High Line Update

A while ago, this page featured a post on the High Line, the unused, elevated railroad tracks in the Chelsea/Meatpacking area of Manhattan. After an open design competition and money and the general OK from the city, Friends of the High Line picked four finalists (Field Operations w/Diller + Scofidio + Renfro, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl, TerraGRAM) after an RFQ for the eventual redesign of the Line as a park. Domus online (registration req'd) features images of the four finalists, which are currently on exhibit at the AIA New York's Center for Architecture to inform the late summer final decision.


TerraGRAM entry

I'm excited that things are moving ahead for the High Line's reuse, though I'm also disappointed that a 720-strong design competition yielded a shortlist with the usual names. Surely, the competition achieved its primary result, to raise interest in the creative possibilities for reuse and drum up support and money for the cause. But the process gave way to an RFQ that shortlisted only familiar names, not the wide variety found in the open competition. It seems that at least one of the four winners from the competition should have been automatically shortlisted to liven things up and give somebody outside the usual bunch a shot.

Update 07.19: Archinect features extensive galleries for the four finalists:

Field Operations w/Diller+Scofidio+Renfro
Zaha Hadid
Steven Holl
TerraGRAM

2 Days and Counting

This Friday starts the Opening Weekend Events for Millennium Park's Grand Opening. Even though all parts of the park won't be complete, the line-up of events is impressive. Here's some highlights (full schedule here):

Fri, 10pm - Redmoon Theater illuminates the park with a dramatic installation of lanterns, fire and film.

Sat, 3:30pm - Over 40 musical performances over four hours at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and throughout the park.

Sat, 10:45pm - Ira Glass of "This American Life" with the visuals of Chris Ware.

Sun, 10am - "Wait, Wait ... Don?t Tell Me", Test your news savvy during a live taping of NPR and Chicago Public Radio?s oddly informative news quiz.

Update: This image gallery at Archinect has a good selection of Millennium Park images to get your juices going.

Uptown Rebirth

The Slatin Report features a piece on a recent development in the Uptown area of Chicago. Called Uptown Square, the development is about a block south of Lawrence and Broadway, the nexus of Uptown, with the Riviera, Aragon, and Uptown Theaters located around the intersection, as well as the well-known jazz club Green Mill.



As the image above illustrates, Borders is the main retail tenant of the development - renovated by architects Hartshorne + Plunkard - which also features market-rate condos and affordable units. The article is a good lesson in the real estate/developer decisions driving the economic regeneration of parts of the city, as well as the political steps along the way. With Uptown's illustrious history between the wars, it was only a matter of time before its built environment found new life, evidence of the cyclical nature of city neighborhoods.

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

The Holy Rosary Church Complex in Louisiana by Trahan Architects.

Book update: Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, edited by Jack Flam.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

THE ARCHITECTURE CRITIC: A Survey of Newspaper Architecture Critics in America, PDF version of a 2001 report by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. Look for comments regarding this report on this page later in the week.



Tomorrow begins the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival, held in Grant Park at sundown. Ebert & Roeper will be on hand at 8:15 before "His Girl Friday" for a little Q&A.



Sites of Reversible Destiny, an "experience park" at Yoro Park in Gifu, Japan by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.

McMakeover

The northeast corner of Chicago and State Streets, about a quarter mile west of the Magnificent Mile and the Water Tower, has been home to a McDonald's for quite a while. The location has also existed as an overlap between the affluence and consumerism to the east and the grittier area to the west, with YMCA residents and other "undesirables", to use Jane Jacobs's term, frequenting the McDonald's and other nearby establishments. The recently-opened makeover of the McDonald's, in tune with the adjacent subway renovation with its neo-traditional canopies, threatens to destroy this unique clashing of class and race, or does it?



The above view is the approach from the east on Chicago Avenue. Two drive-thru lanes are off camera to the right. An entry is under the second of four golden arches from the right, under a canopy highlighted with more golden arches. Beyond the overly-large, cantilevered sign is a fenced-in, corner park, visible below.



The building is an "L"-shape plan, cradling the park with outdoor seating adjacent to another entry and planters with built-in seating beyond, to the left of the picture. The exterior masonry is a mixture of two color of brick and split-face block. Storefront windows wrap three sides of the one-story building, towards the street, drive-thru and park.

Inside, a diagonal axis is set up from the corner entry to the order counter near the skinny portion of the "L", in the solid portion next to the outdoor space. Materials have been elevated from the norm, with stone tiles on the floor, patterned wall coverings, velvety curtains, "iron" railings, and so forth. All the while a feeling of faux-ness pervades the interior. Is that real stone on the floor? Why don't the curtains pull down? Why are exterior railings inside and why do they have fake straps? Why is there a sofa and a coffee table in a raised portion? Is this McDonald's-cum-Central Perk?

Edward Lifson, of Chicago Public Radio, rightly praises (Real Audio link) the design for its improved exterior design, the nicely landscaped park with seating, and the sophisticated interior design. I agree that the design is a huge improvement over its predecessor - even if the budget only creates the impression of a nicer interior - but I'm also concerned with its impact on the neighborhood, if any at all.

I've always liked walking to the Red Line subway stop at Chicago and State, sometimes extending my walk during nice weather, rather than walking the shorter route to the Grand stop four blocks south after work. As I mentioned it's still a relatively gritty part of town, only blocks away from American Girl Place, Ralph Lauren, the Park Tower, basically the $$$ of Michigan Avenue. So to walk from that area to the panhandlers outside Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's next door I feel like the city is still an accepting place, able to sustain the commerce and tourism of Michigan Avenue and the people who can't afford to buy anything beyond McDonald's menu. As neighborhoods even farther from downtown are displacing residents through gentrification, I'm glad this area has not been homogenized by those same forces, even though this area is that much closer to the downtown and the majority of the city's money.

But will this facelift change that? I hope not, and the continuing gritty characteristic of the street corner indciates that may be the case.

Update 07.12: Here's an image of the McDonald's design that will replace the popular Rock N' Roll McDonald's (which closes next Monday) in River North (image from Chicagoist ,and thanks to Karen for the Crain's link).



Update 08.06: McDonald's Press Release from July 12, with animated flyby (thanks to Brian T. for the link).

Cloud Gate Unveiled

A couple images of Cloud Gate, by artist Anish Kapoor, were sent around the office where I work. The sculpture is part of a raised garden east of the skating rink in Chicago's Millennium Park. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the sculpture will be concealed again (after months being constructed under a vaulted tent) around the end of the month with its final unveiling in September. Yet the "official" opening of the Park is July 16. The park won't be completely done until some time in 2005.


Looking at the sculpture from the southwest.


Looking at the sculpture from the north.

I don't know who took these pictures, so if you did let me know and I'll give you credit.

Design by Committee

An interesting quote I read while riding the train into work today:

What kind of building is this which is so strategically located, so very tall, so elegantly built, and which not only overwhelms its own micro-environment but which alters the profile of the city itself?...It is unmistakably a Chicago building, more easily attributable to the place than to its particular author...It is not so much the building's great height which is troubling. Rather, it is the image of teams of process-oriented silent technicians, calculating the most profitable use of land, materials, strategies of investment, producing an architecture - received Miesian aesthetic aside - which lacks vision and refuses to comment on the general problems of our time

Although written in 1970 Alvin Boyarsky for AD, it sounds equally valid today, especially in the much-loathed high rises of River North. Certainly today the scope of his statement could even extend beyond Chicago.