the building’s third floor. “It’s coming together.”And while some buildings are opening up for use in the fall, a few are coming down. Another piece of the Six Pack — Garner Hall — is set to be demolished later this month to make way for the new look of the Stanley O. Ikenberry Commons dormitories. Forbes Hall will be demolished next summer. University Facilities and Services spokesman Andy Blacker said the first phase of that project, manifest in Nugent Residence Hall, was completed in April, and the second of three residence halls should be completed next May. The final building will enter the designing stage this fall. For that phase, the University board of trustees recently signed on Turner Construction Company at their May 31 meeting to finish the $80 million project.

[mohammed wong]

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/edu...coln-hall.html


Enter the 'wow' factor at Lincoln Hall
Sat, 06/16/2012 - 8:00am | Julie Wurth, staff writer,


CHAMPAIGN — The scaffolding is down, the restorations nearly complete, and Lincoln Hall is just about ready for students — aside from a few finishing touches, such as Mr. Lincoln himself. And his lucky nose.

After more than two years of construction, the renovation of one of the University of Illinois' most historic buildings is winding down.Faculty and administrative offices began moving in earlier this month, and the building will open for classes in August.The century-old building on the UI Quad received a $58 million rehab, funded by the Illinois Capital Development Board. Lincoln Hall opened its doors in 1911 and underwent its last major renovation in 1928, when an addition that included its famous theater was built.

The dean's office, the Department of Sociology and the college's ATLAS technology unit are already back in the building. The Department of Communication will move in June 25, and the college's Student Academic Affairs Office will move in late July, once summer orientation is complete.
"It looks totally different from the old building. It's really beautiful," said Shari Day, office administrator for the sociology department, who moved in two weeks ago.

The project is a blend of the historic and modern. Exterior windows were replaced with more energy-efficient models, but the wood moldings were reused. New slate tiles on the roof look historical. Elaborate entranceways have a new coat of gleaming copper.The first floor maintains its traditional wood doors, bannisters and terrazzo floors, but classrooms are outfitted with the latest interactive technology. Each has a computer for the instructor so professors don't have to bring their own laptops, along with a new sound system, recessed screens and "clickers' for students to answer questions or take surveys electronically.

All classrooms are now on the first floor, aside from small department seminars, to provide the best flow for students. Classroom doors, which open out into the hall, were recessed so that they wouldn't slam into passers-by.
On the upper floors, materials were reused where possible, but there's a contemporary feel to the spaces. Glass-walled conference rooms in three-story towers overlook the restored inner courtyard, now full of plantings.

Old chair-rails and other reclaimed wood from the project was used to create horizontal paneling in all of the reception areas in the building, including the second-floor dean's office. Day loves how the building maintains its historical character, such as the original classroom doors, but she's also grateful for the modern central heating and air-conditioning systems. The old window units and boilers left a lot to be desired in terms of climate control, she said.

"We wore summer clothes in the winter and winter clothes in the summer," Day said. Associate Dean Matthew Tomaszewski, who has been overseeing the project for the college, said planners incorporated energy-saving technology in the building with the goal of achieving gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, rating system.

A green roof with low-maintenance plants, visible from upper windows, was added atop the atrium addition. In a bright space on the fourth floor, home to rows of desks for graduate assistants, vaulted ceilings and skylights flood the room with light, and "smart" technology dims or brightens lights as needed. The building's showpiece, the ornate theater, is in the final stages of renovation. It boasts 650 new theater seats — a bit wider to accommodate expanding Americans — with fold-out desks and the original endcaps.

The elaborate medallions, scrollwork and other embellishments on the walls and ceilings have been painstakingly restored with historical colors and gold and silver leaf. "There were people for weeks on scaffolding with paint brushes a quarter-inch wide putting on stenciling," said Mike Wise, project manager for the campus.

Work remains in the backstage area, a few walls still need touch-ups, and crews this week were applying layers of paint to the stair rails.
But the marble entryway known as Memorial Hall gleams with gold leaf, the arched stained-glass window has new life and doors and railings have been painted to resemble bronze or aged copper.

"Everyone who comes here has that 'wow' factor," Wise said.
The gold niche that will once again hold the restored bust of Abraham Lincoln is ready and waiting. But to avoid damage, the statue will remain safely at the Spurlock Museum until all renovations are finished, Tomaszewski said. (Lincoln's nose, rubbed for good luck by students for decades, has also been refurbished.)

A cafe space is nearly complete under the theater, an area thought to be originally a smoking lounge for theater patrons. It had been carved up into small graduate assistant cubicles with a dropped ceiling, but architects uncovered a barrel-vaulted ceiling under the tile. The plan is to have vendors sell coffee and food. Wise said the project is still within budget, though there have been some "unforeseen conditions." For instance, a glass wall had to be installed alongside the ornate wood-and-metal railing in Memorial Hall because it wasn't tall enough to meet code, and crews had to find some way to anchor it underneath, he said. A grand rededication is scheduled for February 2013, to coincide with Lincoln's birthday.

[mohammed wong]

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/cou...tol-place.html




Is it time to wipe slate clean in Bristol Place?
Sun, 06/17/2012 - 8:00am | Patrick Wade, staff writer,
Photo by: Darrell Hoemann/The News-Gazette

The house on the corner of Roper and Chestnut in the Bristol Park area of Champaign on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 .

