^a general overview
http://www.chicago-l.org/operations/yards/wilson.html

* A nine-story, 72-unit seniors building will go up over ground-floor retail space on Montrose just west of Broadway. Holsten will partner with Providence Rest Haven Illiana Housing to build that structure.
* A nine-story rental building will rise on the northwest corner of Montrose and Broadway and will have 70 affordable one- to three-bedroom apartments with 800 to 1,200 square feet of space. Holsten is partnering with Chicago-based Morgan Group on the rental building.
* A seven-story commercial building will go up along Broadway between Montrose and Sunnyside Avenue, and will have a 198,000-square-foot Target store on the first floor and a 12-screen, 2,000-seat movie theater complex on the second. A 426-car garage will occupy the building's third through seventh floors. They will also have 15,000 square feet of ground-level small retail spaces along Broadway, and will look for a combination of local and national retailers to lease those spaces.

A few things I have changed, though. Like TUP's article said, there will no longer be a movie theater.

I just read in this month's Vanity Fair that a "big book" called Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: The Experiment Since 1936 will be released this month.

Hmm.. $10 per hour seems a little high. My Starbucks job doesn't even pay that much.

I understand that, if this is the person's only means of income, then they need the money, but this requirement is too strict, favoring certain chain retailers over others and reducing the competitiveness of Target.

Honestly, though, Target is just as bad as Wal-Mart from the salary and business aspect of it. They just appeal to a richer clientele. I do, however, appreciate their efforts to make Target fit in in a denser environment (S. Clark store).

Chicago was updated on Google Earth. None of it seems as clear as it used to, though.

^^Yeah, you're right.

Soldier Field is finally completed, you can see Lakeshore East and Central Station, and Millennium Park is also there (but Cloud Gate is covered, which sucks).

The most striking feature is that they've managed to fix the problem of huge skyscrapers like Sears slanting in one direction and the tower next door slanting in the opposite direction. But I guess the bad part is that it is hard to recognize where towers are (took me a while to find Sears) and all those shadows make it even worse.

http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=16615

Dawn Turner Trice

Community's woes may not be matter of class
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0607170097jul17,1,1169246.column?coll=chi-news-col

Published July 17, 2006


An African-American colleague, who happens to be a master numbers cruncher, and I were talking about the guilt that sometimes befalls some of us in the "black middle class" who have left the 'hood.

It's important to note that neither Mr. Numbers Cruncher nor I grew up middle class. If we had to affix a label, it would have been working class.

I grew up in the South Side neighborhood called Bronzeville, but I no longer live in the city. My colleague grew up farther south, in Washington Heights, and now lives closer to downtown Chicago.

When I was a child, my neighborhood was this odd mix of three disparate communities that straddled 35th Street. On one side of the street was the Lake Meadows development, a middle-class enclave with doctors and lawyers. On the other side was the Ida B. Wells public housing project. And not far away stood the Theodore K. Lawless Gardens apartment complex, where I grew up. Classwise, it was neither Lake Meadows nor Ida B. Wells, but somewhere in the middle.

As poverty and crime grew in Ida B. Wells, a tall fence was built around Lawless Gardens. Over the years, the fence evolved from wire link, to wire link with barbed wire, to wrought iron.

Anyway, Mr. Numbers Cruncher and I were talking about one particular refrain that sticks out when folks--including academics, commentary writers and even Bill Cosby in his talks about blacks and self-reliance--posit why impoverished black communities are so mired in gangs, drugs and violence.

One reason that's often given is that there are too few role models because the best and the brightest have moved out. Too many times, what's left is a preponderance of people who weigh the community down.

Of course this is true for some communities. But, said Mr. Numbers Cruncher, U.S. Census data reveal something else in Chicago.

Take the Austin community. We tend to hear more bad news than good news from it. Part of it lies in the Harrison District, which Chicago police recently called the city's most violent district.

But according to the 2000 U.S census--the latest data we have at the neighborhood level--41.4 percent of the households in Austin would be considered middle class, defined by the census as a household with an income of more than $40,000. (By comparison, Chatham, a neighborhood long known for its strong middle class, had 38.9 households considered middle class. West Englewood had 34 percent.)

Consider Roseland, an area we are often told is beset by crime, where good and bad blocks hopscotch the community. Nearly half of the households there were middle class.

A Tribune analysis of census data three years ago found that 78 percent of black middle-class block groups in Chicago were within half a mile of block groups where at least one-third of residents lived in poverty.

As my old neighborhood showed, blacks of varying classes have always clustered, by choice or by force. There have always been opportunities for an exchange of ideas and ideals. (Despite the fence around my community, many of the Lawless Gardens and Ida B. kids went to school together.)

Of course, there are far more factors that determine a viable community than how much money people make. Having what politicians often call "middle-class values" is more catchphrase than classifier.

What's ailing embattled communities is extremely complex. But the assumption that poor communities don't have nearly enough role models may not be the right assumption, especially when you consider that the role models aren't just the area's highly paid professionals.

They're the people, no matter their income, who promote education, have high moral standards and work hard, particularly at strengthening the family structure.

As I look back at my old community, I know there's value in what I had behind the fence. But there was something about being able to peer across the street into the two other worlds that broadened my perspective and goal set.

I wonder: Is the view these days so clouded that it's nearly impossible to see the other side? And is the black middle class not doing enough from close up and from afar? I'd love to hear your views.

Illinois to Try New ‘Anti-Sprawl’ Subsidies by Shreema Mehta

July 17 – Starting next year, Illinois will provide additional tax breaks to companies that build near affordable housing units or public-transportation routes, in a move legislators say will continue to attract new companies and new jobs to the state while also reducing sprawl.

Supporters of the measure include a variety of anti-sprawl advocates who work for more compact development of cities and towns, as well as Chicago Metropolis 2020, a coalition of business and civic leaders.

Though the measure is widely supported, some say offering incentives without mandating restrictions on where businesses can build is not enough. Others criticize giving corporations big tax breaks and government-funded infrastructure investments at public expense, arguing that politicians and corporations have historically abused subsidies and contributed to urban sprawl.

Like other states, Illinois already uses financial incentives to lure companies. Since 1999, the state has given millions of dollars to private firms through programs like the Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE). With the passage of the new bill, the state will provide an additional 10 percent to companies already receiving EDGE benefits that relocate to a site determined by the state to be “location-efficient,” according to Mark Harris, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity

Companies that expand to locations that are hard to reach by workers could still qualify for the additional breaks if they provide some form of transportation help, such as transit cards or carpooling assistance.

But with the bill set to take effect in five months, Harris told The NewStandard that Illinois is still determining how these measures would work.

The job exodus in urban areas like Chicago has been ongoing as manufacturing industries move overseas or to suburban areas, and corporate headquarters employing white-collar workers and service workers alike have migrated to less-densely populated areas.

A study released in 1999 by the Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank, found that cities nationwide, including Chicago, have lost jobs to lower-population areas. In surveying 92 large metropolitan areas, researchers found the majority suffered either job losses or lower employment growth rates than their suburbs.

The rate of employment in Chicago grew by 0.4 percent, but the rate in the city’s suburbs jumped by 9 percent, according to the report.

Carrie Makarewicz, senior research analyst with the urban-planning think tank Center for Neighborhood Technology, said residents who were able to keep their jobs during the corporate exodus from Chicago face longer commutes. They are also frequently forced to drive due to the lack of public transportation, she told TNS.

Advocates say longer commutes mean less family or leisure time for workers, increased air pollution and construction of more roads over farmland and wilderness.

Urban analysts cite a wide range of reasons for job sprawl, from the creation of the National Highway System to companies following cheaper labor and land prices. But they also blame the massive subsidies politicians have used to try to manipulate development – for instance, paying companies to move into “blighted” or less-industrialized neighborhoods.

Philip Mattera, research director of the national Good Jobs First, said subsidies to corporations were partly to blame for Chicago’s problems as well.

“We would say that a lot of local officials are too eager to promote economic development at all costs and not doing it in a careful way,” Mattera said. “They think that if they throw money at developers and loosen regulations, the economy will boom. We think that’s a mistake. We don’t say there shouldn’t be any subsidies, but they should be done in a way that’s careful and targeted.”

Good Jobs First released a report in 2003 on Illinois’s subsidy programs that detailed several massive bonds issued to companies such as Sears and Motorola for projects that contributed to what critics called “state-subsidized sprawl.”

In 1989, according to the report, Sears moved its headquarters from downtown Chicago to an outlying area and received about $66 million in a government incentive package that included highway construction and site preparation. The report also noted that the state declared the business park to which Sears moved an enterprise zone, which qualified the company for tax breaks.

The report found that the commute times for some workers who kept their jobs at Sears increased to more than an hour each way.

Jeff McCourt, project director of the Illinois branch of Good Jobs First, said the new bill in Illinois will encourage companies in the future to avoid the path Sears took. But, he added, the legislation is a compromise. His group wanted the state to only subsidize companies that build in location-efficient areas, and to stop giving EDGE money to companies that do not. "Even though we would have preferred a mandatory bill,” he said, “this will still mark an important step."

McCourt told TNS the bill could help control over-distribution of incentives. "It’s the state looking at its economic development subsidies and asking how do you maximize the public benefit…. It's a way to try to give companies more inducements to [engage in] compact development, less destruction of farmland, more redevelopment of poor areas." he said.

Makarewicz of the Center for Neighborhood Technology also supports the bill. She agreed it has limitations in how many companies it can encourage to build close to public transportation or affordable housing. “This would target companies who voluntarily do this... but how many companies are going to do that?” she said.

“If it’s voluntarily for companies to try to get these credits,” Makerewicz concluded, “it still means that lots of companies buy up farm in the outskirts of towns with no housing or transit.”

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3424

Yay

Companies that expand to locations that are hard to reach by workers could still qualify for the additional breaks if they provide some form of transportation help, such as transit cards or carpooling assistance.

^ Looks like a good start, but what's up with this little caveat? I can see tons of companies making up little pseudo shuttle services just to qualify for tax breaks. This bill does NOT go far enough.

I'm sure it could have been much better if they had not been required to make compromises, likely to appease those evil Republicans

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-esquire18.html

Once-lavish Esquire theater may be nearing end of run

July 18, 2006

BY DAVID ROEDER Business Reporter

Chicago's Esquire theater, 58 E. Oak, a once lavish movie house that dates from the 1930s, could be near the end of its run.

The Esquire's owner wants to tear it down and replace it with small buildings for retail tenants.

Ald. Burton Natarus, whose 42nd Ward includes the Esquire, said he's been shown plans that call for buildings no taller than four stories. He said he supports the project because the new construction would attract quality stores into buildings similar to those that exist on Oak Street.

"Certainly, we have to look at our options for the property,'' said the owner, Mark Hunt of M Development LLC. "But nothing is definitive and there are no timetables for starting construction.''

Can't compete with megaplex

Hunt declined further comment. A source familiar with the project said that under one scenario, the theater would be closed in about 18 months.

The source said the new construction would total more than 100,000 square feet and that Hunt is aggressively marketing the space to stores that want an Oak Street address. The street has carved an identity near Michigan Avenue as a locale for luxury and specialty retailers who can pay top-dollar rents, sometimes hitting $300 a square foot for street frontage.

Rents decline above the first floor, and it's possible Hunt's project could include a restaurant, medical offices or other uses on the upper levels.

Showing movies, in the meantime, has been a tough business for the Esquire. The property has deteriorated under a succession of management firms. The current one is the AMC chain, which has a financial incentive to direct the most popular films to bigger and newer theaters downtown that it also controls.

"Movies are just a killer at the Esquire," the source said. "It's impossible to compete with the River East,'' a 21-screen AMC megaplex at Illinois and Columbus.

The Esquire began as a single, 1,400-seat auditorium and was converted to a six-screen theater in 1988. The City Council in 1994 rejected landmark status for the theater, saying that the earlier renovation destroyed much of its architectural heritage.

Natarus said Hunt would not need a zoning change for his project, but would need to bring it before the Chicago Plan Commission under terms of the city's Lakefront Protection Ordinance.

^I'd be pretty dissapointed if they tore down the esquire. moveis are not the only shows they can play there if they want to create more revenue

What the hell. The they're going to destroy Esquire, which sucks already, and put some crappy lowrise building on top? This city really hasn't learned much from the past.

