The problem with the minority contracts is that they make up 60% of the spending and its highly politicised. First off if your going to do set aside race based contract quotas then set it equal to racial population make up. We now have to be fair about how to be fair?
Regardless - they will piss it away gloriously. Hopefully the benefits outways the costs. We shall see.
$15 billion worth of British Knights would be awesome for this city
it sure shakes up the division. It is nice to see the bears making a big move. We'll have to see if it is the right or wrong move, but atleast they are trying something.
yeah im pretty psyched about it... the way i figure is that the bears got the hard part taken care of. and we now have perhaps 10 years of solid quarterback play to potentially count on. We have talent on defense, though admittedly they have been poor over the past season and a half, and that talent is still young and capable of bouncing back. Outside of Brian urlacher and Wally ogunleye, i think we can really bounce back this year. If we can add a WR with an improving Devin Hester, and suprisingly promising Matt Forte, a very good set of tight ends, and a suddenly improved and deep offensive line, the bears have a bright future...
im optimistic about our chances to be a playoff team next year, but im much more optimistic about the chances of being a serious contender in 2 or 3 years, and being competitive every year for the foreseeable future...
go bears...
the bears need a number one wide receiver. plaxico was cut. wonder if he'll be in jail. also, torry holt is out there and marvin harrison who can still make some plays but isn't really a number one anymore.
yes indeed vado... ive heard a few people mention torry holts name... hes only 33... he might have a good year or two left in him...
though honestly, im fine with the WRs we have right now...
bears fans should be patient... cutler is 25, forte is young, olsen is young, hester is young... we have the foundations for a solid offense... we will get there...
as for UIC
honestly, when i was in school, UIC's program was looked down upon by IIT kids... maybe we were just pretensious, but the feeling amongst students and subtley among profs, was that IIT was a far superior school with a much more important tradition.
This might have had something to do with the overall academic standard of IIT compared to UIC, cause honestly, UIC's arch program is probably pretty comparable quality wise. Either way, im hearing a lot of good things about the direction of both schools, and they seem to be more or less equals, though i believe IIT still has a much better reputation nationally, internationally, and with employers.
so i dont get in trouble from the UIC kids, let me remove such inflammatory adjectives as "far" from "... was that IIT was a "Far" superior school", and "much" from "... i believe IIT still has a "much" better reputation..."
You guys might be interested in this lecture on Thursday
Clyde N. Baker, Jr., P.E., S.E., Senior Principal Engineer - STS/AECOM has served as geotechnical engineer or consultant on eight of the twenty tallest buildings in the world including the three tallest in Chicago (Sears, Hancock, and Amoco) and the current four tallest buildings in the world; the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 101 Financial Center in Taipei, Taiwan; and Burj Dubai in Dubai. He is currently working as a consultant on several super tall buildings that are under construction (circa 2008) including the Spire in Chicago, Doha Convention Center and Tower in Qatar and Incheon 151 in Incheon, Korea. Mr. Baker has earned an international reputation with his 54 years of engineering experience in design, analysis and construction of deep foundations for high-rise structures. During the lecture Mr. Baker will present an overview of his work..
well,
a friend showed me some images of Aqua's lighting test the other night.
I have to say, i was blown away by how beautiful it is. this building gets better and better as it nears completion... if only there had been more money for the railings, this would be a near flawless tower IMO.
the railings comment was in regards to the fact that the railings shown in the renderings and early models were curved as well. the railings they actually installed are clunky and faceted... a cost cutting measure im sure, but one that does detract...
hmm i see, do the railings still trace the outlines, only faceted, or do they cut off large pieces of the curve? I can't see from the images, and haven't been close enough up to lately to notice.
lletdownl, i think the railings are curved, at least from my vantage point... maybe i'm not close enough...
conincidentally i met with a lighting rep whose company did that installation. unfortunately, i'm told it's only temporary and last night was the last time it would be on. just more eye candy for the IOC. bummer, i hope the developer is convinced that they should install those lights and run them for an hour every night Hong Kong style.
anyway, i'm anxious to hear what the IOC has to say. I wonder if they will criticize anything or just point out things they liked.
Anyone know what the closing rate is going to be on that building? A lot of buildings that were said to be 80% sold are having people not show up to close leaving the buildings more like 40% sold
Most banks now want a building to be 70% sold before they will lend for it.
