From an architectural / design perspective, are you happy with the direction Chicago is headed? (Lincoln: apartments, condos)

[FAReastcoast]

Most everyone would agree that Chicago is going through a bit of a construction boom right now, surpassed only in the US by a handful of cities (NYC, DC, etc), and over the course of the next several years, the design/layout of many neighborhoods will be greatly altered.
One commonality between many of the new buildings going up, are the crazy parking minimums, and the large footprints that are required by these parking minimums. Outside of a few buildings in the central area, I believe most of this new construction is going to negatively affect the landscape of the city. In neighborhoods like Lincoln Park and Lakeview, buildings on standard city lots, are being bought up, and replaced with massive buildings taking up 4+ city lots, and adding literally hundreds of parking spaces to already auto-heavy streets. In the west loop, There are very few buildings on less than 2 lots, with many new condos taking up almost a half a block. The South Loop, and River North are condos/apartments on top of these huge podiums for parking garages, with River North/Gold Coast tearing down great row homes and 19th century 3 flats.
I am curious what others think….

[Standard111]

Chicago isn't really going through a construction boom. 10 years ago, yeah, but now there's much, much less construction. It's better than three years ago, though, when almost nothing was being built.

As to quality, people like their cars. Developers would be crazy to not include on-site parking, as the units won't sell without parking.

Lincoln Park is mostly done with redevelopment, BTW. In the 1990's and 2000's they basically tore down all the old homes for McMansions, so I don't think Lincoln Park will change that much. Lakeview still has some room for more redevelopment.

[FAReastcoast]

Originally Posted by Standard111

Chicago isn't really going through a construction boom. 10 years ago, yeah, but now there's much, much less construction. It's better than three years ago, though, when almost nothing was being built.

As to quality, people like their cars. Developers would be crazy to not include on-site parking, as the units won't sell without parking.

Lincoln Park is mostly done with redevelopment, BTW. In the 1990's and 2000's they basically tore down all the old homes for McMansions, so I don't think Lincoln Park will change that much. Lakeview still has some room for more redevelopment.

There are ways to build to accommodate parking without large podiums (underground).

As for Lincoln Park, you seriously think "they" tore down all the old homes? Have you been to Chicago?

[marothisu]

I'm not a fan of large podiums, especially where it's like 4 stories high and whatever. It's not as bad if the structure is actually sitting on top of it, but it's still not good. There's a few that are being built that are nicely in line with TOD that aren't podiums, but there needs to be more of this. Regardless of that - the architecture coming out is OK. Not terrible but usually not amazing either. I guess you can't expect that in a weaker economy though.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by FAReastcoast

As for Lincoln Park, you seriously think "they" tore down all the old homes? Have you been to Chicago?

Yeah there's actually relatively few tear downs in Lincoln Park. Most of the tear downs in town are happening in Lakeview, Roscoe Village, and West Town (i.e. Ukrainian Village).

[Standard111]

Originally Posted by FAReastcoast

There are ways to build to accommodate parking without large podiums (underground).

Yeah, developers could built underground parking, but that's incredibly expensive, so their product would be less competitive with other builders.

And the condo units would be lower, and less expensive, because the surface parking garages aren't included in allowable development calculations. Chicago would end up having shorter buildings, with worse views.

Originally Posted by FAReastcoast

As for Lincoln Park, you seriously think "they" tore down all the old homes? Have you been to Chicago?

I lived in Lincoln Park. I don't think you know Lincoln Park too well if you're unaware of all the infill homes built in the last few decades.

There are a few historic blocks, but most residential blocks in LP, especially away from the lake, are like 70% new construction/massive renovation, or urban renewal blocks from the 60's/70's.

[Standard111]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Yeah there's actually relatively few tear downs in Lincoln Park. Most of the tear downs in town are happening in Lakeview, Roscoe Village, and West Town (i.e. Ukrainian Village).

I would say, by %, there are more teardowns in LP than in any other Chicago neighborhood.

There currently aren't many teardowns, but that's because almost everything that could be torn down was torn down.

[FAReastcoast]

Originally Posted by Standard111

There are a few historic blocks, but most residential blocks in LP, especially away from the lake, are like 70% new construction/massive renovation, or urban renewal blocks from the 60's/70's.

What a stupid response, you wrote all the old homes have been tore down, I am assuming to make some sort of point.

[FAReastcoast]

Originally Posted by Standard111

There currently aren't many teardowns, but that's because almost everything that could be torn down was torn down.

My brother in law is one of the largest developers of SFH in Lincoln Park, I have seen what his pipeline looks like, and have been on literally every block in Lincoln Park, you have no idea what you are talking about.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Standard111

I would say, by %, there are more teardowns in LP than in any other Chicago neighborhood.

There currently aren't many teardowns, but that's because almost everything that could be torn down was torn down.

Right now? No there's not. Not in the last 1.5 years at least. I have a map of all the new construction building permits and also whether it's a tear down or not. This year so far Lincoln Park has 4 or 5 teardowns in the form of new construction building permits. Lakeview and Roscoe Village have way way more. Even Lincoln Square/Ravenswood has more.