What's the architectural worth of Esquire? Obviously, there's some reason the Landmarks Commission denied it, and that was 1994, before Oak Street was quite what it is now.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=21428

National restaurant show staying in Chicago

Friday news conference expected to confirm 'long-term location'

(Crain’s) – The National Restaurant Assn. is on Friday expected to announce plans to keep its huge annual restaurant, hotel and motel show in Chicago.

The association plans to announce the “long-term location” for the show at a 10 a.m. news conference at Navy Pier. A source said that location will remain Chicago, where the show has held every one of its annual shows for more than 50 years.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is scheduled to attend the press conference, his press office confirmed, along with the association’s president and CEO Steven Anderson.

The news should bring some relief to Chicago convention managers, who faced the threat of losing the show after 2007 as the association raised concerns about work rules, hotel costs and marketing services for exhibitors. The annual show at McCormick Place brings in more than 70,000 attendees and generates $100 million in local spending.

Jerry Roper, the president and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, described the apparent announcement as “very good news. McCormick Place, the labor community and others in the community have responded to one of the top conventions in the country. If we can do it for this show, we can do it for other shows.”

(Greg Hinz contributed to this story.)

Well, we have our replacement for Edmar Foods. The only thing I like about this development is what I highlighted--the very last sentence (it's good to know that more and more big-boxes are adjusting into the urban format):

From Chicago Journal:

A date with Dominick’s
West Town should have grocery by fall 2007

By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER, Staff Writer


Photo by Timothy Inklebarger
Alderman Manny Flores, with balloons.

The groundbreaking of a new Dominick’s grocery store in West Town this week was a milestone for private business and city government, but for different reasons. For the Oak Brook-based grocery chain, the 48,000-square-foot store planned for the corner of Chicago and Damen avenues will be its 100th in the Chicago area.

For the city, the start of construction was a milestone because negotiations for this particular store effectively closed a loophole in city law that allowed big-box groceries to ban neighborhood competition.

"As you recall, this has been a long process; some doubted it would ever take place," 1st Ward Alderman Manny Flores told a crowd of about 50 people who turned out for the groundbreaking on Saturday, July 16, at 2021 W. Chicago Ave.

Flores said Dominick’s officials first approached him about opening the store in the spring of 2004. Flores said a large grocery store like Dominick’s will be an asset for the community, but noted that during negotiations he sought assurance that if the store ever moved out of the neighborhood, it would not prevent a competitor from taking its place.

As a result, Flores introduced an ordinance in City Council banning restrictive covenants among grocery stores. Restrictive covenants are legal agreements between landowners setting certain restrictions when land is sold. Prior to the ordinance’s passing in September 2005, big grocery chains with plans to close a store could sell their property with the stipulation that another grocery company could not open a store on the site. The idea was to prevent consumers from shopping at a competitor nearby, forcing them to travel outside the neighborhood for groceries.

n

Under the Flores ordinance, restrictive covenants for grocery and drug stores can lock up land use for no more than a year.

Flores said the ordinance is the first of its kind in the nation and sends a strong message to the business community that the city will not allow grocers to sit on property and impair economic growth.

"Although restrictive covenants are not per se illegal or unconstitutional, when they are used in an abusive manner and when they are used in a predatory manner they run counter to public policy," Flores said. "You’re also stifling competition in the marketplace. That doesn’t make sense, so it’s actually anti-business and it’s also anti-neighborhood."

n

Dan Clayton, director of real estate for Dominick’s, said construction of the new facility would begin in the next couple of weeks. The store is scheduled to be completed in the late summer or early fall of 2007.

"We’re trying to invest in Chicagoland and invest in our network of stores and this is a significant step for us," he said.

Dominick’s president Don Keprta said the store would employ about 150 Chicagoans and include a bank and a Starbuck’s coffee shop, among other amenities.

The afternoon groundbreaking kicked off with a dance performance from the anti-gang kids group the Happiness Club and most in attendance appeared to support the new store. But one woman who lives near the site was not so happy. Camela Jean, 28, said she thinks Dominick’s should stay out of the neighborhood. She said she opposes the development partly because it will take the place of Edmar Foods, a smaller grocery store that recently closed its doors to make way for the Dominick’s.

"What was wrong with Edmar’s in the first place?" Jean yelled out, following presentations by Flores and other officials. "Why do we have to strip this neighborhood of its character and make a generic Dominick’s experience on every corner?"

n

Jean, who lives across the street from the Edmar Foods building, said she plans to move because 16 months of construction noise will make it impossible to live peacefully.

Flores said he believes the store will be an asset to the community, noting that now that Edmar Foods has closed, the Jewel-Osco on Ashland and Milwaukee avenues—about two-and-a-half miles away—is the closest grocer. He said the new Dominick’s building will include an open-air parking lot on the roof, to help preserve a walkable aesthetic along the Chicago Avenue streetscape.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=26177

Condo market feels a chill
Interest rates take a toll on city new-home sales

The downtown condo market has joined the growing ranks of slowing Chicago-area real estate markets, according to a report on second-quarter housing sales.
Sales of new homes in the city fell nearly 21% compared with the second quarter of 2005, while suburban sales slid almost 24% in the April-to-June period, according to Tracy Cross & Associates Inc., a Schaumburg-based real estate consultancy. Overall, new-home sales for the entire metro area fell 23%, to 7,231 units.

The city's drop-off is a dramatic change from the first quarter, when new-home sales grew 6% from the previous-year period; suburban sales fell 12%.

But the soft market has now extended into the city condo market, which accounts for nearly all the new housing construction in the city.

"What you've seen in the suburbs for the last three quarters is hitting the city now," says Mr. Cross. "There is coolness now in the city market."

The main source of that chill: higher mortgage interest rates. Moreover, rock-bottom interest rates over the past five years encouraged buyers to accelerate their home purchases, reducing the pool of buyers in today's market.

FEW 'BLOWOUT SALES'

In recent years, city housing sales have been dominated by a handful of high-rise condominium developments downtown. When one project ended, another would hit the market to keep overall sales growing.

Many of those new condos were sold to speculators who hoped to sell them at a profit rather than live in them. Those investor-buyers have throttled down their purchasing, says Harry Huzenis, executive vice-president at Jameson Realty Group in Chicago. "There are very few projects that are having huge blowout sales," Mr. Huzenis says.
The city may avoid a catastrophic glut of unsold condominiums thanks to real estate lenders, who typically require developers to sell 50% to 60% of the units in a planned development before putting up construction financing. Mr. Cross says that requirement puts the brakes on highly speculative developments.

"The city market is fairly controlled from the lender side," he says. "You'll see some stalling in the number of new developments proposed in the city, though."

New-home prices in the Chicago region averaged $341,915 during the second quarter, a 7% increase from the previous year.

Suburban sales have been falling since the third quarter of 2005. Some of the once-hottest suburban submarkets posted the biggest declines in second-quarter sales. In the Southwest Corridor, which includes western Will County, sales fell 30%.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/236/26177ls9.gif

"What was wrong with Edmar’s in the first place?" Jean yelled out, following presentations by Flores and other officials. "Why do we have to strip this neighborhood of its character and make a generic Dominick’s experience on every corner?"

n

Jean, who lives across the street from the Edmar Foods building, said she plans to move because 16 months of construction noise will make it impossible to live peacefully.
.[/B]

Jean sounds like an annoying person. I could give a list of what was wrong with Edmars, starting with the expired milk, dismal produce, dodgy meat, and at least 3 bottles of defective wine that I bought from the place over the past 3+ years. Additionally, Edmar's was not driven out of the community, but voluntarily decided to retire from the grocery business. I completely understand the desire of more independant grocers, and have shopped at many independant grocers over the years, but was never happy with the offerings of Edmars as I like to cook and they often did not have what I would consider standard cooking ingredients (although they had great prices). As it is now, I have to walk (or take the cta) to that Jewel 2 miles away for my groceries. If Edmars (that would have closed regardless) were not replaced as Jean seems to prefer, where would Jean propose that I shop for food?

Check out this article, particluarly the caption under the second picture.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/06/25/svsky25.xml

-D

^bwahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

the sears tower on the left huh? just like its the empire state building on the right

this is an old article i came across and though you all might enjoy
------------------------------------------------------
Best of Chicago

By Alex Kotlowitz and Joanne Trestrail

The novelist Richard Wright, who migrated from Mississippi and spent his formative years in Chicago, got pounded by the city's drama. But in time he came to admire it. Wright later wrote: "There is an open and raw beauty about that city that seems either to kill or endow one with the spirit of life."

Such is the predicament of Robert Guinan, a painter, who is one of Chicago's keenest observers. He can't decide whether to celebrate or grieve the city's passages. The city in recent years has undergone a remarkable transformation: the prettification of the Loop and surrounding neighborhoods, an explosion of new and renovated houses, the opening of Millennium Park, even gondola rides on the Chicago River. Some, like Guinan, fear that with such changes the city will become like any other, that it will no longer push and pelt the senses, that it will lose its poetry. For Guinan, Chicago has always been an exotic place—like Bombay or Istanbul—and he doesn't want anything to dampen that.

Guinan, 71, is a slender man who wears an expression of constant amusement. For nearly 30 years, he has been painting the underside of the city, sketching the homeless and prostitutes, barmaids and immigrants, hustlers and blues musicians. His paintings have been compared to Edward Hopper's and sell for upwards of $60,000. Ironically, he's been virtually ignored in Chicago, his home and the subject of his work. But he's adored in France, a place, like the rest of Europe, that seems obsessed with Chicago, America's city. (An Italian television crew is filming a series here because, the producer told me, "We want to understand America.") This summer, Guinan is being honored with a retrospective at the Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome. He's never, though, had an exhibition in Chicago. His neglect might be reason for bitterness, but Guinan says he's just glad that his work is appreciated somewhere, and, besides, he's in good company. Chicago often turns away from its own. The novelist Nelson Algren, who always felt shunned here, and who eventually left, in 1961 wrote that "anyone in Chicago can now become an expatriate without leaving town."

I met Guinan for lunch recently at the Cliff Dwellers, a 98-year-old club for the city's painters, writers, and musicians. From the penthouse location overlooking Lake Michigan, the view may be the most awe-inspiring in the city. On a clear day you can see the aging steel mills 15 miles south, once the source of America's industrial might. Guinan and I have a table by the window, and together we take in the winding lakefront, which is what allows the city to breathe. (Bordering Lake Michigan is the equivalent of having a city butt up against a 22,300-square-mile tract of wilderness.) Just to the south is Soldier Field, the stadium that houses the Chicago Bears. It opened in 1924 as a memorial to American soldiers, and for decades resembled a Roman coliseum (leading Studs Terkel to comment, "Every time I go by it I just want to say, 'Bring out the lions! Bring out the lions!'"). But it was recently renovated, and in an effort to preserve the old, they added onto and reshaped it, so it appears as if the Starship Enterprise crash-landed on a Neoclassical structure. It is, I tell Guinan, one odd sight, especially from above. Guinan shakes his head, and while I figure this is an opening for him to riff on the loss of what first seduced him about the city, he says simply: "I love this place. I'm sure there's plenty of old Chicago left, you just have to look harder."

Guinan is still painting, and is working on a portrait of members of a motorcycle gang: meaty, self-absorbed young men in black sleeveless tees. He sketched them 15 years ago at a tavern called the Double Door, a former country-and-western honky-tonk that morphed into a rowdy biker bar and is now a more refined music venue for the young professionals and artists who have moved into the neighborhood. I asked Guinan if, in the end, he feels the exotic Chicago is lost to the past. He tells me about a 1940's Life magazine article in which an elderly musician, speaking of the city's jazz age, told the magazine: "This was Chicago then, but nothing has happened since." Guinan laughs. "What he didn't know was that the late forties was the beginning of Muddy Waters and the Chicago blues." His point is this: the city is constantly reinventing itself, and while some things pass, there's always something waiting, usually something equally real and alluring.