Last night, Carme Pinos showed off a tower she did in Mexico and it was Architecture. It had three cores and a central space that rose up the whole distance. It was quite good. What is the rest of Aqua like?
i showed those pictures of aqua to everyone in my office, and we all collectively got architectural nerd boners. that was pretty amazing...too bad it is only temporary.
i pass by aqua every couple of weeks to check on its progress, and last time i was there it was difficult (from grade) to really see the railings. i am not sure how much of an effect it will have on the overall outcome of the building, unless you are looking at it directly from an adjacent building.
i remember before the beginning of the financial collapse reading that aqua was sold out. considering what evil just said about people not showing up to close, i am uncertain what the occupancy will be like once people start moving in. regardless, the building seems to be turning out quite nice. even the ground level retail and parking garage look nice (so far).
I think this is getting rediculous over there in the park. But if it brings in revenues, Im for it. I just wish we could more visitors to leave the 1 square mile around their hotel.
The designs seem engaging, I'm sure they will be fun to get up close to an examine, really more of sculpture than anything functional, don't you think?
It would be nice to see some of this public sculpturel funding used around the city a little more, isntead of overloading one park.
The Berkel one, according to Rosa, is supposed to be a "viewfinder." And the roof plane is supposed to frame a view of the skyline. I am not sure that the geometry actually works. The holes are supposed to heighten this experience. Again it looks like a recycled project.
The Zaha thing came from a "diagonal that was missing in the Burnham Plan." I chuckled when I heard that and left after he finished.
After some delay, I finished reading Chicago Architecture and Design by Jay Pridmore and George A. Larson. As promised, here is a brief summary of my thoughts on it.
The book is a nice introduction to Chicago architectural history. It does a very good job of taking you through the historic periods of design, introducing the notable designers and many projects that Chicago has seen over the past 150 years or so. It doesn't give you incredible depth on any single project, but it does provide a fair amount of more information than just labeled pictures (which by the way, the images are very high quality, with many full color plates). It is fairly current, taking you all the way up through such notable buildings as Skybridge, the Pritzker Pavillion at Millenium Park, McCormick Tribune Campus Center and State Street village at IIT.
On the negative side, the book does lack plans and details, and instead relies on images and text to convey ideas. It is not a technical reference, and shys away from overly complex or particular detail topics, and instead focuses on the broad moves and innovations in the buildings.
Anyhow, If you're looking for a lighter, enjoyable text on Chicago Architecture, with beautiful images, check this one out. If you want a scholarly reference, this one may not cut it, and should only be purchased supplementary to another source or for pure leisure reasons.
That book sounds like it would be perfect if it had plans / sections and details for our archi-engineering pleasure.
Heres something I came accross and it was a bit of a shock; Chicagoland ranks 2nd in the rankings of most de-centralised job regions. One would think given the mountain range of comercial real estate downtown and the reletively compacted edge city outposts. Now the study looks at residence to work distance so in fairness Chicago does have a good Metra system so that could skew the findings.
"Only 21 percent of employees in the top 98 metro areas work within three miles of downtown, while over twice that share (45 percent) work more than 10 miles away from the city center. The larger the metro area, the more likely people are to work more than 10 miles away from downtown; almost 50 percent of jobs in larger metros like Detroit, Chicago, and Dallas locate more than 10 miles away on average compared to just 27 percent of jobs in smaller metros like Lexington-Fayette, Boise, and Syracuse. "
yeah, i mean i dont deny that chicago is a sprawling place, but i do wonder a bit about the meaning of those numbers...
for instance, chicago's average density (13,000/sq mi) is higher than every other major american metropolis outside NYC. Its higher than old american cities like philly and boston and almost double LA.
however, the percentage of the metro population living within the city limits (about 1/3) is about 10% less than in NY, and 20% less than LA.
Obviously there are many extenuating circumstances relating to the physical size of the city limits in square miles, but i think relating relative density to the population distribution (city limits / suburbs) can reveal some interesting facts. And when you look at the comparison that way, chicago is MORE sprawled out, on average than both LA and NY.
weirdly enough though, boston was about as 'sprawled' as i could find... with only 600k in its city limits and over 4,000,000 in its metro
quick synopsis... of what? i have no idea, i just find the numbers interesting...
chicago - 2.8 mil city limits / 9.8 mil metro area / 12,649 sq/mi
NYC - 8.2 mil / 18.8 mil metro / 27,147 sq/mi
LA - 3.8 mil city limits / 17.7 mil metro / 8,205 sq mi
boston- 608 k / 5.9 mil metro / 12,569 sq mi
houston - 2.2 mil / 5.7 mil metro / 3,828 sq mi
phoenix - 1.5 mil / 4.2 metro / 2,937 sq mi
There are so many talented designers in Chicago, I don't understand why they couldn't have asked someone local to design at least one of the pavilions.
