"More specifically, RONALD PIEKARZ is an architect who works with
developer/contractor Beny Garneata on building projects. PIEKARZ assists Garneata in a variety of ways with the payment of bribes to City inspectors in exchange for the City inspectors providing"
The high-rise work was very well done. Peter has come a long way! A tip of the hat in in order.
A zoning inspector named VALENTINO worked as a City of Chicago
inspector in the Department of Zoning.
PHYLLIS MENDENHALL , an employee of the
Department of Buildings, corruptly solicited and accepted bribe
payments in exchange for providing certificates of occupancy in an expedited manner for properties located at 922 North Oakley Street and 5326-28 South Prairie Avenue in Chicag
City employees charged were William Wellhausen, a zoning investigator; Mario Olivella, a plumbing inspector; MacArthur Milam, a supervisory ventilation and furnace inspector; Phyllis Mendenhall, an inquiry aide in the Buildings Department; Anthony Valentino, a zoning investigator; Thomas Ziroli, ventilation and furnace inspector; and Louis Burns, a Buildings Department clerk.
Wellhausen has deep ties to the 36th Ward Democratic organization of 36th Ward Ald. William J.P. Banks, the powerful chairman of the City Council's Zoning Committee.
The 36th Ward Democrats sponsored Wellhausen's efforts to get a city job as early as 1990, according to the "clout list" released in the 2006 trial of the mayor's patronage chief. His daughter works in Banks' office.
Seriously - why are all the city hall investigations nowadays getting minor minor players? Its obvious these arent the real players in the institutionalised corruption
I agree with you. That's a very good question. The 9th floor smells bad and when you go up there, some of them are really rude and aggressive. These bad apples are on a power trip to push out the unconnected and those without clout. They want you to hire their buddies so they'll make it very difficult for you.
what worries me is that these are small timers doing old fashioned bribes in envelopes. What about the major law firms and zoning "specialists" who've set up offices accross the street? Thats where the real cheescake is.
It's the 230 West Oakdale building with a twist. Well, it would be more interesting if it had a twist. Look at what Ralph Johnson accomplished with Skybridge and Contemporaine. There's volume and transformtion. Here all you have is transformation.
There's no volume here. It's all skin. It is a great job of skinning a rectilinear building. Look at a project an architect who is, in my opinion, a master of surface and skin:
Look at the volume he creates inside. This maybe more of an issue with the developer who didn't want to take the idea to it's logical conclusion and has a a great deal bad buildings to his credit.
For christmas the chicago archinect comunity should get Lletdown a digital camera so he doesnt have to use his cell phone on his adventures through the concrete jungle
Though the City Hall workers indicted are all low-level non-executives, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman made it clear that the charges may be just the tip of the iceberg, with an unnamed confidential informant giving agents information about bribe activities involving more than 30 people.
“The picture painted by the criminal charges filed today shows, sadly, that the permit process in Chicago is governed by a separate set of rules for those who pay to corrupt the system,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “Last year’s arrests (of eight current or former employees of the Chicago Department of Buildings) did not change the system enough.”
I wonder who the expeditor is that was wearing the wire?
"Officials described the confidential witness as an “expediter” who shuttled cash and information back and forth between inspectors to contractors. Officials also described the witness as a “bagman,” and said his cooperation included engaging in wire-tapped phone calls and wearing a wire in meetings.
According to court papers, the witness told agents that developers and contractors he worked with would express a willingness to bribe officials to get what they wanted. The witness then would ask what the “budget” was, and tell the appropriate city official that an “incentive” was available. Once terms were reached, payment was made.
The alleged payments were for various governmental favors, including allowing construction of illegal extra units in apartment buildings, overlooking plumbing and other defects, guaranteeing favorable inspections in advance and expediting the permit process."
ive spent way to much in the last month at city hall - about 30-40 hours worth - and I can say there 3 hot polish girls. After that - its fat dudes with beer guts, albanian masons, and old men alchoholics and the occasional lady who loses it because she's spent a week trying to figure out who to see to build a porch.
hahaha too true, evilp... the permit process in this city is the most ass-backward of any city I've lived in. It's retarded. I have my own list of who I think might end up being implicated, as I'm sure we all do... One PM in particular stands out in my mind...
there was a supposedly a speakeasy in the coopala of the Jewelers Building... 35 East Wacker... Ive heard it was Al Capones personal place though i dont know if thats true
now its Helmut Jahn's personal studio/client impresser
hey guys, not sure who all saw this but apparently 30% of the spires units are sold. Its looking more and more promising every day that this thing will really get built.