Guinan likes to tell people that he can't go out anymore to sketch because he can no longer drink or smoke, and so what fun would it be? But after two glasses of red wine over lunch, he recounts the time not long ago when a friend brought him to a bar on the corner of Halsted and Milwaukee; it didn't have a name, just an Old Style sign in the window. The bartender was named Rocky, and one of the men there, a union guy, started talking about Machiavelli. Guinan was taken with a young woman at the bar, and so he sketched her on the back of a pizza box. "I smoked Marlboros, I drank Scotch," he said. "God, I enjoyed that night. It was like old times." But that's the thing. Chicago will always be smoking and drinking, and it will always have bars without names, and its men and its women will forever be discussing the great philosophers and how to make a buck. It's the beauty of this place: that even with all that's new, it's always like old times. Guinan understands that better than anyone. "We're surrounded by beauty," he tells me, paraphrasing a Sufi poet. "But we usually have to be walking in the garden to notice it....Let's face it, this place is alive."
—A.K.
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/best-of-chicago
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Cool article ....I often just meander the city' streets taking it in speaking to whoever speaks to me.....my girlfriend who grew up in the burbs thinks this is stringe behavior but I just tell hher that I love this place

Rowan Moore is the director of the Architecture Foundation, whose exhibition on tall buildings, 'Airspace', is at 350 Euston Road, London NW1 until July 14;

Wait this clown is the director of some Architecture Foundation and he doens't know the Sears from his ass apparently...

...someone should not-so-politely let him know

Check out this article, particluarly the caption under the second picture.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/06/25/svsky25.xml

-D

LOL...

Chicago River cruise provides special vistas of the city


Published July 30, 2006


The big water in Chicago's back yard has the reputation and wide expanses, but for those seeking a different setting, it is easy to steer a powerboat onto the Chicago River from Lake Michigan.

There are unexpected charms, sights and opportunities in taking your boat from its parking space at a Lake Michigan harbor and guiding it through the Chicago River lock connecting the lake and the river.

"The main thing people like to do is see the architecture," Capt. Steve Tadd said.

On a recent sunny afternoon, four of us, under the command of Tadd, who was piloting a 35-foot Regal named Corner Office, toured the south branch of the Chicago River. Kelly Kaylor, spokeswoman for the National Marine Manufacturers Association, my wife, Debra, and I, joined Tadd, a man who has sailed or boated seemingly everywhere.

Although Tadd has completed a 5,400-mile grand circle journey through the east, starting in North Carolina and including Illinois on the route, he had not previously taken back channels from Chicago through Indiana, back onto Lake Michigan. Our itinerary forced our local Magellan to use a map.

Our vessel had a little more oomph, spit and shine than anything at Magellan's disposal. We were cruising in a $150,000 boat that featured accessories like a grill, a flat-screen TV, a refrigerator and a satellite radio--none of which we actually used because we were watching the scenery.

It was an afternoon when sailboats dotted Lake Michigan, but we revved up at DuSable Harbor, made our way to the river and motored past the heart of downtown Chicago.

There is no better way to admire the city's buildings than from the water. If you are boating on the lake, the skyline takes your breath away. If you are moving slowly on the river, as we were, it is pleasurable to pass notable landmarks like the Wrigley Building. There is a reason why businesses have made a success of operating architectural tours on the river.

We passed a tie-up for boats outside a restaurant--one boat took advantage--and Tadd said he thinks the scene may represent the future popularity of the Chicago River downtown.

"I think it's fantastic," he said. "I hope five years from now there are tons of those. You look back 15 years and you can see the progress that has been made since then. I know Mayor [Richard] Daley's vision is to embrace the river."

For many years, the Chicago River was a sewage pond with a current, but over the last two decades, mayoral administrations and private-citizen support groups have battled to improve water quality in the river incrementally for fishing, boating, other recreation and, ultimately, swimming.

Each May volunteers attack the trash along the riverbanks and haul away the detritus of litterbugs. This year's Chicago River Cleanup Day attracted 3,200 people who braved heavy rain to collect about 41 tons of garbage at 67 locations. "It was pouring and people came out anyway," said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of the Friends of the Chicago River.

Tadd said one of the neat things about boating on the Chicago River, especially the south branch, is a lack of shallows. With the water about 16 feet deep, once a boat leaves congested areas, the river widens. He opened up the throttle so we were going 35 m.p.h. past some of the warehouse and construction areas. It felt like 60 m.p.h. in a car.

The Chicago-based National Marine Manufacturers Association is a consortium of boating organizations that doesn't care if you float in a bathtub as long as you get out and experience life on the water.

"We want people to know how appealing it is to get out on the water with families and friends," Kaylor said.

We marveled at old bridges, new condo construction, Chinatown, industrial areas, wooded areas, the Canal Street Yacht Yard and Lawrence's Dock and Dine.

As Tadd noted, the river route was modified for shipping, so it is occasionally possible to go fast and not shake your teeth out. We maneuvered through the Sanitary and Ship Canal, over the Calumet Sag Channel, onto the Calumet River, on to Hammond, Ind., and back to Lake Michigan, 70 miles in four hours. We saw a baby deer by the river, many ducks and soaring herons.

Frisbie summed up the overall impression: "When you get out of downtown, it tells you the story of Chicago."

The story of the city from a big shoulders perspective. The water that begat industry still is rolling along.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0607300055jul30,1,4383700.column?coll=chi-homepagetravel-hed

Rowan Moore is the director of the Architecture Foundation, whose exhibition on tall buildings, 'Airspace', is at 350 Euston Road, London NW1 until July 14;

Wait this clown is the director of some Architecture Foundation and he doens't know the Sears from his ass apparently...

...someone should not-so-politely let him know

yeah, this type of thing is very annoying to me. This reminds me of the thread here at SSC where another news source from the UK, The Independent, had a pic of Chicago when it was supposed to be NYC:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=354431&page=1

Isn't there a website out there where one can enter an address and find out when building was built. I seem to recall there being one, but all my googling has not turned it up, does anyone know the url?

Isn't there a website out there where one can enter an address and find out when building was built. I seem to recall there being one, but all my googling has not turned it up, does anyone know the url?

http://www.newschicago.org/

Thanks, that is exactly what I was looking for. I just discovered the apartment in the two-flat I rented was built in 1887.

Thanks, that is exactly what I was looking for. I just discovered the apartment in the two-flat I rented was built in 1887.

There's actually a lot of 19th century (post fire) buildings in Chicago. People who say otherwise honestly have no idea what they're talking about.

Of course there are. I suspected the two-flat I was moving into was one of them (the building I live in now is a 19th century building) but I wasn't sure and I wanted to look it up.

Well, the Chicago Journal now has a new format and it is possible to post a comment to every article, opinion, etc posted.

This could be advantageous, if you think about it. If there is a particular topic or issue of interest (ie a lopsided pro-NIMBY article or viewpoint) it may not be a bad idea to chime in. Not a bad way to educate the public about the benefits of density/TOD as long as it's done in moderation and in a respectful manner.

Anyhow, you guys will certainly be seeing my comments there from time to time. The more people we reach, the better..

Agency dreams of farming city's 90,000 vacant lots

August 10, 2006

BY GARY WISBY Environment Reporter





A nonprofit recycling agency that dreams of growing produce on every vacant lot in Chicago will lay out its vision today -- along with a picnic -- for visitors to a "green city" conference.

Farming the city's empty spaces is the brainchild of Ken Dunn, president of the Resource Center, who said he told Mayor Daley last year, "Let us commit that everywhere rain and sun fall be used for beautification or food production."

Daley said the idea dovetails with his green roofs program and promised to help, Dunn said.

The mayor's environment commissioner, Sadhu Johnston, called Dunn's plan something "we'd like to see happen." He added, "Will we ever green every city lot? I doubt it. But it's a notable goal."

Chicago has 90,000 vacant lots, ranging from one-seventh of an acre to 100 acres, totaling 10,000 acres, Dunn said.

His plan would build on the success of the Resource Center's City Farm, on Clybourn near Division, where people attending Northwestern University's Green City Summer Institute will picnic today on freshly picked produce.

City Farm, which receives support from the city, organically grows tomatoes, carrots, salad greens and other veggies on 1-1/2 acres slated for development. It has been there since 2005, and the city promised it can stay at least five years.

But when it does have to make way, probably for condos, workers will truck the soil to another vacant lot and start over. The movable farm, started in 1995, was at 65th and Harvard until the owner, St. Bernard's Hospital, sold the land for housing in 2002.

Leaded Chicago soil not used



The dirt was taken to a site on Clybourn, which City Farm was forced out of last year by the soon-to-open, Helmut Jahn-designed Near North SRO. This time the move was easier -- to the adjoining lot.

City Farm doesn't plant crops in Chicago soil because its lead content makes Dunn uncomfortable. The soil used is compost originating in food scraps from Frontera Grill, Scoozi!, Eli's, Lula Cafe and 11 other restaurants. The businesses complete the cycle by buying City Farm's produce.

This summer, four recent college grads and six young people from the area are working the soil and selling produce at a farm stand.

gwisby@suntimes.com

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-cityfarm10.html

10,000 acres of vacant land!!! I'm sorry, but i'd rather see more development and higher density. 10,000 acres = 15.625 square miles (640 acres = 1 mile). With a density of ... let's say 20,000 ... that's enough area for 312,500 more residents!! wow! So why are we knocking down existing buildings and building up? why don't we fill in the space we already have? Chicago has plenty of room to grow ... plenty already on the ground and not in the sky

10,000 acres of vacant land!!! I'm sorry, but i'd rather see more development and higher density. 10,000 acres = 15.625 square miles (640 acres = 1 mile). With a density of ... let's say 20,000 ... that's enough area for 312,500 more residents!! wow! So why are we knocking down existing buildings and building up? why don't we fill in the space we already have? Chicago has plenty of room to grow ... plenty already on the ground and not in the sky

wow, your math is good. ;) Thanks for saving me the trouble. That is actually not as much room as I would think of when I see all the lots around the city. Kinda makes me think what will be done if the city ever has to add another 500k-1million. We had that many once before obviously so there is the room and then some though. Imagine a whole city without lots, ahhh :cheers:

I like the idea of the program by the way. Better farm or whatever then lots, its not like they are permanent and sounds like they can be educational.

I love the idea of the farms. They aren't permanent and improve the space they are located it. I'd rather see a vacant lot farmed than abandoned. In my neighborhood of West-Town (or east village, or whatever they are calling it these days) there are a few community gardens that have sprung from vacant lots (my favorite being Frankie Machine Garden, named after the Algren character), and I think that they add some wonderful green space to the neighborhood, I would be sad to see them go.

Vacant lot gardening and community gardening in urban areas has a long and interesting past. One of the highlights of my first trip to NYC was walking through the community gardens of East Village and Alphabet city.

untile those lots are developed its an awsom idea! the city will become far more attractive! id rather see corn rows than smashed beer bottles, cigarett butts, and cheap whores wandering the vacant lots.

untile those lots are developed its an awsom idea! the city will become far more attractive! id rather see corn rows than smashed beer bottles, cigarett butts, and cheap whores wandering the vacant lots.
^^ Hey! Cheap whores serve a noble and important need, without which this nation would cease to be great. :tongue3:

Look at the picture of what is supposed to be NYC:
http://altermondialisme.free.fr/

Why does so much of this stuff seem to be coming from Europe?

Look at the picture of what is supposed to be NYC:
http://altermondialisme.free.fr/

Why does so much of this stuff seem to be coming from Europe?

I guess they just type in "american skyline" in google?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/reviews/critics/chi-0608120249aug13,1,6316798.story?coll=chi-ent_critics-hed

How 'Wicked' run has broken Chicago's curse

By Chris Jones
Tribune theater critic
Published August 13, 2006

The announcement came in Los Angeles, but it actually was a vote of confidence in Chicago. And it means that the Chicago production of "Wicked" -- the show that has revolutionized the perceptions of Broadway in the Loop -- is staying put at the Oriental Theatre. For many more months. Maybe for several more years.

On July 17, the producers of "Wicked" announced that a new production of their hit musical would open next spring at the Pantages Theatre in L.A. That was unsurprising -- "Wicked" has grossed more than $350 million to date in New York, Chicago and on tour, and a new company designed specifically for the nation's second-largest city was an obvious step to take. But there was a big surprise that day for many people who follow the vicissitudes of Broadway shows.

Los Angeles wasn't getting the Chicago production. Even though that had been the plan all along.

In New York, the thinking about Chicago has changed. Drastically.

"Finally the curse has been lifted," says Roche Schulfer, the executive director of the Goodman Theatre. "Now producers look at Chicago, and they see a huge city, and they see money. Really, this is a very big moment in the history of the Chicago theater."

