Eyes on the Street: Checking Out the “Mistake by the Lake” Parking Garage

I have a confession to make. When I wrote Monday's post about the brand new parking garage that billionaire developer Jennifer Pritzker opened at Sheridan Road and Sherwin Avenue in Roger Park, I hadn't actually checked it out in person.

However, a visit yesterday during the evening rush confirmed most of the criticisms about the structure. The monolithic, 250-spot facility looks out of place alongside historic buildings on Sheridan. It replaces a colorful, 90-year-old house that formerly housed a meditation center, which had an attractive yard with several tall trees. Since the garage has zero retail and presents a blank face to pedestrians, it's a much less interesting property to walk past.

The parking structure is a five-minute walk from the Red Line's Jarvis stop, and a two-minute stroll to the beach, so it occupies valuable land that would have been much better utilized by housing. And the garage entrance and exit on Sherwin further degrades the pedestrian environment by forcing people on foot to watch out for cars crossing the sidewalk.

It was hard to gauge how much impact the facility will have on traffic congestion in the neighborhood, since -- probably due to its newness -- the garage was mostly empty when I stopped by. But it's safe to predict that the structure will encourage more tenants of the nearby, Pritzker-owned Farcroft by the Lake rental tower and visitors to Frank Llloyd Wright's Emil Bach house to bring cars into the neighborhood. Other residents can rent monthly spaces for $125, which further promotes car ownership.

That said, seeing the facility with my own eyes also confirmed that it's probably one the most attractive structures ever built that has no function whatsoever except to stack automobiles. The garage also gets points for its louvered green glass panels, which provide plenty of airflow, eliminating the need to use power for a ventilation system. And it's certainly a good thing that the structure has spaces for car-sharing vehicles, plus an electric vehicle charging station.

Pritzker apparently agrees with me that, if she and local alderman Joe Moore keep bringing car-centric development to the neighborhood, we should rename the community "Rogers Parking Lot." The punster in me applauds the fact that there's an "R" to the left of the garage's "P" for "Parking" sign -- see the photo at the top of this post.