Archinect - News 2024-11-23T04:50:45-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150071252/all-the-grandeur-of-a-holiday-inn-blair-kamin-on-the-latest-chicago-union-station-expansion-plans 'All the grandeur of a Holiday Inn': Blair Kamin on the latest Chicago Union Station expansion plans Alexander Walter 2018-06-29T18:24:00-04:00 >2022-07-11T17:31:07-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/0e/0eeb5fdf765eec87c3bbe60558a03ead.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Daniel Burnham&rsquo;s ghost and his much-quoted exhortation to &ldquo;make no little plans&rdquo; haunt the just-released, utterly underwhelming design for a vertical expansion of Chicago&rsquo;s Union Station. To put things in Burnham-speak, these plans are little &mdash; very little. There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with the idea of putting a 330-room hotel in the upper floors [...] The trouble is a planned apartment addition that would plunk a squat modernist box atop the existing structure&rsquo;s neo-classical pedestal.</p></em><br /><br /><p><em>Tribune</em>&nbsp;critic <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/428238/blair-kamin" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blair Kamin</a> comments on the latest expansion plans by Riverside Investment &amp; Development for <a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/149968723/gensler-jeanne-gang-and-cesar-pelli-som-among-firms-competing-for-chicago-union-station-redevelopment" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chicago's iconic Union Station</a>, which were unveiled Monday night. "The juxtaposition of past and present isn&rsquo;t as violent as the spaceship-like seating bowl that&rsquo;s plopped atop the classical colonnades of Soldier Field," writes Kamin. "It&rsquo;s just banal, which Burnham buildings never are."</p> https://archinect.com/news/article/149968723/gensler-jeanne-gang-and-cesar-pelli-som-among-firms-competing-for-chicago-union-station-redevelopment Gensler, Jeanne Gang and Cesar Pelli, SOM among firms competing for Chicago Union Station redevelopment Nicholas Korody 2016-09-15T13:44:00-04:00 >2018-06-29T18:25:12-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/cm/cmrajtg3ns93a8j0.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>Chicago&rsquo;s Union Station is slated to get a $1 billion facelift that could add up to 3 million sq. ft. of new buildings. Amtrak just announced a shortlist of four contenders for the gig, as reported by <a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20160912/CRED03/160909825" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chicago Real Estate Daily</a>.</p> <p>The shortlist comprises the development firms John Buck, Riverside Investment &amp; Development, Golub and Sterling Bay. Each of the developers has a noted architectural practice on board; respectively, Jeanne Gang and Cesar Pelli, Goettsch Partners, Gensler, and Skidmore Owings &amp; Merrill.&nbsp;</p> <p>The teams were selected from an RFQ and will now move on to the proposal stage, with plans due by the beginning of 2017. According to Amtrak, the winning proposal will be selected by the end of the first quarter.</p> <p>The winning firm could build on top of existing buildings, on land owned by Amtrak, or over the train tracks. Amtrak owns 14 acres of land and up to 3 million square feet in air rights.</p> <p>According to preliminary plans, the development will include office, retail, hotel...</p>