In a study released last month and based on an extensive survey of theater-goers, the League of American Theatres and Producers found that "theater-motivated individuals" in large cities such as Chicago spend an average of about $92 per person on dining, hotels, parking, shopping and the like on the nights they are going to a Broadway-style show. Using those figures, that would mean an additional year of "Wicked" is worth more than $86 million to the North Loop businesses that surround the theater.

When the Chicago company of "Wicked" was first announced in the Tribune on March 22, 2005, it was billed as an indefinite run. But in the touring Broadway business -- where costs and risks are high and theaters can get locked up months or even years in advance -- producers always need a more specific plan, even if they don't always care to reveal it.

In the case of "Wicked," producer David Stone actually was anticipating a Chicago run at the Oriental Theatre of 12-18 months -- and that was in his best-case scenario. That meant the show would be able to move to L.A. in early 2007, opening up another huge market and saving the multimillion dollar costs of developing a whole other company from scratch.

"Eighteen months was our original goal in Chicago," Stone admits, "and our initial plans then involved taking the show to L.A. But the show is doing so well in Chicago, we realized it would be stupid to leave."

So what's the secret plan now?

"We don't have a specific goal anymore," insists Stone, who produces "Wicked" in partnership with Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group and Jon B. Platt. "Our thinking now about Chicago is all about how you stay somewhere permanently. And that requires a whole other way of talking to your potential audience."

Permanence and theater aren't easy bedfellows, of course. But there has been speculation in New York -- where the sold-out show carries a box-office advance of some $32 million -- that "Wicked" could easily run another 10 years. In Chicago, where the advance is still a healthy $13 million despite much shorter booking periods, the run could easily last another two or three years -- if not more. Ever since the show began its Chicago run, it has sold almost all the available tickets at the Oriental Theatre at full price. The weekly gross this summer has been about $1.2 million, week in and week out.

"Wicked" puts a new block of tickets on sale to the public Sunday, covering performances through February. Sales are expected to be brisk.

Clearly, this is good news for city boosters. Broadway in Chicago estimates that one-quarter of the tickets to the show now are sold to patrons outside the Chicago area.



Leads to hotel stay

"Because we draw so heavily on the Midwest region, we always need a compelling reason for someone to come to Chicago again," says Dorothy Coyle, Chicago's Director of Tourism. "This show gets people to make plans. And since it's an evening event, that naturally leads to a hotel stay. Which brings the city revenue from the hotel tax."

You could also argue that the new commitment by "Wicked" provides substantial vindication for Mayor Richard M. Daley's promotion of the incremental use of public funds to create the Loop theater district -- which initially was criticized for inactivity. "The show is now the anchor tenant," says Schulfer. "And that makes a very big difference to the whole thing."

In many ways, "Wicked" is the culmination of a renaissance that began with the hit Chicago tryout of "The Producers" in 2000 and has continued, with some notable stutters, ever since. Given the plans already in place for the next several years, it's hard to imagine another time in the near future when Loop theaters are sitting empty for significant periods of time.

The initial idea to create a sit-down "Wicked" company for Chicago -- a concept that has proved very profitable for many people -- belonged to James M. Nederlander, the patriarch of the theater-owning family that owns many Broadway theaters, along with half of the Broadway in Chicago presenting and real-estate partnership. Live Nation (formerly Clear Channel Entertainment) is Nederlander's partner in Chicago.

"I've always said Chicago was a run town," Nederlander said from his New York office. "I remember when the Shuberts had seven theaters there. Then they gave up on the place. I always though that was a mistake."

It was Nederlander who persuaded Stone to create the Chicago company and let it stay. "That show is a big hit," Nedlander says, "Why not?"

History contained several reasons why not.



Not for decades

Exactly why Chicago -- despite its size -- had decades of trouble establishing itself as a place that would support long-running Broadway shows is a matter of speculation. Oft-cited reasons include everything from simple neglect by New York producers to the large number of competing non-profit theaters to anti-Chicago naysayers in New York. Some cite the many years lacking a cohesive local management of the Broadway-style theaters in the Loop, and others suggest that the exacting standards of former Tribune critic Claudia Cassidy had a chilling effect on shows at a crucial time when the commercial theater was shrinking and changing.

Whatever the history and the reasons, "Wicked" (which, interestingly enough, got mixed reviews in Chicago) clearly has swept them all away for the foreseeable future.

The success of "Wicked" (which is a national rather than a Chicago phenomenon) cannot be easily duplicated, of course. But "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," another Broadway show with a dedicated Chicago company, has already recouped its initial (and modest) $1 million costs and now looks set to play the Drury Lane Water Tower Theatre through the end of 2007, if not beyond. "Spelling Bee" also is produced by Stone, but other producers now seem ready to come to Chicago to test the Nederlander theory.

In the spring, Scott Sanders' production of "The Color Purple" will begin a Chicago run at the Cadillac Palace with Oprah Winfrey's name above the title. If sales are relatively modest, it will decamp for another city after a few months. If tickets sell at "Wicked" levels (which could happen), Sanders says he will create another company and leave "The Color Purple" in Chicago, alongside its "Wicked" twin.

----------

http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-office14.html

Business
Demand for office space rises

August 14, 2006

BY DAVID ROEDER Business Reporter

For the first time since early 2001, demand for Chicago office space downtown and in the suburbs is perking up noticeably.

Overall vacancy rates have fallen for two consecutive quarters. Just as importantly, brokers who specialize either in office building landlords or their tenants report that the pace of deals is quickening.

They said that companies, for years reluctant to add to real estate costs, are expanding judiciously or at least thinking about it.

"This is the best the market has been in six years," said Dan Arends, principal with Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc. "You now see multiple tenants looking at the same space."

"It's a real recovery, but it's gradual," said Chris Connelly, managing director with CB Richard Ellis Inc. "It's not like the super-heated tech boom of 2000."

The days of dot-com rage marked the last time demand spiked for local office space, especially downtown. Since then, vacancies have risen and rents after discounts have fallen.

Office demand suffered from the effects of a recession worsened by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In the downtown market, a few new buildings have drawn some of the largest and most creditworthy tenants from older properties.

A report by CB Richard Ellis showed that at the end of 2006's second quarter, the downtown vacancy rate stood at 14.4 percent, while the suburban figure was 16.4 percent. Both rates have declined since the end of 2005.

Another market statistic that experts watch is called absorption, which means changes in the amount of occupied space. For the first half of 2006, the downtown market had net absorption of 1.2 million square feet, according to CB figures.

That comes after five straight years of negative absorption -- more space being thrown onto the market than was being filled.

Similarly, the suburban market reported net absorption of 1.6 million feet for the first half of 2006, CB reported.

As a result, landlords are said to be driving a harder bargain with lease negotiations. Gone are months of free rent as part of multiyear deals, and now a tenant is lucky to get a free month per year, Connelly said. But the market is a long way from single-digit vacancies, when all the leverage is on the side of building owners. Experts said that tenants entering the market now still will have a choice of available spaces.

That constrains landlords from raising rents. Market data show average rents are flat to slightly higher than they were a year ago.

Connelly said his firm is telling clients not to expect pressure for higher rents until around late 2007, but he concedes the market could have other plans. One wild card, especially for downtown, is the potential for new construction.

If there's any growth in demand over the next few years, it could be sopped up by two office towers that have been announced for just north of the Chicago River. Both will be anchored by law firms leaving behind space in two notable buildings, Aon Center and the IBM Plaza.

Some experts, however, think there will be no more new projects offered for downtown for years. Stephen Budorick, executive vice president with building owner Trizec Properties Inc., said costs for construction and borrowing have risen while projected rents haven't kept up.

Meanwhile, few large tenants are hunting for the space, although some are encouraged that United Airlines parent UAL Corp. signed for 150,000 square-feet at 77 W. Wacker.

Also, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday announced that it would lease 223,000 square feet in a Trizec building at 550 W. Washington.

Both moves are relocations, so they will also create empty space elsewhere. But Budorick said he's also encouraged by demand for additional space from current tenants.

droeder@suntimes.com

Has anyone visited yochicago? It's a Chicago specific site that just launched forums.

I don't really like the format... seems a bit cluttered.

^I agree with you. Plus, you have to click on EACH post in order to read their comments. It was a bit annoying.

- edit

The tour comes as some neighborhoods have seen widespread teardown development and escalating home prices. The tour map shows stops in the Rogers Park, Avondale, West Side, North Lawndale, Douglas, Woodlawn and South Chicago neighborhoods, among others.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=21768

Those sound like *lovely* neighborhoods!

:runaway:

I saw Bill Ranic walking on Rush street today. :D

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0608200188aug20,1,5441474.story?coll=chi-business-hed

Loop lights up with a retail wick
Rebounding from decades of decline, the Loop has dusted itself off and is undergoing a renaissance as a magnet for tourists, shoppers and other spenders--and taxpayers--drawn to stores, theaters, rest

By Sandra Jones
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 20, 2006

At 7 p.m. on a recent weekday the crowd was so thick outside the Oriental Theater in the Loop for the show "Wicked" that passersby had to walk single file near the edge of the sidewalk just to get by.

Around the corner, diners waited outside for 30 minutes for tables at Petterino's, a steakhouse in a corner building that stood vacant only six years ago.

And two blocks away, dozens of shoppers leafed through handbags and sundresses at Nordstrom Rack and H&M on State Street, where stores are now lit up long after office workers have gone home.

Not long ago the Loop was a ghost town after 6 p.m. on a weeknight. Restaurateurs and bar owners wouldn't go near it, following instead the trail of night-lifers to trendy neighborhoods to the north and west.

Not anymore.

Real estate experts confirm what has become increasingly apparent: There is a bona fide retail renaissance taking shape in the Loop, one of Chicago's oldest and best-known destinations but one that was long ago left behind as other areas, especially north of the Chicago River, flourished with restaurants and shopping.

Thanks in large part to a $60-million investment to revive the theater district and $475 million spent to build Millennium Park, a record number of retailers and restaurants are moving into the Loop looking to benefit from the influx of tourists, residents and students who hang out downtown long after offices have closed.

"It's definitely paid off," said Allen Joffe, principal broker at Chicago-based Baum Realty Group Inc., a real estate firm tracking the Loop's retail revival.

The Loop retail market posted a banner year in 2005, with 89 new leases signed, topping the previous record in 2004 of 60, according to an annual study from Baum Realty. That's almost triple the 34 leases signed in 2003, Joffe said.

What's more, the gross average asking rent rose 10.3 percent, to $58.52 per square foot a year in 2005, from $53.04 in 2004. The 2005 rate was the highest since the firm began tracking rents eight years ago.

Not surprisingly, almost half of the new leases signed in 2005 were for food service, with 20 fast-food outlets, 13 coffee shops and seven full-service restaurants. But in a sign of the longstanding belief that the revival is here to stay, another 27 deals were for specialty stores, including six for apparel.

More tax money

The renewal is likely to result in an influx of new tax revenue from one of the biggest money pits in the city. Several mayoral administrations have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to lure retailers back downtown with little or no success.

Attracting more restaurants and national retailers to the Loop not only boosts the city's image but also helps pay for city services at a time when operating budget shortfalls are a common occurrence. Chicago restaurant sales in particular represent more than 20 percent of the sales tax revenue the city collects each year, making restaurants the fastest-growing retail category in the city, said John C. Melaniphy, founder and president of Melaniphy & Associates Inc., a Chicago-based retail consulting firm.

The streets that experienced the most activity were Michigan Avenue, State Street, Madison Street and Randolph Street, Baum said.

Retailers had avoided the Loop for decades, particularly State Street, the city's first major shopping district. The street lost cachet to North Michigan Avenue in the 1970s and then chased away traffic when it was closed to autos from 1979 to 1996 in an ill-conceived attempt to create a pedestrian-friendly outdoor shopping mall. As recently as 2004, retail vacancies for specialty stores on State Street surpassed 20 percent, according to Northern Realty Group Ltd. That figure dropped to 4.6 percent last fall.

Claudia Martin, who moved to an office building turned condo in the heart of the Loop five years ago, has watched the transformation from her living room.

"We used to joke you could lie down in the street on a Saturday afternoon and no one would run over you," said Martin.

Now, fast-food lunch spots are staying open later and on the weekends. Tanning salons and dry cleaners are hanging up shingles. And fashionable restaurants and shops are starting to move in.

