Yesterday we brought you a story about the official groundbreaking for the K2 tower (365 North Halsted Street) in the Fulton River District. We heard from some people that, visually speaking, that there were too many people in suits and not enough hot construction pictures. So, here you...

 With the continuing demise of bookstores across the country, and here in Chicago, the Waldenbooks at Ogilvie Transportation Center (500 West Madison Street) is now branded “HudsonBooksellers.”. Waldenbooks was owned by Borders, which no longer exists. The nondescript building...

We’re seeing the first signs of progress on The Gateway, a new residential tower going in at the corner of West Madison Street and South Halsted Street. Demolition crews are chewing through the rubble of an unremarkable two-story bank, clearing the L-shaped plot for the 312-foot-tall...

Steel is going up on the plot of land behind Fourth Presbyterian Church that used to be a concatenation of building additions.   Those additions were torn down earlier this year to make way for a five-story office and classroom building that’s part of Project Second Century.  The...

Construction on the Ritz-Carlton Residences (664 North Michigan Avenue) is moving along nicely.  The heavy work on the exterior is pretty much complete.  The windows are all installed, and work is being done on building out the homes. If you can’t get enough of this building, check out...

Construction is underway at the newest skyscraper at the Lakeshore East subdivision of the New Eastside portion of the Loop neighborhood of Chicago. A crane has been erected for The Coast (345 East Wacker Drive), a $150 million, 45-story residential tower scheduled to obliterate most lake...

From most angles, the new Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Memorial Hospital (225 East Chicago Avenue) appears done, but there is still much work to be done. The facade was officially completed in February, but the ground floor remains hidden behind a wall of blue-painted...

    If you blinked, you missed it. The old two-story Burberry Store at 633 North Michigan Avenue is now little more than a shallow hole in the ground. The store moved to a temporary location across the street in August while a new five- story flagship store is built. See our...

Does anyone remember the 1980′s video game Worm War 3? Michigan Avenue is kind of like that these days....

The resurfacing project that’s going to eventually put a nice, smooth layer of asphalt on Madison Street from Michigan Avenue to Kingdom Come has uncovered a nice little history lesson. At a number of points along the street, the asphalt scraping machine that removed the previous layers...

The newest skyscraper being built in Streeterville isn’t another glassy condo block.  And it won’t be yet another “medical” building that’s little more than offices for a hospital with six-hour emergency room waiting times.  It’s the world’s largest...

For years there has been a grotty corner of the Loop that, in spite of all the urban renewal happening around it, remained run down and permeated with the complimentary odors of mold and urine.  Not surprisingly, these buildings are owned by the federal government. Which means that, in a...

Magellan Development isn’t wasting any time getting its newest Lakeshore East project off the ground. You could see dirt turn for the temporarily-named “Building A” (345 East Wacker Drive) as soon as next week (May 16-20), as soil sampling gets underway. Image courtesy...

“We really want to send a new message. Especially in this neighborhood, and this city; and this is the place to do it.” -Dean Klein, Starbucks I’m not one who supports the baseless speculation that goes on in blogs.  It’s a big part of what separates blogging from real...

After years of delays caused by fire, gravity, and money, the project to renovate the rectory at Holy Name Cathedral is finally moving forward. A sign has been posted on the southeast corner of the cathedral about the project.  The architect listed is Jaeger, Nickola & Associates, out in...

As the retail chess match on Oak Street starts to settle down a little, more pressure is being put on Rush Street to pick up the slack. The bad economy forced a lot of changes in Chicago’s premiere boutique shopping zone.  Those who could, traded up.  Others faded away.  Still there...

We have a new spy in the West Loop.  He says physical work is starting on the miniature Wal-Mart going in at Presidential Towers (555 West Madison Street). He says that inside the building at the corner of South Jefferson Street and West Monroe Street the floor was already only half concrete,...

It looks like the long-awaited supermarket at Lakeshore East is inching closer to reality. When I moved to LSE in January, 2004 the leasing agents were all excited about the supermarket that would open “within months.” I continued shopping with Peapod, and by the time I left in...

Many cities with an architectural history as rich as Chicago’s might be content to just sit on their laurels, basking in the successful glow of some of the most recognizable and innovative buildings in the world. But not the Windy City. Here’s a closer look at the latest architecture...

There will be a groundbreaking ceremony at Loyola University’s Lake Shore campus tomorrow morning (Monday, February 21, 2011) for the new Saint Joseph College Seminary building. Drawings from the Loyola University web site show that it won’t look like much from the outside —...