Details on the designs for the redevelopment of Children’s Memorial Hospital’s soon-to-be vacated Lincoln Park campus are beginning to emerge, according to a report from the head of a North Side neighborhood group.

In a recent newsletter sent to his membership, Diversey Harbor Lakeview Association Executive Director Gene Fisher outlined a number of updates discussed during a meeting held last week between the group and representatives from McCaffery Interests Inc., the firm behind the upcoming redevelopment of the six-acre Children’s Memorial campus in Lincoln Park.

In his letter, Fisher said the firm’s CEO Dan McCaffery told neighbors at a Nov. 2 forum that “the development of new housing” for the project “is expected to focus principally upon rental buildings, rather than condominiums.”

Only about half of the site will have new construction, and existing buildings in the other half will be converted to different purposes. The entire project could take about six years, McCaffery said.

Fisher said that McCaffery did not make specific which of the site’s eight buildings were expected to be preserved. McCaffery did not respond to emailed questions regarding the project by press time on Wednesday.

These details, while somewhat broad, shed some light on what has up until now been a relatively undisclosed vision for the redevelopment of the hospital property anchored roughly by the stretch of Lincoln Avenue between Fullerton Parkway and Belden Avenue. It’s expected to have a sizeable impact on the economic future of the area surrounding the site.

McCaffery purchased the property from the hospital in July, when the firm’s bid was chosen over eight other proposals. According to a statement released by Children’s Memorial on July 14, McCaffery won the bid with a mixed-use development proposal “that includes primarily residential and retail space that will effectively become the ‘town center’ of Lincoln Park.”

Construction for the project will begin after Children’s Memorial relocates to its new home in Streeterville in summer 2012 — a move that is expected to cost around $1 billion.

Since the planning for the sale of the site began in 2008, a host of stakeholders from inside and outside of the community have stepped up in an effort to steer the final designs for the site.

While much of that discussion has focused on the potential uses for the site — neighbors have called on the developers to include green space, retail and alternative transportation facilities in the project — architectural preservation groups such as Landmarks Illinois and Preservation Chicago have rallied to protect a number of the hospital’s properties from demolition, namely a pair of office buildings on Fullerton Avenue and a group of structures on Lincoln Avenue.

“We believe that these six buildings are integral to the area’s streetscape and are an important visual gateway to the Lincoln Park neighborhood,” Landmarks president Jim Peters wrote in a letter to Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) in May.

Jonathan Fine, executive director of Preservation Chicago, said that McCaffery “seemed to be moving in the right direction.”

Fine, whose group listed the Children’s Memorial properties among Chicago’s “most endangered buildings” in 2011, said that he had gotten some advanced word that preservation was part of the plan.

“We’re very happy that they’re discussing historic preservation as much as possible,” he said.

But the devil is in the details, said Fine, and as long as McCaffery holds off on specifying which buildings are getting the shovel, his group intends to reserve its judgment on the project.

In regard to the plans for rental apartments, Fine said that McCaffery’s designs seem to indicate an unresponsive condo market.

The residential portion of the hospital redevelopment is the bailiwick of another faction with an interest in the site. A group called the Children’s Memorial Hospital Redevelopment Coalition — made up of the Lakeview Action Coalition, Jane Addams Senior Caucus and a number of religious institutions — is pushing for at least 30 percent of the new housing at the hospital campus to be slated for affordable dwellings.

Liz Brake, a representative of the group from the Jane Addams caucus, said the information that came out of McCaffery’s meeting with Diversey Harbor had little bearing on their mission.

“Right now, whether the units are all rental or not is not our concern,” she said. “We want a significant portion to be affordable.”

Brake said that her group met with McCaffery last month, at which time representatives from the firm had requested the coalition’s input on how to make affordable housing work in the project. Another meeting is expected sometime this week.

Despite having received no hard answers from the developer yet, Brake said she is confident that her group’s message is being heard.

“I think McCaffery is a very good choice for redeveloping this site,” she said.

The hospital’s campus includes a 3.5-acre main facility and an 850-space parking garage, in addition to several smaller buildings. Children’s Memorial will retain a few Lincoln Park properties following its move downtown, including one building at Clark Street and Deming Place and another at Clybourn and Racine avenues.

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By Boyee from Mid-North
Posted: 11/10/2011 10:04 AM

I am glad to hear they are preserving the historic buildings. I hope those that they demolish are the ugly white brick buildings. They should save the 2 white terra cotta buildings and all red brick buildings.