Sedgwick: Back To The Drawing Board?

Blair Kamin, the architecture columnist for the Tribune, has written an article in today's paper about how the uncertain economy has led to a "boomlet" in the construction of large apartment complexes.  And he's not liking what he's seeing.  Here's an excerpt:

"The biggest of the apartment proposals, the Lake View Station complex envisioned for the intersection of Montrose and Clarendon Avenues in Uptown, would repeat the worst mistakes of the last building boom, stacking graceless concrete towers atop faceless parking garages.  [...]

Consider Sedgwick Properties Development Corp.’s proposal for a $350 million, three-towered apartment, hotel and retail complex that would replace the low-rise Maryville Academy in Uptown.  With two chunky high-rises plopped onto a parking garage base, the plan is River North Redux, reprising the discredited development model that turned streets north of the Chicago River’s main branch into charmless concrete canyons.

Worse, it would violate the spirit of Chicago’s open lakefront, with a third tower (conspicuously absent from renderings) that would squeeze adjoining Clarendon Park and throw shadows on its playground.  The developers didn’t even have the smarts to hire from Chicago’s stable of renowned architects.  They went with in-house designers who achieved predictably desultory results.

When Ald. James Cappleman, 46th, ran an advisory vote on the hyper-dense plan this month, nearly 90 percent of neighboring residents rejected it outright.  That left the developers to scramble for an alternative that they are expected to unveil in the next week or two."  Read the entire article here.