Take it to the bank: Proposal would transform historic Stockyards Bank into state-of-the-art ‘scoring stage' for movie music
'You can see, when you close your eyes, use your imagination that this was an incredible, iconic building in Chicago,' said Rich Daniels, a director of Third Coast Music, a non-profit group looking to revitalize the building.
The century-old bank served those working in – and passing through – the Union Stockyards, back when Chicago was 'the hog butcher for the world,' as author Upton Sinclair famously put it.
'Just to imagine these cowboys who had just driven in a bunch of cattle from the west along with guys in suits that were the real money people for this business, rubbing shoulders or whatever that expression is, in this building,' said Katherine Hughes, a director of Third Coast Music.
The building at 41st and Halsted Streets has been vacant since the 1970s, but Third Coast Music directors Daniels, Hughes, and Susan Chatman want to give it a second act, filling it with the sounds of the cinema.
'Music is just an extraordinary experience in people's lives,' Daniels said. 'It affects our memories, and our hearts and our souls in indelible ways for our entire lifetime.'
Third Coast Music has proposed an $80 million project to restore the bank, and to build the finest 'scoring stage' in the world on the vacant lot next door.
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'We are creating something that is not in the Midwest,' Chatman said. 'This is something you find – scoring stages – in California on movie lots.'
A scoring stage is a performing and recording space where orchestras make Hollywood soundtracks.
'There just aren't the right kind of recording spaces in Chicago to do large things like record movie music,' Hughes said.
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The Stockyards proposal would allow Chicago-based television shows and films to complete the whole production process in Chicago rather than having the soundtracks done in Los Angeles. It would give Chicago-area musicians another reason to stay in the city.
'I am in Los Angeles, and I did leave because the opportunities did not exist here,' Chatman said. 'I meet a lot a lot of people – arrangers, composers – they love Chicago, but the opportunities were not here. Now we're offering those opportunities.'
Chatman is a renowned violinist who has performed on movie orchestras and at the Academy Awards, but she's excited to return to her musical roots.
'I was raised in the Chatham neighborhood of the South Side of Chicago,' she said. 'Just to even see this opportunity on the South Side is amazing.'
Film and television production is becoming a larger part of the state's economy. Last year studios generated nearly $700 billion in Illinois and employed more than 1,500 people in Chicago, according to the City of Chicago. The arts are now generating more tax revenue than the state's agricultural industry, said Daniels.
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'That's an incredible statistic, but it's accurate and it's true,' he said.
It's why last November, the Chicago Department of Planning and Development chose Third Coast Music's idea for the Stockyards Bank.
'You can see they preserved all of the extra stuff that was here, all the terra cotta,' Daniels said during a tour of the facility.
The non-profit would use the old bank for education and events. The basement even holds the original bank vaults, which could be repurposed as music archives.
'To be here at 41st and Halsted and watch this come up from the ashes and be a part of the infrastructure and part of the culture of the community and hopefully outlive all of us by many generations it would be very special,' Daniels said.
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