Deco Like a Gekko: Old Chicago Post Office Gets an Athletic Green Lid
If you watched Star Trek after Svengoolie on channel 26 Saturday night, you learned that jealousy is a terrible thing. But jealousy is also what makes the real estate world go ’round. Your cousin gets a two-flat in Ravenswood, you get a four-flat in Lincoln Park. Your neighbor puts a trampoline in his backyard, you put in a pool. The dot-com wannabe across town gets its own food truck, your dot-com wannabe puts in a food court...
BMO Tower Starts to Rise in the West Loop
Commuters returning to Chicago from the suburbs after The Great Pause will hear some familiar sounds as they emerge from Union Station. The scraping of steel against stone. The squealing of metal tracked vehicles. The occasional Very Loud Bang™ echoing through the canyons of the West Loop. All these noises and more are on offer right next to the train station, at 320 South Canal Street. BMO Tower under construction (June 2020....
Old Chicago Post Office to Get Unexpected Riverwalk Segment
One of the nation’s largest redevelopment projects is chugging away in Chicago’s West Loop. For the last year, the once-abandoned, century-old Old Chicago Main Post Office building has been filling up with office tenants from PepsiCo to Uber to Ferrara Candy Company. Now the tenants of what is currently branded The Post Office will get a little bonus green space. The redevelopers of this building, 601W Companies, have...
Signs of Skyscrapers Future in the West Loop
If you spent your time in quarantine thinking that the West Loop could use another skyscraper, there’s a chance you may get your wish. Something happening at 609ish West Randolph (Courtesy of West Loop Spy Kurt) West Loop Spy Kurt slotted the photograph above into our tip line recently. It shows some soil sampling sommeliers slurping select specimens from beneath the bitumen at 609ish West Randolph Street. Until recently, that...
West Loop Upgrading From Walmart To Porsche
Not too many years ago, there used to be a Walmart Neighborhood Market in the West Loop. It was on the corner of Jefferson and Monroe, attached to Presidential Towers. The Walmart Neighborhood Market at Presidential Towers in 2011 When we lived at the Towers, we used the mini grocery store for its convenience. And with its secret residents-only entrance, we were able to get the full Walmart experience by buy cat food and milk...
BMO Tower Construction Update
If your daily commute used to take you through Union Station, you might wonder what’s going on with the BMO Tower under construction across the street. Well, wonder no more my home-bound friend. We’ve got your virtual back. BMO Tower construction in April 2020 (Courtesy of YoChicago!) YoChicago! sent in the photograph above showing construction progress on the skyscraper at 320 South Canal Street. OK, so there’s...
B-Hold the B-Musing B-MO Tower B-Coming B-Yootiful
If Union Station seems a little noisier than usual these days, it’s not just because the 6:30 Metra from Downers Grove is crammed with armchair pitching coaches who just won’t shut up about the White Sox chances this season. It’s because of the massive BMO Tower going up across the street. BMO Tower under construction in March 2020 (Courtesy of Loop Spy Jody) Loop Spy Jody cracked a pre-season bat sending the...
West Loop Skyscraper to Add Height, Scrape More Sky
If your office seems a little devoid of architecture nerds this morning, it might be because the density junkies in the crowd are sleeping one off in the Pedway under a pile of Red Eyes, with a thoroughly gnawed copy of Zoning Application 20348 clenched in their drooling jaws. 2019 rendering of BMO Tower, formerly Union Station Tower. (Courtesy of Goettsch Partners.) 20348 got updated yesterday with a request from Convexity Partners...
The Union Station Tower is Finally Real
For as long as anyone can remember, it’s been lots of discussion but no digging in the West Loop where Amtrak has wanted to add a skyscraper to the Union Station complex since before Amtrak was a thing. In the last 15 years, we’ve seen at least three different plans for Amtrak skyscrapers that simply never got off the ground. But that has finally changed. 2019 rendering of BMO Tower, formerly Union Station...
Goettsch Partners’ Renovation Sets the Stage for Union Station’s Next Act
If you haven’t been by Chicago Union Station in a while, here’s your excuse to make the trip: The renovations are done. This is what the kids call “awesome sauce.” (© Amtrak. Courtesy of Goettsch Partners) Just in time for the landmark transportation hub to be reimagined with a new hotel, restaurants, and a sister skyscraper, Goettsch Partners has announced that work is complete on its renovation of the...
