The Michael Reese Hospital campus on Chicago’s near South Side may stand vacant, but it’s still the site of much buzz. Developers, preservationists, and residents are all waiting for City officials to reveal their plans for the land that had been slated to house Olympians. Now take the Olympics loss, combine it with the recession, and a general downturn in development - suddenly Chicago seems to have a lot more empty space to ponder. The proposed Chicago Spire is currently no more than an enormous hole in some very coveted ground. Or, what about that immovable and empty span across the Eisenhower – also known as the old Post Office? So what to do? We’ve invited two big thinkers to help us consider the possibilities. 

Lee Bey is an architecture critic and urban planning guru who writes for the our blog. And Aaron Renn is an urban strategist who writes online as “the urbanophile.”

Related:
Lee Bey: A Way to Fix that Empty Feeling…?
Aaron Renn on Twitter

Music Button: John Patitucci Trio, “Mali”, from the CD Remembrance, (Concord Jazz)