With basketball and hockey seasons fully underway, Chicagos United Centerhome to the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawksis already a bustling place. A $7 billion vision to redevelop the area surrounding the sports arena and Chicagos West Side was revealed last summer and this week, new renderings emerged as the first phase of the proposed seven-phase project was given the green light by the Chicago Plan Commission. The 1901 Project, named after the United Centers address along Madison Street, posits more green space and mixed use options for the neighborhood to enjoy year-round. Its the vision of the stadium owners Michael Reinsdorf and Danny Wirtz. RIOS is serving as master planner and the landscape design for the project will be headed by New Yorkbased Field Operations.Renderings show the music hall clad in metal. (Courtesy Chicago Plan Commission)A 6,000-seat music hall is planned for development. (Courtesy Chicago Plan Commission)Our goals and the community goals and the city goals really are all the same: We all want this to be something special, United Center CEO Terry Savarise told the Chicago Plan Commission.In a presentation shared with the Chicago Plan Commission visuals and details of the planned 6,000-seat music hall were released. Renderings of the music hall show the building clad with perforated metal panels and an aluminum curtain wall. Its gold and bronze coloring appears to glisten in the daylight and glow from within when lit up in the evening hours. Other components envisioned for phase one include a hotel, parks, and pedestrian-forward greenspaces.Renderings of the hotel show a boxy, rectangular design. The base was visualized as being clad with stone, while the parking levels above are sheathed with metal louvers. The facade of the hotel floors above could be clad with a metal rainscreen system.A hotel is also a component of phase one. (Courtesy Chicago Plan Commission)As discussed when the 1901 Project was first unveiled the spaces around the United Center and corridors around the stadium, such as Madison Street and Adams Street, will be greened up. In its presentation to the Chicago Plan Commission, RIOS showed visuals that revealed planters lining the streetscape and plaza rich with vegetation and ample areas for benches and other seating. The proposed 10-acre park with winding pathways, shade pavilions, and sports field is still a part of the vision; it will occupy the top of a parking structure. Elsewhere around the neighborhood, parking lots will be transformed over to pedestrian spaces.The vision prioritizes pedestrians (Courtesy Chicago Plan Commission)Those of us who live in the community are very open to this because weve been literally living across the street from parking lots, said Alderman Walter Burnett, chair of the Chicago Plan Commission. It will be nice to have homes and businesses.A total of seven phases are planned. The developers and designers previously shared that the subsequent phases will be further developed based on market conditions and community feedback. Other ideas circulating on what they could bring to the neighborhood around United Center include housing, improved transportation infrastructure, and more park space.According to planning documents, phase one is estimated to complete in 2028.