If someone offers you a cheap parking spot in the east lot of the United Center for the upcoming Chicago Bulls or Chicago Blackhawks seasons, don’t take the bait. It’s a trick.
The Madhouse on Madison is getting a new neighbor. Actually, it’s getting the best kind of neighbor there is: the kind you build yourself. Back in January, the United Center announced plans to erect a privately funded 6-story, 250,000-square-foot office building in Parking Lot H, immediately east of the arena. It will house employees of the Blackhawks, Bulls, United Center, and Levy Restaurants, as well as a 10,000-square-foot retail store, sporting both teams’ merchandise, fronting Madison Street. A 25,000-square-foot atrium, open to the public even without an event ticket, will bridge the UC to the new structure.
After breaking ground in the spring, crews have been hard at work carving out a hole wide enough for Derrick Rose to easily drive through, deeper than a Mike Dunleavy three, piling (Jimmy) buckets after buckets of excavated earth along the east side of the construction zone. The One Goal is to have the facility up and running in Fall 2016.
- Bobby Hull, construction supervisor extraordinaire.
- The United Center addition will be 6 stories.
- The great dig, United Center Addition Edition.
- Note the piles of dirt in the background.