For more than a year, people have been wandering past the Sullivan Center (formerly the Carson Pierie Scott flagship store at 33 South State Street) wondering when the Loop’s new CityTarget would open. We now have an answer: Sunday, July 29, 2012. For those with the retail bug, or who just hate seeing one of Chicago’s iconic buildings going to waste, it’s been agonizing walking past dusty windows with no signs of progress inside. Now the windows are protected from the inside by plywood, and work is moving forward toward the mid-Summer opening. After opening 1,750 stores in 49 states (Vermont is the final frontier), the...
Status Update: The C...
posted by Editor
Magellan Development’s latest water-named tower is progressing nicely. The Coast (345 East Wacker Drive) is going up in Lakeshore East, obliterating the lake and city views of thousands of people in the Swissôtel, The Tides, The Shoreham, and Aqua. The Coast is a 45-story apartment...
Grant Park Renovatio...
posted by Editor
The latest plans for replacing the northern portion of Grant Park are on display. Large display panels went up on the Pedway level of Block37 last night, allowing people who normally aren’t able to attend the Grant Park meetings to see what’s coming. This is part of the Chicago...
Saving Michigan Avenue’s Ugliest Building
posted by Editor
Johnson Publishing is moving out of its eponymous building at 820 South Michigan Avenue. It’s moving into the top three floors of the Borg Warner Building (200 South Michigan Avenue). It was just last week that the Tribune mentioned that a company was interested in the top three floors of that building, and it turns out to be Johnson. The old building is now owned by Columbia College, which is spreading through the South Loop like a well-intentioned educational virus. Columbia has done some very interesting things with its recently bought buildings, like its Theater and Film Annex (1415 South Wabash Avenue), or the ghost...
Update: Bakers Shoes...
posted by Editor
The scaffolding is down at the Bakers Shoes Building (133 South State Street). You’ll remember this was the store that the Chicago Tribune described as a “late 1940′s retail gem” before having a conniption fit in February, 2011 about its then-impending...
Jan09
Briefly: Wacker, Wol...
posted by Editor
The new Wolford store in the Shops at North Bridge (520 North Michigan Avenue) opened on Friday (January 6th, 2012). Last Thursday we saw CDOT workers putting up new signs in preparation for Stage Three of the Wacker Drive reconstruction. The changes go into effect today (Monday, January...
Fishing for History ...
posted by Paul Kulon
On days when the sun splashes on its golden terra cotta, the Fisher Building (343 South Dearborn Street) glistens like a gem. The building is one of the finest examples of the Chicago School of architectre, designed by the accomplished architect Charles Atwood, under the direction of the...
Flagship Walgreens A...
posted by Editor
You can feel it in your bones as you walk through The Loop — Like a spring mushroom, a new Walgreen’s is about to burst to life on State Street. Both our Gold Coast Spy, and one of our Loop spies sent in photos in the last few days of last-minute preparations for the new Walgreens...
Briefly: New Loop Ho...
posted by Editor
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the historic London Guarantee Building (360 North Michigan Avenue) may become a hotel. A similar plan was floated in 2004. The same Sun-Times article notes that the hotel planned for 330 North Wabash, formerly known as IBM Plaza, will open next year....
Green Light For New ...
posted by Editor
It’s been flying mostly under the radar for the last year or so, but now there’s finally reason to believe that the proposed residential tower at 73 East Lake Street is actually going to happen. The City of Chicago’s Plan Council has approved the latest plan from the...
Slice of Life: Night...
posted by Editor
The lights in, around, and above The Park at Lakeshore East turn this little patch of green on the edge of The Loop into a 24-hour amenity. Even I have, on occasion, taken part in a little late-night round of...
Revised Grant Park Renovation Plan Released
posted by Editor
Plans for the redevelopment of North Grant Park are starting to come together. New York architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates has come up with a revised and more detailed plan for the $30 million project, expected to get underway in the Autumn of 2012. Be sure to see our previous coverage for more details. The park has to be entirely removed and replaces because it sits on the roof of the East Monroe Parking Garage. That roof is in bad need of repairs. The current park will be stripped off, the roof repaired, and a new modern park put in its place. The proposed new park will be the first deviation in Grant Park’s...
Briefly: 22WW Sold, ...
posted by Editor
Globe Street reports that the office tower portion of Block37, known as 22 West Washington, has been bought by Prudential Real Estate Investors in New Jersey for $183.5 million. A web site called Out of the Storm News muses about Chicago’s skyline, and posits that Chicago, not Columbus...
Flagship Walgreens: ...
posted by Editor
Construction is underway turning the former Loehman’s discount store space in the Joffrey Tower (8 East Randolph Street) into a flagship Walgreen’s store. What makes it a flagship? It’s using the new design and services that Walgreens tested out at its new Duane Reade drug...
How To Make Your Own...
posted by Editor
You can make your own unique one-of-a-kind Chicago-centric background wallpaper for your phone. Just follow these easy steps: Go to the sidewalk outside the WLS-TV studios at 190 North State Street. Point your camera phone very close to the LED advertising pylon outside the studio. Take a...
City Fixes the Affro...
posted by Editor
Several years after the City of Chicago decided to cut off the heart of Grant Park from Lake Michigan, it’s spending $125,000 to fix the affront. Work started today on a new pedestrian crossing that will link Buckingham Fountain with Queen’s Landing. CDOT installed fencing,...
First Snow!
posted by Editor
The first snow shower of the 2011/2012 season obscures the Willis Tower (233 South Wacker Drive) in the city’s...
Another Chicago Skys...
posted by Editor
It’s not official until Friday, November 11th, but already the signs are going up at the Fifth Third Center, the West Loop skyscraper formerly known as 222 South Riverside Plaza. There are still a few legacy 222 South Riverside signs to be seen around the property, but the main entrance...
Chicago’s Gree...
posted by Editor
A while ago we posted a photo from suburban Lake Forest of an alley between buildings that is converted into a farmer’s market each Summer. It seems like a great civic and commercial use of an urban space, and an environmentally friendly one, too. Here in the city, the block of Couch...
Slice of Life: Refle...
posted by Editor
Downtown skyscrapers appear as silhouettes in the glass facade of 333 Wacker Drive. Many people know that this was the supposed location of Ferris Beuller’s father’s office in the movie Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. Fewer people know that the upper floors are...