Wow. I would love to check this out. As well as the old post office.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...0619910/cta-reveals-its-block-37-superstation
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...0619910/cta-reveals-its-block-37-superstation
I thought it would look like a giant version of the Bat Cave.
Instead, it was more like the seemingly endless Moria under the mountain in "The Lord of the Rings" — only without orcs.
After a full year of asking, photographer Stephen Serio and I a few days ago finally got a chance to tour the hitherto unseen “superstation” under Block 37 in the central Loop — a grand space that is an equally grand testimony to the hubris of the latter years of former Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration.
We the taxpayers spent well over $200 million on what amounts to one of the world's biggest unfinished basements. And it will only take another $150 million or so to be able to use it.
That won't happen anytime soon.
The superstation, which was mothballed in 2008, runs on a diagonal from beneath the corner of Randolph and Dearborn streets, southeast to the corner of State and Washington streets. I'm not supposed to say how you access the space — security concerns, you know — but let's just say that a variety of elevators, locked doors and ladders are involved.
What's striking once you get in the space is its size: as long as a football field-and-a-half (472 feet), 68 feet wide and averaging 28 feet high. Call it a concrete bathtub — or an “envelope,” as our tour guide, Chicago Transit Authority Chief Infrastructure Officer Chris Bushell, put it — with rows of support pillars receding into the dim far distance. And all completely unlit, except for some temporary light strung up on the mezzanine and the portable lights we brought along.
The station smells new. It seems to have been well-built, with only one small pool of water near an exterior pipe. Occasionally, you can hear a deep rumble in the distance — not from orcs on the prowl, but from nearby subway trains.
Look up and you can see where the escalators were supposed to come down. Look to either side and there are unfinished concrete platforms where passengers were to wait. And at either end are walls that were made to be broken through. One leads to a tunnel to the Red Line subway beneath State, the other to the Blue Line subway under Dearborn.
Somewhat higher is another level. It was supposed to be used to house passengers and their luggage.
That's because the original idea behind the superstation was that it would be the base for express train service to Chicago's airports, O'Hare and Midway. In addition, the station would provide a track link between the Blue and Red lines — the CTA's busiest — which otherwise do not converge.
Now, express train service is not uncommon in other world cities, such as London. And the argument that Chicago ought to take advantage of the opportunity presented by construction of buildings upstairs at Block 37 had a certain merit.
But like everything else at Block 37, the idea was cursed.
The money needed for express train service, likely in the billions, never was obtained. And any private-sector interest melted away when the economy entered its worst downturn in many decades in the late 2000s. So, the city stopped after completing the shell and built no more.
By that time, though, City Hall had spent $218 million — $171 million of CTA bonds, $42 million in tax-increment financing and $5 million from outside grants, the CTA says. And to make the station useable — to connect the tracks, build the escalators, attach all of the needed electrical and plumbing to the outlets — will take an additional $150 million or so, the CTA says.
No one has that kind of cash now. And even rail fans say it makes far more sense to run express service to the airport out of Union Station, rather than through narrow and congested CTA subway tubes. So will this space ever be more than an empty, dark money pit?
“The CTA has no imminent plans for the Block 37 superstation, though it remains a valuable asset,” the agency told me in a statement. The CTA's capital priorities are elsewhere, mostly on modernizing and maintaining existing train assets.
“A valuable asset?” I pushed CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase to elaborate.
“It's an asset in that it has potential to be something someday,” she emailed me. “However, there's nothing imminent planned for this space. . . .It's just not going to happen anytime in the near future.”
Other sources say the same thing: not even a vague plan to use it — unless Mayor Rahm Emanuel thinks an underground casino would work.
Maybe, if the new "Superman" flick does well this weekend, they can invite Supe back for a sequel. I can think of a nice location for the Fortress of Solitude. Just add ice.
Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...veals-its-block-37-superstation#ixzz2W6phk1iY
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