Pair of West Van Buren Towers Going To The People – Bigger Than Expected
A pair of residential towers planned for just off the Eisenhower Expressway is going to get its public airing. The buildings proposed by Tandem Partners are at 1050 and 1125 West Van Buren Street. Both were designed by Antunovich Associates. First peep came in January from Crain’s, but we haven’t heard anything since then. There will be plenty of peeping next Thursday (July 26, 2018) when the projects are unveiled in...
First Pictures Releasd of Downtown to O’Hare Electric Skate Loop Track
Last month the tech world was all atwitter over the announcement that billionaire socialite Bruce Wayne… er… Elon Musk would scratch Chicago’s itch for a better way between downtown and O’Hare airport than the CTA’s Blue Line or IDOT’s Kennedy Expressway. Back then, you could color us skeptical. We’ve seen this promise time and time again. The closest Chicago ever came was a decade ago when...
New Downtown Chicago Fire Station Comes With a Big Question Mark
Chicago has explored a number of public/private partnerships in recent years. Things like putting libraries inside apartment buildings, and tea houses in parks. Now one of the city’s downtown fire stations may be the next city facility hop on the bandwagon. In a remarkably detail-free e-mail to his constituents, 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly announced that the Engine Company 42 building at 444 North Dearborn Street may be...
Fulton Market Tower Returns Smaller, Bigger, and With a Change of Purpose
The new tower that Dallas real estate developer Trammel Crow wants to build in Chicago’s Fulton Market District is back on the front burner, but at a reduced boil. The original plan, which we detailed in 2016, called for 18 floors in a 198-foot-tall building. The new plan filed with the city cuts the building down to just 13 stories, but with a height of 207 feet. What kind of sorcery is this? The new design by...
Onni Adjusts Its Plan For 353 West Grand, But Is It Enough?
Some skyscrapers go from announcement to completion in a couple of years. Others take longer. 353 West Grand, a proposal from Vancouver’s Onni, is one of the ones taking the more ponderous route. We’ve known since 2013 that something big was coming to the southwest corner of Grand and Orleans, the former location of the Clark and Barlow hardware store. In 2015, Onni put forward a plan from River...
Union Station Redevelopment Making Tracks Tonight
The redevelopment of Chicago Union Station (210 South Canal Street) continues to chug along (see what we did there?) and the next step in the process is a public meeting to go over the most recent plans for the 93-year-old transportation hub. It was just about a year ago that Amtrak tapped neighbor Riverside Development to turn the aging, but vital, piece of the city’s infrastructure into something more than it is, and something...
353 West Grand Debuts Tonight. Again.
Last week we told you that the residential skyscraper planned for the corner of Grand and Orleans in River North is back on. Tonight we find out if it’s on like a lunch date with your mom, or on like Donkey Kong. Whatever that means. Onni is the semi-familiar name behind this project to replace the old Clark and Barlow hardware store at 353 West Grand Avenue with 356 new homes in a 38-story tower. The Canadian developer is...
No Need To Worry About That $175 Million Bill For Obama Center Roadwork
Just when you thought the State of Illinois didn’t have two spare pennies to rub together, Springfield is sending a big fat gym bag full of cash to the Windy City to help make its former hometown President’s project a reality. The state, which was named America’s Most Messed Up State by CNN Money, is sending Chicago a $180 million grant from the road fund to pay for infrastructure projects. 97% of those tax dollars...
Three Years Later, a River North Skyscraper is Redesigned and Reproposed
It’s been a little while since the last proposal for a residential skyscraper in River North. But things are starting to roll again. In an e-mail to constituents, 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly announced that 353 West Grand is in play again. You may remember that address as the former home of the Clark and Barlow hardware store. It’s been a little over a year since we last wrote about this property. Back in April of...
More Shipping Container Retail Coming to Chicago
A recent fad in retailing is getting a big expansion in downtown Chicago. Related Midwest is going to open a miniature shopping mall made of shipping containers. You may recall in 2013, Starbucks opened a coffee shop in Rogers Park that was built out of shipping containers. And in January of last year, Avondale’s 34/Ten Architecture proposed a farmer’s market made out of shipping containers for the renovation of the...
