Not like this
2016 | How does Ald. Toni Preckwinkle want the Olympic Village to look?
Two months ago, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) used a City Council vote on a $500 million Olympic guarantee as a forum to blast the village design.
She argued that the new south lakefront community in her ward -- with 5,000 units of new housing and hotels with up to 1,000 rooms -- "looks like something dropped from outer space."
Now that the U.S. Olympic Committee has chosen Chicago over Los Angeles as the American bid city, she's demanding that architects from Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill go back to the drawing board.
Her demands include: Connections to the Bronzeville community to the west so the village doesn't become an "isolated little spur of McCormick Place"; a "street grid instead of superblocks," with streets that "go through like a real neighborhood"; a street wall "built to the lot lines" instead of the "unusual curved buildings" now proposed; and ground floor retail "so there's some life on the street."
"I want it to be like a neighborhood. [What they've proposed] is sort of architectural egotism as opposed to a real neighborhood," Preckwinkle said of the alternating series of eight- and 16-story condo towers.
"They've proposed curved buildings sort of plunked there. I don't think that contributes to having a neighborhood. The buildings are self-contained, as opposed to part of a larger community. They proposed a connection at 31st Street. That's not good enough. There have to be intervening streets."
Preckwinkle noted that superblocks are being eliminated in the $1.6 billion Plan for Transformation now replacing CHA high-rises with mixed income communities.
"One of the things we've done is put the streets back in. If you want a real neighborhood, it doesn't work to have superblocks," she said.
Valerie Jarrett, vice chair of Chicago 2016, said Preckwinkle is right on target with her demands and has outlined them in a series of meetings with the mayor's Olympic planners.
Chicago 2016 intends to address all of the concerns after engaging area residents in a public discussion about "everything from architecture and access to where the street grid should go," Jarrett said.
"Do I think the Olympic Village is going to look anything like the concept? No, I don't," she said.
Noting that the Olympic Village will be built on a "critical piece of our lakefront," Jarrett said, "We have to do it right. If the surrounding community doesn't embrace it, it won't be the legacy we want it to be."