There is a growing residential community developing on what was once Lake Michigan and, when it`s completed, more than 15,000 residents will be able to live, work and play on the 83-acre site without ever stepping outdoors.
Not bad for a site that was once under water, later served as a dumping ground for debris from the 1871 Chicago Fire and then became the Illinois Central Railroad`s major freight yard in Chicago.
Today it`s known as Illinois Center, and developers call it the largest and most successful mixed-used urban development in the country.
The recent announcement of construction of a 55-story, 600-apartment building at 175 Harbor Dr. will bring to nearly 3,500 the number of apartments and condominiums in Illinois Center–a mixture of commercial, retail and residential space bounded by Michigan Avenue, the Chicago River, Lake Michigan and Randolph Street.
A second tower is planned nearby and six more residential buildings are on the drawing board that would bring the total number of units to nearly 8,000, all located in the eastern part of Illinois Center.
The western part of Illinois Center contains seven office buildings
— Illinois Center I, II and III, Boulevard Towers North and South, the Standard Oil Building and the Prudential Building. Also included is the two-tower, 2,041-room Hyatt Regency Chicago Hotel, and a second hotel, the 624-room Chicago Fairmont, is under construction.
Most of the commercial buildings and the Hyatt are joined by enclosed, sub-level concourses that contain a range of retail shops, restaurants and services. Eventually, all the commercial and residential buildings will be linked with indoor concourses that will also feed onto the lake front and Grant Park.
A centrally located fire station, built by the developers and dedicated to the city, serves Illinois Center and the surrounding area.
In the midst of the development, plans call for a cultural center that will offer movies, plays, concerts, exhibits and other events; a six-acre public park; and plazas and open vistas. A four-acre, landscapped riverside esplanande will provide a pedestrian walkway from Michigan Avenue to Lake Michigan.
Less than one-fourth of the total Illinois Center acreage will be occupied by buildings.
All of that adjoins the site of the 18th Century settlement area of Ft. Dearborn. In 1852, the Illinois Central Railroad brought its tracks into downtown Chicago over a mile-long trestle it built offshore as part of a deal with city officials to create a breakwater that would prevent Michigan Avenue from being battered by the lake. After the Chicago Fire, the area between the trestle and Michigan Avenue became a convenient repository for the tons of debris remaining of what had been Chicago.
Already, residents of the Illinois Center apartments and condominiums find most of their needs satisfied by nearby establishments.
”We do most everything here,” said Jack H. Curran, who moved to the downtown area from Park Ridge in 1979 and who now owns a condominium at Harbor Point Condominiums, one of four existing residential buildings in Illinois Center. His business, Curran Marketing and Development Co., is located across the street at Lake Shore Drive East, a condominium that also contains commercial space. Curran`s wife, Kathy, is president of the company.
Curran, a golfer, used to live next to Park Ridge Country Club and could walk out his door onto the first tee. But he wouldn`t trade that for his location now.
”All things considered, I think I much prefer living downtown,” Curran said.
”One of the advantages to the working man living down here is that my life was regimented by the (commuter) train schedule. I can think of many a time I rushed to catch a train and stood on the tracks while it pulled away. The next train wasn`t for an hour or more.
”Now I can work as long as I want and still know I`ll be home in five minutes.
”There are a great many things that tend to spoil you here–you can order every imaginable type of food and have it delivered in a half hour; they have a video (tape) service that will deliver a movie and pick it up the next day; we can walk out along the lake and look at the boats or go bicycling; you can look out the window and see if the (Grant Park) tennis courts or ice rink are crowded.
”We do things out of the area as well, but I find so many things available in the downtown area. In the wintertime, weather is not a concern. We`re within walking distance of all the downtown services.”
Curran said he and his wife do most of their shopping in a small grocery store located in their building. They work out in the building`s health facilities, which include an indoor pool, racquetball courts and exercise equipment. A dry cleaner also is located in the building.
When the concourse system is completed, Curran and his wife will be able to walk indoors to an even wider array of services. The Illinois Center retail mall area contains every imaginable shop: hairdressers and barbers, shoe repair, fast-food and upscale restaurants, travel agencies, car rentals, a health club, medical services, flowers and candies, men`s and women`s fashions, drug stores, office supplies, banks, business services–even indoor tanning booths.
And, as development progresses, more will be available, predicts William Purdy, vice president and project manager for Metropolitan Structures, a partner with landowner IC Industires and builder of virtually all of the Illinois Center projects.
”When we get more of the residential development, we`ll start to see more of the ancillary services: theaters, health clubs, larger groceries and the better shops,” Purdy said. ”As this complex grows, you`ll get more of the amenities.”
Metropolitan Structures and IC Industries also are working with the Chicago Board of Education to build a public school within the complex as a means of serving the younger professional families moving to Illinois Center. Surveys also are being conducted to determine the feasibility of day care facilities.
Bernard Weissbourd, chairman of Metropolitan Structures, said the residential makeup of high-rise buildings has shifted over the years to more young professionals.
”Our buildings used to have mostly older people–they had moved out to the suburbs, had kids and then moved back,” Weissbourd said. ”Now we`re also getting the young professionals.”
He said renters also include clerical workers who share apartments.
Although when completed, Illinois Center essentially will be a self-contained community, Weissbourd said the aim is not to isolate it from the rest of the city.
”We feel very, very definitely part of Chicago,” he said. ”We`re not trying to compete with State Street or Michigan Avenue.”
Weissbourd noted that the parks being developed will be public and that infrastructure improvements, particularly the lower-level streets, have contributed to facilitating travel in the downtown area.
The government improved the arterial streets, such as the widening of Randolph Street and straightening the S-curve on Lake Shore Drive, but the developers have pumped some $60 million into street and utility improvements and will have spent close to $100 million on the infrastructure when the complex is completed, Weissbourd said. The completed complex will cost more than $2 billion.
Weissbourd said the time table for completing construction will hinge largely on the availability of financing and the effects of proposed federal tax reform legislation that could curtail tax-exempt bonding.
”With adequate financing, we can build out in 10 years,” Weissbourd said. ”Without it, it could take 20 years.”
