Slice of Life: The Boiling Seas

When you were a kid did you have that fantasy about a vein of volcanic magma opening up underneath Lake Michigan and the water boils and makes the world's largest pot of spaghetti?  Yeah, me too.

Here we see the comparatively waters of Lake Michigan boiling into the frigid air on a winter's morn with Navy Pier (600 East Grand Avenue) silhouetted in the foreground.

Slice of Life: For Love and Cheeseburgers

A wee moggie gazes out  the windows of the Anti-Cruelty Society (157 West Grand Avenue), hoping that someone will take pity on him and bring him home for love and snuggles and cheeseburgers.  Alas, no one comes this night.

Clark and Grand Hotels Plan Revised

A couple of days ago we told you that the plan to build three hotels on half a block in River North had been revised.

Well, we finally got our hands on the latest revision made by HOK, and it looks like it does indeed address a number of concerns local residents and businesses had.

In this first diagram we see how the western alley would be transformed from a regular alley into a place where hotel guests could be picked up and dropped off and a valet, area.  This would keep most of the hotel traffic off of Grand, Clark, and Illinois Streets.  Illuminated glass awnings, signage, and bollards would make the alley more inviting and help direct clueless tourists.

Deliveries get moved to a loading zone off of the eastern alley, adjacent to the proposed Fairfield Inn.

Trees and planters installed along the sidewalk designate pedestrian entrances to the buildings, but discourage cars from stopping along the street.

I don't know if we got to see this last time, but here is the green roof plan.  It shows that around 10,555 square feet of roof would be "green" (9,500 square feet of plants and 1,055 square feet of hardscape)  That's about 50% of the total roof space.

The Aloft hotel is now more glass and less brick.  Compare the old and new designs:

The glass facade is really more in line with the direction the neighborhood is going than the old brick.  Recent examples include 353 North Clark Street and 300 North LaSalle Drive, as well as venerable buildings like 321 North Clark Street.

For your further edification, here are the edifices' façades (changes noted in red):

This project is going by the address of 501 North Clark, but at this point retains the "Clark and Grand Hotels" name.

You can see our older posts on the project here:

• August 4, 2009: Three New Hotels Planned for River North
• October 27, 2009: Plan for Three New River North Hotels Revised

Plan for Three New River North Hotels Revised

Back in August we told you about a plan to put three new hotels on half of the block bounded by Clark Street, Grand Avenue, Dearborn Street, and Illinois Street.  Well, those plans have been revised.

There was concern about the kind of parking needed for a project of this size.  621 hotel rooms mean hundreds of extra cars.  Under the revised plan, the new hotels would use the new parking garage opening December 1st a couple of blocks away at 601 West Kinzie Street.

As usual, traffic is a concern, so the alleyway has been redesigned to not only handle deliveries, but to also serve as a valet area and a guest loading and unloading zone.

42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly's office issued a press release Tuesday night stating that the architects, "[redesigned] key portions of the facades that better contemplates the architectural language of the broader River North community."  What exactly that means, we don't know because the link to the detailed documents that the alderman's office sent out doesn't work.

But what we do know is that the project also now has a proper address.  It's now going by "501 North Clark Street."  It's not known yet if the former name "Clark and Grand Hotels" still sticks.

When Alderman Reilly's office gets the link thing straightened out, we'll post an update.

Status Update: CTA Red Line Grand Station

If you're one of the thousands of people who have been detoured off State Street in the last few months, here you can see why -- there's a massive gaping hole in the street.  It's the nearly total rebuilding of the CTA's Red Line station at Grand Avenue (521 North State Street).  You're spending $67 million on the project, which is the station's first renovation in 66 years.  I couldn't find an anticipated completion date on the CTA's main web site, and the special site for journalists appears to have disappeared since the new main site went online.  If anyone knows the date, post it in the comments section below.

Things Getting Harry on Navy Pier

We were disappointed when Joe's Be-Bop Cafe closed at Navy Pier before the season even began.  Workers at nearby restaurants told us it was going to be replaced by a BW3 (Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck) franchise.  But that failed to materialize.

Now, with Summer 2009 but a memory, there may actually be a restaurant finally about to fill the Be-Bop space.  It's a branch of River North mainstay Harry Caray's restaurant.  Signs at the pier proclaim that it's under construction, and as far as our untrained eyes can tell it could be opened soon since we saw what appeared to be wait staff inside getting ready for something.

It will be nice to have this in the neighborhood.  We used to go to Harry Caray's on Kedzie once a month for about four years until there was a very disturbing incident in the women's restroom, and when it was brought to the management's attention we were blown off.

But we're not much on grudges, so we'll check out the Navy Pier eatery once it opens, and hope that the food is of the same quality as the mothership.

Three New Hotels Planned for River North

The City of Chicago is considering a plan to open three new hotels in River North.

The project, known collectively as the "Clark and Grand Hotels" has been designed by HOK Architects, and would be located on the western third of the block bounded by Clark Street, Grand Avenue, Dearborn Street, and Illinois Street.

Image from a presentation by HOK Architects

One would be a 181-room Fairfield Inn and Suites at 56 West Illinois Street.  Currently, this location is a surface parking lot. The new building would be 16 stories, and 159 feet tall.  The architect's drawings label it 17 stories, but they're skipping 13.

Second is an 18-story, 168-room Hyatt Place on the corner of Clark and Illinois.  It currently has the puzzling address of 520 North Dearborn Street, but the front door of the new building would be moved to Illinois Street.  The height to the roof is about at 155 feet, 173.5 feet to the top of the mechanical penthouse, and 182.5 feet to the maximum height of the structure.  Right now it's an old bank building from 1947.

Third is also 18 stories.  It is expected to be a 272-room Aloft hotel, at approximately 511 North Clark Street.  Right now this is surface parking.  In addition to the hotel, space has been left in the building for some ground-floor retail facing Grand Avenue.  Its main distinction from the other buildings is the inclusion of a decorative cornice which shades the roof and extends down the Grand Avenue side of the building.  Roof height of this building is pegged at 171 feet, while the cornice gives it an overall height of 187 feet.

Image from a presentation by HOK Architects

The project isn't too much taller than Boyce Building, with which it will share the block.  But it's somewhat larger and taller than its neighboring buildings.  However, a number of those buildings are older and municipal in nature (fire station, post office, etc...) so they are out of scale with the rest of this mid-rise zone.

Image from a presentation by HOK Architects

In addition to the Boyce Building, the other buildings that remain on the block are the shuttered Blue Water Grill, and a mixed use building at 57 West Grand that is home to a restaurant and a jazz bar.

Image from a presentation by HOK Architects

• The alley running north-to-south from Illinois Street to Grand Avenue would be used for loading dock access, but would be capped by the Hyatt Place hotel structure.
• Total project floor space: 379,000 square feet
• Total hotel rooms: 621