The United Center on Friday released architectural renderings of the proposed live music venue to be built next to the Near West Side arena in what are currently United Center parking lots as part of the 1901 Project.
Current plans are for the Music Hall to accommodate 6,000 concert-goers. (The United Center at 1901 W. Madison St. has a seating capacity of about 23,500 for concerts.)
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“My great-grandfather, Arthur, put Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald on a stage at the Chicago Stadium in 1959. … Led Zeppelin played four nights on that same block in 1977. The musical history of this address is not incidental to what we’re building, it’s the reason we believe a room like this belongs here, and nowhere else,” said Danny Wirtz, chairman and CEO of the Chicago Blackhawks and co-chair of the United Center Joint Venture, in part in a statement.
The Chicago Stadium, a former arena nearby on Madison Street, was demolished in 1995.
The venue, designed with support from RIOS, Theater Projects and Kirkegaard, can be scaled to different-sized concerts and is being built specifically for live music. It’s slated to open in 2028. The renderings show a bar area and the exterior as well as the auditorium.
The Tribune reported in May that Chicago aldermen advanced a $54.7 million tax break for the $7 billion plan by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz family owners of the Bulls and Blackhawks. The project, set to be finished in about 15 years, will redevelop parking lots around the United Center into thousands of residences, plus businesses and the concert hall.