Lucas Museum location (Chicago, Nashville, Reynolds: 2014, hotel, neighborhood)

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Questions, questions, endless questions.......

Given the financial problems of the state, do you think that Rahm's plan to move the museum location to the Lakeside Center site has any chance of succeeding?

I believe I may have posed this one already, but I'll give it another shot: if Rahm got creative with the move to the Cermak location for the museum, would another option be to find a waterfront setting in the general downtown area that would present fewer financial or legal issues? What I'm thinking of here is the riverfront, specifically the south riverfront, obviously south of Congress and I'm thinking of either the east or west bank of the Chicago River. In a growth area (Riverline looks like it has the best chance to succeed out of any of the massive plans that have been put forth for the area and with hopes that the old PO will get redeveloped), is it possible to locate the museum somewhere on that stretch from Congress to Roosevelt (or even south of there)?

wouldn't the banks of the Chicago River with the skyline behind make a dramatic setting for the Lucas Museum and do even more to enhance the river's well-earned reputation as "Chicago's second lakefront"? Chicago is famed and has benefitted greatly from its world famous lakefront. Seems to me our riverfront is turning into something incredibly special, a real stand out amenity and the museum would only make this greater.

also....do you think the project is the type of cultural attraction that enhances the city and its attractiveness to warrant our efforts to get this accomplished?

and one more...is it a worthwhile plan to replace the Lakefront Center with a structure that would unite existing spaces within McCormick Place to create a seamless connection of exhibit hall space?

and (I promise!) one final question: would the placement of the Lucas Museum help correct the long held concerns that McCPl suffers from isolation from a core location by its peripheral site on the very edge of the greater downtown area? Is the Lucas Museum the very type of thing we need along with the arena, the redevelopment of Motor Row the entertainment district to make the newly minted "McCormick Square" a place of synergy, a place convention goers would actually like to be?

With the paralysis of Mike "kiss my ring" Madigan (and by 'ring' I mean what I sit on all day...) vs Bruce "you've got to be kiddin' me" Rauner (make sure you drop the g to sound like a regular guy...) there is not much chance of the kind of the cooperation that would be need to draft legislation to re-do the complicated governing board that control Navy Pier / McCormick Place. Even worse, their super-fattened state salaries risk being a huge lightening rod for public disgust and Rahm should be ashamed to even think of linking anything to these do-nothing crooks -- Lori Healey to replace Jim Reilly as head of McPier - Chicago Tribune

All that said, whatever potential benefit their might be from having the Lucas Musuem on the actual Lake is pretty minor except from the "looks lovely from my yacht" standpoint of billionaires like Lucas. Rahm is out of his mind if he thinks it makes any sense at all to tear down the oldest, most architecturally significant part of McCormick Place. Rahm's inability to do anything but look like the stupidest guy in the room is pretty incredible.

If Rahm had any talents of persuasion he'd have Lucas and his Chicago-born / social-activist wife getting police-escorted Segway tours of all the good that could come from putting their freakin' museum a couple blocks inland -- the proposal that would deck-over the railroad "gulch" and essentially create a southerly extension of Millennium Park would also tie the thing to areas like Motor Row. If the siting is done properly it will STILL look like it is on the Lakefront from a YACHT but it would not violate provisions that are in the STATE CONSTITUTION that gives special status to the Lakefront!!! https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2014/...-shaky-ground/

[emathias]

Except for the cost of it, the more I read about the McCormick site proposal, the more I like it. The convention center building we'd lose would be replaced by more modern facilities, more tightly integrated together, the replacement space would make up for the lost space, and people would no longer have to walk halfway to Michigan to get to those spaces.

In the long term, I think it could incentivize the city to have improved transit service for the greater South Loop area that would better tie together some of the things planned for the area. For example, a monorail that looked like this would be useful and could probably be built for less than the cost of the reconstruction of the 95th Street Red Line station. Stations could be quibbled over, but it would allow people going to events at Soldier Field or on Northerly Island to get to the entertainment district on South Michigan, or to Chinatown, it would allow people arriving from Midway to easily transfer from a new 18th Street Orange Line station to McCormick, or for conventioneers to visit the Field or Shedd or Adler or Chinatown easily, or workers who commute via the Red Line to more easily get to McCormick, etc. It would also provide south-of-the-Loop connections between Orange, Green and Red Lines and Metra. I think an argument could be made to route it over Roosevelt instead of 18th, however I think there'd be a lot more resistance to putting a monorail over Roosevelt than over 18th, especially since 18th already has a lot of rail overhead. You could put the monorail yards either along Clark north of 18th (easier to get to), or above the truck staging area south of McCormick (less objectionable). If the tracks were two-way the entire route, with center platforms, and you ran trains every 10 minutes in each direction, the longest trips would have 5-minute headways because riders could take either direction trains. During big events trains could be run every 5 minutes, or even less. It could even be completely automated, like the people mover at O'Hare.