Among the new tenants in 2005: Morton's The Steakhouse, Kamehachi, Hannah's Bretzel, Cereality, Ace Hardware, Barnes & Noble, Claire's Accessories and Ann Taylor Loft.

The neighborhood even got its first trendy boutique, an accessories and handbag shop called Nakamol on South Michigan Avenue that would fit just as well in Bucktown or Lincoln Park.

The pace remains strong for 2006. Restaurants including California Pizza Kitchen, McCormick & Schmick's and Elephant & Castle are adding to the nightlife. And apparel retailers such as Annie Sez, Urban Outfitters and Chernin's shoe store are filling in State Street.

Kevin and Alan Shikami, the brothers who run the chic Kevin restaurant in River North, plan to open a second restaurant later this year, this one in the Loop.

The Asian restaurant, to be called Shikago, will serve lunch and dinner and host wine tastings.

Alan Shikami said he hopes the upscale outpost will help change the way people look at the Loop. "I've always thought the Loop was a peculiar and unfortunately underutilized area," Shikami said via e-mail. "I always wondered why it could not resemble Manhattan. Why did the Loop have to be so focused on business and devoid of other life?"

Much of the Loop's rebirth can be traced to Millennium Park's opening two years ago. Held up as a model use of urban public space, the free concerts, stunning architecture and gardens attract an estimated 3 million visitors a year. Priceline.com named Millennium Park the most requested travel destination this summer, according to a study of the top 50 summer travel destinations, released in June.

"The transformation is phenomenal," said Chris Holtebeck, a tourist from Appleton, Wis., who has watched Chicago change. "There's just so much to see. And I feel safe."

Some parents feel the same way. It's not unusual to find Kregg Kaducha pushing a stroller around the Loop after 8 p.m., something he wouldn't have considered before the redevelopment took place. His sons, ages 2 and 5, run up and down the terraced stairs at the newly opened Wabash Plaza along the Chicago river and gaze at skyscrapers.

"It's cheap entertainment," said Kaducha. "I hope the development continues. It encourages more people to come around here."



$100 per square foot

As part of the upturn, real estate agents say they are seeing landlords for the first time asking for retail rents of $100 per square foot, a price typically reserved for outposts in River North.

Rents in some spots south of the river have doubled since Millennium Park opened, said David Stone, founder of Chicago-based Stone Real Estate Corp. and a veteran broker for downtown retail real estate.

"It's in quite high demand," said Stone.

That's not to say there aren't still dead zones. The Loop office market, for example, is a mixed bag. While the West Loop is one of the hot spots for new office space, there are some office buildings in the Central Loop that have as much as 40 percent to 60 percent of their space available.

And State Street still has a gaping hole across from Marshall Field's, where the long-troubled Block 37 project is moving ahead in fits and starts. Developer Mills Corp., plagued by financial setbacks, reduced the retail space, yet to be constructed, at 108 N. State St. to 265,000 square feet from more than 400,000 square feet originally projected.

The Loop retail market's overall retail vacancy rate rose 1.12 percentage points in 2005 to 17.8 percent, according to Baum. The higher vacancy rate reflects in large part new projects that have yet to be leased, such as the Heritage at Millennium Park and the MetraMarket food court and retail center in the West Loop near the train tracks, Joffe said.

The Baum report covers the roughly 106-square-block Loop retail market bounded by Wacker Drive, Michigan Avenue, Van Buren Street and the Kennedy Expressway.

As an indication of how ready the Loop is to show off its new after-work persona, the Chicago Loop Alliance, an organization of Loop businesses, is working with the city to host the first dusk-to-dawn party on May 7 modeled after the popular "White Night" festivals in Paris and Rome. Stores, restaurants, museums and the park will stay open into the wee hours of the morning.

"There's been such tremendous growth here," said Ty Tabing, executive director of the alliance and former assistant commissioner at the city's planning department. "The objective is to highlight the Loop as much more than a place to go to work every day."

The alliance is preparing its own study, due out by Labor Day, to measure the economic growth of the Loop in the wake of Millennium Park. The Loop's residential population soared 50 percent from 2000 to 2006 to more than 13,000 people, according to Tabing. And residents have plenty of money to spend. The average household income is about $120,000.

"I really think the Loop has an incredible potential to be a true Chicago-style neighborhood," said Doug Zell, founder and CEO of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea Inc. Zell opened his second coffeehouse in the Loop on Randolph Street across from Millennium Park in April. "You've got people living there. You've got people working there. It's just getting started."

Okay. Does anyone have any information as why it is taking so long for any of those stores to be rented out in the Randolph street Metra station. I'm sick of going there and having it look like a gleaming but empty shell of a station. There is seemingly no progress being made with this, and there hasn't been for months. What is the hold up?

look like V so long the way

look like V so long the way

^ huh?

http://www.railvolution.com/images/2006Art-homepage.JPG

Chicago Welcomes Rail~Volution 2006: Paths to Prosperity

by Kit Hodge, Associate | August 10, 2006


The Metropolitan Planning Council is proud to partner with the Regional Transportation Authority to co-host Rail~Volution 2006, right here in Chicago. You don't have to be a policy expert to notice that more and more people want to live in communities supported by a great public transit system, walkable streets, and convenient shopping. Rail~Volution is your chance to figure out how:
Transit-oriented development from soup to nuts, for novices to veterans.
Developers and investors, elected officials, community development leaders, and transportation experts from around the country and world.
Seminars, guided field tours, and more.
In the Chicago region, there are multiple places using their rail stops to anchor new development in their older downtowns. For transit-oriented development novices and veterans alike, Rail~Volution is a gathering of more than 1,500 elected officials, business leaders, and transportation experts from around the country. Plan to attend this year's conference so you can participate in dialogue, make contacts, and better understand the increasing interdependence of the quality of your community and public transportation.
Chicago is a uniquely rich host for Rail~Volution. Only here, in the context of a 100-year-old transit system can participants simultaneously learn from historic rail designs and new investments that are extending rail lines and compact development into the outer suburbs. Featuring national speakers from throughout the country, Rail~Volution Chicago 2006 will provide solutions for those struggling with similar challenges in their hometowns. Attendees can also participate in several on-site workshops about transit-oriented development, including North Shore railroad suburbs, a redeveloping Blue Island, and the Pullman Historic District. Don't miss this unique chance to play an influential role in the future of urban and suburban transportation in one of the world's greatest cities!

Register at www.railvolution.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/us/21devon.html?ex=1313812800&en=78f491cf8b273c77&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Is Devon Street the most interesting street in Chicago? What do you guys think?

^ To me it is, but that's because I'm biased. ;)

To tell you the truth, though, I really love that whole area of Chicago (Rogers Park/West Ridge). It's just so......genuine.

I'm sure the yuppie machine will start rolling in after a few years. The difference is, Indo/Pak businesses & their customers tend to have money, so higher prices may not necessarily drive them out. In fact, the 2 major condo or retail development projects happening on that portion of Devon (or just off of it) are by Indian developers.

- edit

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/us/21devon.html?ex=1313812800&en=78f491cf8b273c77&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Is Devon Street the most interesting street in Chicago? What do you guys think?


It could go head-to-head as the one of the most interesting avenues in the city, and by far the most overlooked.

And props to Dr. Butt.

As a followup to a discussion from a few weeks ago- here is an article on the failures of "transit orientated" living.


Click to Go Back

Commentary

The Truth about Transit-Oriented Development

By Kathleen Calongne

Across the nation and in Atlanta, policy-makers are preparing to spend billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money building rail transit. The problem they face now is how to get people onto trains when most people live miles from rail lines. The solution: Jam people into high-density housing around each rail transit station and call it “transit-oriented development,” or TOD.

Berkeley, California, TOD proponent Dena Belzer claims rail transit in other cities has spurred billions of dollars worth of developments. She adds that many people are eager to live in high-density, mixed-use developments where they can walk downstairs to a coffee shop or grocery store instead of having to get in a car and drive.

First of all, the billions of dollars of development supposedly inspired by rail transit is simply a lie. To make this claim, rail supporters have included every downtown skyscraper and taxpayer-subsidized sports stadium that happened to be built near any rail line. They have even counted downtown parking garages. If rail transit works so well, why the need for new garages downtown?

Second, while some people prefer to live in a beehive of activity, they are definitely the minority. A poll conducted by National Family Opinion found that 82 percent of Americans say they aspire to live in a single-family home in the suburbs, and only 18 percent want to live in cities close to work, shopping and transit. Certainly, people do not move to Atlanta’s wide-open spaces so they can live in Brooklyn-style neighborhoods.

Unfortunately for TOD enthusiasts like Belzer, the real-world experience with transit-oriented development in Portland, Oregon, the San Francisco Bay Area and other cities is that TODs only work when they are subsidized and designed around the automobile, not transit.

When Portland built its first light-rail line, it zoned every neighborhood along the line for high-density transit-oriented development. Not a single one was built for 10 years. Then the city started offering millions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies. Even with the subsidies, only a few of the TODs are fully occupied, and many have high vacancy rates. Some have absolutely no businesses in the supposedly mixed-use developments.

What makes some work and others fail? In a word, parking. TODs are only marketable if they have plenty of parking for both businesses and residents. They are really automobile-oriented high-density developments, not transit-oriented at all. In fact, surveys of people living in Portland’s TODs show most drive to work.

In Colorado, Denver and its suburbs are already handing out subsidies to TODs near existing and proposed rail lines. The subsidy of choice in Colorado is tax-increment financing (TIF), or as it’s referred to in Georgia, a Tax Allocation District.

TADs use most or all of the property taxes on a new development, and sometimes part of the sales taxes on retail sales, to cover much of the cost of building the development. That means that schools, police, fire protection and other services used by those developments must be paid for out of someone else’s property taxes – like yours. Typically, cities sell bonds, spend the money on the development and use future property taxes to repay the bonds.

To understand how much tax-increment financing subsidizes these developments, imagine being able to use your property taxes over the next 15 to 30 years for home improvements or to pay off your mortgage. This is enough to persuade developers to build high-density housing even though they know the vast majority of Americans prefer to live in single-family homes.

No politician would ask you to vote for higher taxes to subsidize people who shop at Whole Foods. Instead, they divert property taxes from city services to subsidize these lifestyles, and when schools run short of money, they ask you to raise taxes to keep them open. Portland has diverted so many property taxes from schools to transit-oriented tax-increment financing that its mayor recently proposed a city income tax to make up the shortfall.

Rail advocates purport that we must have expensive and heavily subsidized rail transit to attract transit riders. Then they say we need subsidized TODs to get more people to live along rail lines to get a few people out of cars. What we end up with is more congestion, higher taxes and declining urban services.

Kathleen Calongne, a research assistant for the Center for the American Dream at the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo., wrote this commentary for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. The Foundation is an independent think tank that proposes practical, market-oriented approaches to public policy to improve the lives of Georgians. Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before the U.S. Congress or the Georgia Legislature.

© Georgia Public Policy Foundation (August 18, 2006). Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided the author and his affiliations are cited.

^ These 'American Dream' phonies just don't give up, do they? We'll see what that bitch has to say when gas costs $6 a gallon. Like we should be listening to some person way down in Georgia when it comes to urban transportation--what a joke. It's pure mathematics--do the words 'non-sustainable' mean anything to these nitwits?

As a followup to a discussion from a few weeks ago- here is an article on the failures of "transit orientated" living.


© Georgia Public Policy Foundation (August 18, 2006). Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided the author and his affiliations are cited.


That silly article was written by someone who is likely getting some benefit from promoting sprawl. Note that the article is put out by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

You can rest assured that this foundation is being supported by industries that benefit from sprawl. These includes the road construction industry, the sewer and water utilities industry, the exurban real estate industry, the construction industry, the automobile industry, and the automobile support industry, i.e., fuel and auto-related products.

When I have seen pro-auto-use articles in the past, there has frequently been a conflict of interest on the part of the author or the publisher.

Channeling Wendell Cox, lol. These people try to use scare tactics by telling people that they will be forced to live in apartments, off ground level, with no outdoor space and no chance to use a car.

