We've posted about the topic many many many times and it will be good to squash rumors and hear some news straight from the horses mouth. Stay tuned.
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| Image from Architecture Chicago Plus |
The Roosevelt Road viaduct is another example of Chicago's man-made levels. It goes on for blocks, towering above Dearborn Park, over once endless strands of railroad tracks now mostly gone, and on to the approach to the bridge over the Chicago River.
In the middle of that viaduct is The Roosevelt Collection, a mixed use development with 342 residential units and nearly 400,000 square feet of retail space, A. Epstein, RTKL and Hirsch Associates, architects. While it has a new Target to the east, the complex, whose site plan looks like an oversized clothespin, otherwise lies within a moat of some of Chicago's largest tracts of undeveloped land.
The post goes on to walk you through the history of the road and leaves us with a critical jab at its current state:
Right now, the Roosevelt viaduct is an anti-urban disconnect from the fabric of the city, just as the retail to the west of the river veers towards an anti-urban, shopping-within-a-sea-of-parking vibe. Assuming all those vacant tracts around the Roosevelt viaduct eventually begin to fill up, the city needs something more than a development-by-development improvisation, lest the district become just a series of insular, self-contained mega-projects, existing in near-perfect isolation one to another. That's the profile of a second-rate suburb, not a great city. All the parcels will be developed separately, but continuity counts. Chicago needs a plan and a set of guidelines to stitch this tabula rasa together if the Roosevelt Viaduct District is to realize its potential as one the city's great neighborhoods.We understand what the writer is saying, but don't think it's that bad. Yes, it could be better and more "urban" but personally we appreciate the convenience that comes with a commercial corridor like Roosevelt Road could become.
While most urbanophiles love local, small stores with character (as do we), the reality is that most people still flee their area for the convenience of big box stores. The challenge in our opinion is to build up Roosevelt Road, but keep the North/South streets more "local" and "urban". If you walk down State, Wabash, Dearborn and Michigan Avenue you get this. It could be better, but it's slowly getting their.
Hopefully Roosevelt Road corridor continues to develop and becomes a shopping destination, bringing people around the city to our neighborhood. If the people come all the businesses in the area will benefit.
What do you think? Disagree? Agree? Tough to tell?
Fully agree. The key to the South Loop is keeping the neighborhood feel throughout, but having the big box types and office buildings as bookends Roosevelt Road and future Cermak/State area. Printer's Row, Dearborn Park I,II, Museum Campus, Prairie District, Motor Row all have the neighborhood vibe with small modern looking retail.
ReplyDeleteSeems like a good plan to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I wish there was more planning involved by the city than to have these tract be developed as completely independent projects. Would love to see some continuity. Would love to see some more traffic cross Roosevelt Road (south bound).
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to see some continuity in future developments. If you look at city like Minneapolis and how all of the downtown buildings are connceted by skyways, something along those lines would be a great feature.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I'm around that stretch of Roosevelt road, all I can think is, "The suburbs are closer than you think." It's a bunch of big boxes without any city soul whatsoever. Time to think creatively, city folks!
ReplyDeleteI think a HUGE factor in this will be the plot to the south of Roosevelt Collection. That's segregated countless ways from any neighborhood, so will that continue to stay segregated and become big-box land (Walmart anyone?) or will it develop into it's own neighborhood? I was in Austin earlier this year, and it's a great city with perfectly sized developments. They had roads with street parking but 1 lane in each direction, yet 8, 10, 15 story buildings on either side. There was retail in the bottom, but not Bath and Body Works and Gaps, more local stuff, including a multiplex, but not megaplex. If a good neighborhood idea like what's planned for the South Works U.S. Steel site gets built here, that could really help Roosevelt form a positive identity.
ReplyDeleteI hear the british school are coming?
ReplyDeleteI walk through the property in question regularly and my, admittedly selfish, fantasy for the lot is that it would be converted into an urban version of Upstate New York's Storm King - a 'Scuplture Garden', yes, but curated and dynamic...not just a few big modern sculptures plopped down in a plaza...that may be a little pie-in-the-sky...if it gets developed residentially I pray there would be some horizontal contiunity with the townhouses on State Street and leave a significant public access to the river that would link up with Ping Tom park in Chinatown. This City has a beautiful public Lakeshore. It would be nice to see a commensurate embrace of the River
ReplyDeleteThe arrow is pointing up for the South Loop for a number of reasons, but the Roosevelt Road corridor is not one of them. The elevated/isolated design presents serious challenges. Roosevelt Collection is a nice asset that will lease up over time, and as long as Southgate has the Whole Foods they will be okay. Other properties west of the River on this car-dominated stretch will not will not fare as well - it's already choked with traffic and yet it's totally underdeveloped. Big box stores and huge surface lots will continue to be on the downtrend. East of the River is walkable, with access to the L. If new development west of the River can bring some pedestrian-friendly elements and public amenities - parks, plazas, public transportation, etc. - then it has a chance at attracting tenants. Keep an eye on the Bond Companies development on Canal. If designed well, that deal could (combined with Southgate) anchor a cluster of development/value creation. May they succeed.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else annoyed with how UN-pedestrian friendly SouthGate is? Visiting Whole Foods and PetSmart I have to walk through the car entrance in order to get to the sidewalks to head south/east. I mean really...you're in downtown Chicago...could you not have at least considered the fact that not all the shoppers would be coming by car. I really hope this isn't a growing trend.
ReplyDeleteAvoid SouthGate as much as possible because I can't even get from DSW to Starbucks, let alone try to get from Whole Foods to PetSmart.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on the pedestrian environment of SouthGate. But then again, that whole stretch of Roosevelt leaves a lot to be desired for people on foot. I avoid that area as much as possible, be it on car, bike, or foot. It's a clusterf*ck.
ReplyDelete