News for Neighbors

Old Town School Groundbreaking Party Friday!

The tent is up, temporary pile of dirt piled, hard hats and shovels delivered, and this morning we had our official ceremonial ground-breaking. It was folky, fun, and if I did it right, you should see a picture with this post.

Now it’s time to have the official party, Old Town School style. Get details here.

We invite the community of the Old Town School and the Lincoln Square community at large to drop by the 4500 block of Lincoln Avenue tomorrow night, August 6, 6pm on the site whose address is 4543 or 4551 North Lincoln Avenue, depending on which direction you’re coming from. You’ll know it when you see the big white tent and lots of guitars, fiddles, drums, dancers and kids. It’s also across the street from the Old Town School’s existing building.

At 6 we’ll start with a Singalong with Jimmy T, have a Brazilian dance lesson with Dill, an easy jam session with Paul, Maria, Joan, Chris and Colby, and and Open Drum Circle with Rick Neuhouse that’s not to be missed. At 8 we’ll move the party indoors to 4544 North Lincoln (did I mention it was across the street?) and keep going with a square dance, student performances, sets from Ed Holstein and Bob Goins and whatever else might happen because we feel so good.

Excavation is set to begin after Labor Day. We’ll keep you posted.

Chris Walz and shovels. Photo by Scott Judd

Chris Walz and shovels. Photo by Scott Judd

Filed under: Uncategorized by Gail | August 5, 2010 | Comments (0)

Pre-Construction Calendar

Greetings Friends!

We are very excited to be moving forward with our expansion project.   We know that a project like ours can be unpredictable—there are many moving parts to consider. The only sure thing is that things will change as we go along. But we’d like to keep you well informed, so here goes:

Confirmed dates:

August 1 Last day for parking on the property.
August 5 Groundbreaking ceremony on our new building construction site 10:00 am. Join us!
August 6 Student, faculty and neighborhood celebration on new building construction site 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm, and at 4544 N. Lincoln  Ave. from 5:30-11:00 pm. Join us!

Approximate Dates:

Last week of August – Site mobilization.  The new construction site will be prepared for access, equipment and security.
A construction trailer office will be installed in the Old Town School gated parking lot.
Note: Construction workers will be instructed to park in the Old Town School lot instead of on the street.

August 30 through September – Com Ed energy improvement project on power lines along the alley, from Wilson to the parking lot.  (There will be no planned service disruption).

September 8- Excavation begins.  Excavation will be just 4 feet deep, and extend to all of the property’s lines.  Excavation and foundation work will be complete by mid-October.

October – December - Initial construction of structure.  It will start to look like a building!

We’ll flesh out the details here on the blog as we are able. We’re anxious to tell you about our quest for LEED Silver designation, and all the cool things that go along with it.

Thanks for your continued support, and as always, give us a ring or drop us a line if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Dawn Patch
dpatch@oldtownschool.org
773-751-3301

Filed under: Uncategorized by Dawn | July 20, 2010 | Comments (0)

Old Town School: Pre-Construction 1

It’s true . . . after years of planning, the Old Town School of Folk Music is breaking ground on a new building on the 4500 block of North Lincoln this August. We expect the construction project to be fully complete by October 2011 – in just a little over a year from the start.

The building project is in the Construction Documents phase. At this stage, the architect, engineers and general contractors are working together to plan and draw the fine details of design and construction, which then go to the City of Chicago for building permits. If you’ve wondered about workers out there recently, they were digging exploratory holes to identify the extent of the foundations from the old bakery.

We know it’s important to keep our neighbors and friends informed throughout the project. This is the space where you will find regular updates about the construction schedule and building progress, what to expect when, and answers to some of the questions you might have along the way.

Next Post: 6/14/10

Filed under: Uncategorized by Gail | June 8, 2010 | Comments (0)


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