Virtual community meeting planned for high-rise development on site of Stone Medical Center in East Lakeview
A virtual community meeting is planned for next week on a new residential high-rise complex that will replace an old medical building at a prominent corner in Chicago's East Lakeview community.
Meanwhile, the old building, the Ida and Norman H. Stone Medical Center at the northwest corner of Diversey Parkway and Sheridan Road, is in the process of being torn down.
The office of Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) will be hosting a community meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, for the planned 28-story residential development proposed for the footprint of the Stone building. The project would also build over a parking lot on Sheridan Road that used to serve the medical building, but is now out of use and closed off.
The most recent plan for the new 2800 N. Sheridan Rd. development, released this month, features some changes to the design and façade. The residential structure is still set to rise 330 feet.
The latest plan calls for a total of 345 units, with 69 affordable units for households earning about $50,000 to $70,000 a year. The complex is also to feature a 50,000-square-foot full-service fitness facility, and 10,000 square feet of retail space.
The plans also call for a driveway to accommodate drop-off and pickup near the residential lobby while maintaining traffic flow on Sheridan Road, the covering and widening of an existing alley on the site to allow for two-way traffic, and the elimination of a curb cut on Diversey Parkway that had accommodated the handicap auto entrance to the Stone building.
The new complex will also feature 275 parking spaces and 345 bicycle parking spaces, according to the latest plans.
The plans for the height and number of units in the complex have changed more than once since the first proposal. The first plan called for the residential high-rise to stand 24 stories tall with 303 apartments.
Plans for the development call for a three-tier "sculpted tower," described previously by Urbanize Chicago as featuring three staggered volumes of residential space rising into the air, and beneath them, a "podium" featuring ground-level retail.
The new development will also feature landscaped green roofs and energy-efficient building systems.
Meanwhile, developer Antunovich Associates said in the presentation that project funding will also support the preservation and long-term maintenance of the Elks National Veterans Memorial directly across Diversey Parkway. The ornate Beaux Arts structure with its dome and circle of columns was dedicated 100 years ago, and is now undergoing restoration work.
The old Stone Medical Center housed doctors' offices and other medical facilities, many of them associated with nearby St. Joseph Hospital. In the atrium at the front of the building, those headed to doctor's appointments were greeted with greenery and curving ramps as they headed to the elevator.
Many medical offices that were housed in the Stone building relocated some time ago to the nine-story Ascension St. Joseph outpatient building at 2845 N. Sheridan Rd. about a block away. The last tenants left the Stone building in early April.
As recounted by the blog Connecting the Windy City, what became the Stone Medical Center building opened in 1951 as the headquarters for the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America.
The Amalgamated Meat Cutters merged with the Retail Clerks International Union to form the United Food & Commercial Workers in 1979. Chicago Public Art reported that the union headquarters moved to Washington, D.C., that year, and the building was sold to St. Joseph Hospital.
Developers bought the Stone Medical Center building from Ascension Health for $17.25 million late last year, according to CoStar.
The demolition of the Stone Medical Center, which has been in progress for some time, is expected to take 12 weeks in all, the plan said.
The Stone Medical Center building also used to be home to a pair of sculptures called the Brotherhood Monument, which dated back to the meat cutters' union days. Sculptor Egon Weiner created two identical bronze statues for the building — one facing Diversey Parkway, the other Sheridan Road.
The sculptures were removed ahead of demolition. The latest plan from Antunovich Associates said the Brotherhood Monument statues have been preserved and are both being relocated to unspecified publicly accessible outdoor sites.
Anyone wishing to join the 44th Ward community meeting on the plan for the new development next Wednesday should email ward44@cityofchicago.org to receive the Zoom information.
