501 N. Clark Hotel Project Update - Alderman Reilly Secures New Design

Over the past several months, Alderman Reilly has been working closely with local residents, neighborhood associations, the Departments of Zoning and Land Use Planning, Transportation and the Chicago Design Initiative (an independent group of architects and city planners), to better address infrastructure concerns and to refine design elements of the hotel proposal. Per Alderman Reilly's request, Friedman Properties and their project architect, HOK, have since taken that feedback, adjusted their designs and site plan and have resubmitted their revised proposal to the City of Chicago.

The 501 North Clark proposal would call for the construction of three hotels containing approximately 621 hotel rooms. Hotel parking would be accommodated by another Friedman Properties development: a new 700-space "green" parking garage currently under construction two blocks south of the hotels at 60 West Kinzie. The new neighborhood garage structure is scheduled to open later this year, on December 1, 2009.

Since the last community meeting on July 28, 2009, Alderman Reilly has been carefully considering input from the River North Residents Association as well as neighboring condominium buildings and individual residents of the River North neighborhood. He is grateful to all who took the time to contact his office and provide feedback. Alderman Reilly is pleased to share a revised design and infrastructure plan that reflects the input and suggestions he has received from design professionals, urban planners, the broader River North community and residents of downtown Chicago's 42nd Ward.

Improvements and new features of this hotel proposal include: LEED Basic certification; streetscape improvements to the internal driveway which, at the Alderman's insistence, has been engineered to handle all valet / guest loading and unloading as well as daily deliveries (to remove a substantial amount of traffic and loading from our city streets); and a redesign of key portions of the facades that better contemplates the architectural language of the broader River North community.

This proposal is scheduled to be heard at the November meeting of the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday, November 19th at 1:00pm in City Council Chambers, City Hall, 2nd Floor.

To view the new design for 501 North Clark Street, click here.

108 N. Jefferson Proposal
Please click here to view the a copy of plans for 108 N. Jefferson

Esquire Theater Proposal (58-104 East Oak Street)
Following the Alderman’s rejection of the initial hotel proposal (158-foot, twelve-story boutique hotel with 125 hotel keys and 24,500 square feet of retail space on the first two floors), M Development has submitted a revised plan which addresses the concerns regarding scale, density and use. The new proposal consists of three new commercial buildings between 36 and 60 feet in height, with differentiated façades. No dwelling units or hotel keys are part of the revised proposal. The proposed buildings will preserve and complement the existing Oak Street context with low-rise structures and pedestrian access standards which have characterized this world-renowned retail destination. A Lakefront Protection Application was filed with the City Department of Planning and Development and passed at the Chicago Plan Commission meeting.

Marina City (300 North State Street)
In a time when Chicago’s architectural style was predominantly influenced by the rectilinear glass and steel forms of Mies van der Rohe, Bertrand Goldberg’s 1959 curved concrete design for Marina City was immediately recognized as an innovative and intriguing addition to the City’s landscape. Goldberg aimed to create a “city within a city” along the Chicago River by incorporating offices, shops, theaters, restaurants, recreational facilities, apartments and a marina into one complex, the first mixed-use development in the United States to include residences. The most recognizable components of the complex are the twin cylindrical 60-story residential towers, featuring open spiraling parking garages on the lower 20 floors and pie-shaped apartments with semi-circular balconies on the upper floors—these round balconies afford dramatic views of the City and lend the buildings their famed “corn cob” appearance. Marina City proved immediately successful in glamorizing urban living and staving off suburban flight, and has since served as a prototype for contemporary residential buildings situated near the Loop. The Marina City apartments were converted to condominiums in the late 1970s, and commercial occupants of the complex currently include the House of Blues, Hotel Sax, 10 Pin, Bin 36, A Mano and Smith & Wollensky restaurant.

Several civic groups and preservation organizations, such as the City of Chicago’s Landmarks Division, Landmarks Illinois and Preservation Chicago, have expressed interest in protecting the integrity of this important architectural icon and consider this complex worthy of landmark status. Landmarks Illinois President David Bahlman has described Marina City as “a missing icon from the inventory of important downtown buildings that deserve city protection.” Options for protecting Marina City are currently being explored, and many building residents have expressed support of possible landmark designation.

Three Arts Building (1300 North Dearborn Street)
The Three Arts Club building was built in 1914 to serve as a safe and inexpensive residence, gallery and performing space for female art students. The prominent architecture firm of Holabird and Roche designed the four-story building to reflect an appreciation of the arts, represented in such details as exterior mosaics symbolizing the three arts of music, drama and painting. A notable feature of the building includes a central interior courtyard that complements the Byzantine-style details found on the building’s exterior. The Three Arts Club building was designated a Chicago Landmark on June 10, 1981. The building has been vacant in recent years, but M Development has proposed to restore and rehabilitate the building for future use a social club by Soho House.

M Development has conducted mock-up demonstrations of their plans for the proposed rooftop addition for the Landmarks Division of the Department of Planning and Development (Landmarks) and local community representatives to incorporate necessary design elements and revisions. Once we have formal details of final plans, a public meeting will be held for the community to comment on the Landmarks-approved proposal.

