Proposed new fire station for CFD Engine 42. Goettsch Partners
Excerpts from chicagocurbed.com:
Developer Friedman Properties has released new details regarding its earlier announced planto replace Engine Co. 42’s firehouse at the southwest corner of Illinois and Dearborn streets with a new station topped by a glassy 29-story office building. If approved, the project would represent the first public-private partnership of its kind in the city of Chicago.
The fully modernized firehouse is proposed for the site of a small parking lot to the immediate west of the existing public safety facility. The three-story station would include three apparatus bays on the main level with living quarters and new office space for the city’s Fire Prevention Bureau above.
Once the new station is up and running, the outdated building will be demolished and replaced by a 455-foot office building. Designed to seamlessly wrap-around the firehouse, the proposed glass and aluminum-clad tower at 444 N. Dearborn Street will feature a multi-story lobby with retail space and a tenant amenity mezzanine. Fifty below-grade parking spots will be reserved exclusively for office and fire department use.
The developer will pay nearly $11 million into Chicago’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund in exchange for density bonuses. The site’s existing underlying zoning (DX-7 Downtown Mixed-Use District) will remain unchanged.
