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Sunday, December 30, 2018

Pondering the Location of the Proposed New 15th Street CTA Red Line Station

We've been going back and forth on the potential of a new CTA red line stop at 15th and Clark.  As most issues - especially ones pertaining to a wide swath of people - there are certainly many pros and cons to the discussion.  While we're not going to debate them all right this moment, one thing that immediately caught our attention was why 15th street?

The most logical answer is that it would benefit "The 78 development" as it would be a major access point near the middle of the project.  On the flip side, a stop 3 blocks south and 2 blocks west of Roosevelt seems excessive.  Maybe if securing a major tenant (like Amazon) was contingent on a 15th street Red Line stop then maybe it would tip the balance to justify this stop - but that would still be a major MAYBE in our book.   

Does anyone know if they considered the block between 17th and 18th?  In our opinion this would be better for the neighborhood as it could provide access to the Red Line and Orange line.  It would be closer to 18th street which is a major east/west route for the Sloop and is a better walking route to Soldier Field/Museum Campus.  

The one major concern could be the proximity to the Chinatown red line stop which has an entrance at Cermak and to the north at Archer.  That being said, the fact that the Orange Line doesn't have a stop between Roosevelt and Halsted (which is just over 2 miles away) seems like a missed opportunity.

Does anyone have any thoughts or perspective on this option?  Is it feasible?  Did they consider it?

Regardless, the "open" concept renderings for the 15th street station look pretty awesome (via Curbed):



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