As Greektown slowly turns from interesting cultural enclave into boring semi-suburbia, much that is Greek has been lost.  But there is a major effort underway to preserve both the area’s flavor, and heritage. It’s the National Hellenic Museum, now under construction at 333 South...

We keep hearing that Chicago’s leading fashion trendsetter, Ikram Goldman, is going to open her new boutique at 15 East Huron Street any day now, so we stopped by over the weekend to see how things were progressing. Based on what we saw, “any day now” seems somewhat...

I’ve been super busy this week with a photography assignment on the South Side* and have barely been checking my e-mail.  That’s why I missed the tip from our Lakeshore East spy that Magellan Development’s building formerly known as Building A is now known as The Coast. More...

The ongoing tug-of-war between Children’s Memorial Hospital (225 East Chicago Avenue) and the usual north side NIMBYs will move two steps forward this week. For those joining this soap opera already in progress, CMH is spending a frightening amount of money building  a new...

It’s been a little more than a decade since the process began to transform Chicago’s downtown golf course into a residential community of 50,000 people.  During most of that time, residents have been told  to keep the faith — that retail is coming.  Really. It looks like...

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...

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...

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...

A meeting was held today to provide the public with more information about the new skyscraper that Roosevelt University is building in the Loop (421 South Wabash Street).  You can read more about the new Roosevelt University “vertical campus” building here. Nothing...

With the economy squeezing many families tighter and tighter, more and more people are turning to food banks for help. The demand has gotten so great that the Northern Illinois Food Bank is raising money to build an entire new building to help meet the needs of 287,000 poor people in the 13...

We’ve been following the lot at the corner of Rush and Walton streets for a while  here, here, here and here) as it was transformed from a condemned Gino’s East pizza restaurant into what is almost but not quite yet the district’s latest retail boutique. Today 930...

it’s hard to tell from this CrappyCameraPhone™ picture, but there’s a welder working on the steel beams that form the third floor of the new 930 North Rush Street.  The former Gino’s East location, shut down by the city’s health department years ago, is finally...

It was with minor hoopla last year that a surface parking lot and a beloved neighborhood hot dog stand were razed to make way for a residential condominium project at 560 North Fairbanks.  Since then, some dirt was trucked away, some bright yellow machinery moved some dirt around, and...

Editor’s note:  This article was scheduled to run on Monday, but since Crain’s moved its version tonight, I pushed this up as well.—————-One of the few 24-hour stores in downtown Chicago is gone.  Not just closed — but actually...

After nearly a year as one of Chicago’s most prominent vacant lot, workers are plowing ahead with earnest on 930 North Rush. The retail development on the corner of Rush and Walton was formerly the location of Gino’s East Pizza, which was torn down several years ago.  After...

An area of Chicago’s Loop that has been rapidly changing from 19th century storefronts to 21st century skyscrapers is going to have a touch of green. An agreement has been reached with the developers of 155 North Wacker Drive to also develop a park adjacent to the nearly completed...

Google’s aerial photographs of different nooks and crannies of the world have occasionally turned up some peculiar things. One of them is in Chicago. In the Illinois Medical District, on the northwest corner of Ashland and Harrison — the site where Rush University is putting up a...

Things are moving along quickly at the new Children’s Memorial Hospital on Chicago Avenue.  Since the tower crane went up a few weeks ago.  The elevator core is now up to about the fifth floor and the rest of the building can’t be too far...

Last week while sitting in an airport lounge on the other side of the world, CNN Asia ran a Breaking News banner reading, “Economy ‘Falls Off A Cliff.’”  Some homeowners in the Gold Coast might feel the same way. A couple of Division Street tear-down two-flats...