Comments ( 11 )

• Interesting article on Loft-Right. Quite a different story than the one written up in Chicago Magazine.

• Dan,

  I don’t find it interesting at all. When you’ve read one hysterical fact-free rant from a disgruntled tenant you’ve pretty much read them all.

  There are no facts there, no quotes from anyone else, no attorney named. This sounds like it was written late at night by someone who was stoned and hyper-sensitive to noise.

  Perhaps the kid has a case. If so, he’s done his best to hide its merits.

• Joe Zekas, is there any real estate developer you won’t go to great lengths to defend? That article was much more than a fact-free rant. It was a Column. Let me explain how this works: columnists are writers mainly expressing their opinions. Read the Tribune or Sun-Times section called Columns and notice its largely writers stating opinions, with some facts mixed in, such as the dates and events that this kid mentioned. Full investigative reporting for columns is not common.

  If you’ve ever lived in or near student housing in any university town, you’ll know that stories like this are the norm. Every college housing developer seems to try their best to take advantage of students who are not very familiar with housing issues and are easy targets. I’m not saying that students don’t do a lot to bring this on themselves in many circumstances, but how exactly do you think its the students’ fault that the building was completed poorly and probably not even to code?

• Jane,

  I know the difference between an article and a column. I also know the difference between a column and an unhinged rant.

  Is there any developer you don’t think should be subjected to an unsupported slam?

  I prefer reasoned argument and evidence to attitude. What’s your factual basis for saying that “the building was completed poorly and probably not even to code?” Have you ever been in it – or even near it?

• Here is a story I found on the place.

  http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/271634,CST-NWS-depaul25a.article

  Interesting way of funding the building and they did/do seem to have some problems.

  Hopefully the owners will address it.

• irishpirate,

  According to the Sun-Times story, management seems to have been responsive in addressing the problems they had.

  It doesn’t say much for the intelligence of DePaul students if they can look at walls that don’t extend to the ceiling and be surprised that sound travels over them. And noise from their neighbors? Did they not notice they were moving into a dorm?

• Well some of the problems seem like legitimate complaints. Others don’t. I get the feeling the building was “oversold” to the students. The walls should go to the ceiling. I think perhaps an architect was thinking too much “loft” and not enough “privacy”.

  There was another story out there that addressed the issues but I can’t find it.

  Seems nutz to me anyway. Paying over $1000 per month per student. Rent a damn 3 bedroom nearby cram 4 girls into it and save some money. Then call me over for the pillow fights.

• The walls can’t go to the ceiling and still meet the light and ventilation standards in the city’s building code.

  Many units are built this way now, with bedrooms that aren’t entirely separate and can’t be under the code.

  Developers talked the city into this starting about 10 years ago so that building floor plates that resulted in “bowling alley” units could still be converted to residences. It’s spread to new construction and has resulted in an awful lot of very bad floor plans. It’s also resulted in a lot of what used to be called studios or convertibles being marketed as one bedrooms, and a lot of one-bedrooms being marketed as two bedrooms.

• Joe,

  I wasn’t aware that portion of the “code”had been changed to include new construction. I understand the necessity of changing it for commercial to residential conversions, but it likely is inappropriate for new construction.

  Next time da Mare and I sit down for some bottlez of beer next to Bubbly Creek I will discuss it with him.

• irishpirate,

  So – you’ve been breathing the vapors of Bubbly Creek. That explains a lot. It’s a south-sider’s oxygen bar.

• I think eating the fishies from the creek has given me a “mercury addled brain”. It could explain “da mare’s” speaking skills.