Garofalo is helping with the technical aspects of the Van Berkel pavilion and said he wished he had been asked to design it. I wish he would have as well.
I think Chicago metro area is sprawled out more because there are no real impediments geological or financial preventing it. At the fringe of the megalopolis you can still buy cheap virgin farmland and plop down some ugly tan tract housing. LA has mountains state parks, valuable citrus groves, and national parks to the east which limit growth as well as transportation options to far flung suburbs. New York metro area is a bunch of islands surrounded by marshes, and rich suburbs like the Hamptons and Greenwich. Boston may be suffering from urban decay more than anything else. I think Chicago is by far the easiest city and metro area to get around in compared to Boston, New York and LA. The lakeshore megalopolis is not as far reaching as the east coast, and is not as constrained as LA. Just my opinion / observation.
Aggregate Chicago
The real money is with the Mayor's buddies. What's that construction company that gets all of the City work? Kenny?
The whole structure of government needs to change. Get rid of the 50 alderman and the contracts. Get a manager instead of a Mayor. Term limits, etc..
If the City goes BK, it might happen.
British Knights?
The problem with the minority contracts is that they make up 60% of the spending and its highly politicised. First off if your going to do set aside race based contract quotas then set it equal to racial population make up. We now have to be fair about how to be fair?
Regardless - they will piss it away gloriously. Hopefully the benefits outways the costs. We shall see.
$15 billion worth of British Knights would be awesome for this city
dibs
HOLY SHIT WE GOT CUTLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
da bears.
it sure shakes up the division. It is nice to see the bears making a big move. We'll have to see if it is the right or wrong move, but atleast they are trying something.
yeah im pretty psyched about it... the way i figure is that the bears got the hard part taken care of. and we now have perhaps 10 years of solid quarterback play to potentially count on. We have talent on defense, though admittedly they have been poor over the past season and a half, and that talent is still young and capable of bouncing back. Outside of Brian urlacher and Wally ogunleye, i think we can really bounce back this year. If we can add a WR with an improving Devin Hester, and suprisingly promising Matt Forte, a very good set of tight ends, and a suddenly improved and deep offensive line, the bears have a bright future...
im optimistic about our chances to be a playoff team next year, but im much more optimistic about the chances of being a serious contender in 2 or 3 years, and being competitive every year for the foreseeable future...
go bears...
too bad t.o. already went to buffalo.
BK = bankrupt
does anyone have a good sense of the reputation of UIC's architecture program and how it is regarded in the city of chicago?
does anyone have a good sense of the reputation of UIC's architecture program and how it is regarded in the city of chicago?
the bears need a number one wide receiver. plaxico was cut. wonder if he'll be in jail. also, torry holt is out there and marvin harrison who can still make some plays but isn't really a number one anymore.
yes indeed vado... ive heard a few people mention torry holts name... hes only 33... he might have a good year or two left in him...
though honestly, im fine with the WRs we have right now...
bears fans should be patient... cutler is 25, forte is young, olsen is young, hester is young... we have the foundations for a solid offense... we will get there...
as for UIC
honestly, when i was in school, UIC's program was looked down upon by IIT kids... maybe we were just pretensious, but the feeling amongst students and subtley among profs, was that IIT was a far superior school with a much more important tradition.
This might have had something to do with the overall academic standard of IIT compared to UIC, cause honestly, UIC's arch program is probably pretty comparable quality wise. Either way, im hearing a lot of good things about the direction of both schools, and they seem to be more or less equals, though i believe IIT still has a much better reputation nationally, internationally, and with employers.
so i dont get in trouble from the UIC kids, let me remove such inflammatory adjectives as "far" from "... was that IIT was a "Far" superior school", and "much" from "... i believe IIT still has a "much" better reputation..."
do you think those uic flamers can spell "pretentious" correctly?
yeah... thanks vado...
12,585...
