A new 76 story building will be going up near The Tides & Shoreham at 375 E. Wacker. Currently the Lakeshore East Sales Center has that address. The building will have a unique 20 story opening in the middle of the building.

Sales will begin in August 2007 and units will be priced from $500,000 to $3,000,000.

From the Chicago Tribune - “The striking design by Miami-based Arquitectonica features a 20-story opening through the building’s midsection. The tower, which will rise at 375 E. Wacker Dr., has two intersecting components programmed to house a five-star hotel with 224 suites, as many as 671 condominiums and six stories of underground parking.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0705080693may09,0,1695623.story 

The architectural critic of the Chicago Tribune wrote an article that was published yesterday on why the Children’s Museum should not be located in Daley Bicentenniel Plaza.

Regarding the Plaza itself the critic writes: “Though Daley Bicentennial is not without merit — its rigidly symmetrical layout does frame views of Buckingham Fountain, and residents of nearby high-rises prize its quiet ambience as an antidote to Millennium Park’s throngs — its design is as outdated and outmoded as one of the John Travolta leisure suits that were in fashion when Chicago dedicated the 19.5-acre park in 1979.”

A discussion about the article and link to the full article on WindyChat.com. http://www.windychat.com/childrens-museum-has-yet-make-case-120.html

From the Chicago Tribune - “Aside from protecting the park, this project raises questions of safety and quality of life. This area of the city already is teeming with pedestrian and vehicle traffic, with much more to come via residential buildings planned. The museum site would add hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, descending on a three-tiered section of Randolph Street that can be difficult to navigate. Downtown Chicago, already so gridlocked and stressed that a proposed fee for driving there drew serious discussion, doesn’t need more school buses and cars on Randolph, Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive.”

Full article - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0902edit1sep02,0,6286821.story 

The Children’s Museum has gone back to their original plans to relocate the the Daley Bi Fieldhouse along Randolph St.

The Monro / Columbus location was opposed by Grant Park Conservancy and Friends of the Parks.

By the way, Richard Ward has been helping area residents stay informed about this topic. If you are interested in keeping up with news about the Children’s Museum relocation plans, you can sign up for his e-mail list at www.neweastside.org.

From ChicagoBusiness.com -  Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy, “says [traffic] concerns are unfounded, saying Randolph Street is not swamped with cars because it does not feed into Lake Shore Drive and all buses and cars would access the Chicago Children’s Museum on Randolph Street’s mid-level.”

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=25188

On another note, in a recent e-mail from newly elected Alderman Brendan Reilly, he quoted a recent Chicago Tribune article that does a good job in summarizing events up to now.

From the Chicago Tribune - “Alderman Reilly is keeping his pledge to give local residents a meaningful voice on important issues affecting their neighborhoods, and he is telling local residents and the Children’s Museum that “plans would need approval by neighborhood residents for his support.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-museum16may16,1,922305.story

A article this morning in the Tribune has some nice words about “340 On The Park”, the latest building finished in the Lakeshore East development project. 340 On the Park makes a bold contribution to the Chicago skyline rising 64 stories dwarfing its neighbors at 300 and 360 East Randolph.

From the Tribune - “The doors give onto a wide balcony with a knock-your-eyes-out view of Frank Gehry’s snaking BP Bridge, the trellis of his Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Sears Tower, the skyline, you name it. On the same floor are a two-lane, 25-yard lap pool and a whirlpool with views out onto Grant Park. The tower’s residents — people in just a handful of units had moved in as of last Monday — will thus be able to indulge themselves and feel virtuous because they live in a green building. This may make 340 the Lexus hybrid of architecture.”

Read the full article. http://www.chicagotribune.com:80/features/chi-0722_towerjul22,1,3374521.story 

Regarding CRITICAL Children’s Museum Neighborhood Meeting on Monday, Sept. 10, 5:30 PM at the Daley Fieldhouse 

Editorial - We at New-Eastside.com have witnessed a variety of ever-increasingly aggressive tactics to characterize the New Eastside neighborhood (which includes the Lakeshore East development) as being partially supportive of the Children’s Museum’s proposed move to the current site of the Daley Bicentenntial Fieldhouse.

The recent meetings at each building presented only one side of the issue - i.e. Children’s Museum staff and representatives proposing the new location for the building.

