Sep 26, 2007 9:38 am US/Central
Green Light For Olympic Village At Michael Reese
Village Would Be Turned Into Functioning Neighborhood After Games
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Michael Reese Hospital
Illinois Landmarks Commission
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Original plans called for an Olympic Village on the lakefront just south of McCormick Place.
Courtesy Chicago 2016
If Chicago hosts the 2016 Olympic Games, the city has received the green light to construct the Olympic Village on what is now the campus of Michael Reese Hospital.
The Community Development Commission gave Mayor Richard M. Daley the go-ahead on Tuesday to acquire the 37-acre property.
The Chicago Olympic Committee said constructing Olympic Village there would make it easy to convert the complex into a functioning community with homes, apartments, hotels and businesses after the games.
The original plan called for constructing the $1.1 billion complex Olympic Village just south of McCormick Place on the lakefront. It would be composed of between eight and 16 structures.
But organizers said earlier this month that moving to Michael Reese could help cut costs and revitalize the Bronzeville neighborhood immediately to the south.
But the Illinois Landmarks Commission has called Michael Reese architecturally important and endangered. The commission says the building's floor plan and ornamentation make it "one of the best examples of a Prairie Style hospital."
The International Olympic Committee will award the Games in October 2009. Other expected bidders include Madrid, Prague, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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