I'll Miss Her If She's Gone
John Teply: Letter to the St Johns Review
Dear Editor,
I’ve been thinking about Ivy Island, and how I will miss it, if this new Charleston St./Ivy Island development is approved. It will be gone under the current proposal.
Consider the whole of Lombard, essentially a succession of strip malls and traffic lights. It feels gritty with asphalt, power poles and undistinguished architecture. And then you come to Ivy Island. Ivy Island is a unique and lovely segue into the business district. Perhaps a little quaint, but it is nice. It’s shady with trees and it’s landscaped. And there it is right in front of you. You can’t miss it. Only St Johns has it and you know you're home when you see it. Not as iconic, with a capital "I" as the bridge, but it is distinctive to St Johns. And the Lombard slip lane at Ivy Island makes an easy entrance into St. Johns. It’s a nice experience.
So let's imagine that everything from this proposed development has been built, including the four story apartment building. What will the approach to St.Johns be like? Now as you approach the business district you are first greeted by the dull red brick 7-11 building, then, right behind that, the dull red brick strip mall, and then the dull red brick four story apartment structure yet to be built. Depending on the time of day, you'll also wait in the backed-up traffic in the right hand turn lane to get into St Johns. On the left hand side you have the dull gray brick storage structure. Dull may be a severe and unkind word, but from the drawings the architect has presented, it is that dull red brick kind of multi-structure we’re seeing everywhere; flavorless and ubiquitous. This corner will now be like the whole of Lombard.
The only justification for razing Ivy Island is an issue of safety, specifically, the blind Lombard curve and its effect at Charleston. There are many options other than razing Ivy Island to make this safer, such as speed limit signage and a pedestrian signal (like we have at N.John St.). Also, once the Huk Building is demolished the sight-line for that curve can be moved back. If you move the sight-line just four feet back, the Charleston corner is no longer blind and it becomes as safe as any corner on Lombard.
There’s a lot that works with the current Ivy Island and the Lombard slip lane configuration, and it’s not necessary to destroy everything. There are more elegant fixes to the Charleston corner.
John Teply: Letter to the St Johns Review
Dear Editor,
I’ve been thinking about Ivy Island, and how I will miss it, if this new Charleston St./Ivy Island development is approved. It will be gone under the current proposal.
Consider the whole of Lombard, essentially a succession of strip malls and traffic lights. It feels gritty with asphalt, power poles and undistinguished architecture. And then you come to Ivy Island. Ivy Island is a unique and lovely segue into the business district. Perhaps a little quaint, but it is nice. It’s shady with trees and it’s landscaped. And there it is right in front of you. You can’t miss it. Only St Johns has it and you know you're home when you see it. Not as iconic, with a capital "I" as the bridge, but it is distinctive to St Johns. And the Lombard slip lane at Ivy Island makes an easy entrance into St. Johns. It’s a nice experience.
So let's imagine that everything from this proposed development has been built, including the four story apartment building. What will the approach to St.Johns be like? Now as you approach the business district you are first greeted by the dull red brick 7-11 building, then, right behind that, the dull red brick strip mall, and then the dull red brick four story apartment structure yet to be built. Depending on the time of day, you'll also wait in the backed-up traffic in the right hand turn lane to get into St Johns. On the left hand side you have the dull gray brick storage structure. Dull may be a severe and unkind word, but from the drawings the architect has presented, it is that dull red brick kind of multi-structure we’re seeing everywhere; flavorless and ubiquitous. This corner will now be like the whole of Lombard.
The only justification for razing Ivy Island is an issue of safety, specifically, the blind Lombard curve and its effect at Charleston. There are many options other than razing Ivy Island to make this safer, such as speed limit signage and a pedestrian signal (like we have at N.John St.). Also, once the Huk Building is demolished the sight-line for that curve can be moved back. If you move the sight-line just four feet back, the Charleston corner is no longer blind and it becomes as safe as any corner on Lombard.
There’s a lot that works with the current Ivy Island and the Lombard slip lane configuration, and it’s not necessary to destroy everything. There are more elegant fixes to the Charleston corner.