You guys might be interested in this lecture on Thursday
Clyde N. Baker, Jr., P.E., S.E., Senior Principal Engineer - STS/AECOM has served as geotechnical engineer or consultant on eight of the twenty tallest buildings in the world including the three tallest in Chicago (Sears, Hancock, and Amoco) and the current four tallest buildings in the world; the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 101 Financial Center in Taipei, Taiwan; and Burj Dubai in Dubai. He is currently working as a consultant on several super tall buildings that are under construction (circa 2008) including the Spire in Chicago, Doha Convention Center and Tower in Qatar and Incheon 151 in Incheon, Korea. Mr. Baker has earned an international reputation with his 54 years of engineering experience in design, analysis and construction of deep foundations for high-rise structures. During the lecture Mr. Baker will present an overview of his work..
[url=http://www.seaoi.org/sef.htm link [/url]
well,
a friend showed me some images of Aqua's lighting test the other night.
I have to say, i was blown away by how beautiful it is. this building gets better and better as it nears completion... if only there had been more money for the railings, this would be a near flawless tower IMO.
Can you explain the railings comment? Does the building not have functional balconies?
It's a great facade. Did the developer allowed them much freedom on the rest of the building?
It's a great facade. Did the developer allowed them much freedom on the rest of the building?
the railings comment was in regards to the fact that the railings shown in the renderings and early models were curved as well. the railings they actually installed are clunky and faceted... a cost cutting measure im sure, but one that does detract...
hmm i see, do the railings still trace the outlines, only faceted, or do they cut off large pieces of the curve? I can't see from the images, and haven't been close enough up to lately to notice.
lletdownl, i think the railings are curved, at least from my vantage point... maybe i'm not close enough...
conincidentally i met with a lighting rep whose company did that installation. unfortunately, i'm told it's only temporary and last night was the last time it would be on. just more eye candy for the IOC. bummer, i hope the developer is convinced that they should install those lights and run them for an hour every night Hong Kong style.
anyway, i'm anxious to hear what the IOC has to say. I wonder if they will criticize anything or just point out things they liked.
Good call, that installation looks great and It would be a fun nightly show.
Would it be visible from parts of Lakeshore drive and Navy Pier, or am I mistaken?
Too bad its not permanent the lights were cool
Anyone know what the closing rate is going to be on that building? A lot of buildings that were said to be 80% sold are having people not show up to close leaving the buildings more like 40% sold
Most banks now want a building to be 70% sold before they will lend for it.
Last night, Carme Pinos showed off a tower she did in Mexico and it was Architecture. It had three cores and a central space that rose up the whole distance. It was quite good. What is the rest of Aqua like?
i showed those pictures of aqua to everyone in my office, and we all collectively got architectural nerd boners. that was pretty amazing...too bad it is only temporary.
i pass by aqua every couple of weeks to check on its progress, and last time i was there it was difficult (from grade) to really see the railings. i am not sure how much of an effect it will have on the overall outcome of the building, unless you are looking at it directly from an adjacent building.
i remember before the beginning of the financial collapse reading that aqua was sold out. considering what evil just said about people not showing up to close, i am uncertain what the occupancy will be like once people start moving in. regardless, the building seems to be turning out quite nice. even the ground level retail and parking garage look nice (so far).
any comments on these pavilions? they are to be built in millenium park this summer...
Link
van berkel from un studio
hadid
it s like vera wang designed something for kohl's!
I think this is getting rediculous over there in the park. But if it brings in revenues, Im for it. I just wish we could more visitors to leave the 1 square mile around their hotel.
will they be there during the taste? they look like they could be better viewed while gnawing on a turkey drumstick.
The designs seem engaging, I'm sure they will be fun to get up close to an examine, really more of sculpture than anything functional, don't you think?
It would be nice to see some of this public sculpturel funding used around the city a little more, isntead of overloading one park.
It would also be nice to see something built in Chicago actualy designed by Chicagoans or midwesterners.
hmm yeah good point. Kruek and Sexton are doing the Children's Museum...right?...
also, neither of these seem to do anything. unlike a pavillion like sHOP's Dunescape. K&S or Bang or Garafolo or...
The Berkel one, according to Rosa, is supposed to be a "viewfinder." And the roof plane is supposed to frame a view of the skyline. I am not sure that the geometry actually works. The holes are supposed to heighten this experience. Again it looks like a recycled project.
The Zaha thing came from a "diagonal that was missing in the Burnham Plan." I chuckled when I heard that and left after he finished.
After some delay, I finished reading Chicago Architecture and Design by Jay Pridmore and George A. Larson. As promised, here is a brief summary of my thoughts on it.
