PBC Building Boom Will Continue In 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 20, 2001
Contact: Terry Levin
(312) 744-9277

Although local governments understandably are tightening their belts in reaction to the sagging economy, the Public Building Commission of Chicago is completing a banner year for civic improvement projects and expects to maintain its pace in 2002.

A separate government agency chaired by Mayor Richard M. Daley, the PBC builds facilities for other public bodies-including police and fire stations, library branches, schools, parks and playgrounds.

"Like the other government bodies, the PBC must be careful to ensure that every penny is spent wisely, but we are able to keep up a steady pace in replacing outdated public buildings thanks to the mayor's Neighborhoods Alive 21 program," said Eileen Carey, the agency's executive director.

Chicago is in the midst of a four-year, $800 million program of infrastructure improvements, part of which is funding many PBC projects. Daley is continuing this program during these uncertain economic times-the funding already is in place-because the new buildings are desperately needed and their construction helps create and maintain jobs for Chicagoans, Carey explained.

For example, the PBC has eight new fire stations on the drawing board-buildings that will replace structures more than 70 years old and are unable to accommodate the larger modern emergency equipment in use today. One firehouse due for replacement was built in 1873, just two years after the Chicago Fire and designed for a time when fire equipment was pulled by horses!

The new fire stations are scheduled to be built at 15th and Racine for Engine Co. 18; 16th and Pulaski for Engine Co. 38; 67th and Dorchester for Engine Co. 63; Clark and Peterson for Engine Co. 70; 59th and State for Engine Co. 84; 59th and Central Park for Engine Co. 88; Western and Kedzie for Engine Co. 109; and the 1700 block of West 95th St. for Engine Co. 121.

The PBC also is in the process of planning or building eight new police district stations, including the new 20th District station now under construction on the 5400 block of Lincoln Avenue and scheduled to open next fall, according to Carey.

Other new police stations under development, with land acquisition underway, are for the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 15th, 17th and 22nd districts, all but one of which will replace buildings constructed prior to World War II.

Like the several new stations already opened in the past few years, including the new 18th District station completed last February, the new buildings will be larger, with up-to-date crimefighting technology and special accommodations for community policing programs.

And as in the case of the new firehouses, the new police stations will have separate facilities for male and female emergency personnel to reflect a level of participation by women that was undreamed of when the old buildings were constructed.

Daley's efforts to build more and larger libraries throughout Chicago-the most active program of its kind in the nation-also will continue in 2002 with new branches in various stages of development in the Avalon, Budlong Woods, Logan Square, Austin, West Englewood, Little Village, Southeast Side, West Pullman and Oriole Park communities.

In most cases, these new libraries will replace storefront buildings with much larger, full-service branches similar to the ones in Canaryville and the Austin-Irving communities that opened their doors this year.

In addition, the PBC continues to help the Chicago Board of Education in building public schools, such as the new elementary school opening this past fall at 45th and Kedzie to relieve overcrowding at nearby Davis and Shields schools.

Currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2002 are the new elementary school and teaching academy at Cermak and Federal; an addition to the Bronzeville Military Academy at 3533 S. Giles; an addition to Carnegie School on the 1400 block of East 61st Place; and the renovation of Jones Academic High School at 606 S. State.

This coming year, the PBC also will be working to build the new Simeon High School and the Cuffe, McNair and Field elementary schools. And land acquisition is continuing for a new City Colleges Kennedy-King campus.

Also, many public schools are getting new landscaping in the form of campus parks and playgrounds designed with the latest in child-safety design.

Campus parks were completed in 2001 at Calhoun North, Hitch, Raymond, Stone and Talcott elementary schools, while new play equipment also was installed at Armstrong, Belding, Chappell, Dawes, Disney, Goldblatt, Haines, Hibbard, Jenner, Lowell, McKay, Melody, Metcalfe, Morrill, Paderewski, Parkman, Pullman, Schiller, Sheridan, Shoesmith, Stagg and Whittier grade schools and at the City Colleges' Olive-Harvey and Dawson Tech campuses for the children of those students.

In 2002, construction is scheduled for campus parks or playlots at more than two dozen other schools citywide.

Five public fountains also were under construction in 2001 and are scheduled to begin flowing this spring in Wicker Park, Sun Yat-sen Park, Portage Park, and at 34th and Halsted and at the West Side intersection of Waller and Midway Park.

While these and other neighborhood projects-including five new senior citizens satellite centers-are the heart of the Public Building Commission's work, the PBC in 2001 also had its share of prominent construction projects serving the entire city, including:

• Millennium Park's public ice rink and underground parking garage.
  
• renovation of the Grant Park South underground parking garage, which includes the rebuilding of Michigan Avenue between Adams and Van Buren.
  
• the new Traffic Court facilities in the Daley Center.
  
• the Children's Advocacy Center, offering comprehensive legal and social services to sexually abused children.
  
• Women's Park and Garden, a new park on the 1800 block of South Indiana Avenue.
  
• the Gallery 37 Café at 66 E. Randolph, selling gourmet sandwiches and other food while helping train culinary arts students.
  
• the Midwest Center for Green Technology, a showplace of energy efficiency soon to open at 445 N. Sacramento.
  

Moreover, the PBC coordinates Mayor Daley's Skill Builders program, which trains Chicagoans to take and pass the apprentice tests needed to qualify for trade construction jobs.

And the PBC's web site, which already lists all the contracts issued by its board of commissioners and the contractors who won the bids, has a new feature allowing companies to be notified by e-mail whenever new contracts are put out to bid.

To sign up for this service or for more information on any of the PBC's projects-including all of those listed in this article-visit the PBC's web site at www.pbcchicago.com.