Developing: New Chiaravalle Sports Annex is Really Ugly and Huge

This blog is all about how much I love Evanston and usually lends no space or time to negativity in relation to Evanston but I just have to say that the Chiaravalle Sports Annex going up on Hinman is a goliath monstrosity that is being built with no regard for the neighborhood look and feel. (While you read this post, please hum to yourself Taylor Swift's tune "Haters Gonna Hate")

Evanston Now published an article about the annex being all about teaching sustainable living to the Chiaravalle community. I'm dumbfounded how a massive sports complex that will be unoccupied for 70% of the day is sustainable in any way at, but that's another argument for another day.

The lakefront neighborhood bordered by South Blvd., Chicago Ave. and the Northwestern Campus, is cluttered with a variety of structures to include massive single family homes, apartment buildings and tiny houses, but very few of the structures are modern and even fewer are eyesores. The Chiaravalle annex is a modern, brick and steel structure that looks nothing like the original building it's built onto and looks nothing like any other structure in the neighborhood. The worst part of the Chiaravalle Sports Annex  is it's HUGE. 

I took my complaint about the building to Facebook and immediately got the reply below. And although I believe there was a conversation with the Evanston Historic Preservation Commission, I find it hard to believe the commission's feedback was used to do anything other than meet guidelines. 

"Lisa, we appreciate that the contemporary design of the North Wing is not to your personal taste. Chiaravalle and the school's architects incorporated feedback from the Evanston Historic Preservation Commission to meet guidelines for a new addition in the Lakeshore Historic District. The size of the North Wing was decided as part of the property purchase agreement with the City in 2010. 

Thank you for your feedback, and we hope the finished construction changes your opinion."

There is no way the finished project is going to change my opinion, it's just going to make me more annoyed that Chiaravalle built an ugly and massive sports complex into a quaint, historic neighborhood.