[chet everett]

There is no FUNDING for improved bus service or even "street car" that are on the fantasy list now so it is unrealistic to suggest something so much costly like a "monorail"...

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2014...-ticket-kiosks

The costs of building dedicated transit in the US are simply outlandish, largely driven by the way that such projects enrich the kinds of insider-connected firms that are so skilled in just enriching their shareholders but the POLITICIANS that manage to fatten-up their "campaign warchests" through this firms' lobbyists AND get all their pals on the payroll of the "oversight authority", it is sad statement on "why we can't have nice things" -- https://pedestrianobservations.wordp...ruction-costs/

Fact is buses are rapidly evolving to be a smarter solution -- Streetcars: An Inconvenient Truth — Human Transit

[emathias]

Originally Posted by chet everett

There is no FUNDING for improved bus service or even "street car" that are on the fantasy list now so it is unrealistic to suggest something so much costly like a "monorail"...

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2014...-ticket-kiosks

The costs of building dedicated transit in the US are simply outlandish, largely driven by the way that such projects enrich the kinds of insider-connected firms that are so skilled in just enriching their shareholders but the POLITICIANS that manage to fatten-up their "campaign warchests" through this firms' lobbyists AND get all their pals on the payroll of the "oversight authority", it is sad statement on "why we can't have nice things" -- https://pedestrianobservations.wordp...ruction-costs/

Fact is buses are rapidly evolving to be a smarter solution -- Streetcars: An Inconvenient Truth — Human Transit

Loop Link got funded. Wilson station reconstruction and 95th Street stations both got funded. Wabash/Washington station got funded. Together those account for over half a billion dollars in capital spending. Based on the costs of other monorails, including estimates for Las Vegas extensions of theirs, I think the illustrated route could be built for less than the sum of those other recent and active projects here in Chicago.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by emathias

Loop Link got funded. Wilson station reconstruction and 95th Street stations both got funded. Wabash/Washington station got funded. Together those account for over half a billion dollars in capital spending. Based on the costs of other monorails, including estimates for Las Vegas extensions of theirs, I think the illustrated route could be built for less than the sum of those other recent and active projects here in Chicago.

Why Are Loop Link Buses Moving So Slow, and Will They Get Faster? | Streetsblog Chicago

several commuters, who seemed like daily riders, complaining about Loop Link. “These platforms make the trip take a lot longer,” said one lady. “Whoever brainstormed this doesn’t have all their faculties intact,” replied her companion. They strategized about different bus lines they could take to avoid the BRT corridor. ... a full 16 minutes to travel the 0.8 miles between Canal Street and Michigan Avenue. That’s 3 mph, the same speed as before Loop Link was established...

I'm a fat old man and I walk faster than that, even with enough office gear strapped to my back to land a space mission on the moon...
Mod cut: Copyrighted image deleted.

[Ace Rothstein]

Neither the city nor the state should be spending money on making this happen. If they can't find a location for the museum that works then Lucas should move on.

[MSchemist80]

The plan to borrow and spend over a billion dollars to tear down E Mccormick Place will be dead on arrival in Springfield. Not to mention who is going to loan the City of Chicago the money given their financial situation? Even a mob loan shark wouldn't front them the money.

[theuptowner1992]

I think that they should put it on Northerly Island to be completely honest. It's about time someone stuck it to Daley Jr.

Seriously though, Skidmore and Rows built some of the nicest modern architecture in the city. For that reason alone, I could never support the demolition of the Lakeside Center, especially for yet another glass box crowding the skyline.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by MSchemist80

The plan to borrow and spend over a billion dollars to tear down E Mccormick Place will be dead on arrival in Springfield. Not to mention who is going to loan the City of Chicago the money given their financial situation? Even a mob loan shark wouldn't front them the money.

Originally Posted by chet everett

Why Are Loop Link Buses Moving So Slow, and Will They Get Faster? | Streetsblog Chicago



I'm a fat old man and I walk faster than that, even with enough office gear strapped to my back to land a space mission on the moon...
(no that ain't me, he has a cane and probably walks faster than Loop Link )

That article was from immediately after it opened. Reading the article, they said it would go faster as bus drivers got used to it. But even at the originally projected speed, that's why a grade-separated solution is far superior. I think running BRT through the second-biggest business district in the U.S. was stupid and a waste of money. But it's there now. I only mentioned it because it demonstrates that money can still be found as long as there is political will. And the way I read the McCormick thing, it'd probably be McPier borrowing, not the City of Chicago. McPier has decent credit, with the only big thing the agencies hold against it is that so much of its payment process has to make its way though the State of Illinois appropriations process.

[edsg25]

not sure of the legalities surrounding this issue....is it still possible that the court might still make a decision invalidating the Friends of the Park claim that the original site is protected and thus negating the need for the site change and allowing the museum to go forward?