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Germania Club Building (108 West Germania Place)
The Germania Club building has served as a visual and cultural anchor in the Old Town Triangle community since its construction in 1888. Commissioned by prominent members of the German-American community and designed by August Fiedler , the Germania Club served for over a century as a meeting hall in the center of the oldest and once-largest German settlement in Chicago. With its rich architectural exterior detailing in red brick, terra cotta and pressed-metal ornament and its opulent, intact historic interior spaces, the Germania Club today stands as a grand example of a once-popular but now-rare building type, the 19th-century social club. The Germania Club’s architectural and historical significance is recognized in its “orange” rating on the Chicago Historic Resources Survey and its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. In further recognition of its significance, in April 2008 the Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted a “preliminary landmark recommendation” for this building.

Kimco Urban Retail Ventures 1 (KURV 1), a specialty division of Kimco Realty Corporation that focuses on purchasing and managing architecturally significant historic properties, recently acquired the Germania Club for $9.3 million. KURV 1 released a statement affirming their plans to preserve this property and denied any intentions to demolish, alter the exterior or utilize the building as an entrance to a high rise structure. KURV 1 projects typically involve the renovation and reuse of historic properties for upscale retail ventures. The City’s Landmarks Division will be working closely with KURV 1 to ensure any alteration to the building is in compliance with standards for landmark structures.

Village Theatre (1546-1550 North Clark Street)
The Village Theatre (originally called Germania Theatre) was built in 1915 for the exclusive purpose of showing motion pictures, and today stands as one of the best-surviving examples of “first generation” movie theaters in Chicago. German-born architect Adolph Woerner mixed flamboyant Classical and Renaissance Revival styles in the theater’s design and incorporated many elements of Germanic symbolism into the building’s elaborate exterior terra cotta detailing. The theater operated for many decades as the primary first-run movie house in the Old Town neighborhood, and later operated as a venue for second-run movies, stage productions and the Chicago International Film Festival. In April 2008 the Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted a “preliminary landmark recommendation” for the Village Theatre; significant features identified in the recommendation include all of the building’s exterior elevations and rooflines. In June 2008 Alderman Reilly asked the Department of Planning and Development to issue a report supporting landmark designation of the property, and the Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted to proceed with the landmark designation process by requesting owner consent.

850 North Lake Shore Drive
(former Lake Shore Athletic Club)
This unique historic Beaux Arts high rise building contrasts sharply to the neighboring Mies van der Rohe-designed towers at 860-880 Lake Shore Drive and provides remarkable visual variety along Chicago’s lakefront. The building was designed by Jarvis Hunt in 1924 to serve as a private athletic club. Significant interior features of the building include a decadent marble-clad lobby with a hand-carved fireplace; a three-story Great Hall; a swimming pool that once hosted trials for the 1928 Olympics; and recently-restored murals by Otto Hake depicting scenes from Chicago's history. The Lake Shore Athletic Club building was purchased by Northwestern University in the late 1970s for use as a residence hall until closing in 2005.

Securing the retention and reuse of this prominent building has been a priority of the Alderman’s office, community groups and preservationists since demolition plans were introduced in 2007. We are pleased that the current redevelopment plan proposed by Integrated Development Group (IDG) serves to not only preserve this historically and architecturally important building but to also meet demands for senior living along Chicago’s lakefront in Streeterville. IDG plans to renovate and convert the 17-story building into a luxury senior living complex that houses 139 senior housing units, fitness and wellness facilities, dining establishments and a theater, with special emphasis placed on preserving its remarkable historic character. This project’s Lakefront Protection Application was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission at the June 19, 2008 hearing.

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and Residences
(Planned Development No. 368: 435-457 North Park Dr; 320-342 Upper East North Water St;
432-456 North New St)
A proposal to construct a 107-story, 1,200-foot Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and residential tower was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission and the Committee on Zoning in June and is expected to be presented to City Council for approval in July 2008. The development plan includes 348 hotel keys (floors four through 26), 352 condominium units (floors 30 and above), and approximately 20,000 square feet of plaza space. During the course of the review of the proposal, the Developer agreed to many substantive modifications to the plan which will result in positive benefits to the community: a publicly accessible landscaped plaza to be constructed atop of the hotel ballroom, improvements to Ogden Plaza, a commitment by the Developer to work with other property owners to renovate and restore Ogden Park and to construct and maintain a publicly accessible pedestrian bridge over North New Street to achieve east-west pedestrian to Ogden Slip as contemplated at the inception of the Planned Development. Pre-construction sales are expected to begin in September 2008, with construction scheduled from August 2009 to September 2012.

444 West Lake Street
This proposed Residential-Business Planned Development is scheduled to be located on the Chicago River at the confluence of the North, South and Main Branches. The plans feature a 52-story commercial office tower on the southwestern portion of the triangular parcel and a 26-story hotel on its northern portion. An important feature of this development is the creation of a 1.5 acre public park. To ensure that the park will be available for public use in perpetuity, the City will hold a conservation easement to the land and various agreements that will require representatives of the Developer, City departments, the 42nd Ward Alderman and the community to meet annually to plan and coordinate organized, programmatic activities in the park. With these protections in place, Riverpoint Park will become a tremendous public open space amenity for the community. This proposal was approved by The Chicago Plan Commission at the June 19, 2008 hearing and is scheduled to be heard at Committee on Zoning in late July.