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295K views 705 replies 138 participants last post by  nyrmetros 
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#224 ·
I don't think they should move - but if they had to...

is there anywhere in the downtown vicinity where it could be built? as a non Chicago resident the only place that comes to mind would be near the United Center in the parking lots. moving out to the suburbs would be a huge mistake I think - just look at how well the Chicago Fire draw as compared to when they play at Soldier.

also would just like to add that I am okay with a lot of the renovations they are planning for Wrigley - they are needed. the only thing I am not okay with is that ridiculous jumbo-tron.
 
#225 ·
Well sure there are some places. Just off the top of my head they could move to the South Loop (like the Sox should have done). They could built over the rail yards just south of the Old Post Office for instance. Granted that would be at considerable expense.

Or they could build at the old Michael Reese Hospital which is just south of McCormick Place. This is a huge plot of land that was supposed to be the Olympic Village and whose future is still very much up in the air. There isn' too much on the north side. Perhaps once the old Finkl steel mill will be closed in a few years then. There is still some post industrial space on Kingsbury street south of North Ave. which may have enough room. Not far from Wrigley now maybe there would be enough space between Addison and Belmont along the river where the old River View Amusement Park was?

I don't think any of these locations have the positives of transit that Wrigley currently does however.
 
#228 ·
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-wrigley-field-0627-20130627,0,5554328.story

Tunney outlines demands on Wrigley renovation ahead of landmarks meeting

Letter spells out need to reduce size of outfield signage, lessen hotel's impact on residents


By John Byrne, Chicago Tribune reporter
June 27, 2013

On the eve of the first City Hall hearing on the plan to rehab Wrigley Field, Ald. Tom Tunney spelled out his list of demands.

Wrigleyville's alderman sent a letter to the Cubs on Wednesday saying that if the organization wants his support for the plan, it will need to cut by one-third the size of a left field video scoreboard and to greatly reduce the size of a requested right field advertising sign...........

In addition to reducing the left field video screen from 6,000 square feet to 4,000 square feet and the right field ad board from 1,000 square feet to 650 square feet, Tunney told the Cubs they should dump a request for a pedestrian bridge over Clark Street that team CEO Tom Ricketts wants to connect the ballpark to the hotel.

"I don't think there's a functional reason to put a bridge over Clark Street," Tunney said. "To transport 175 hotel guests?"

In addition, Tunney said he wants the entrance to the hotel moved from Patterson Avenue, a residential street west of Wrigley Field, to either Clark or Addison streets. And the alderman said he can't support a hotel outdoor patio above Patterson where guests could hang out. "Come on, people live 50 feet away from there," he said.............

Tunney said he's been heard in the negotiations, but in the letter he expressed frustration with the level of communication he has been getting from the Cubs as he tries to assuage the concerns of residents in the already-congested neighborhood full of bars and restaurants............
..
 
#229 ·
Thank goodness some professional critics has finally taken the Ricketts to task......

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-wrigley-field-710-20130710,0,7976959.story

Kamin: No time a good time for clock ad at Wrigley

Wrigley has features worth saving — and not be reworked in Fenway Park's image, architecture critic Blair Kamin writes

By Blair KaminTribune critic
July 10, 2013

.......The prospect of an ad (Rolex? Coke? Fritos?) marring that now-unsullied clock — and the fact that Chicago's landmarks commission didn't erase the idea from the Cubs' sign master plan — tells you everything about the team's brazenness and the commission's cluelessness.

That's reason for despair as the commission girds for a Thursday meeting at which it will vote on the most controversial aspect of the Ricketts' family's five-year, $300 million Wrigley renovation plan, which calls for a problematic mega-sign in left field and a smaller, less disturbing one in right.

Everybody but the most naive observer knows that the commissioners will approve the plan for the signs.........

This hint of streamlined modernity took Wrigley Field, an otherwise unpretentious building with a matter-of-fact framework of exposed steel, to a new level of sophistication. The scoreboard was the undisputed centerpiece of the ballpark's seating bowl, just as the red art deco marquee had pride of place at Clark and Addison.

There's nothing comparable at Fenway, I can safely say after several visits during a just-concluded sabbatical year in Cambridge, Mass. Which is why the Cubs' incessant drumbeat that Fenway's much-lauded 10-year, $285 million renovation offers the perfect template for Wrigley should be taken with a large grain of salt............
More in this very good critique in link
 
#231 ·
$500 million in renovations? Really? Wrigley Field is getting old and outdated. It needs to go. The Yankees did the very right thing by building a new ballpark because Yankee Stadium was getting too old and outdated. Fenway Park needs to go too. Out with the old. In with the new.
 