It's clear that the woman has no idea what she's talking about. TOD is a sound concept, but it often has poor execution in the present era. The streetcar suburbs of the early 20th century are most assuredly TOD, yet the majority of people living there live in single-family homes, on tree-lined streets with sidewalks. There is no better argument for TOD than just taking a drive up Green Bay Road and looking at the traditional communities there, all of which are TOD at its finest. Note that the TOD there is usually not apartment buildings. You have 2 and occasionally 3-story commercial buildings downtown, then gridded or even curvey residential neighborhoods of single-family homes immediately surrounding the downtown.

In Atlanta terms, TOD should be much closer to Decatur than Buckhead.

Happy Birthday to pottebaum.

Interesting article about the efforts some south suburbs are making to revitalize their downtowns:

Downtown strolling

Some communities looking to become more 'walkable'

Sunday, August 6, 2006




This is the first of three articles about efforts by local community leaders to make our suburban towns more inviting to pedestrians and bicyclists.
On Thursday: Sidewalks that don’t lead anywhere, intersections with no pedestrian crossing, stores on busy highways with traffic zooming by. These are towns with major obstacles to “walkability.”:

Next Sunday: Biking instead of hiking. Some towns create bike paths that lead to fun spots in a community.


By John K. Ryan, The Star
Growing up in Riverdale in the 1960s, a car was not a necessity.

A food market, a five-and-dime, two barber shops, a clothing boutique, a bakery, a drug store, a couple of restaurants and even a shoe repair shop were lined up along a two-block stretch of 144th Street.

For anyone living in the Ivanhoe section of the village, the street's commercial strip was no more than a mile away. Neither were schools, churches and parks.

Cars were only pulled out on weekends for trips to far-off department stores, movie theaters or visits to relatives.

It was one of the great perks of living in that community — and likely still is, to some degree, today.

This walkability factor, however, does not exist in some of the newer communities in the South Suburbs........(read more at link below)

http://www.starnewspapers.com/star/spnews/news/06-sp9.htm

I miss Chicago :(

Happy Birthday to pottebaum.

I didn't notice this post until now, but thanks! :)

I miss Chicago :(
and chicago aint the same without you girl

Why Is Chicago So Corrupt?
And how do you measure corruption, anyway?
By Daniel Engber
Friday, Sept. 8, 2006
Slate.com

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan received a sentence of six and a half years in prison on Wednesday, after being convicted on charges of racketeering, mail fraud, filing false tax returns, and lying to investigators. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that in the last three decades, at least 79 local elected officials have been convicted of a crime, including three governors, one mayor, and a whopping 27 aldermen from the Windy City. What makes Chicago so corrupt?

Read the rest here: http://www.slate.com/id/2149240/?nav=tap3

Why Is Chicago So Corrupt?
And how do you measure corruption, anyway?
By Daniel Engber
Friday, Sept. 8, 2006
Slate.com

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan received a sentence of six and a half years in prison on Wednesday, after being convicted on charges of racketeering, mail fraud, filing false tax returns, and lying to investigators. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that in the last three decades, at least 79 local elected officials have been convicted of a crime, including three governors, one mayor, and a whopping 27 aldermen from the Windy City. What makes Chicago so corrupt?

Read the rest here: http://www.slate.com/id/2149240/?nav=tap3
Given the "whopping" number of convictions, my guess would be stupidity. What's missing from this piece is any scorecard for other large cities. Are they under such intense and constant scrutiny? Republican prosecutors have mined Democratic Chicago and governors for years to their own political advantage. Might there be a direct connection between "corruption" and getting things done? :fiddle:

I couldn't agree with you more Frumie. Corruption is the grease that keeps the engine moving. In Ideal Land where Libertarian polcies really worked Corruption might actually be bad but in the real world a certain amount of corruption allows the parks to be maintained, the trash picked up and the CTA only to be 20 mins late. Of course too much corruption is bad but not enough or the wrong kind is worse. Not enough corruption keeps a city at a stand still or at least a long drag while the wrong kind turns your city in to pre Katrina New Orleans.

Oh and the number of corruption arrests in Chicago is directly related to the legend of corruption in Chicago and the war against cities taking place in this country.

Did this just happen, as I see two development sections for Chicago? Nice :)

Did this just happen, as I see two development sections for Chicago? Nice :)

^ Yeah, I like it too. Otherwise it's just too cluttered. Bravo to whoever thought of that!

I was just looking at the exact location of the Madarin Oriental Chicago. Is it going to block the view of two pru when looking south?! I hope not!
-D

deleted post

How is the maintainance work coming along? I'd love to contribute to this forum like the old days, but to be honest it seems like everything of relevance to discuss has shifted to SSP.

When will things finally return to normal at SSC?

Yeah, I see what you mean.

I joined SSP in the interim, and there are definitely some plusses/minuses to each site. I think once people get bored of seeing every minor little progress point on Trump and Waterview, they will post more here.

SSC:
+ Dedicated Forum
+ Threads for nearly every new project
+ Can discuss local issues that affect development/skyscrapers
- Forum has small amt. of regular posters
- Not too many non-Chicago people post here
- Frequent downtime

SSP:
+ Lots more outside posters/always new posts to read about Chicago buildings
+ Gives Chicago buildings exposure
+ Gives us better exposure to other cities' major projects
+ I've never seen it down
- Only biggest/most interesting projects are discussed
- Threads get off track more often

^ The forums totally suck these days.

WTF?

flippin through this months fortune mag. an adv. caught my eye. can you see what i see?

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/4682/imgjq6.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9985/img2ey3.jpg

^ Chicago in 2050

Hydrogen, I respect your position and judgment but I think you’re a bit trigger-happy with the thread closing. An announcement as big as the circle line unveiling doesn’t deserve its own thread for its own discussion? Have we come to the point were all threads must follow a generic code and set of rules. Granted the subject was on mass transit but not every topic of discussion that has to do with mass transit belongs in there. Some are deserving of their own thread. But hey I guess that’s just my opinion.

Daley backs incentives for affordable homes
(http://www.suntimes.com/business/91347,CST-FIN-housing11.article)

October 11, 2006

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Slamming the door on affordable housing set-asides, Mayor Daley on Tuesday expanded his plan to use the carrot instead of the stick to solve a housing crisis made worse by condominium conversions.

Since 2003, developers vying for city subsidies have been required to make at least 20 percent of all residential units affordable -- and 10 percent if they want to build on city-subsidized land.

Downtown developers also have committed $23 million toward affordable housing programs in exchange for the right to build bigger and taller projects. So-called "density bonuses" might soon be expanded beyond the downtown area.

On Tuesday, the mayor held a news conference in the lobby of a South Loop high-rise -- the first new rental housing to be built in the downtown area in years. He announced a dramatic expansion in the city's incentive programs tailor-made to create 1,000 new units of affordable housing each year.

Instead of limiting the affordable housing mandate to city-subsidized projects, City Hall will broaden the umbrella to include all city land, all plan developments and all zoning changes that increase residential density.

Developments with 10 or more units whose projects fall into those new categories would be required to make at least 10 percent of all units affordable.

Daley said mandates don't work. "They just move someplace else," he said, noting that his 2007 budget would commit $40 million in new money for affordable rental housing and expanded rental assistance. "I don't believe in mandatory set-asides. People have to pay property taxes."

Daley also asked a task force chaired by Housing Committee Chairman Ray Suarez (31st) to recommend a comprehensive condo conversion policy that uses incentives to "mitigate the loss of affordable rental units" caused by buildings going condo.

"They come in, and all the sudden, 99 percent of the people are thrown out. There has to be some way to preserve housing, some way to do alternative housing. . . . Maybe allow them to expand, to put an addition on. If there's any city land adjacent to it, allow them to purchase that to bring more affordable housing. . . . There's nothing wrong with incentives," he said.

Twenty-five aldermen have thrown their support behind a revised affordable housing ordinance sponsored by Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) that requires developers of new and rehabilitated housing to set aside 15 percent of their units for low- and moderate-income buyers.

On Tuesday, Preckwinkle said she's not about to throw in the towel just because Daley has expanded his incentives.

"I'm always grateful when the mayor takes action that will increase the supply of affordable housing. However, I remain convinced that the set-aside ordinance, which will cover all developments in the city, would result in substantially more units, given the deficit of affordable units in the city [pegged at] 20,000 units in the 2000 census," she said.

Preckwinkle noted that she already has reduced the percentage -- from 25 percent to 15 percent -- to minimize opposition from developers and attract the 26 votes she needs for passage.

Kevin Jackson of the Chicago Rehab Network, agreed that incentives are not a substitute for mandatory set-asides.

"There are areas in the city that are not going to be able to avail themselves of all of these wonderful programs because they're all private money," he said.

This relates to a conversation on the forum a long time ago when I was more active. I remember people discussing the extent to which Chicagoland suburbanites identify as 'from Chicago' to outsiders relative to how much suburbanites in other metro areas identify with their central city.

Consider that on Facebook, using the new Pulse feature, one can see that more people identify Chicago as their hometown than anywhere else. Why does Chicago beat out New York (#3) and Los Angeles (#5)? I think because those metros contain a number of very large muncipalities that are well-known so people identify with them, whereas Chicagoland lacks large, well-known muncipalities other than Chicago itself.

Of course, in New York, all the outer boroughs are very well-known. And in LA, you have Santa Monica, Long Beach, and the two highly populated valleys -- San Fernando and San Bernadino -- that have their own distinct identity. Meanwhile, at least to the world outside Chicagoland, Chicago area suburbanites must rebrand their hometown the city of Chicago. Naperville and Aurora may be fairly sizable population wise, but many people haven't heard of these places. No other area around Chicago has developed a strong enough identity to allow for symbolic secession from the city of Chicago. And that's a very good thing.

Other cities that suburbanites must identify with to an unusual extent? Which cities' ranking on Facebook is out of proportion to their actual population ranking? St. Louis (#4), #7 Miami, and #9 Cincinnati.

skokie and evanson are well known... i think

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/98126,CST-NWS-library16.article

Loop library to let you stay later

October 16, 2006
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Chicago's showcase Harold Washington Library will be open four evenings a week to accommodate the Loop's growing student population, under an expansion plan tied to Mayor Daley's 2007 budget.

The decision to remain open until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday -- at a cost of $188,000 for eight more hours a week -- marks the third time in 13 years that hours at the 400 S. State St. library have been extended.

The Harold Washington Library added Sunday hours in 1995 and opted to remain open until 7 p.m. on weekdays four years later. Now, the library serving Chicago's booming downtown population will mirror the 68 hours a week at the Woodson and Sulzer regional libraries.

"We've seen a significant rise in the population of students who live in the neighborhood and residents who are moving into the neighborhood," said Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey.

"We're seeing larger and larger crowds coming for our evening author events. Many events end at 8 p.m. People who might want to stay a while and use the library longer can't because the building is closed. Now, they'll be able to go into the library and check out more books."

More like Amazon.com
After nearly three years of planning, Chicago is also set to debut a long-awaited integrated library system known as "Find it Chicago" next spring.

The $11 million high-tech system will give the city's 1.6 million library card holders better and faster access to the system's vast catalogue of books, books on tape, periodicals, DVDs and online research journals.

"If you go on Amazon.com, you can see a picture of a book, get reviews and read actual pages. You'll now be able to do all of those things on our Web site. You'll be able to search all of our resources in a faster, more comprehensive way and reserve a book online, instead of going to the library in person," Dempsey said.

Asked whether Chicagoans should expect a tax increase for libraries, Dempsey said, "All I will tell you is ... we're fortunate that the mayor and City Council see us as an important element in Chicago's quality of life."

Loop U.
Packed with students, dorm rooms and educational facilities, the 1.65-square-mile area bounded by the Chicago River, Wacker Drive, Roosevelt Road and the Lakefront is THE LARGEST COLLEGE TOWN IN ILLIN

By Patrice M. Jones
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 17, 2006


In a patch of perfect lawn across the street from Buckingham Fountain, Mike Perry and two other Roosevelt University students took a break from classes downtown recently to enjoy a game of Frisbee in Grant Park.

There was the Sears Tower gleaming in the distance in the afternoon sun to one side of them; the iconic fountain and the lakefront on the other.

"Where else could you find a campus quad better than Grant Park?" said Jesse Hernandez, 19, who met Perry only a few weeks ago when the two started the fall semester living in the massive downtown dormitory called University Center that houses students from Roosevelt, Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University.

"You can't beat it," he said.

