Cubs Release New Wrigley Renovation Rendering

As I noted in the previous article here this morning, there will be a public hearing regarding the Wrigley Field renovation project before the Commission on Chicago Landmarks Thursday morning at 10 a.m.

In advance of that, the Cubs have released a new rendering of a portion of the project, which you can see above. Click here to open a larger version of that image in a new browser window.

None of the really contentious issues about the renovation project are shown in this rendering; it shows the corner of Addison and Sheffield, where the Captain Morgan Club currently resides. The drawing shows a much-enlarged version of that club, rising to a second level and also including a ticket office, presumably with naming rights sold ("GATE BRAND" in the image). It also shows the current Cubs stadium club, the United Club, expanded and opened up with larger windows onto the street.

One thing this rendering does not show is the statues of Ron Santo and Billy Williams, which are now placed on the open small plaza on that corner. Nothing's been said about where those statues (or, for that matter, the Ernie Banks or Harry Caray statues) would end up after the renovations are complete. Perhaps they'd all be moved to one central location; most teams that have such statues do that.

To me, this looks pretty good, fits in well with the neighborhood, and gets rid of the ugly concrete panels and chain-link fencing currently at that location. Note that this rendering appears to be a scene either during or right before a night game; the lights are on, and they've even added a full moon, though the moon isn't usually in the northern sky (unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere, which Wrigley is not).

I did have to chuckle a bit at the cars shown in the rendering, one of which looks very much like this 1959 Chrysler Imperial, another one like this 1955 Cadillac. That might be taking the retro look just a little bit too far...