Extruded Seashell on Southport

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 �People Spots� are part of the Chicago Department of Transportation's �Make Way for People� program, designed to �creative public spaces that cultivate community and culture in Chicago's neighborhoods through placemaking.�  The first installation, last year along the 2,900 block of North Lincoln, was a fairly conservative affair, a deck spreading from the curb along several parking spots offering a cafe-like seating area of green chairs and tables, demarcated from the street by a series of planters.

The new People Spot is a bit more radical, a sculpted, continuous bench taking over several parking spots along the 3500 of North Southport.  According to a report by Serena Dal of DNAinfo Chicago,  both People Spots are the work by dSpace Studio, with a total project cost for Southport around $75,000.  It appears to be especially popular with kids, more adventurous than older coffee sippers.

Ronald Reagan Wrecked

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The great Lee Bey is reporting today that the University of Chicago is currently demolishing the apartment building where Ronald Reagan lived as a small boy.  DNAinfo.com Chicago,  which also has some nice photos, is saying the University promises to put up a plaque.

The structure was already cast in the deep shadows of Rafael Vi�oly's hulking new Center for Care and Discovery (translation: it's a really big hospital).  When I wrote about this last December, it was less about history and more about the way that the U of C is super-densifying its campus at the expense of any sense of community or human scale.

Read: Say Goodbye to Ronald Reagan's Apartment: The Supply-Chaining of Hyde Park

Another dismissal, another brief reprieve, another day in court for Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice

 Lizzie Schiffman of DNAinfo.comChicago is reporting that Cook County Circuit Judge Neil Cohen has dismissed Landmarks Illinois' lawsuit  against the Commission on Chicago Landmarks for revoking preliminary landmarks status for Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital only minutes after it unanimously voted for it.  Micah Maidenberg reports in Crain's Chicago Business that Cohen cited a previous Supreme Court decision as stopping him from overruling actions of the Commission.  Cohen left her current stay against the issuance of a demolition permit in place for another 30 days to allow the National Trust for Historic Preservation to amend its complaint in a way that would supposedly make it acceptable to the court.

The Save Prentice coalition issued a press release which includes this response:

We welcome the outcome of today's hearing, which keeps in place a stay preventing harm to historic Prentice Women's Hospital and provides an opportunity to amend our pleadings within 30 days. We appreciate the care with which Judge Cohen is considering this case.

Read:  Striking new images of Save Prentice's new proposals