The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a front-runner for a quarter-block site in the heart of the Loop where it wants to build a $40 million expansion that school officials contend would bring a new injection of 24-hour activity downtown, City Hall sources reported Thursday.
School officials hope to build a complex on the northwest corner of State and Randolph Streets that would include retail space, a 415-bed dormitory for students and, possibly, an auditorium that would house the school’s Film Center.
The plan is one of five competing proposals that have been submitted to the city.
Another top contender is Allison Davis, a developer who has submitted a plan that calls for a commercial and residential complex, sources said.
The intense interest in the site is just one more indication of the building boom that is resounding throughout downtown and adjacent neighborhoods.
Newly submitted requests for zoning changes filed with the city provide a peek at several other major projects on the drawing boards. They include the conversion of a historic office building to condominiums; a high-rise residential tower; and a Near West Side development with up to 280 homes.
The State and Randolph site is considered by city planners to be of critical importance.
It is directly north of Block 37, the vacant lot that serves as the site for summertime student artists and a winter ice rink, where a development team plans to build a hotel, entertainment and retail complex that may be anchored by a Macy’s department store.
The site, on the diagonal from the Marshall Field department store, runs along the Randolph Street theater district, where construction crews are renovating the Oriental Theatre, just west of State Street, as well as a new home for the Goodman Theatre at Dearborn Street.
A themed “streetscape” also is under construction by the city along the thoroughfare.
The State and Randolph site “is the gateway to the theater district,” said developer Davis, who also is a member of the Chicago Plan Commission.
“All you have to do is look at State Street to know it is coming alive again, and this is a gaping hole in that comeback,” he added. “I drove down State on Saturday, and it was teeming with people from one end to the other.”
Davis declined to reveal details of his proposal, citing a request for confidentiality from the city. But the plan reportedly calls for rehabilitation of the Butler Building, a mostly vacant 16-story office structure on State, just north of Randolph, and new construction on the sites of some or all of the other four buildings on the property. All of them are dilapidated, smaller and less distinctive than the Butler.
The School of the Art Institute plan also calls for restoration of the 74-year-old Butler. Demolition of the other structures would make way for a new high-rise.
If the plan emerges as the winner, the complex would house the school’s second dormitory in the Loop. Last year, school officials completed conversion of the Chicago Building, a 15-story former office high-rise at State and Madison Streets.
“I think the presence of 400 students seven days a week, 24 hours a day would add life to the street,” Robert Mars, the school’s vice president for administration.
“Whatever proposal, it has to be in sync with Mayor Daley’s vision for State Street,” said Becky Carroll, a spokeswoman for the city’s Planning Department. That includes “turning it into a 24-hour district, enriching its retail capacity and meeting growing residential needs as well.”
Other new development proposals lined up for official consideration include:
– A conversion from office to residential use of the historic Fisher Building, 343 S. Dearborn St., an official city landmark. Kenard Corp. of Chicago plans to develop up to 166 condominiums in the 102-year-old structure, designed by Daniel H. Burnham & Co.
– A luxury high-rise planned for what is now a parking lot at Halsted and Madison Streets, just west of the Loop. Tentative plans call for a building with more than 40 stories, including a ground floor with stores and up to 190 luxury apartments or condominiums.
– Redevelopment of a site bounded on three sides by Madison, Monroe and Throop Streets into a 280-unit residential complex. Plans by the Thrush Cos. call for conversion of two existing loft buildings and construction of townhouses, a new condominium building, retail space and parking for 450 cars.
