Lakeshore East and Lakefront Chicago Now Properly Linked
With the warmer weather, and the shedding of masks, come thoughts of being outdoors. Preferably, someplace green. Soon, downtown Chicagoans will have a new slice of veldt upon which to throw blankets and catch rays: Cascade Park. June, 2021 rendering of Cascade Park. (Courtesy of Lendlease.) Named for the skyscraper that sprouts next to it, the privately owned public space is part of a project cultivating three residential skyscrapers...
West Loop Skyscraper Gets Tweaked for Small Dogs
The plan to replace a pair of downtown surface parking lots with a pair of pretty-good-sized skyscrapers at 601 West Monroe Street has been revised. June, 2021 rendering of the dog park at 601 West Monroe. (Via the Office of Alderman Brendan Reilly.) When we gave you the bird’s eye low down on this caper last month, we noted that adding over a thousand new homes to this block of the city was going to bring Urinetown to the West...
New Buildings Continue Pushing West, Surrounding Union Park
Union Park, once known for music festivals and immigration marches, is getting yet another tall neighbor. West suburban Naperville developer Marquette wants to put up a residential high rise right across the street. March, 2021 diagram of 140 North Ashland. The proposal is for a 210-unit apartment building at 140 North Ashland Avenue, on the west side of Union Park, immediately south of the CTA’s Ashland Station, serving the...
West Loop Parking Lot Targeted for 2-Tower 1,000+ Apartment Plan
There are two things that never give up hope: Dogs, and the surface parking lot next to Heritage Green Park. Model of 625 West Monroe by SMDP. The 250-space West Loop slab at 601 West Monroe Street has been the subject of at least four redevelopment plans since we started publishing 18 years ago. From a modest 20-something-story office tower to smdp’s angular 38-story BP Tower to the 75-story office slant floated in 2013....
What’s Underneath Chicago’s Urban Parks? Disappointment, If You’re a Worm
It’s always fun to listen in to tourists at Millennium Park ooh-ing and aah-ing at the amazing job the City of Chicago has done preserving such a large slice of nature in the heart of the city. The vast majority of them don’t know that underneath the wild-looking flowerbeds, the stately lawns, and the carefully channeled rivulet is a vast parking garage, and a commuter train station. But that’s OK. They came to...
New Renderings, Info For Lakefront Skyscraper Duo
Editor’s note: These days pretty much everyone is worried about the Wuhan Flu. With a full-time gig for a healthcare company, we understand. We’ve also noticed that a lot of the more irreverent online publications aren’t publishing anymore because the world is a much more serious place now. We understand that, too. But as rabid news consumers, we also understand that sometimes you need an...
33 Years Later, Chicago’s DuSable Park Still Not Ready
If you thought this was going to be the year you could finally pack a picnic hamper with egg salad sandwiches, pull on your favorite sun bonnet, and head to DuSable Park to enjoy a warm spring afternoon in downtown Chicago, you’re as loopy as that lady who sits in the hobo corner on the Brown Line scat singing the Check Please theme music to herself. It’s been a third of a century since Mayor Harold Washington declared the...
Wayback Wednesday: Connors Park Construction
Today we crank the Wayback Machine back seven years to February 19, 2013. Here we find ourselves at the triangle formed by East Chestnut Street, North Wabash Avenue, and North Rush Street. Better known as Connors Park. Connors Park rehabilitation, February 2013. (File) Or at least it was when these pictures were taken. Today it’s mostly known as the location of an Argo Tea house, which you can see in the early days of its...
Choice Loop Lot Up For Redevelopment — Pritzker Park May Get Slimmed
There’s not a lot of places left in The Loop where someone with a valise full of hundred dollar bills can make a near-permanent mark on the city. But one of those places is about to open up. 311 South Plymouth Court (Base map via Apple Maps) You may know 331 South Plymouth Court as the funky (not in a good way) city parking garage lurking behind Pritzker Park, just off State Street. City Hall has decided to take advantage...
Wayback Wednesday: Time Freezes on Chicago Avenue
This Wednesday we skate back in time ten years to February 12, 2010. The place is Chicago Avenue at Seneca Playground Park. Seneca Park clocktower, February 12, 2010 In the foreground we see the park’s clock tower, about which we could find exactly zero information in our usual sources or on the intarwebs. In the background, we can see Children’s Memorial Hospital still a little bit under construction. This parkling...
