Chicago’s United Center area future to transform local 'sea of asphalt’

The Democratic National Convention is now over and the owners of the United Center and local developers can turn their attention to a grand project to transform the neighborhood outside the west side Chicago arena, home to the Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bulls.

The convention, for the second time, was held in the 1990s era sports venue. And related activities around the building may have underlined the topographical features that have long defined it, for better or worse. For example, protests were related to open areas or vast parking lots that surround the Center and isolate the building from residential or business districts.

Now, with the 1901 Project — so designated because of the Center’s street address — those sweeping 55-scre surface lots will be transformed by a $7-billion, 10-year plan to create a combination arts, residential and park development and that will help knit the area to newer growth, including the Fulton Market mixed use, about two-three miles west of downtown Chicago Loop.

The scheme is the brainchild of the Wirtz and Reinsdorf families that respectably own the hockey and basketball teams.

“The 1901 Project represents a continuation of our families’ commitment to the future of Chicago’s West Side,” Michael Reinsdorf said. “This investment will create a thriving, interconnected neighborhood, delivering significant benefits and resources to the community we have long called home.”

Construction is expected to begin next spring and be completed over seven phases. And all the financing will be raised privately — just as was the United Center, opened in 1994. City approvals are still needed but local politicians are big on the project. Local alderman Walter Burnett, in a release, said he was “excited” by a project for the “often overlooked” West Side. And Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright called it a “big deal” with the “potential to reverse decades of parking lot expansion…it’s a sea of asphalt.”

The plan is still in broad outline and aspects could change based on market conditions and community feedback. But the emphasis is creating a pleasant and reimagined walkable district that will also see a 6,000-seat concert hall and a hotel. Los Angeles based design firm RIOS along with the hometown ‘Site’ design group and Field Operations have been assigned landscape architectural tasks.

Another innovation is an elevated 10-acre park over a massive “re-imagined” parking garage.

“The public elevated park weaves together passive and active uses with play spaces for children, strolling, gardens, overlooks, lawn areas and comfortable places to sit and enjoy nature,” Matt Grunbaum, a partner with Field Operations said.

The project would create 63,000 construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs. While there are innovative design concepts officials say the mixed-use neighborhood would also give a nod to the city’s architectural heritage.

It “connects local heritage with a global perspective by creating neighborhood founded on notions of what’s authentically Chicago, celebrating the area’s collective history,” RIOS’ creative director Sebastian Salvadó said. “It features a network of plazas and paseos echoing the pre-auto historic urban fabric.”

There are other factors stimulating the project. The city recently completed a ‘Damen’ elevated rail line station two blocks north.

“We often say the history of our city was built on access to transportation and I think that is proving that case,” Eleanor Gorski, president of the Chicago Architecture Center, said.

Such factors have “made those owners realize that there is a better and higher use of parking lots and that is why it’s being redeveloped now,” she said.

Gorski described the district as the “next big location” on the West Side.

“You have a few neighborhood lofts between Fulton Market and the United Center,” she said. “I would venture that a lot of that land is already tied up by folks who are sitting on it so I think this will be the next catalyst that will then provoke the two neighborhoods being knitted together.”