#239 ·
It has been discussed at length in other places. Long story short, the stadium was too small, was already falling apart in the mid 1950s, and the neighborhood had gone downhill, too. The Dodgers had decided that it would cost too much to rebuild Ebbets, and wanted to build a new place along Brooklyn's waterfront that would have some actual parking for cars. A gentleman named Robert Moses had been able to grab unheard of powers over almost any construction project in New York, and told the Dodgers the only place that they could build was in Flushing Meadow, about where the USTA center is now, and just across the tracks from where the Mets wound up. The Dodgers objected. Moses told the Dodgers take-it-or-leave-it, and the Dodgers left.
 
#241 ·
You must be quite the Robert Moses fan. Both have their flaws (obstructed views from columns, some ADA accessibility concerns, concourse sizing etc.) But neither is to small and both serve their purpose. Most new parks are coming in right around 40,000 seats which is about where both are. Both have have had a satisfactory number suites added through renovation, and in Fenway's case club seats too. Most importantly both are integrated into organic growth urban neighborhoods that is both exceptionally rare in this country and quite a wonderful gameday experience. Perhaps most importantly both teams make a lot of money playing in these venues and both fan bases are deeply attached to these places

What bothers me most about everything you post is that you take everything new as intrinsically better than something older. There seems to be no other qualifiers for the quality of architecture. Not functionality, not quality of construction, not a sense of elegance, light, power, context etc. In this view a Suburban megachurch is a "better" church than Chartes or Notre Dame, a stick framed p.o.s. ranch house in a subdivision is "better" as a house than Falling Water in this world view. And if that is how one understands the world you will destroy things of quality indiscriminately just to create something newer, which is just an awful way to inhabit the world. This world view is a big part how "urban decay" happened in the first place. When evaluating a project whether something is new or old should be way down the line if it even is a judgement. Don't ask is it new? Ask is it good: Does it serve it's purpose, is it well made, does it fit into the place it exists, does it fit the specific culture, is it aesthetically pleasing? It's just a disturbingly narrow minded worldview that misses the point otherwise.
 
#245 ·
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ld-renovation-changes-20131211,0,907954.story

City Council approves more Wrigley Field renovation changes

By Hal Dardick and John Byrne

Clout Street

2:14 p.m. CST, December 11, 2013

The Chicago City Council today approved measures to give the Cubs more flexibility on scheduling night games, an advertising archway over Clark Street and permission to push back the exterior outfield walls at Wrigley Field as part of the team’s planned $300 million renovation of the iconic-but-aging ballpark.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Wrigleyville Ald. Tom Tunney suggested it's time for the team to start construction after the city signed off in July and again in December on the ballpark plan.

The Cubs, however, are still engaged in talks with rooftop club owners to try to avert a lawsuit if the renovation blocks views into the ballpark. The team has indicated its reluctance to start construction only to see it tied up in the courts for years.

As part of the latest tweaks, Wrigley's right field wall would be moved back 15 feet, narrowing Sheffield Avenue, and the left field wall would be pushed out 16 feet, narrowing Waveland Avenue. Parking would be taken out on both streets, eliminating about 58 spaces, but each street would maintain two-way traffic...........

On Tuesday, Ald. Bob Fioretti, 2nd, faulted city officials for not doing their own appraisal and instead taking the Cubs-funded version as gospel.

“I’m quite taken aback that we did not have an appraiser,” Fioretti said. “I want to make sure that when we have compensation, it’s fair and just.”.........

But Chester Kropidlowski, chairman of the East Lake View Neighbors organization, didn’t see it that way.

“I want to voice my concern about what is happening to Sheffield Avenue and Waveland Avenue,” Kropidlowski said. “There has been no inclusive process by which decisions were made to give away our streets to the Cubs.......
...
 
#248 ·
Wrigley Field still 'home' 100 years later

Wrigley Field turns 100 years old today. This article is from cnn.com:
(CNN) -- Living around Wrigley Field has always felt magical to diehard Chicago Cubs fan Deb Gordils, who was born and raised in Wrigleyville, just blocks away from the famed ballpark.

The 53-year-old said her life has been intertwined with the ballpark. She spent most of her youth daydreaming that she'd become the next shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, and she was devastated when she was told she couldn't play Little League baseball because she was a girl. But that didn't lessen her undying love for the Friendly Confines.
See 100 years at Wrigley Field

"I remember racing to the park after school to catch the last parts of a game," Gordils said. When she was much younger, she would watch some of those games from a friend's apartment window that had a view of the field. Some of those apartments still exist today.

Gordils is one of many Chicagoans, baseball fans and historians who shared their memories and photos of the renowned ballpark with CNN iReport in honor of Wrigley Field turning 100 years old on April 23.

The second oldest major league ballpark, Wrigley Field has become a cultural and historical institution in the Windy City since its opening in 1914. From its outfield walls covered in ivy, which was planted in the 1930s and has occasionally thwarted outfielders in their quest for the ball, to its manual scoreboard, which no batted ball has ever hit, Wrigley Field retains much of its original charm.

In an age when newer baseball stadiums are the norm, what's the secret to Wrigley's longevity?

