Calatrava Spire, if that's what you want to call it

Earlier this week, updated designs were unveiled for Santiago Calatrava's gigantic Chicago skyscraper. The Calatrava Spire, according to the current plan, will twist more dramatically than Calatrava's Turning Torso building in Sweden, and previous versions of the Spire have been compared to drill bits and birthday cake candles. Early designs were topped by a tapering needle; later ones widened the top to accommodate more floor space. Now the design calls for a rounded dome. Which suggests a different comparison. I won't be the one to say what that is, but maybe the reader will be interested in a blurb I wrote a while back about Barcelona's La Torre Agbar.

The white-haired poet said that Chicago was the city of big shoulders. If the Calatrava spire gets built, we'll have to amend that to "city of big spires" (wink wink). But aside from the resemblance to a certain body part, there is much reason for concern. Most worrisome is its gargantuan size. At 2,000 feet, it would be more than a third taller than the Sears Tower, Chicago's current tallest building. From an aesthetic point of view, the Calatrava spire will transform a harmonious skyline, which prominently features a building that actually has shoulders, into one that is dominated by a single, oversized column.

From a functional standpoint, its size might be an even greater liability. Early designs called for a mixed-use building (a good thing), including a hotel on the lower floors. But the economics didn't work. The developers (Shelbourne) decided it needed more residential condominium units, which eventually displaced all other uses (a bad thing). What was once expected to be a 500-unit building is now designed for 1,300 very expensive units. To fill this one building, they'd have to absorb 0.1% of the city's population.

We might expect problems with too many people and too many cars and ask: where is the benefit to the public domain? Yes, the developers have committed to redevelop DuSable Park immediately to the east of the proposed building. But the park is across the Outer Drive from the Spire, and if they build it, will they come? Green space does not, by itself, attract visitors. This harks back to an old vision of cities that was popular two or three generations ago. The modern city would be vertical, separated from the ground. And the vertical towers would be separated from each other by a spaghetti bowl of expressway ramps, and beneath them would be acres of green grass. Maybe the inhabitants of this city would even wear white coveralls and orange-tinted goggles -- that would be cool. But people don't live like that.

Edgewater slasher suspect in custody

This past week, a man was going around my neighborhood attacking people at random with a knife. He'd attack them from behind, and then run away. Fortunately, none of the four Edgewater victims was seriously hurt, from what I've heard. The news was rather alarming since Edgewater does not have a very high rate of violent crimes, and random violence like this is rare.

The Chicago Tribune reported today that a suspect was caught following a fifth attack in a different neighborhood. Assuming the police got the right man, we can breathe a sigh of relief that he's off the streets. So why did he do it? From the article:

[Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Heather Weber said that the suspect] attacked the people because they looked at him "weird" or on other occasions the "victims allegedly jumped up and down from across the street."

Berwyn Red Line stop and vicinity

Last month Dr. Wax's used record store near the Berwyn station closed. For several years, it was located in a fairly large space just west of the station. Then last year, they moved to a very small space right under the tracks. The new store seemed like such an undesirable location for a record store, and I was doubtful they'd survive there. One day last month, I noticed a sign on their door inviting customers to their store way down on the South Side. I never bought anything at Dr. Wax, but it was something unique that I'm sure will be missed by a lot of people in the neighborhood. Their business, no doubt, has been badly hurt by the popularity of the iPod.

In the old, larger Dr. Wax location, an new furniture store is opening up. Their grand opening banner reads "DCI Furnitures," which doesn't seem like such a good name to me. Sounds like a place where you might order three dozen office chairs. Later, I found out the correct name is DCI Home Furnishings. Still not a great name, but a step in the right direction.

At the corner of Broadway and Foster, there used to be a Del Ray Farms produce market that catered mainly to an immigrant and minority clientele. The building itself is pretty much a cinderblock box on a parking lot, and it doesn't do much for the corner. Not long ago I passed by it, and the parking lot was completely filled up with taxi cabs. I can safely assume that the Del Ray is no longer in operation.

With the loss of Dr. Wax from beneath the 'L' tracks, two of the four storefronts belonging to the CTA are empty at the Berwyn station. The other one has been empty for at least three years. It doesn't help that the property is falling apart (and this despite fare increases!). Water has been leaking into the station itself to the extent that a portion of the ceiling has come down and is now patched with sheet metal. Water damage in the other commercial spaces makes it less than ideal for prospective tenants.

Earlier this month, the Edgewater Development Corporation (EDC) and the University of Illinois at Chicago held workshops for "a potential redesign of four CTA Red Line stations." This might have been interesting, but from what I have heard, it mostly involved a what-if scenario where pretty much the whole of Broadway (not just the CTA properties) between Foster and Granville gets demolished and rebuilt -- new and improved! I was appalled to hear this. I think it should be common knowledge among urban planners these days that you can't save a neighborhood by destroying it.

My steaks were marinated

"My steaks were marinated." That's what I heard Gonzales say. Later, on a Spanish-language station, I think I heard them saying something about 93 avocados. Why all the fuss over some carne asada? And suddenly everyone's all in a lather about the passive voice -- I, for one, have never been a purist in this regard. The passive voice has its time and place. To me, it is not important who marinated the steaks, only that they were marinated. Now, if the marinater of the steaks made mistakes, that would be a different story. Then we might need to point fingers. And if it turns out those mistakes involved firing Justice Department prosecutors for political reasons, then I think we need a new Attorney General.

Lake Michigan in March

Here is another picture from when I went down to the lakefront the other day. (Click to see a larger version.)

Springtime in Chicago

The calendar says March, but it's as cold as the dead of winter. I don't know why these pigeons are hanging out at Foster Beach on a day like today -- maybe wondering why I'm at Foster Beach?

No to Madigan's Crosstown Expressway

The last time Chicagoans were talking about the Crosstown Expressway, I was too young to notice. But the generation before me already understood that the urban expressway was a thing of the 1960s, and they had the wisdom to kill the idea.

Two weeks ago, Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan dusted off the 28-year-dead proposal and tried reviving its corpse. This had a lot of people scratching their heads, since the Crosstown Expressway proposal would compete with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's Mid-City Transitway. While I've been known to criticize Daley on occasion, in this case I feel that Daley's idea is the better one.

When the Interstate highways were first built, we lacked the experience to see how, in urban and suburban settings, they would create a positive feedback loop that leads to ever increasing sprawl and traffic congestion. Traffic engineers would look at the mess they created and then decide that if only we build this one more highway, we'll all be sailing along at 55 miles an hour. But of course, the new highway will soon be just as congested as all the others, and the others will be worse than before. And I won't even get into the destruction of neighborhoods through which the highway passes.

Development of transportation infrastructure along the western edge of Chicago does make sense, just not in the form of a six-lane highway. For the most part, Chicago's streets are laid out in a north-south and east-west grid. Superimposed on that are a number of angled streets (Milwaukee, Elston, Lincoln, Clark, etc.) that radiate from downtown like spokes. CTA rail lines are also laid out like spokes that converge in the Loop. What is lacking is a quick way to get from the far end of one line to the far end of an adjacent one, something that could be provided by mass transit on a Mid-City Transitway.