The Chicago Department of Buildings halted construction Friday on a controversial seven-story building being built by DePaul University after inspectors received a tip that the school was exceeding the limits of its building permit.
Workers at the 959 W. Fullerton Ave. site began this week to erect 15-foot columns. Such work is not covered under the university’s initial permit, which allows for placement of the building’s foundation and deep structural supports, but no work at street level, department officials said.
The school can complete the foundation–a process that should take two weeks, according to university officials. But work on the columns and upper structure awaits an additional city permit, a potentially monthslong process.
University officials said the violation arose from a difference of opinion over whether the columns count as part of the foundation.
But Kathleen Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings, said the definition of a foundation “is not like a piece of artwork where you can interpret it one way or another.”
The building in dispute is part of DePaul’s $100 million expansion plan–a plan that many neighbors say will lower the quality of life and property values in the trendy North Side neighborhood. The building and a proposed recreation center farther south on Sheffield Avenue will amplify noise from the adjacent elevated train and create havens for homeless people, neighbors say.
Mike Gaynor, the resident who blew the whistle on the project, said the violation is the latest of the school’s attempts to evade proper community approval for its building plans.
“DePaul is thumbing their nose at a lot of people right now,” said Gaynor, a principal at a code expediting firm who lives near the construction site.
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Bob Janis, DePaul’s associate vice president in charge of construction, said the school’s best interests demand close and honest dealings with the city and community.
“We know the neighborhood is loaded with architects and engineers who could spot this thing and pull the plug,” he said.
The university will abide by the city’s directives, Janis said. It was not clear on Friday whether DePaul would face any fines for the violation, or whether workers would have to tear down columns already built.
An odd series of events led to Friday’s stop order. After an early morning call from Gaynor, a building inspector went to the site and did not find any violations, according to Walsh.
But Walsh said she sent the inspector back out around 1:30 p.m. after a reporter called asking about the allegations. The second inspection yielded a stop order.
“I can’t really say how (the inspector) missed it the first time,” Walsh said.
Walsh did not identify the inspector.