You can find the backpack- and iPod-wearing set hanging out in droves near University Center, the high-rise that opened two years ago at 525 S. State St. The lobby and sidewalk outside the "UC" are informal gathering spots where South Loop dwellers share ideas about the best places to eat, find a book or bar hop. College students also are invading Grant Park for the free concerts and festivals, and trolling downtown for other entertainment.

Last year, an economic analysis confirmed the trend, dubbing a 1.65-square-mile area bounded by the Chicago River, Wacker Drive, Roosevelt Road and the lakefront, the "largest college town in Illinois." It boasted 52,000 students and more than 20 institutions of higher education occupying more than double the space of the Sears Tower.

The economic study was conducted by the Regional Economic Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was sponsored by the Greater State Street Council and the Central Michigan Avenue Association, which merged last year and is now called the Chicago Loop Alliance.

The study -- meant to track the growth of Loop facilities devoted to higher education -- also found that the number of residential beds offered by academic institutions in the Loop numbered almost 4,000. That number is not huge in comparison with some other institutions. The University of Illinois at Chicago alone, for example, has 3,100 student beds. But the figure was an unexpected bright spot for campuses downtown that had been long known largely as commuter schools.

"We were pretty surprised by the numbers," said Ty Tabing, executive director of the Chicago Loop Alliance. "We planned to look at higher education as sort of a new recruiting tool for businesses interested in the area, but when we started doing the research, we found out a number of universities were experiencing tremendous growth and adding facilities at a rate we hadn't expected."

The higher education study found some additional interesting facts: Loop colleges and universities collectively represent one of Chicago's top 25 employers with over 12,000 workers; college students spend more than $25 million annually at area businesses in the Loop; and seven institutions alone hosted events in one year that attracted a half-million people.



Big plans

Ten institutions alone also spent $159 million in facility construction and improvements over a five-year period and collectively the Loop's schools plan to spend almost $340 million in capital projects by the end of the decade.

The higher education study now is more than a year old, and the downtown growth continues.

Farther north, Loyola University Chicago -- though not part of the Loop study -- cut a giant red ribbon on its new $51 million, 25-story high-rise downtown student residence last month featuring furnished apartments at 26 E. Pearson St. near Water Tower Place. The facility, which includes 627 beds, has been a big draw for students such as Thomas Marcuccilli of Fort Wayne, Ind.

"Growing up in a small town in Indiana, this is the kind of place where I could go to on vacation, and right now, it's right outside my door," said the gregarious junior. "People come to visit, and I can walk them straight out into the shops on North Michigan Avenue."

University officials say the reason for the growth is multifaceted: it is a collision of positives that have come from the growing allure of Chicago's downtown that has shed much its gritty image and now boasts Millennium Park, museums, and a thriving arts and theater scene.

At the same time, schools such as Columbia College and Roosevelt University with a longtime downtown presence increasingly have been transforming themselves from commuter to residential campuses -- attracting younger students and recruiting nationally and internationally. They also have been using their urban backdrop as a key selling point.

"Students come to downtown Chicago for the museums, the galleries, the bookstores, the performances -- all of it gets wrapped up into the experience of being at Columbia," said Mark Kelly, vice president for student affairs at Columbia College.



Columbia transformation

Columbia probably has had the biggest transformation. Columbia had about 15 percent of its freshmen living on campus three years ago; now that figure is about 58 percent. In addition, Columbia plans to add another 434 beds next fall, Kelly said. The university also has seen its enrollment jump about 16 percent since 2003 to 11,500 students.
Still, students say there is room for improvement -- in a survey accompanying last year's Loop study, students reported there was a need for more affordable restaurants and parking, and the majority female students expressed concerns about walking alone in the Loop at night.

- - -

Life in the Loop. Students who study and live in downtown Chicago note a variety of reasons for

loving their environs. Here is what some of them had to say:



MIKE PERRY, a junior at Roosevelt University from Glen Ellyn, mentioned some distinct advantages to living downtown -- like dancing under the stars:

"Within my first couple of weeks here, there was a Latin night in Grant Park. I went with some friends and we just walked over there. There was a free, hourlong instruction period for tango and salsa. . . . Definitely, an icebreaker. Later, they were rotating partners, so I danced with a few ladies from Chicago that I would have never met otherwise."



BRITTANY NASH, a Columbia College freshman from Milwaukee, said:

"I know for me, coming from Milwaukee, our downtown is small. It all shuts down at 10 o'clock. So I just have been having fun walking around and seeing so many people outside, particularly at night. I actually just love looking out the windows and seeing all the lights from the city. I guess things like that people from Chicago take for granted."



GRAHAM HOPPE, a senior at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from Indianapolis, said he thought living downtown would be an amazing chance he might never have again. He said the major downside is the Loop's need for more affordable restaurants:

"Absolutely, cheaper, non-fast food would be great. We would all love that. And more community spaces where you don't feel compelled to spend money."



KEVIN MERKELZ, a Columbia College senior from Rolling Meadows, said he also is focused on employment opportunities:

"I find that a lot of students don't miss the frat house or sorority scene on a traditional campus. A lot of students who come to school down here are very self-motivated. I am a film and video student. Chicago is a booming market for editing and sound. So I am here to make friends, but ultimately I want to find a job and this is a good place to find internships. It is the best place to be -- not out in some cornfield in southern Illinois."



CHIOMA NWAKIBU, a DePaul University junior from Gaithersburg, Md., actually does a reverse commute, traveling from downtown to most of her classes at

DePaul's Lincoln Park campus -- just because she likes living downtown.

"My sister lives on a traditional college campus and she has had problems finding a job. Down here, there are just so many places downtown to work, do internships and so many other opportunities. I just feel I am a few steps ahead by living down here."



--Patrice M. Jones

- - -

State's largest `college town'

In 2005, researchers decided to look at higher education as an economic sector and study its impact on the Loop and South Loop. They were floored by what they found: The 1.65-square-mile area bounded by the Chicago River, Wacker Drive, Roosevelt Road and the lakefront is the largest college town in Illinois.

They found 52,000 students and more than 20 institutions of higher education occupied nearly 7.5 million gross square feet of Loop real estate -- more than double the space of the Sears Tower.

School residence facilities in the Loop offered almost 4,000 beds.

Loop colleges and universities collectively represented one of Chicago's top 25 employers, with more than 12,000 workers.

College students spent more than $25 million annually at area businesses in the Loop.

In one year, 7 academic institutions in the Loop attracted a half-million people to their events and programs.

Source: "Higher Education in the Loop and South Loop: An Impact Study"

----------

pjones@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0610170202oct17,1,4444823.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed

That's a great article. I also notice that the greater central area of Chicago kind of feels like one giant college town, with DePaul and UIC so close to downtown.

Architect's dream project
Smith laying groundwork for solo success

October 22, 2006
BY KEVIN NANCE Architecture Critic
When he talks about Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architecture firm where he spent his entire career until this month, Adrian Smith still catches himself saying "we."
"I'm going to be thinking 'we' for a long time," said Smith, 62. "SOM has been in my blood for 40 years."

But the architect of Chicago's Trump International Hotel & Tower and the United Arab Emirates' Burj Dubai -- both under construction, with the latter set to be the tallest building in the world -- is working quickly to get SOM out of his system.

Smith, who was responsible for 70 to 80 percent of the profit at SOM's Chicago office in recent years, parted ways with the firm on Oct. 1 to start his own practice with another ex-SOM designer, Gordon Gill. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture will be up and running by late November in its headquarters in the Harris Bank building, 111 W. Monroe.

http://media1.suntimes.com/nixoncds/image/20061021_16_55_58_217-0-0.imageContent
Gordon Gill (left) and Adrian Smith have left Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to form their own architecture firm. "It could be a spectacular failure or a spectacular success," Smith said.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)

And in a move that will bring it into direct competition with SOM, the firm will concentrate on Smith's traditional territory of large-scale, mixed-use and/or super tall buildings, with Gill's commitment to energy-efficient "sustainable" design informing most projects.
"Sustainability is what I hang my hat on, and I'll just have more opportunity to pursue that with Adrian than at SOM," Gill said. "I'm 43, my career is sitting here in front of me. I need to seize it, and I think I can do that in a very strong way with Adrian."

In addition to Gill, Smith has recruited others from SOM's Chicago office, including Christine Deitelhoff, who will handle Smith + Gill's financial and operations affairs, and Carrie Neill, who will be head of marketing. Smith also says he has been approached by several other SOM personnel who are "not happy where they are."

"I don't consider this poaching," he said, "because they're coming to me, not the other way around. There's a changing of the guard at SOM, and the new guard wants their own people. That leaves a number of people in the middle ranks, including several who've worked with me for years, feeling disenchanted."

By early next year, Smith said, he expects to have 60 people on staff, and possibly as many as 80. "My approach is to build up the firm fast, with very strong people, and assume that I have the work," he said. "It could be a spectacular failure or a spectacular success."

It's unclear which outcome will materialize, but Smith has several factors in his favor. First and foremost is his worldwide network of contacts developed over his lengthy career as the lead designer of high-profile projects such as Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, United Gulf Bank in Bahrain and Rowes Wharf in Boston.

More recently, Smith's designs for Trump Tower and the Burj Dubai have earned him international attention, which is likely to increase when both buildings open in about two years. And this year, Smith's collaboration with Gill on SOM's Pearl River Tower, a "zero-energy" project for a Chinese company that uses a unique wind-harvesting technique, powerful turbines and other sustainable technologies to generate most of its own energy, has been the subject of escalating excitement in the architectural press.

Once his new firm is fully functional, Smith said, he intends to begin pitching projects to some of his former SOM clients. In the meantime, one such client -- whom he would not name for publication -- has initiated discussions about a 50-story zero-energy residential tower in Vancouver.

This is all complicated by the fact that when Smith's departure from SOM was announced, the firm said it was working on an agreement with Smith to have him continue as a consultant on about a dozen of his SOM projects, including Trump and Burj Dubai. But several issues, some having to do with non-compete clauses, remain.

"There's no deal yet," Smith said Thursday.


For their part, the SOM partners are aware of the potential for Smith to pull business away from their firm, and are already acting accordingly. Asked whether SOM is taking steps to solidify its relationships with clients accustomed to working with Smith, management partner Jeffrey McCarthy said: "Of course."

"I think the world of Adrian, but he historically has been one of a team of people at SOM," McCarthy said. "We have collaborative teams of designers, engineers and others that are 40-, 60-people large. Adrian has served clients well, but SOM, the organization, has also served them well."

Smith plans to counter SOM's "bench power," as he terms it, by concentrating on design and outsourcing working drawings to Canada, India and China. And at least one of Smith's highest-profile SOM clients says Smith's new status as a free agent isn't a major concern.

"I'm loyal to both Adrian and SOM, both of whom have done an excellent job for us, and therefore I'm torn," said New York developer d Trump. "But Adrian is a very talented architect -- he did a beautiful job on my building -- and where there's talent involved, I'm always interested."

The seeds of Smith's schism with SOM were planted about three-and-a-half years ago, when Smith championed two Chicago associate partners, Gill and Marshall Strabala (now head of design for Gensler in Houston), for promotion to full partner status in the Chicago office.

But Smith was overruled by a majority of the firm's other partners (mostly from the New York office) and two younger designers from New York, Ross Wimer and Peter Ruggiero, were elevated instead.

In response, Smith angrily walked out of a partners' meeting.

That prompted an equally angry response from several of the partners, and a few weeks later, Smith was forced into accepting a three-year contract as a "consulting" design partner, which meant that he continued to work full time as a designer, but was no longer involved in running the firm.

This year, Smith was offered a one-year contract extension, but he declined.

"I want to work well into my 70s," he said, "and that wasn't going to be a possibility for me at SOM."


knance@suntimes.com

http://www.suntimes.com/business/106002,CST-FIN-adrian22.article

Click on this link: http://www.lakeshoreeast.com/media/articles/new-homes-10-2006.pdf

This article is an interview of 6 architects who give their thoughts on Chicago architecture.

^^ Good article.

Lollapalooza, parks close to 5-year deal

Published October 24, 2006

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Park District plans to vote Wednesday on a multiyear deal to hold the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, officials said Monday.

The pact between the Parkways Foundation and Capital Sports & Entertainment, the festival's producer, is for a minimum of $5 million over five years, Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said.