Here is the link from the Trib. There is also a really cool 12 min long video about how the building will be constructed. Worth watching if you can, as it has some pretty cool animations describing how the structure will function.
Bucktown Pub used to be awesome - covered in concert posters some going back to the acid rocker days - is is still cool? Havent been there since 2001. i think it changed owners.
Can't do it.....my only vote would go to Melvin B's and it is gone, in the hands of a defunct land banker waiting for they city to come demolish the abandoned landmark. Watch.
P.S., I met Evil P's mom there.
PS The video about the Spire is fascinating. They're building a bathtub but leaving it filled with earth to provide lateral support. The the caissons and the columns for the 7 floors of below ground parking begin. Then, beginning from the top, they're pouring the floors and tying them into the columns so they laterally support the bathtub and then excavate underneath to pour the next floor down and so on. Very interesting!
there's a little bar i like in bucktown but i can never remember the name of it... i think it's on damen though ... but it has a can of duff bar in a lineup of beer cans on the inside. and a schlitz sign on the outside, but that doesn't distinguish it much of course...
yeah that looks like it. i like that place. homey without being gross; clean without being yuppy. check for the duff can, it's in a lineup above the bar.
I use to live on wood between coutland and wabansia. We loved Jane's and went to the pub occasionally. we liked going to there because if we came early, we could bring the dogs. But our favorite was phyllis's musical inn on division. they would also let us bring the pups... oh and they have a basketball hoop on the side patio.. played some mean h.o.r.s.e. games out there. actually a lot of those neighborhood bars were pretty good if you knew when to go.. otherwise you might get stuck with a bunch of ditzy's and meatheads. i hated how over crowded the area got on the weekends. too many stupid people hording the sidewalks and gawking.
some other places that come to mind...we loved coast on damen, club lucky on wabansia, pizza co, piece, goddess and the grocer, the vet on north was great, bongo room, le bouchon, maritage, filter (the tuna sandwich was the bomb), cafe deluca, leo's (RIP), sorry, i could go on and on... i sorta miss chicago.
I'm a little behind the times on this discussion, but to chime in my two cents, I actually really like the soft curves and form of the Trump Tower, I find it very pleasing on the eye and not as aggressive as some of it's neighbors.
Also, on a related note, somehow I think it is unfair to negatively critique a project prior to its completion. It seems like the designer deserves to have her work discussed after completion, not during construction. Any thoughts?
But people familiar with the matter say the new subsidies will cover only costs already incurred.
Until even more money is found, those people say, the semi-completed station will be mothballed, much like an unfinished basement in a home whose owner has poured the concrete but can't afford to install carpeting, paneling and other finishing touches.
Aggregate Chicago
I bet gerald goes down -its always the floor boss that gets stung
They got an architect:
"More specifically, RONALD PIEKARZ is an architect who works with
developer/contractor Beny Garneata on building projects. PIEKARZ assists Garneata in a variety of ways with the payment of bribes to City inspectors in exchange for the City inspectors providing"
The high-rise work was very well done. Peter has come a long way! A tip of the hat in in order.
Or in my best Peter Land voice...
SOO-PURR!!!
The latest:
A zoning inspector named VALENTINO worked as a City of Chicago
inspector in the Department of Zoning.
PHYLLIS MENDENHALL , an employee of the
Department of Buildings, corruptly solicited and accepted bribe
payments in exchange for providing certificates of occupancy in an expedited manner for properties located at 922 North Oakley Street and 5326-28 South Prairie Avenue in Chicag
thats it? thats the best they could do? I knew theyd get some Polish contractor/ developer - while the big boys keep on keep'n on
back to Trump
From the Tribune:
City employees charged were William Wellhausen, a zoning investigator; Mario Olivella, a plumbing inspector; MacArthur Milam, a supervisory ventilation and furnace inspector; Phyllis Mendenhall, an inquiry aide in the Buildings Department; Anthony Valentino, a zoning investigator; Thomas Ziroli, ventilation and furnace inspector; and Louis Burns, a Buildings Department clerk.
Wellhausen has deep ties to the 36th Ward Democratic organization of 36th Ward Ald. William J.P. Banks, the powerful chairman of the City Council's Zoning Committee.