Nearby public facilities such as the Family Fun Festival in Millenium Park has had boxes for people to write letters to the Alderman in support of the move, with no place to mark or record opposition to the move.

Roving college-age petitioners have been spotted in the neighborhood and surrounding areas who were hired by the Children’s Museum and who clearly upon questioning had no clear idea about what was involved in the proposed move.

A firm in Topeka, KS has been calling neighborhood residents at odd hours to solicit support for the move from central Chicago residents.

In the latest move, the Children’s Museum organization is expected to bus in hundreds of supporters in advance of the upcoming “neighborhood meeting” hosted by NEAR to take all available seats and shut out real neighborhood residents from expressing their opposition to the proposed move ( see http://blog.new-eastside.com/final-meeting-on-the-childrens-museum/, especially the comments). This was originally intended to be a meeting (again it is hosted by NEAR) open only to neighborhood residents.

While I can’t fault the Children’s Museum for being aggressive about what they think could be a good move in location for them — their blatant attempts to mis-characterize our neighborhood is regrettable.

While we hope the best for the Children’s Museum (our own children love it), we must condemn the current administration’s recent activities and hope the neighborhood is able to prevail in this issue and prevent the Children’s Museum from relocating across the street in Grant Park.

Peggy Figiel writes - “Hi All,

As you may already know the FINAL meeting on the Children’s Museum issue will be held this Monday, September 10 at 6:30 PM at Daley Bicentennial Fieldhouse.  This is a NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING hosted by NEAR. You must be bring the postcard you may have already received in the mail from Alderman Reilly or some form of ID to admitted!!  This is in response to the mass email the Children’s Museum has sent out telling people to have their family and friends get there early, take all the seats and pack the meeting!!  If they do not live here they will not be admitted!!

Reilly’s entire staff will be on hand to check the doors ALONG WITH MEMBERS OF THE CHICAGO POLICE DEPT.!!

We are asking everyone to attend this very important meeting even if you have previously attended your building meeting!  We need a HUGE turnout of opposition!!  We will have signs available and we ask you to get there as early as possible.

The CCM will present yet another design for the museum, this one apparently completely underground.  I hope everyone read the Tribune Editorial Board’s piece in Sunday’s paper opposing a museum in Grant Park.

We ARE being heard and need to make the FINAL EFFORT FOR VICTORY!!  There will be a lot of media present and we want to show a strong, final united front!  This issue has brought this neighborhood together like no other and that’s why it is such a great place to live!

We appreciate all the work everyone has done writing & e-mailing letters, making phone calls, and attending meetings.  AFTER THIS MEETING ALDERMAN REILLY WILL MAKE HIS DECISION PUBLIC AND THIS ISSUE WILL BE OVER!

PLEASE PLAN ON ATTENDING AND GETTING THERE AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE.

Thank you and see you on Monday.

Peggy Figiel”

The “Chicago Outdoor Film Festival” has started in Butler Field at Grant Park. The City of Chicago web site and more information can be found at www.chicagooutdoorfilmfestival.us

Double Indemnity - July 24 @ 8:50pm
Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck

Written on the Wind - July 31 @ 8:42pm
Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Malone, Robert Stack

The Awful Truth - August 7 @ 8:34pm
Irene Dunne, Cary Grant

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - August 14 @ 8:24pm
Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katherine Ross

Sweet Smell of Success - August 21 @ 8:13pm
Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis

The Sound of Music - August 28 @ 8:01pm
Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer

Quotes:
[Double Indemnity stars] “…one of the smokiest, sexiest, most dangerous film noir femme fatales, Barbara Stanwyck.”
Michael Wilmington

Sponsors & Partners: Charles Schwab, Metromix, Chicago Transit Authority, WNUA 95.5, Chicago Park District, Time Out Chicago 

From the Chicago Tribune – “42nd Ward (Loop, Near North and West): Organized labor is pouring great sums of money into a campaign to defeat Ald. Burton Natarus. There’s only one reason: to claim a high-profile victory over someone who stood with Mayor Richard Daley to oppose the job-killing “big-box” ordinance.”

More information at –

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0702160309feb16,1,1838254.story

They continue the endorsement by saying that “Now here’s the odd thing: he agrees with Natarus that the big-box ordinance is a bad idea. So why would labor pour thousands of dollars into his campaign? To punish Natarus. That would be bad for Chicago. Natarus is endorsed.”

also visit ericfrost.com