SOAR Appoints New Parks Task Force Chair

David Lewin has been appointed chair of the SOAR Parks Task Force. He succeeds Howard W. Melton, who resigned as chair. SOAR thanks Howard for his many years of leading the Parks Task Force.  

Lewin will be responsible for the SOAR group that monitors and participates in planning for all parks in the community, including the public parks under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Park District: Jane Addams, DuSable, Lake Shore, Ogden and Seneca; the task force also works with other committees and task forces with regard to parks in private spaces. As Chairman of the Condominium Law practice group at Querrey & Harrow, Ltd., and as a father raising children in Streeterville, he is a strong proponent of public parks and the obligation to hear from neighbors about how neighborhood parks can function in meaningful ways for those who actually use them. Lewin welcomes hearing from prospective volunteers on the committee: users of the parks, professionals with special expertise and those who are interested in learning more about the process. Contact Lewin.

Nominating Committee Now Accepting Applications for SOAR Board of Directors

Streeterville residents who are interested in being considered as a candidate to serve as a director of SOAR's Board of Directors are invited to submit an application to the nominating committee. Applicants must be SOAR members in good standing.

SOAR Board members gain interesting and important insights into how all stakeholders work together to "keep Streeterville a neighborhood." To turn these insights into policy requires participation by residents from every corner of the community (Chicago River to East Lake Shore Drive/Oak Street, and from State Street to Lake Michigan) who offer complementary skills and experience.

Interested Streeterville residents are asked to complete an online application and submit copy of a current resume or curriculum vitae.  

SOAR Board members are elected for one (1) or two (2) year terms at SOAR's annual meeting.

Streeterville Real Estate Updates

Northwestern University recently announced that Perkins+Will won the design competition held for the biomedical building to replace Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Women's Hospital. You can read the full announcement here.

Gail Spreen, SOAR president and chair-Real Estate Committee, said, "We are eager to continue to work with Northwestern University to ensure that Perkins+Will reviews, understands and implements the organization's Planning and Zoning Principles and issues raised in the letter we sent to the University last month. There will be opportunities for the community to review the project in various stages and SOAR will play a significant role in organizing meetings." Read the letter to the University and online comments.

 The SOAR Real Estate Committee heard a presentation from Optima Chicago Center this week and will issue comments soon. Read about the proposal.

In other real estate news, a previously planned hotel development at 150 E. Ontario that was stalled, is seeing action on the site. Read the details.  

Thanks to Chicago Curbed for their interesting compilation of current Streeterville construction.

Congratulations to the folks at 500 N. Lake Shore Drive for being among the most pet-friendly buildings in the city. Read about it.

Artisan Market Streeterville 2013: Authentically Artisan!

Handmade and homemade, everything you’ll see at the fifth Artisan Market Streeterville, sponsored by SOAR, the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents,  is created with affection, high standards of accomplishment—and the stamp of authenticity guaranteed by a panel of professionals. Whatever you see, taste, take home and give as gifts is a treasure you can trust to be distinctive.

As you walk around, sample the “Buyers Choice Raffle,” featuring donations by generous Market vendors. And pick up your free copy of “A Toast to Streeterville,” a collection of custom cocktail and coffee recipes from the finest bartenders and baristas in the neighborhood.

 

Saturday, November 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sunday, November 10, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Ryan Atrium, Northwestern University Lurie Research Center

303 E. Superior Street, Chicago

Free Admission.

Discount parking two blocks south of Superior, at 321 E. Erie 

Artisan Market Streeterville on Pinterest.

SOAR Joins Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Skyline Village Chicago in Free First Wednesday Health Education Program; Health Information Fair and Talk By Dr. Andrew Parsa Are Featured

The second in the health education series, "Current Cutting-Edge Research from Northwestern Medicine," co-sponsored by SOAR, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Skyline Village Chicago, will feature a Health Information Fair, followed by a talk by Andrew Parsa, M.D., Ph.D., an internationally-renowned neurosurgeon specializing in complex tumors of the brain and spine. Dr. Parsa joined the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine on July 1 as the Michael J. Marchese Professor and chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery.

The free program, next in SOAR's First Wednesday series of educational, informational and social programs, will be held on Wednesday, October 9, at Prentice Women's Hospital, 250 E. Superior. The Health Information Fair will begin at 5:30 pm, followed by Dr. Parsa's presentation at 6:00 pm.

When Northwestern announced Dr. Parsa's arrival, following a decade on the University of California at San Francisco's faculty, he was heralded as "a pioneering neurosurgeon and innovative scientist whose addition to Northwestern Medicine® strengthens our position as a leader in the investigation of neurological cancers,” by Eric G. Neilson, M.D.,  vice president for medical affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean. "Continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health since 2002, Dr. Parsa’s research on brain tumor immunology has provided landmark insights, including the identification of a novel link between oncogenesis and immune-resistance in brain tumors. He is currently the study chair for the largest randomized brain tumor vaccine trial ever to be funded by the National Cancer Institute."

Charlotte Shum, M.D., Dr. Parsa's wife, is a hand and upper extremity specialist who was named associate professor of Northwestern Medicine and joined the medical faculty school in the fall. She arrived at Feinberg after spending more than a decade as a hand and upper extremity orthopaedic specialist at the Permanente Medical Group in Oakland, California.

Click here for more information and to pre-register for the program.