The payments from Capital Sports will be used to improve parks throughout Chicago's neighborhoods,she said.

"We've gone through two years, and we've had very positive results," Maxey-Faulkner said. "It started off with $400,000 to us, and this year it was a minimum of $600,000. We haven't tallied it up, but we expect it to be more. ... We're always looking for creative ways to improve our parks and neighborhoods."

Funds from the 2005 show went toward planting 340 crabapple trees and 600 lilac trees in Hutchinson Field, one of the concert venues for Lollapalooza this year. Another 600 lilacs are planned for next spring.

Both parties have agreed to the deal in principle. Maxey-Faulkner said that when the Park District originally considered Lollapalooza, officials planned to pursue a multiyear deal if the 2006 shows went well.

In its inaugural year, Lollapalooza brought in 60,000 people over three days. This year, more than 160,000 paid customers attended, officials said.

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Fire burns at landmark in S. Loop
CTA trains disrupted

By Dan P. Blake
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 24, 2006, 4:33 PM CDT

CTA trains were being stopped near the scene of an extra-alarm blaze at a vacant landmark building just south of the Loop this afternoon.

At the request of the Chicago Fire Department, the CTA stopped Green Line service between the Adams and Roosevelt stations and Orange Line trains are only running from the Roosevelt station out to Midway Airport, CTA spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said.

The fire broke out just before 3 p.m. in the basement of the building at 630 S. Wabash Ave. It was upgraded to a 3-11 alarm fire about 45 minutes later, which means 125 firefighters, 12 engines and 10 trucks were sent to the scene, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado said.

"There is a lot of fire and whole lot of firemen," he said.

Extra ambulances were also called to the scene as a precaution but no injuries were reported.

Ziegler advised riders heading out of the Loop during rush hour to take a Red Line train to the Roosevelt station where they can transfer to outbound Orange and Green Line trains. Green Line trains are still running out of the Loop to Oak Park.

The building on fire, known as the Dexter Building, after Chicago attorney Wirt Dexter, was built in 1887 by the firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, according to the Chicago Landmarks Web site.

The structure was declared a city landmark in July 1996 because it is considered a precursor to the Adler and Sullivan firm's celebrated Auditorium Building.

The building used to house the George Diamond Steak House, which closed several years ago, but was initially used as a factory and showroom for R. Deimel & Brothers, a furniture manufacturing firm.

http://www.globest.com/news/767_767/chicago/150089-1.html?type=pf
Last updated: October 24, 2006 11:08am
Loop Office Buildings Sell for $14M
By Robert Carr
CHICAGO-Two class C office buildings were recently sold in Downtown for a total $14.4 million. Montesano Capital Corp. purchased 20 and 28 East Jackson Blvd. from Marc Realty and Winthrop Real Estate Co.
The 20 East Jackson building, at 16 stories and 63,520 sf, was built in 1919. The facility is 100% occupied; it sold for $5.8 million. The 106,800-sf Steger building at 28 East Jackson is also a vintage building, 19 stories high, with retail on the first floor and 9% vacancy. The Steger building sold for $8.6 million. Tenants in the buildings include Big Brothers, Big Sisters and the Lupus Foundation of Illinois.

Daniel Hyman, president of Millennium Properties R/E Inc., represented Montesano in the transactions. He tells GlobeSt.com that there's still great interest to buy quality, class C buildings Downtown.

"There are buildings continuing to come on the market in the Loop, there's more velocity going on now than in the past few years. The 10-year rate has come off of its high, people realize they can get returns now, so they're buying up property," he says.

Hyman says the purchasers plan to keep the buildings as-is, instead of converting them to office condos or residential condos, as has been the fashion in Downtown Chicago recently.

http://www.globest.com/news/767_767/chicago/150089-1.html?type=pf
Last updated: October 24, 2006 11:08am
Loop Office Buildings Sell for $14M
By Robert Carr
CHICAGO-Two class C office buildings were recently sold in Downtown for a total $14.4 million. Montesano Capital Corp. purchased 20 and 28 East Jackson Blvd. from Marc Realty and Winthrop Real Estate Co.
The 20 East Jackson building, at 16 stories and 63,520 sf, was built in 1919. The facility is 100% occupied; it sold for $5.8 million. The 106,800-sf Steger building at 28 East Jackson is also a vintage building, 19 stories high, with retail on the first floor and 9% vacancy. The Steger building sold for $8.6 million. Tenants in the buildings include Big Brothers, Big Sisters and the Lupus Foundation of Illinois.

Daniel Hyman, president of Millennium Properties R/E Inc., represented Montesano in the transactions. He tells GlobeSt.com that there's still great interest to buy quality, class C buildings Downtown.

"There are buildings continuing to come on the market in the Loop, there's more velocity going on now than in the past few years. The 10-year rate has come off of its high, people realize they can get returns now, so they're buying up property," he says.

Hyman says the purchasers plan to keep the buildings as-is, instead of converting them to office condos or residential condos, as has been the fashion in Downtown Chicago recently.

Hmm...aren't those DePaul buildings? or are they the ones across the street with the Arby's at the bottom?

Hmm...aren't those DePaul buildings? or are they the ones across the street with the Arby's at the bottom?

20 East Jackson includes the Arby's and Fontano's Subs. The Steger Building includes Fast Foo's and the Cosi.

In between is Pickwick Place, a little private alley that leads to a tiny three-story building that housed various gambling venues and restaurants in its history.

You know where you are in Chicago
Chicago really is a wonderful town – but not for the reasons you might have expected . Oliver Cross reports on a surprising city
THE most surprising of the many surprising things about downtown Chicago is its Tardis quality.
Seeing photographs of that marvellous skyline, or approaching it from the airport, is half-thrilling and half-intimidating. The place looks too big; you fear you will find yourself in a kind of Gotham City nightmare, crushed into canyons by the giant buildings.
But when you reach the centre, you find the place is smaller-looking and kinder than you could have imagined.
I was going to say that it felt European, in the sense of having wide boulevards, pavement cafes and greenery like, say, Paris, except that Paris would have to slow down a bit and mind its manners before you could confuse it with Chicago.
The local tourist board staff, who were escorting our press party around, said with great confidence that if we got lost and asked for directions anywhere downtown, we were guaranteed to get a friendly and helpful reply.
Which was not as bold a boast as it sounds because it is very hard to get lost in Chicago. It was laid out, after the great fire of 1871, in a foolproof grid pattern and if you want to orientate yourself you can find east very easily by locating Lake Michigan, which is right beside you and probably bigger than Wales.
I tested the tourist board theory by asking a pleasant-but-harassed looking middle-aged Chicago woman caught in the middle of the rush hour where Lake Michigan was and she was kind enough to explain that I would need to walk under an underpass to reach it.
Since this was only a test, I walked off in a different direction to the one indicated but the nice woman ran up behind me and escorted me to the entrance to the underpass, asking very kindly if I thought I could manage to get to the other side by myself. The tourist board was entirely vindicated.
Lake Michigan is only a lake in the sense that that it's filled with fresh water. Since it stretches beyond the horizon and has wide, sandy beaches and the waves lap around it like they do on a quiet day in the Mediterranean, it's as if Chicago, so tremendously far from the sea, has been compensated by being given an alternative sea without jellyfish or sharks.
Chicago's lake coast is not, as you would expect, faced by concrete apartment blocks and expensive restaurants; it's separated from the city by a wide green strip of informal, democratic parkland used by cyclists, pram-pushers, walkers, basketball players and other scruffy, ordinary people. It must be the least pretentious great waterfront in the developed world.
My trip to Chicago reinforced my enjoyment of the city's watery character because it coincided with a tall-ships rally on the wide and blue Chicago River.
This, in the middle of America, was essentially a mid-western event. There were huge numbers of stalls devoted to fishing and boating, which are major preoccupations on the Great Lakes, and, bizarrely I thought because I took Chicago to be a blues and jazz zone, bearded sea-shanty singers of the type you would find at the Whitby Folk Festival.
The tall-ships festival's organiser explained to me that the event was not primarily designed to please tourists. All Chicago festivals (which happen more than daily, both downtown and in what they call the neighbourhoods) are aimed at the locals.
This, said the organiser, is because tourists, rather than having things laid on for them and therefore being expected to look pleased, prefer, in a no-pressure way, to join in amiably with what the locals would have been doing anyway.
This I did at Millennium Park, opened in 2003 and built on 24.5 acres of old railway land and parking lots. I've concluded it must be the world's finest modern urban park because if there were one finer, it would be a wonder of the world and I would probably have heard of it.
(Diversion: The park was opened and largely instigated by Mayor Richard M Daley; you see his name everywhere in Chicago – he seems to have personally opened half the city's lampposts. This can seem worryingly Kim Il Sung-like but in fact the frequently re-elected mayor's influence is entirely benevolent; for example, he banned the sale of spray paint in the city and I didn't see a trace of graffiti there. Irony note: Chicago's many inventions include zips, skyscrapers, MacDonald's and spray paint).
It's a very busy park, with a spectacular open-air auditorium and festivals and arts events going on all round. The atmosphere is one of pure bounce. It also has quiet areas, thoughtfully-planted gardens, a bicycle station (indoor parking for 300 bikes, showers, lockers, a café, guided bike tours and rental firms) and two sculptures which are so astonishingly clever that, when first sighted, you feel like giving them a round of applause.
Cloud Gate looks like a giant (66ft long, 33ft high) globule of liquid mercury hanging in the air. It's made of highly-polished, seamless stainless steel plates and reflects curved, pin-sharp images of the park and the Chicago skyline. You can go under it and round it but you can't take your eyes off it. I noticed, though, that not many people touched it – a matter, I think, of respecting its magical qualities.
The Crown Fountain features two 50ft-high glass towers with a kind of shallow paddling pool in between. A video image showing the giant face of some random and changing Chicago citizen appears on each tower.
The citizen slowly forms his or her mouth into a pout as the children in the paddling pool hustle for position and quiver with anticipation, knowing what's going to happen next. Then, pout fully formed, the citizen spits out a great stream of water over the children, who laugh, screech and scream in extravagant delight. It's really the best of America; democratic, inventive, wide-minded, efficient and fun: Crown Fountain, 20 points; Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, putting it kindly, about 2.
Actually Chicago has a way with water. In 1900 it showed its wide-minded inventiveness by building the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which reversed the flow of the filthy, typhoid-ridden Chicago River so that instead of flowing into Lake Michigan it was flushed out by the clean lake waters and dispersed, eventually, into the Gulf of Mexico.
Which means that when you take one of the guided river cruises organized by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, you find the spectacular buildings reflected perfectly in the clear blue river and you might as well leave your camera on random auto-snap because how else are you supposed to decide among so many great views?
The guides are thoroughly enthusiastic and knowledgeable because Chicago, like the rest of the mid-west in my brief experience of it, is rightly proud of itself. For example, there is the remarkable Chicago Greeter scheme, where visitors from, say, Jewish, Polish, Irish or all sorts of other backgrounds can link up with a matching local volunteer and be shown the relevant city sights for free.
Although I think the civic, democratic and watery aspects of Chicago are its great, distinctive strengths, it does have world-class shopping, I'm told, and we did stay in what (our taxi driver said with awe) was the best hotel in Chicago – the Peninsula.
This is an interesting globalization spin-off - a Chinese-owned and largely Chinese-staffed hotel outshining its rivals at the heart of American capitalism.
Stay there if you can afford it, which, although I don't like to make assumptions, you probably can't, otherwise eat in one of its five restaurants and bars, or even all five of them in one evening.
The hotel offers a kind of guided grazing event, where you eat successive courses in each restaurant and end up, thoroughly exhausted, with an 'I deserve a medal' drink in the cocktail bar.
Incidentally, the evening included one of those chicken tikka masarla, cultural melting-pot moments when, in a Chinese hotel, I ate a braised buffalo steak from the great prairies (it was wonderfully chewy and deep-flavoured and took one of my crowns out, not that I'm complaining).
But for the best of Chicago, take a lift to the cocktail bar on the 94th floor of the John Hancock building and sip a dry martini while watching the sun set behind Lake Michigan, remembering that this is all in theory because, in my brief visit, I didn't have time to do it.
But Chicago is the sort of place you don't want to exhaust. I'll do it next time..
oliver.cross@ypn.co.uk

http://www.leedstoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=102&ArticleID=1841467