On the first warm day of 2009 I found myself wandering around the New East Side. It's the location of the last place I lived, The Shoreham, and a dozen other high rises along the lakefront. Wandering toward the water I was struck by something new -- a new boathouse at Dusable Harbor (401 North Lake Shore Drive).
When I lived in Lakeshore East, this was where a dank funk would roll out from beneath Lake Shore Drive and tumble into the welcoming waters of Lake Michigan. That's not what I found in 2009, though. The little area had been completely fixed up, with the previously mentioned boathouse, and a new bridge to keep Loop-bourne joggers from becoming unwillingly merged with speeding cyclists on the lakefront path.
Last night WTTW ran a piece on the new boathouse that we mentioned back in June. It's a nice look at how great architecture can come in very small packages.
Showing posts with label Lakeshore East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lakeshore East. Show all posts
Friday, September 18, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Hell Freezes Over: Lakeshore East Gets a Grocery
Nearly six years ago we were first promised by a Lakeshore East sales staffer that a grocery store was coming "soon." Now, three years after we moved out of Lakeshore East, the former golf course at the corner of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan is finally, really, truly, going to get a grocery store.
Crain's Chicago Business reports that Milwaukee grocery store chain Roundy's has signed a lease to open a store in a space that was at first supposed to be a Treasure Island and then a Target and then... well, it was anybody's guess for a long while.
The store will be inside a three-story $60 million building called "Village Market Center" backed up against 340 On the Park, filling in an area that's been pretty much mud since 2002. Construction is scheduled to start around May-ish... assuming a construction loan can be landed by Magellan Development.
Grocery shopping for the 10,000 or so people who live in Lakeshore East is more than a little bit of a chore. There's a store in the basement of Harbor Point Tower, but it's little more than a glorified 7-Eleven.
The best option for a while was the Bockwinkle store inside the Park Millennium. But that ended a couple of years ago when the public toilet elevator connecting Lakeshore East with Upper Columbus Drive was demolished to make way for the construction of Aqua .
That left people with two options: schlep their groceries over the river and through the woods from the Dominick's at The Fairbanks , or get them delivered from Peapod. We went with Peapod during our stay at Lakeshore East.
One interesting note is that the Crain's report states that Fifth Third bank plans to open a branch inside Village Market Center. There is already a full Fifth Third branch inside The Shoreham . It remains to be seen if that will stay open. Considering that it took five years to get Rom to move into The Shoreham, finding a replacement for that Fifth Third could prove challenging.
That left people with two options: schlep their groceries over the river and through the woods from the Dominick's at The Fairbanks , or get them delivered from Peapod. We went with Peapod during our stay at Lakeshore East.
Monday, February 9, 2009
In Case You Missed It: More Grocery Store Talk for Lakeshore East
It's been five years since the first time a salesperson at Lakeshore East told us that a grocery store would be open at the complex, "any day now... six months, tops." Since then we've heard similar lines from Lakeshore East salespeople half a dozen times and yet the nearest serious grocery shopping option is the Dominick's on East Illinois Street.
In fact, that Dominick's was built and opened within two years of us first being told that a Lakeshore East grocery store was right around the corner. So you can imagine the yawns with which we greeted this piece of news from Crain's Chicago Business: Roundy's is looking at Lakeshore East .
The article states that the minor Wisconsin grocery store chain is looking for a location on the West Side, and one in Lakeshore East. Roundy's is reportedly looking for about double the space of the never-built Treasure Island grocery store. As luck would have it, a nearby hotel recently pulled out of the Aqua project, so many it can find some space in the building's podium.
Or not. We'll believe it when we see it.
(On a side note, we lived in Lakeshore East for two years and frequented both Bockwinkle's at The Park Millennium and the one in Harbor Point Tower . While both are nice, neither is useful for "serious" grocery shopping. For that, it's the Dominick's in The Fairbanks , the Jewel on State Street, or our favorite option -- Peapod.com)
In fact, that Dominick's was built and opened within two years of us first being told that a Lakeshore East grocery store was right around the corner. So you can imagine the yawns with which we greeted this piece of news from Crain's Chicago Business: Roundy's is looking at Lakeshore East .
The article states that the minor Wisconsin grocery store chain is looking for a location on the West Side, and one in Lakeshore East. Roundy's is reportedly looking for about double the space of the never-built Treasure Island grocery store. As luck would have it, a nearby hotel recently pulled out of the Aqua project, so many it can find some space in the building's podium.
Or not. We'll believe it when we see it.
(On a side note, we lived in Lakeshore East for two years and frequented both Bockwinkle's at The Park Millennium and the one in Harbor Point Tower . While both are nice, neither is useful for "serious" grocery shopping. For that, it's the Dominick's in The Fairbanks , the Jewel on State Street, or our favorite option -- Peapod.com)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
De Crane! De Crane! Boss, it's De Crane!
A year after construction crews popped the top off of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower to add another 25 stories to the 32-story structure, things are starting to wrap up.
Over the weekend (Saturday, January 24, 2009) the eastern crane (on the left in this picture, obscured by Aqua) began to slowly come down off of the tower. That means the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois building has reached its maximum height of 796 feet -- quite a change from 411 feet before.
Also of interest is the slice of building on the far left of the photograph. This is 340 On The Park, a condo tower. When most people bought their units there they could look down on BCBS. Now it's right in the faces of people who used to have western views. Ah, the hazards of real estate in the big city.
Also of interest is the slice of building on the far left of the photograph. This is 340 On The Park, a condo tower. When most people bought their units there they could look down on BCBS. Now it's right in the faces of people who used to have western views. Ah, the hazards of real estate in the big city.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Millions of tourists must be right
It's something of a burden to bear. For the thousands of people who live in the New East Side not a day passes without hundreds, sometimes thousands, of tourists wandering their streets asking how to get to the lakefront and Navy Pier.
Long lines of cars snake into, and then back out of, the cul-de-sacs and private driveways of the New East Side as legions of tourists ignore the few tattered signs put up to direct them. Once an articulated CTA bus got stuck back there and it took the better part of 12 hours to get it turned around.
The opening of Millennium Park only made things worse. After all -- it only makes sense that the city's front lawn would connect to the lake and eventually on to Navy Pier. But more than once I have seen a frustrated tourist raise an angry fist to a local when told, "you can't get there from here."
Well, some day maybe they can.
With the impending destruction of Daley Bicentennial Plaza to make way for the new Chicago Children's Museum, there are finally some serious talks about linking the parks and the lakefront in that area. it cost $20 million to do the same thing at 11th Street. How much it will take farther north remains to be seen. But a committee is starting work on it, and maybe there will be some logical relief soon.
Long lines of cars snake into, and then back out of, the cul-de-sacs and private driveways of the New East Side as legions of tourists ignore the few tattered signs put up to direct them. Once an articulated CTA bus got stuck back there and it took the better part of 12 hours to get it turned around.
The opening of Millennium Park only made things worse. After all -- it only makes sense that the city's front lawn would connect to the lake and eventually on to Navy Pier. But more than once I have seen a frustrated tourist raise an angry fist to a local when told, "you can't get there from here."
Well, some day maybe they can.
With the impending destruction of Daley Bicentennial Plaza to make way for the new Chicago Children's Museum, there are finally some serious talks about linking the parks and the lakefront in that area. it cost $20 million to do the same thing at 11th Street. How much it will take farther north remains to be seen. But a committee is starting work on it, and maybe there will be some logical relief soon.
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