Thursday, September 24, 2015

Taylor Street Bridge to be Reestablished at Some Point?

CMK/Lend Lease plans for vacant land along Wells Street
just north of Roosevelt Road (via Curbed Chicago)
To follow-up on a post we did last week on the CMK/Lend Lease's plans for the vacant lots on Wells street just north of Roosevelt, Curbed Chicago had a good post with more deets:
CMK's plans for the south stretch of riverfront property includes three residential high-rises as well as 62 townhomes. Two of the towers will be located at the north end of the site, adjacent to the existing River City building. The two towers will then flank a dedicated right-of-way for the reestablishment of a bridge crossing the river at Taylor Street. The third high-rise would be placed alongside the Roosevelt Road viaduct. Between the taller buildings would stand clusters of townhouses arranged into nine stand-alone buildings with courtyard layouts which would open towards Wells Street. Additional townhomes would also be included into the bases of the high-rise towers to screen the parking levels from view. A total of 942 residential units is planned for the southern stretch of land, which CMK does not need a zoning change for. Since the original Planned Development concept included allowances for high-rise structures and 1054 units beyond the 446 in River City's first phase, this unveiling was only a courtesy presentation to the Plan Commission and no formal vote was taken.
While this is all pretty interesting, the comment about the "reestablishment of a bridge crossing the river at Taylor Street" has big potential (some would argue good and some would argue bad).

The area east of the Chicago river, west of Clark, south of Harrison and North of Roosevelt ain't easy to access right now.  That's going to change whenever the Wells/Wentworth connector gets going, but having another east/west access point from Taylor will also reconnect this part of the neighborhood to the typical city grid.

10-15 years, this part of the Sloop is going to feel completely different.

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