Roosevelt Collection and McCaffery Interests are building expectations again, something they've grown expert at over the last few years. This time it's all about the British School's planned expansion to undeveloped RC parcels just to the north of the Showplace Icon. The Chicago Architecture Blog covered this weekend's public presentation, which saw the release of a "greenwashed" set of school renderings. Apparently the design was pretty well received by South Loop residents in attendance, in no small part due to its usable green roof (connected to the RC retail mall) and sports field.
The building itself, as you can plainly see above, doesn't aspire to any great architectural heights— certainly nothing close to the school's Clybourn Corridor campus. The plans aren't approved yet, and McCaffery still plans to move on its greenlighted Phase 2 residential tower first, which would add about 400 rental units to the Wells Street border of the property. One possible hitch is the quasi-public nature of the "park" space, which reaches a combined 96,000 square feet but will be partially co-opted by programmatic uses. Another is the threat of astroturf, to which neighbors are vehemently opposed. Will the Park District bite? Some observers over on Skyscraper Page suspect not.
·Details of the British School's South Loop Expansion [Chicago Architecture Blog]
·Complete Roosevelt Collection Coverage [Curbed Chicago]
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