The 36th Ward Democrats sponsored Wellhausen's efforts to get a city job as early as 1990, according to the "clout list" released in the 2006 trial of the mayor's patronage chief. His daughter works in Banks' office.
The connection to Banks is obvious to anyone who has to deal with these folks. Now if Fitzgerald get him for pay-to-play....
Seriously - why are all the city hall investigations nowadays getting minor minor players? Its obvious these arent the real players in the institutionalised corruption
I agree with you. That's a very good question. The 9th floor smells bad and when you go up there, some of them are really rude and aggressive. These bad apples are on a power trip to push out the unconnected and those without clout. They want you to hire their buddies so they'll make it very difficult for you.
what worries me is that these are small timers doing old fashioned bribes in envelopes. What about the major law firms and zoning "specialists" who've set up offices accross the street? Thats where the real cheescake is.
MAN o balls alive i love the aqua...
I think it's fun but it's a one-liner.
It's the 230 West Oakdale building with a twist. Well, it would be more interesting if it had a twist. Look at what Ralph Johnson accomplished with Skybridge and Contemporaine. There's volume and transformtion. Here all you have is transformation.
There's no volume here. It's all skin. It is a great job of skinning a rectilinear building. Look at a project an architect who is, in my opinion, a master of surface and skin:
Look at the volume he creates inside. This maybe more of an issue with the developer who didn't want to take the idea to it's logical conclusion and has a a great deal bad buildings to his credit.
For christmas the chicago archinect comunity should get Lletdown a digital camera so he doesnt have to use his cell phone on his adventures through the concrete jungle
Or me an html book so I can figure out how to scale graphics on here. ;-)
from Crains Chi Biz
Though the City Hall workers indicted are all low-level non-executives, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman made it clear that the charges may be just the tip of the iceberg, with an unnamed confidential informant giving agents information about bribe activities involving more than 30 people.
“The picture painted by the criminal charges filed today shows, sadly, that the permit process in Chicago is governed by a separate set of rules for those who pay to corrupt the system,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “Last year’s arrests (of eight current or former employees of the Chicago Department of Buildings) did not change the system enough.”
I wonder who the expeditor is that was wearing the wire?
"Officials described the confidential witness as an “expediter” who shuttled cash and information back and forth between inspectors to contractors. Officials also described the witness as a “bagman,” and said his cooperation included engaging in wire-tapped phone calls and wearing a wire in meetings.
According to court papers, the witness told agents that developers and contractors he worked with would express a willingness to bribe officials to get what they wanted. The witness then would ask what the “budget” was, and tell the appropriate city official that an “incentive” was available. Once terms were reached, payment was made.
The alleged payments were for various governmental favors, including allowing construction of illegal extra units in apartment buildings, overlooking plumbing and other defects, guaranteeing favorable inspections in advance and expediting the permit process."
I am sure we know him. He's definitely in danger.
I dont know - all the expeditors I know are such stand up classy people it would be hard to imagine any of them as moles.
The expeditors in Chicago are mostly Hot Polish Girls.
There's a few of those. And then you look at the shitty spec projects that they're pushing and I realize that they're just like the rest of 'em.
ive spent way to much in the last month at city hall - about 30-40 hours worth - and I can say there 3 hot polish girls. After that - its fat dudes with beer guts, albanian masons, and old men alchoholics and the occasional lady who loses it because she's spent a week trying to figure out who to see to build a porch.
God I hate that place
hahaha too true, evilp... the permit process in this city is the most ass-backward of any city I've lived in. It's retarded. I have my own list of who I think might end up being implicated, as I'm sure we all do... One PM in particular stands out in my mind...
polish girls, like ukrainians, are only hot til about 32 and then it's all downhill from there in a hurry.
hook from the tower crane at Trump Site
SWEET!
speaking of the sox...
8 straight wins...
going to the game tonight in hopes of seeing bobby jenks pick up save 100 for his career...
Lets go go go Whiiiiiite Sox
marimbaOne and Postal are accompanying me...
if you see 3 awesome lookin dudes on tv in the left center seats, bout 14 rows back... thats us...
this is interesting - the onion dome atop the hotel Intercontinental - I didnt know it had an observatory
chicagocareless
we should put together a list of all the crazy stuff on top of buildings... beehives, speakeasies, onions, temples, etc.