The book is a nice introduction to Chicago architectural history. It does a very good job of taking you through the historic periods of design, introducing the notable designers and many projects that Chicago has seen over the past 150 years or so. It doesn't give you incredible depth on any single project, but it does provide a fair amount of more information than just labeled pictures (which by the way, the images are very high quality, with many full color plates). It is fairly current, taking you all the way up through such notable buildings as Skybridge, the Pritzker Pavillion at Millenium Park, McCormick Tribune Campus Center and State Street village at IIT.
On the negative side, the book does lack plans and details, and instead relies on images and text to convey ideas. It is not a technical reference, and shys away from overly complex or particular detail topics, and instead focuses on the broad moves and innovations in the buildings.
Anyhow, If you're looking for a lighter, enjoyable text on Chicago Architecture, with beautiful images, check this one out. If you want a scholarly reference, this one may not cut it, and should only be purchased supplementary to another source or for pure leisure reasons.
That book sounds like it would be perfect if it had plans / sections and details for our archi-engineering pleasure.
Heres something I came accross and it was a bit of a shock; Chicagoland ranks 2nd in the rankings of most de-centralised job regions. One would think given the mountain range of comercial real estate downtown and the reletively compacted edge city outposts. Now the study looks at residence to work distance so in fairness Chicago does have a good Metra system so that could skew the findings.
[url=http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/0406_job_sprawl_kneebone.aspx
]link[/url]
"Only 21 percent of employees in the top 98 metro areas work within three miles of downtown, while over twice that share (45 percent) work more than 10 miles away from the city center. The larger the metro area, the more likely people are to work more than 10 miles away from downtown; almost 50 percent of jobs in larger metros like Detroit, Chicago, and Dallas locate more than 10 miles away on average compared to just 27 percent of jobs in smaller metros like Lexington-Fayette, Boise, and Syracuse. "
its like ten miles from rogers park to the loop and that's still in the citay.
its like ten miles from rogers park to the loop and that's still in the citay.
yeah, i mean i dont deny that chicago is a sprawling place, but i do wonder a bit about the meaning of those numbers...
for instance, chicago's average density (13,000/sq mi) is higher than every other major american metropolis outside NYC. Its higher than old american cities like philly and boston and almost double LA.
however, the percentage of the metro population living within the city limits (about 1/3) is about 10% less than in NY, and 20% less than LA.
Obviously there are many extenuating circumstances relating to the physical size of the city limits in square miles, but i think relating relative density to the population distribution (city limits / suburbs) can reveal some interesting facts. And when you look at the comparison that way, chicago is MORE sprawled out, on average than both LA and NY.
weirdly enough though, boston was about as 'sprawled' as i could find... with only 600k in its city limits and over 4,000,000 in its metro
quick synopsis... of what? i have no idea, i just find the numbers interesting...
chicago - 2.8 mil city limits / 9.8 mil metro area / 12,649 sq/mi
NYC - 8.2 mil / 18.8 mil metro / 27,147 sq/mi
LA - 3.8 mil city limits / 17.7 mil metro / 8,205 sq mi
boston- 608 k / 5.9 mil metro / 12,569 sq mi
houston - 2.2 mil / 5.7 mil metro / 3,828 sq mi
phoenix - 1.5 mil / 4.2 metro / 2,937 sq mi
There are so many talented designers in Chicago, I don't understand why they couldn't have asked someone local to design at least one of the pavilions.
Garofalo is helping with the technical aspects of the Van Berkel pavilion and said he wished he had been asked to design it. I wish he would have as well.
cubs win! last night that is.
I think Chicago metro area is sprawled out more because there are no real impediments geological or financial preventing it. At the fringe of the megalopolis you can still buy cheap virgin farmland and plop down some ugly tan tract housing. LA has mountains state parks, valuable citrus groves, and national parks to the east which limit growth as well as transportation options to far flung suburbs. New York metro area is a bunch of islands surrounded by marshes, and rich suburbs like the Hamptons and Greenwich. Boston may be suffering from urban decay more than anything else. I think Chicago is by far the easiest city and metro area to get around in compared to Boston, New York and LA. The lakeshore megalopolis is not as far reaching as the east coast, and is not as constrained as LA. Just my opinion / observation.
I love this time of year when the wicked midwestern storms roll through; some time lapses...pure EVIL!!!
stormfront
tornado sirens over river north
sears tower storm
W
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