I was walking around Viagara Triangle late one night, and had enough foresight to put my camera in black-and-white mode to get this shot straight out of a dime store gumshoe paperback. Readers under 25 will have to consult Wikipedia for the meaning of “dime store.” …and...

Construction is well underway on the new Ogden Elementary School (24 West Walton Street) on State Street. We’ve talked about the demolition and construction of the new school before (hereand here).  The old school is long gone, and foundation work is underway on the new one.  This...

The large patch of fenced off grass on State Street that used to be an open-air toilet for vagrants is rapidly being turned into Pritzker Park. Construction started back in the snowy (OK, ”snowier”) months and for a long time seemed to involve nothing more than moving all the...

Ontario Place is getting a little Puerto Rican flavor.  Not, it’s not another hot-today-gone-tomorrow gastrospot.  It’s a branch of Banco Popular.  The bank branch has opened on the corner of State Street and Erie Street that used to house part of Ontario Place’s leasing...

Here are a few more notes about Barneys New York’s move across Rush Street to its new store. The workers don’t have to work weekends for a change as they help ferry the inventory across the street. Barney’s cosmetics department is going to start carrying Bobby Brown and La...

Parishioners at Holy Name Cathedral got more bad news over the weekend.  Their beloved church will be closed, “until August at the earliest” according to pastor Dan Mayall. The archdiocese’s flagship place of worship was damaged by fire in February, almost exactly a year...

A couple of days ago I published an article here about Columbia College’s new Media Production Center (1600 South State Street).  Although the location is starting to get a little off the beaten path, the building is very well done.  More importantly, it preserves a piece of...