Hayward

I've noticed they've begun to remove the horrific concrete panels on the exterior of Wrigley Field. Found more info in this blog http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2010/3/15/1373171/wrigley-field-offseason-rehab-work For now, it's chain link, but there's alot of redevelopment plans for the stadium and surrounding businesses as well as a possible reclad of the stadium to something more historic looking and tasteful. Some areas across from Wrigley would also be demolished (hardly a loss) and replaced by a mixed use development. Many residents didn't like the height, so the building was lowered a couple floors. Now another mixed used building is proposed right up against the stadium that may be up to 6 floors. I'll try to get some pics of the exterior after work Monday.

If any of you are familiar with the 1980's movie Blues Brothers, you'd remember the scene where they drive through a shopping mall to evade the police. That mall does in fact exist in the Chicago area, in the struggling suburb of Harvey.....and it's been empty since. Opened in 1966, and closed in 1978, the majority of this mall's life has been in deterioration. It has been destined for demolition despite many attempts to renovate it. But the reason I post this thread now is because the mall has switched hands of developers who would like to demolish it this March for a new shopping mall. My photos are out of date. These were obtained two years ago and deterioration has ramped up exponentially. 2% of the second floor of the old JC Penney was collapsed around the same time these were taken. Today people report nearly 50-60% of it has collapsed. A fire early this year did quite a bit of damage to one of the entrances, and the roof is coming down in a few of the stores along the concourse. The overall building structure is in such rough shape, renovation seems out of the question at this point.....not that I'm advocating for renovation instead of a full rebuild, but I do think it is interesting the mall has hung around vacant for so long. If the walls could talk, there would be plenty of stories to tell. Much of the floor in this photo has collapsed to this date 2nd floor of the former Penney's. That back corner has collapsed I bet it still works better than our subway station escalators!!

Why is that? If the building is still active and the tower was originally going somewhere else, how could preservationists have known this would be a concern? They definitely knew. Several options were presented publicly. 1. Tear two blocks of historic buildings down and build new. 2. Tear down Consumers and a small nondescript next door and build new 3. Save all the buildings and sandwhich a very narrow tower where the non-descript building is. This was announced long ago, but there has only been silence. "how could preservationists known" isn't much of an excuse in that field. I feel that even if buildings are occupied with good owners that maintain them, there should always be some sort of watchdog out there to ensure these buildings will be around for another 100 years. The consumers building has been slipping for about 3 decades and no one ever made a big deal. Why no concern, why no efforts to landmark it?

75% of the Cook County Hospital last year was demolished except for the historically significant front portion of the building. For awhile, it looked like the Beaux Art facade was doomed, but commissioners approved a $108 restoration of the facade and construction of a new office building behind it. This is huge news in Chicago preservation. It's an incredible building that will have a new life. Photo

I'm not thrilled about it coming down either, but they wanted to keep the historic buildings on the block. Consumers is pretty generic, and there are many others like it in the city, but with a cornice put back up, a good cleaning, and some new windows this could have really shined. I just don't think Chicago needs another bland glass skyscraper. I hope the new renderings show something impressive. So far I haven't heard any position from preservationists since the option to demolish was announced. Then again, historic preservationists are ALWAYS late when it comes to buildings in danger. An effort should have been made long ago to protect this building.

The early 20th century Consumers Building will be facing the wrecking ball soon to make way for a skyscraper. This building will be "sacrificed" to save other historic highrise buildings on the block (that are oddly in worse shape). Currently Consumers is an active builidng. Architectural conditions vary on the interior. The lobby remains relatively unchanged, as do some floors of the building. Many other floors have been modernized.

The YMCA is now gone. Next up..... The 21 story terra cotta consumers building to be replaced by a glass skyscraper. Currently it is a working building

Well we're hiring LOL I'm surprised no entry level architects or planners have asked.

I'm not nervous about riding elevators, just tired of standing in a small box with random people lol.

It probably is crooked, it's an ugly Illinois hat. Liking Chicago, David. Incredible city. I am getting a bit tired of highrises though since I'm not an elevator person. I estimate 21 hours out of my typical day are spent 140 feet above street level. But I love the views As for the renderings, I think those were done by an intern one summer who loved crazy ground level perspectives.

Lost a bet and had to wear this ugly hat all day at work.

I remember when that was proposed originally. Honestly, I wish GR residents would just ignore this stuff. Had people not paid attention to these bogus development, the project could have died away fast without any discussion. Love how that document was full of spelling errors

I think it's refreshing. It's a nice break from the throwbacks. The retro stadiums were nice early on, because alot more effort was invested into the details....think Comerica Park. But by the mid 2000's, they were ugly precast arches and jumbo cornices. This one appears to be made of stone panels, which puts about 75% of the new stadiums in the last decade to shame. The only issue I see here is the roof. The curvy form is very foreign to the rest of the structure which is much more angular.

