Burnham Plaza Cinemas

Caught my second feature, ever, during my first year of school here: Antoine Fuqua’s Bait (2000) w Jamie Foxx [poorman’s 48 Hrs. (1982) knockoff] and a handful of other second-run features. Spider-Man 2 was the last I saw before they scuttled it for good. I skipped a fair amount of classes, wasting my time here. Now if I could only remember the plush venue down the street and around the corner, Jackson & Michigan [?] …another single-screen setup.

When it first opened, the Burnham Plaza was a nice place to see a show. The only problem was parking.

I walked past here recently. Unless you’re a huge fan of late-1980s Cineplex-Odeon, Mesbur & Smith architecture, you’d never know a cinema was here. And even then you’d have to look closely.

The entranceway looks like any other professional building entrance. Windows have been cut into the side and the semi-circle where the staircase used to be. It’s really a bland-looking building.

It’s too bad Cineplex-Odeon and Loews gave up on this place so quickly and Meridian and Village ran it into the ground. Come to think of it, the Bricktown had a similar history (except that Village never ran that one).

Thanks, sounds exciting!

The project developer’s website for the Block 37 project (now called 108 North State) still says that Muvico is going to operate a theater on the shopping center section’s eighth floor. But Muvico just underwent a financial re-organization and sold off off some its theaters to Cinemark. There’s no mention of the Chicago downtown project on the Muvico site though does mention some other projected openings. 108 North State recently lost some previously announced high profile tenants (including Apple Computer). It would not surprise me if the proposed theater is on hold, perhaps indefinitely, given the state of the economy right now.

Has anyone walked past the Roosevelt Collection development lately? I can’t wait for the theater to open. I wrote to Dean Kerasotes himself, and he gave me a few snipets of info

The largest auditoriums will have side-masking (a reason to reduce on going to River East)

Two of those largest screens will be about 65 feet wide for ‘scope’ presentations. Both will also have 21 and older balconies with seating for about 150. By now you’ve probably heard about Jerry Kleiner opening a bar at the theater’s upper level.

It will have digital (he didn’t say if it will be all-digital) projection

You’ve heard it here first. I miss the Burnham Plaza, but the Showplace 16 is almost here.

I worked as a manager at the Burnham for the Village Theater company on and off between 2002 – 2004. The theater was so enormous and creepy. After hours a bunch of us employees filmed a horror movie there, so as a result I have a bunch of dv footage of every room in that building. The theater had two projection booths on two seperate floors, and the quickest way to get to them in a hurry was to take the really creepy fire exit staircase. Incidentally, that was the same staircase the homeless would always break into to sneak and sleep in the theaters overnight. The place was gloomy, and Ron Rooding at one point had his goons begin work on a ticket booth on the floor above the escalators. It was never completed. The place was in fact, falling apart. I can see from experience what can happen to these old theaters when a company doesn’t put any money into repairing them right away. I can only imagine how those old loop theaters must have been run by Plitt in the 1980’s. It seems to me Plitt treated those majestic theaters with the same kind of “I don’t give a crap” attitude that the Village did with places like The Burnham, Water Tower, Village, and Biograph in the 2000’s.

Does the Village still own any theatres? It just seems to me that they really did have a bunch of gems… but just crushed them instead of doing something with them. Perhaps next one they run to the ground I should buy for dirt cheap from them, and fix it up. The Burnham was an EXCELLENT example! I worked there a couple of times (projected) and every time I always thought of how well it could do if you just put a little bit of money into it, now that the south loop is being developed. You had the parking right there, you had the L right there, you had the colleges, the new residents, new businesses…

Gene-Paul,

Your comment says that this place was converted to high-end apartments. Not to doubt you, but I don’t see how. The building being a former cinema has few windows (unless they plan on cutting in new windows). And a banner on the rear of the building, facing the L, says that medical-office space is for lease.

Oh yeah. Mesbur & Smith designed all Cineplex Odeons from 1983-1990. Then they did a few after that. The brick and interior color you talk about is at Bloomingdale Court, was at Bricktown Square,(from what I’ve heard) and many, many other CO theaters.

This theatre space was converted to High Rent Appartments, not office space.

Did anybody see the rendering of the theater that will be at Roosevelt Collection? Looks promising.