This isn’t news since it’s been the case for over a year I think, but only five buildings are left between 56th Street and 57th and S. Drexel Ave and S. Cottage Ave. If they are not yet acquired by the University, they will eventually be acquired and demolished. It’s incredible to see the change from just a few years ago, when these blocks felt downright residential–even as the new hospital had been built.
Crain’s Chicago Business.
Filed under The Good
The garage will be built by Chicago-based construction company Clayco and is designed by the firm’s architectural arm Forum Studio. At 872,300 sqft it is nearly three quarters the size of Rafael Vinoly’s Center for Care and Discovery.
Additional renderings can be found here and here.
It appears that the structure will fill about two thirds of the rectangle-shaped block that is created by S. Cottage Grove Ave to the West, S. Maryland Ave, 56th Street, and 57th Street to the South. A second story bridge will protrude from the SE corner of the garage to connect it to the center of the hospital. Most interesting of all, in two of the renderings there is a kind of shadow. These are ghostlike outlines of a future tower for doctor’s offices that could one day be built on top of the Western side of the parking garage (which supposedly will be made ultra sturdy for the potential extra weight). Should this tower one day be a reality, it may vex patients in rooms with obstructed skyline views.
I don’t feel like being harsh about the design because it’s a parking garage. It has some merits, although I will say that the “panels of kinetic-art wind veils” (not pictured above), which dance about or something when the wind is blowing–an interesting idea–don’t really do it for me. Partly, this is because they would be so functionless. Parking garages are all about function….Which by the way is not to say that functional structures can’t also be beautiful. Just look at Murphy/Jahn’s wonderful West and South Campus Combined Utility Plants.
I am curious what will happen to the current full block-sized parking garage on Cottage Grove between 58th and 59th Streets. Will it be modified? Demolished? Maybe we will still need all of those parking spots.
Filed under The Meh
The Campus Review 