Gary Gillette, co-chair of the Society for American Baseball Research ballparks committee and a baseball writer and editor, said the ballpark's history and assimilation into its community is a big part of what keeps Wrigley Field popular today. He said it's the same for Boston's Fenway Park, which celebrated 100 years in 2012.

"There's a reason the neighborhood around Wrigley Field is called Wrigleyville. Wrigley Field is integrated into the neighborhood," he said. One of the park's features that he attributes to its neighborliness is its lack of parking spaces. That's right, no cars.

"Wrigley and Fenway, they're very tight knit. There's very little parking, most people take mass transit or walk and that helps preserve them," he said.
The rest of the article, some links and a slide show are here.

Here's to you, Wrigley. :cheers:
 
#250 ·
Cubs owner resubmits original Wrigley plan

In a move that is expected to lead to legal action by the Wrigleyville rooftop owners against the team, Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts announced in a video that he has to decided to go back to his original renovation and expansion plan for Wrigley Field that could significantly impact rooftop sightlines.

In the video published early Thursday morning on the team's website, Ricketts told fans that he needed to move forward with his $500 million privately funded mission to revitalize the 100-year-old ballpark and the surrounding area in order to see the fruits of the revenue generators that his counterparts enjoy. The video strongly connects the Cubs' lack of competitiveness in recent years with the inability to produce the revenue others teams are seeing.

"Being unable to improve our park puts us in the hole by tens of millions of dollars a year," Ricketts said.

In January 2013, Ricketts announced a master plan that included expanding the walls and bleachers; a signage plan to accommodate extensive advertising was never realized. His revised expansion plan requires Commission on Chicago Landmarks approval for calls for additional seating, new lighting, four additional LED signs of up to 650 square feet, and a 2,400-square-foot video board in right field.

Other changes sought by Cubs that don't require commission approval include design modification to the player facilities, including expanding the Cubs clubhouse. The visitor's clubhouse would also be expanded. The Chicago Tribune reports the bullpens would be moved from the foul lines to underneath the bleachers, which would require the removal of some bricks and some ivy.

The new inventory would compromise the 15 rooftop owners across the street, whose revenue-sharing agreement with the team runs through the end of 2023. They give 17 percent of their gross revenues to the Cubs for the right to sell seats that peek into the park. Although Ricketts got approval from the local authorities to go through with that, he backed down from the aggressive design and settled for a more tempered plan -- agreeing to put a Budweiser sign in right field and a video board in left field in the name of peace and moving forward.

Despite getting the necessary civic approval, Ricketts couldn't come to terms on a settlement with the rooftop owners, who threatened to sue. So rather than risk fighting them in court on the compromised plan, Ricketts has gone back to his more aggressive proposal.

Read more here...

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/stor...return-original-wrigley-field-renovation-plan

Good for the owner. Those rooftop people are nothing but parasites anyways. They should get no consideration.
 
#251 ·
Oh for the love of....

Why haven't they called Janet Marie Smith - the person who was in charge of the recent dodger stadium and Fenway park renovations? Those were major successes in the eyes of the fans and owners to historic parks. Increased revenue while preserving the historic qualities of the parks.
 
#254 ·
Cubs: Landmarks panel expected to OK Wrigley renovation plan
http://politics.suntimes.com/articl...ve-wrigley-renovation-plan/mon-06302014-716pm

The Cubs said Monday they’re on the July 10 agenda for the Commission on Chicago Landmarks and expect to win approval for their revised plan to renovate Wrigley Field — including seven outfield signs, two of them video scoreboards — after a tweak to accommodate Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“We’re not prepared to lose another year and jeopardize delivering on the promises we made to our players, our fans and our [advertising] partners,” said Cubs spokesman Julian Green.

“We believe the revised expansion plan fits within the guidelines of the Landmarks Commission. We’re confident we’ve addressed all of the outstanding issues and should be going through with our revised plan on July 10. We took the widening of the bullpen doors off the table. The only material change was those doors.”
 
#256 ·
Cubs win Landmarks approval prepare for construction
http://www.wrigleyfield.com/expansion-updates

The Chicago Cubs won unanimous approval from the Commission on Chicago Landmarks today for an ambitious $575 million remake of Wrigley Field. The new plan expands on last year’s proposal to renovate the 100-year-old stadium and surrounding areas and calls for seven advertising signs in the outfield, instead of two signs, including a Jumbotron-like video board in left field.

After reducing the plan for the video board from 5,700 square feet to 4,452 square feet, Cubs officials recommended to the landmarks commission an even smaller size Thursday of 3,990 square feet.

The landmarks commission had to review the plan because Wrigley Field has city landmark status that protects several historic features of the ballpark, including the “uninterrupted sweep of the bleachers.”

Perhaps the best part of the upcoming Wrigley upgrade is bringing back the 30s wrought iron facade exterior. @Cubs pic.twitter.com/6COWMcgCCn
 
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