...i elect you lletdownl, keeper of this new blog... titled, "crazy shit atop buildings"
great... thanks bossman...
that's pat!!
i think we can credit tonight's white sox loss to the flannel toting douche above... way to go!!!
sorry lletdownl... please stand up at my wedding...
wait, there's a speakeasy on top of a building somewhere?
I've *always* wondered about that onion dome! cool.
there was a supposedly a speakeasy in the coopala of the Jewelers Building... 35 East Wacker... Ive heard it was Al Capones personal place though i dont know if thats true
now its Helmut Jahn's personal studio/client impresser
It's true, and an elevator would take his car from the alley all the way up to it.
hey guys, not sure who all saw this but apparently 30% of the spires units are sold. Its looking more and more promising every day that this thing will really get built.
Here is the link from the Trib. There is also a really cool 12 min long video about how the building will be constructed. Worth watching if you can, as it has some pretty cool animations describing how the structure will function.
I saw that article too. It looks like the Spire may happen. I wonder how much personal collateral is involved.
Kelleher, the Irish guy, used to own the building that Jane's is in on Cortland. That was one of his first buildings.
woah, no way!... i live 2 blocks from there, and postal and i frequent bucktown pub across the street.
very cool
Bucktown Pub used to be awesome - covered in concert posters some going back to the acid rocker days - is is still cool? Havent been there since 2001. i think it changed owners.
we should start an agregate chicago pub list.
1. Bucktown Pub.
2. Jack's Tap - great selection of brews, west Loop
Can't do it.....my only vote would go to Melvin B's and it is gone, in the hands of a defunct land banker waiting for they city to come demolish the abandoned landmark. Watch.
P.S., I met Evil P's mom there.
Where was Melvin B's? Off Rush? It sounds so familiar.
PS The video about the Spire is fascinating. They're building a bathtub but leaving it filled with earth to provide lateral support. The the caissons and the columns for the 7 floors of below ground parking begin. Then, beginning from the top, they're pouring the floors and tying them into the columns so they laterally support the bathtub and then excavate underneath to pour the next floor down and so on. Very interesting!
normally Id be mad if someone said something about my mom but Pozatek really did meet my mom there.
I agree - Melvins was delightfully sleazy outdoor barfly heaven. Shame its gone.
BTW- my uncle is the survetor for the spire - its called top down construction. They did that at waterview as well Make.
crazy -- top down?! damn.
there's a little bar i like in bucktown but i can never remember the name of it... i think it's on damen though ... but it has a can of duff bar in a lineup of beer cans on the inside. and a schlitz sign on the outside, but that doesn't distinguish it much of course...
you're thinking of lemming's i believe... though i can't corroborate the Duff can... we go there for Sox games...
yeah that looks like it. i like that place. homey without being gross; clean without being yuppy. check for the duff can, it's in a lineup above the bar.
I use to live on wood between coutland and wabansia. We loved Jane's and went to the pub occasionally. we liked going to there because if we came early, we could bring the dogs. But our favorite was phyllis's musical inn on division. they would also let us bring the pups... oh and they have a basketball hoop on the side patio.. played some mean h.o.r.s.e. games out there. actually a lot of those neighborhood bars were pretty good if you knew when to go.. otherwise you might get stuck with a bunch of ditzy's and meatheads. i hated how over crowded the area got on the weekends. too many stupid people hording the sidewalks and gawking.
some other places that come to mind...we loved coast on damen, club lucky on wabansia, pizza co, piece, goddess and the grocer, the vet on north was great, bongo room, le bouchon, maritage, filter (the tuna sandwich was the bomb), cafe deluca, leo's (RIP), sorry, i could go on and on... i sorta miss chicago.
I'm a little behind the times on this discussion, but to chime in my two cents, I actually really like the soft curves and form of the Trump Tower, I find it very pleasing on the eye and not as aggressive as some of it's neighbors.
Also, on a related note, somehow I think it is unfair to negatively critique a project prior to its completion. It seems like the designer deserves to have her work discussed after completion, not during construction. Any thoughts?
This Months issue of Metropolis has Jeanne Gang on the cover and features a very lengthy article on her projects. Definitely check it out.
How deep does the rabbit hole go? at least a $billion
Block 37 bailout for CTA
But people familiar with the matter say the new subsidies will cover only costs already incurred.
Until even more money is found, those people say, the semi-completed station will be mothballed, much like an unfinished basement in a home whose owner has poured the concrete but can't afford to install carpeting, paneling and other finishing touches.
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