Status Update: Randolph Tower

The Randolph Tower (188 West Randolph Street) has been under some form of renovation or another since before I moved to Chicago in 2003.  When will it be done?  It's hard to say.  Lots of deadlines have come and gone.  Lots of big plans have been made and unfulfilled.  Just last year the city approved a TIF to help turn it into residences.  Up close, it's a beautiful building.  It's just had a run of bad luck.

Plans For Restoring Grant Park's Cancer Survivors Plaza

One of the more magical places in Chicago is the tiny northeast corner of Grant Park known as Cancer Survivors Plaza.  It's officially called  "Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Park" (337 East Randolph Street), but many people just know it as the way to get from Upper East Randolph Street to the lakefront.

It is here that a double row (known as an allée in landscaping lingo) of cherry trees put on a spectacular show each spring.  But you have to be quick -- for only about six days are the blossoms at their peak, and the area looks like a sun-warmed winter wonderland.  Toward the end of their blossoming cycle, the petals leap individually from their blooms and ride formerly invisible whirlwinds across the landscape.

It's an singular spectacle, and one that I try hard to witness each year.

But the Cancer Survivors Plaza is in trouble.  Over the last few years, ten of the 16 plaques have been ripped off their bases, and presumably sold to unscrupulous recycling companies as scrap metal.  The pavilion is rusting badly, and I recently learned that there's supposed to be a computer kiosk on the south end.  I've never seen it, but I'm told it once existed.

The Richard and Annette Bloch (as in H&R Block) Cancer Foundation has donated $1.2 million since the garden was founded for its care and maintenance, but it simply hasn't been enough to keep up with Chicago's aggressive weather and thugs.

After years of this desecration, a plan has been put together to restore this memorial garden to its a more respectful state.  At a public meeting yesterday (October 26, 2009) some of the ideas for that restoration were presented.

Part of the plan includes new markers.  This time they would be illuminated to make them legible at night. This will hopefully encourage more people to visit the area after dark and discourage those who would do the park harm from hanging around.  Examples of possible illuminated podium designs were presented.  They were created by the Des Moines firm Confluence and Dimensional Innovations of Kansas.

The entire northeast corner of Grant Park, including the Cancer Survivors park is going to be completely torn apart and redone in the next few years, but the people at last night's meeting felt that something should be done in the interim to restore the dignity to the place.

The Bloch cancer foundation has pledged $100,000 to make repairs to the plaza, even if those repairs are only for the four years between now and when the major northeast Grant Park reconstruction starts.

Zaha! There It Is!

Say it with me, "Zaha!  There it is!"

Seven weeks after starchitect Zaha Hadid's tribute to Daniel Burnham was supposed to be unveiled to the public, it's finally open in all its glory.

The seashell-looking structure was finally completed last night (August 4, 2009) and this morning is greeting commuters and the curious in the southern portion of the Chase Promenade in Millennium Park.

The structure is canvas stretched over structural ribs.  There is a short walkway which leads into the pavilion's interior and a number of plastic skylights streaked across the roof to let in light.

The Chicago Tribune's review of Hadid's pavilion isn't entirely enthusiastic.  In it, Blair Kamin makes some good points:

• What the heck does this big seashell have to do with Daniel Brunham?
• In a city of top-notch architects like Chicago, why didn't a local get a chance to design one of these pavilions?

To those complaints, I'd add -- Will the city get a partial refund since the unveiling was so late?  I don't recall who's paying for the structure, but regardless of whether it's the city or a private group, does the paying party get money back for the seven weeks missed?  Will the pavilion be on display for an extra seven weeks to make up for the time missed?

And the Tribune isn't the only one harshing Hadid's groove.  Part of the delay in the opening of the structure was because of fears that the public might damage it.  Those fears appear to be well-founded.  Just hours after it opened, there are already dozens of footprints from poorly supervised children who haven't been taught how to behave in public.

It's an interesting piece of work, and hopefully it and its companion will be the first of many more pop-up structures to come.  Cities like New York and Paris have been enjoying temporary architecture exhibits like these for decades.  It's about time Chicago caught up.  

Moreover, I suggest that there are plenty of architecture students and classes who could come up with equally interesting and engaging designs to fill the space when the temporary Burnham pavilions are removed at the end of the season.

Status Update: MetraMarket

A lot of people, including us, have a lot of high hopes for the MetraMarket at the Ogilvie Transporatation Center, 500 West Randolph Street.  There have been many announcements made -- most recently, that Lavazza will open there.  But this is the first time we've seen an actual store-specific "coming soon" sign.  In the tiny box at the center of this pic, you can see "CVS/Pharmacy Coming Soon."

Hope springs eternal.

Like Christmas Windows for Architecture Nerds

At Christmastime, families walk along the Loop's sidewalks admiring the wares on offer in department store windows, and children gaze longingly at the things they hope Santa Claus will bring them.  What's going on at a West Loop architecture firm is something like that.

Unlike most architecture firms that retreat to the rarified atmosphere of Chicago's tallest buildings, M+W Zander has its offices on the ground floor of an old West Loop warehouse.  And instead of keeping its models exclusive to clients and museum boards, M+W is proud to showcase what it's working on in its storefront windows.

There are about six large windows which wrap around the corner of this old building and feature Zander projects around around the world.  Both drawings, and the miniature models that architects create for their clients.

While Zander's designs tend toward long, low office buildings and laboratories, the exhibits are compelling enough to make you stare for quite a while.  If you have a few minutes to kill before jumping on the Metra to head home for the evening, it might be worth a quick detour to 549 West Randolph Street to see what this firm is working on.

The Loop Getting a New Pocket Park

An area of Chicago's Loop that has been rapidly changing from 19th century storefronts to 21st century skyscrapers is going to have a touch of green.

An agreement has been reached with the developers of 155 North Wacker Drive to also develop a park adjacent to the nearly completed skyscraper.

In the way of the park are a grouping of serviceable, if unremarkable, buildings:

• 300 West Randolph - Built in 1875, and formerly known as the Sherman House of the Showmen's League of America, which was founded in Chicago and had Buffalo Bill Cody as its first president.
• 304 West Randolph - Built in 1938.  It replaced a speakeasy which federal agents busted in 1933 for buying illegal whiskey from footmen for Hymie Levine, who was in charge of selling bootleg beer in The Loop for Al Capone.
• 308 West Randolph - Built in 1929.
• 310 West Randolph - Built in 1927 for N.K. Aranoff and Associates at a cost of $250,000.  It was built as a factory disguised as an office building and replaced a house on the site.  The building was one of many in Chicago designed to be vertically extended if necessary.  Its design can support several extra stories.  The building was designed by Albert Anis of the architecture firm Sanders & Anis.

These days, office workers, and the few residents of the immediate area, know this block for a couple of quick-serve restaurants and lots of itinerant office space.

The park will have a little under 10,000 square feet of grass, 23 trees, and places to sit and park your bicycle.

The new park will follow the same public-private model as The Park at Lakeshore East.  It will be built  by the Buck Company, but turned over to the City of Chicago's Park Department when it's done.  Yet Buck will still be responsible for maintenance.

Slice of Life: The Pigeon Warming Center

Every winter there is a migration of television microwave trucks from the garages of channels 2, 5, 7, 9, and 32 to the City of Chicago's official warming center at 10 South Kedzie.  But what about the city's pigeons?  Where do they go when the weather outside turns frightful?

The answer is Daley Plaza.  Unnoticed by most of the millions of people who wander through the plaza during the city's frigid season, pigeons huddle around the gas-fed eternal flame.  It's a war memorial that our feathered friends use as a means of survival.