küshner

The first apartment building at least gave some semblance of walkability-- the illusion of a dense-ish city block... even if it surrounds a sea of concrete for parking. I was hoping they'd continue with that style but the second apartment completely destroyed that, weird shape surrounded by a moat of parking. It looks terrible. I really have no hope for this being a cool development anymore.

Was so excited for this whole development, but it seems to be spiraling into a disjointed hodgepodge with no clear connective tissue or master plan.

Liberty Center has to be cheaper but also has about 99% less foot traffic. They'd probably be wasting more money there. Would love to see Zara too but they announced they were scaling back on physical retail, the old H&M space would be perfect for them. It would be weird for Rallyhouse to move into such a prominent space in the mall as the old Brooks Brothers, you'd think they would want to reserve that for a bigger name since its seen from Montgomery. Has anyone heard whats going next to Gucci? I would assume they'd want another high end designer to fill out that enclave.

Is-- This isn't a grift, right?

I feel like I'm on an island here not loving the renderings. I was hoping the only real aesthetic change would be the return of the two story open base. I love the modernist design and think it looks incredible as is, these renderings look like a hodgepodge of textures and sight lines. But I digress, at the end of the day I'm just happy its not getting the Dennison Hotel treatment.

A great location for a subway stop on a line that would run below Madison...

Are there any renderings for this? First I'm hearing about it, I didn't even know the building that was there was demolished.

The first rendering looks different, and better, from the bottom two. I hope the later aren't the updated, value-engineered, new renderings. Love how the top plays with height and feels less monolithic from Kenwood Rd. I hope this adds as much character as it does density when it's built... but I'm not holding my breath

Can't wait to see how they renovate the exterior of bottom two floors, hopefully they can recreate what it used to look like.

Were the bay windows the safety issue? Very confused as to why they would spend the money to remove them otherwise...

It is so beyond infuriating that this is allowed to happen. I realize my audience here, and I apologize if any of you work for them, but Kroger is an awful company. The one near my home in Cincinnati was always filthy. Now that I live in Los Angeles, I walk to the Albertsons near my house every evening to buy stuff for dinner. I purposely avoid Ralph's, a Kroger owned company, because every Ralph's I've been to in LA has been dirty as hell, mismanaged, understaffed, and just completely depressing. Same with King Soopers when I lived in Colorado for a while. They keep the names but strip the individuality from the stores, without fail. They become soulless dirty boxes. I have developed a full on hatred of Kroger and their brands, especially after the pandemic and how they treated their employees. How are monopoly laws not stopping this? This is absolutely insane to me. Kroger buys buys buys while their own stores sit and deteriorate and their employees starve on the pennies they're paid. They're a union-busting, evil corporation and they'll soon own every affordable grocery store in my state. If politicians want to keep things at state level, corporations should be forced to stay at state level too. I apologize again for the rant, but this makes me see red. Kroger has no idea what the public wants-- smaller stores with less brands but more options. Kroger always does the opposite. Opening bigger, cavernous behemoths while leaving their old shells empty down the street, only to become subdivided into local churches and discount stores with way too much parking. Look at Colerain on google maps, two old Krogers sit in a sea of deteriorating paring lots to their massive new store across from the mall. I don't need 436 different kinds of graham crackers but I do need a floor that my shoes don't stick to when I walk

Losing that building is so irritating. The only redemption, imo, would be some sort of gateway tower to really welcome people to uptown from OTR. Ideally one that is unique and design forward... but splurging, even once, isn't really in Uptown's or Towne Property's business plans.

Saying something is "never going to happen" just feels finite and defeatist. Let's take to the streets!!! lol

This is turning out much better than I was expecting. I like the dark colors and the big windows, I feel like windows are usually value engineered down from what they're originally rendered, but these look great. How's it look in person?

Things ended fine, they've just lost all their designer merchandise and the building is showing its age. I guess we just have different opinions of what a luxury department store should look like and sell 🙃

No, I used to work at that particular Nordstrom, I know what hell the Anniversary Sale is lol. I'm talking about the disappearance of higher price-point/designer merchandise, the fact that half the men's department has vanished and been replaced with online pickup, the cool saltwater fish tank in the kids shoe dept. being drained and covered with a cheap vinyl covering, they took away most designer handbags, etc. The store is a dump. I'm not surprised, when we opened, we had a cool store manager and lots of designers you could previously only get at Saks or other cities, then management changed (a horrible woman came in), budgets and positions were cut, and lines that brought people in were dropped. I hope they're able to step it up, but whenever I go and visit it looks like one more nail in the coffin. I wish Saks were actually able to move to Kenwood, perhaps taking over the Dillard's spot, but I highly doubt that will happen anytime soon.

Nordstrom was where I used to work and the Store Manager told me the "C, B, A" ranking system was not a real thing and a rumor that's been circulating forever. Although I could see them lying about that though to keep morale up. The quality of that Nordstrom has really tanked, whenever I'm back in town I stop by. Recently, it looks like they're in the middle of a going-out-of-business sale. It's interesting that as the mall gets nicer, the Nordstrom loses more luxury products. The same can be said for the Easton location, that mall is arguably the nicest in the state and the Nordstrom feels like an old Dillards.

I see Atlanta but the Chicago location is listed as a boutique within Neiman Marcus. Does having your contacts out at LVMH mean you're asking them if it's coming or they've confirmed it? I hope it is Fendi. Don't take it personally, I've just heard the boy who cried designer one too many times lol.

In their defense, two years ago I don't think Gucci was even considering Kenwood lol

I used to work in the mall and there was always a slew of designers rumored to be opening soon; Jimmy Choo, Versace, Stuart Weitzman, etc. Fendi does not sound realistic, they are incredibly high-end and exclusive. They don't even have a store in Chicago. I would expect a designer/retailer that has more of a presence in smaller markets-- Burberry, David Yurman, Aritzia, Amazon Style, Chanel Beaute, or Bottega Veneta. I hope I eat my words but I can almost guarantee it wont be Fendi.

Kind of shocked at how suburban and uninspired these buildings are... Very disappointing.

An iconic building and ripe for a modern, upscale hotel like an Edition, Ace, Four Seasons, et al. I know the Pendry is coming, but the city needs another high-end luxury hotel and this building deserves to shine and be as glorious as she can be.

Gucci is no longer listed as coming soon on the mall's website... Anyone know if they pulled out or if its some kind of mistake on the site? I wonder if the signage is still up in the mall.

Has anyone seen any movement at the Gwynne Building/future site of the Pendry? That's one of my absolute favorite buildings in the city and the Pendry will definitely be the premier and most luxurious hotel in the city... Can't wait to see the building shine again.

Exactly this, losing the Sudsy's building was shocking, and the replacement even more so. I hope some of the preservation efforts happening downtown and in OTR bleed up north and quick. Losing the beautiful old industrial building at Melish and Bathgate was also heartbreaking, but at least the innovation corridor feels somewhat innovative and thoughtfully planned out. These cheap student housing developments are turning uptown into a generic, soulless cluster.