The full construction permit for DePaul University’s controversial basketball center on North Sheffield Avenue in Lincoln Park was issued on Thursday, the 6th of August. The permit, addressed as 2300 North Sheffield, had been waiting in the data portal since April 6, a duration of 122 days, and with it comes a reported cost of $42,392,000. It was preceded by permission to begin caisson work on June 5 and a stormwater management permit on July 25. Bully & Andrews is the general contractor, working on plans drawn by Antunovich Associates.
Rendering by Antunovich Associates and HNTB
Looking south down North Sheffield Avenue. Photo by Daniel Schell
2316 North Sheffield, at right. Photo by Daniel Schell
2310 North Sheffield. Photo by Daniel Schell
When we visited the site on July 26, two of the five buildings DePaul was razing for the new facility were in the process of being torn down: 2308 and 2314 North Sheffield, with three permits still pending. Those three were all issued on July 29, including 2300 North Sheffield (with a reported cost of $180,000), 2310 ($45,000), and 2316 North Sheffield ($86,000.) Heneghan Wrecking is the demolition contractor.
2310 North Sheffield, with demolition completed on either side. Photo by Daniel Schell
What’s left of 2308 North Sheffield. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
As of the Friday morning, August 7, 2308 and 2314 were rubble and a vacant lot. With the alley completely closed off to spectating, we were unable to ascertain what progress, if any, had been done on the other three, though there was a cherry picker lifting something to or from the roof of 2316 North Sheffield.
No trace of 2314 North Sheffield. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Rendering by Antunovich Associates and HNTB
Checking the scoreboard, that’s five permits for demolition and three permits for new construction. No firm timeline has been announced for the completion of demo work and the start of caisson drilling, but the facility is expected to take up to 24 months to build out, presumably in time for the 2028/2029 Blue Demon cagers.
Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail
Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews
This one saddens me.
ugh i hate being reminded of this one…
And people wonder why we have a housing shortage? 😂
What, too much construction? lol
Housing isn’t a finite resource. We can build more at any time but there’s usually heavy resistance
Not one darn dime of real estate revenue!!!
The basketball center looks very cool, I love how the glass facade lets the players see the city from all 4 directions
Scoring an “irony with distinction” badge as there was a perfectly functional facility here in the form of Alumni Hall before DePaul confused their basketball program with Duke’s.
The additional irony is DePaul is allegedly so broke they can’t even keep their art museum around the corner up and running. I’d guess as a private school they aren’t paying any property taxes on all of these real estate grabs, so throw that argument out the window as well. We don’t need a north side version of University of Chicago in Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park’s population has plummeted since the 70s, and if is no coincidence this is when DePaul was just given free reign to go crazy with development. Can DePaul please stop “helping” the neighborhood already?
Hate to see those greystone abd historical buildings demolished. Especially in the current housing shortage. People can’t afford yo live in Lincoln Park. Plus DePaul has nit been a basketball powerhouse since the original Ray Meyer was coaching and Terry Cummings snd Mark Sguirre were playing for them.
The stupidity of this is epic. Tearing down historically important multi-use buildings and replacing them with a single-use hard-to-maintain building to be used by a tiny minority of students is something only some big donor could force. Once lost never regained; easier to tear down than to build something of real benefit to the city.
Good for DePaul trying to compete in college basketball. They have the right to do whatever they want on their campus. Let them be.
“their campus”? Lincoln Park is a neighborhood in Chicago, not DePaul’s private campus, good grief. 🙄
I am a born and raised Lincoln Parker, I know this area like the back of my hand. DePaul University’s charm has always been how it was nestled and coexisted in our neighborhood. Demolishing these beautiful buildings is destroying what made DePaul DePaul. Also, DePaul is doing it with money they don’t have. There are colleges all over this country suffering serious problems after building athletic structures to try to become sports institutions they will never be.
So sad to see this on my commute everyday