City officials fear best way to clean up neighborhood is to level it — and at least some of the residents agree

CHAMPAIGN — Two months ago, a FedEx carrier tried to deliver a package to a white, two-story home with a good view of the Canadian National railroad tracks and an Ameren Illinois substation. No one was home. That is what is revealed by the first of two messages stuck to the lonely home's front door, just a few steps across a porch whose boards threaten to give way when they're stressed by the weight of anyone who approaches. The other is an April 24 message from the city of Champaign: The grass is too long, and the owner needs to cut it before the city does it for him and bills him for the cost. Many of the homes here are more than 100 years old, and a high proportion of them are occupied by renters instead of their owners.

This is just another notice in a long line of property code violations that plague the neighborhood. This year, the home at the corner of Roper and Chestnut in the Bristol Place neighborhood was assessed at just under $14,000, and it is one of the more extreme examples of how crime and property maintenance problems can devalue a neighborhood. And it is one of the reasons city officials want to level 76 homes and start fresh.

In the city's lowest-valued area with one of the highest crime rates, Pat Posey lives on the neighborhood's worst corner at Clock and Bellefontaine. In 1998, police estimated a drug transaction went down in the Bristol Place neighborhood every two or three minutes. Posey owns one of the neighborhood's nicer homes, a blue one-story house that Habitat for Humanity built five years ago, but she and her husband have been awakened by a bullet driving itself through the bedroom drywall. It is not so much the neighborhood's residents that drive the crime rate, Posey said, but the people who come into the neighborhood from other parts of the city.

But she has lived on Bellefontaine Street since 1967, and she still cannot figure out why it is an attractive neighborhood for crime. "I lived here 40 years, and I still can't answer that question," Posey said. "But it's the best place for a good fight." The Rev. Eugene Barnes, who operates the Metanoia Centers kitty-corner from Posey, has a theory: "It appears no one cares." Let a neighborhood seem to disintegrate, Barnes said, and criminals see an opportunity in the lack of the residents' and the city's concern. The city has addressed Barnes' concerns in abbreviated steps over the years, but officials are starting to roll out their biggest plan yet: Buy all the homes — through eminent domain, if necessary — and tear them down.

What is left will be a blank canvas. "We wanted to be pretty sure if it needs to go that way," said Greg Skaggs, the city's community development specialist. "That was the last resort."Buying, demolishing and preparing the seven blocks for redevelopment will cost $7.4 million. That includes the required assistance the city — and likely the Housing Authority of Champaign County — will provide to help relocate the neighborhood's residents.

What will rise from the dust is not clear yet, but city officials know they are not going to rebuild 75 to 100 single-family homes. They also do not want to build exclusively low-income housing."We're not interested in building islands of poverty any more," said Kerri Spear, the city's neighborhood programs manager. It is also unclear if the neighborhood's residents will want or be able to return."What is being proposed is the breakup of a community," Terry Townsend, an activist and former Housing Authority commissioner, told the city council last month.

Townsend worries about gentrification — the displacement of the poorest of residents to make way for those who are more affluent. The focus, he said, should be on affordability and accessibility. "Clear and simple, you're going to gentrify that neighborhood," he said. "This is the breakup of an African-American community." Barnes said he sees it differently. He has been in the neighborhood since the demolition of the infamous "green apartments" at the corner of Market and Bellefontaine streets, one of the havens for much of the area's drug activity.He said the area is much improved since the green apartment days, and the residents who remain deserve better."These people are part of the city," Barnes said. "They're part of the citizenry. They deserve the same kind of attention as the people down in Devonshire." City officials are using it as reminder of what can happen while a neighborhood decays.
"One of our goals is to not ever have to do this again," Spear said. "We think we can do that with Garwood. We think we can do that with Garden Hills."

Meanwhile, Posey is getting ready to move — she was disappointed when she learned that she would have to leave her home and the neighborhood, and she does not want to think about her next step yet. She doesn't know where she'll go, and she doesn't know if she'll come back. But she is not resisting the change. She thinks it's about time."We need to see something different in this neighborhood," Posey said. "It deserves it."

[mohammed wong]

Urbana business building nearly full
Sat, 07/14/2012 - 1:00pm | Don Dodson, staff writer,

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/bus...arly-full.html

URBANA — The three-story building at Lincoln and University avenues in Urbana is almost entirely leased, now that a new tenant has signed on.The Renal Research Institute has leased space on the third floor of the building at 901 W. University Ave., U, said David Cocagne, president and CEO of Vermilion Development, the building's developer.

The institute, which is expected to take control of the 5,000-square-foot space later this month, plans to provide training for at-home dialysis there, Cocagne said.Einstein Bros. Bagels occupies much of the first floor, and the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education occupies part of the first floor and all the second floor, Cocagne said.

Rounding out the tenant rolls is the Carle Development Foundation, which has offices on the third floor. Only about 500 square feet of the building remains available for lease."It's 98 percent occupied," Cocagne said.The New York-based Renal Research Institute operates the Champaign Urbana Dialysis Center near the Provena Covenant Medical Center campus in Urbana.