I couldn't agree with you more. I'm one of those people who went straight through to grad school and wish I would have worked in between. It was tough finding a job with internships alone. I ended up getting a good job eventually, but it made more use out of my undergrad degree than it did my graduate degree. Granted I learned some great things in grad school I'll carry with me in life, but at times it's felt more like a novelty than something that has reinforced my career. Regardless, I've begun paying back all those student loans................even with a job it's frustrating.

I think I've been screwed out of almost $10 so far because of problematic downloads. Problem 1 I had an address change on my credit card. I forgot to modify this on my iTunes account. No big right? Well when I tried to provide new information, the system just bugged out. I got a few error messages, and then I wasn't allowed to make any purchases from the store. I ended up having to provide a completely different credit card to get it to work Problem 2 The building I live in provides internet for free. It's a T1 connection, which I'm aware is only intended for small businesses or small multi-unit buildings. But I live in a highrise with 220 other residents, so I know my internet is terrible. This means it is frequent for downloads to get interrupted. Being that iTunes has been around for awhile, you think they would take these problems into consideration, but it seems like they've only half tried. When downloading directly from my iTouch, if I have a download issue, I get a message saying that I will be able to receive the purchase when I log into itunes on my main computer. That has never happened. Never do I get a pop up saying I have any downloads in queue, and never under the account settings does it say I have available downloads. Yet when I got to purchase the song again, it says it's already on my computer, which it isn't. Problem 3 When I download TV series or movies, if a download is interrupted or left unresolved for too long, I have to enter my password almost 5 times to get the account login screen to go away. The download bombs out about 3 or 4 times before I have to restart iTunes to get it to go again. Problem 4 Any download that does fail, should automatically restart, not just sit there unfinished. Sometimes I let these 1 Gb download while I'm away at work, only to come home and find 196 Mb downloaded and an error screen. Problem 5 They put the resume download button right above the delete button. Seriously....at least give me a warning when I accidentally click a little too low. ---- Way back in 2004, Real Player had a guarantee where if you lost all your downloads, or had any problems, you could easily just re download all your purchases at any time. You'd just go to your invoice that only you have access to, and click to re download the song you need. This means you'd never have to worry if your drive got damaged, or if you had some problem with your purchase. iTunes does not do that, although they easily could. So there's my rant. After doing a little bit of googling, it turns out I'm not alone. People have been having problems resolving failed purchases for awhile now. I know those here who get music through illicit means are probably smiling, but I've been buying music since the end of napster. I've always enjoyed all off apple's products. I have an iMac and two ipods. But I think they need to work on their software.

It definitely is. I used to do indoor rock climbing and would come home extremely sore. I wish I could get back into it.

Excellent pics rob. I'm glad this one was saved. I just can't imagine people wanting to demolish something like this. Unfortunately I feel we still haven't learned from our mistakes or even our successes like this one. Word to the post about exploring old theaters. They are interesting buildings, particularly because of the way they are constructed, they have all these oddly placed rooms. I remember exploring the abandoned Detroit United Artists (currently being renovated). It had all these different levels and rooms attached to it. The coolest part was the catwalks above the collapsing plaster ceiling. So much more interesting than the 20 something story attached office tower.

My office. My particular department is full of former AECOM employees. They all know each other very well.

It's interesting because many people on my floor were former employees of AECOM

That's the new Gehry skyscraper

that was only a few short years ago! How can a neighborhood that looks like this deteriorate so fast?? :wtf: 1. Foreclosure 2. It's Detroit. As much as some of us love the grit and architecture of cities, others are committed to providing their family a better life. A good solution is to bail on Detroit where schools, police, city services, local government are absolute havoc. I'd like to cheer lead the city, but it'd be hard to be honest. Detroit definitely has some bright spots....Eastern market, midtown, SW Detroit, etc. However, the fact is Detroit has a much as good as other cities have bad. If the negatives didn't outweight the positives so much people wouldn't be leaving. Doesn't mean I don't have faith in the city making a turn around, rather it's just that I don't care anymore. Give me a call in 40 years.

B-E unfortunately took a turn for the worst this past year.

Damn would i love to be stuck in that traffic jam

Cool photos, but it's making me cold. A couple years ago, a company I used to work for was designing an indoor events and athletic complex in a park that floods every few years. The building had to be designed to accept and withstand floodwaters that could put it under 7 feet of water, since filling up the site would be too expensive. These underwater bike paths were a reminder for me

I just bought the game in the box with all the other sim cities. I went to the best buy two blocks from me in the John Hancock tower and the cashier said they were selling alot of the SimCity box combos, so this game must be still running popular. I fired up Societies and ran it in the unlimited money mode. I was under the impression ALL the buildings would unlock. But looking at your screenshots, you have skyscrapers. How do i get those? and the wider streets?