Sterling Bay Not Putting All of Lincoln Yards’ Eggs In One Basket
Sterling Bay’s Lincoln Yards development is widely seen as one of the frontrunners if Amazon decides to build its second headquarters in Chicago. But now that northern Virginia is largely considered the leader in the race for HQ2, it’s a good thing the West Town real estate developer has other rabbits to pull out of its hat. One of those bunnies is a new agreement with Live Nation. The L.A. entertainment octopus is going...
O? Yes! Chicago Plan Commission Approves Obama Presidential Center
It’s not unusual for there to be some pretty rancorous behavior when a new real estate development is presented to the public. Chicago NIMBY groups are practiced partisans. But it’s been many years since we’ve seen a scene like the one at City Hall today. The spark for this fire was the Obama Presidential Center. Inside 121 North LaSalle’s hallowed chambers the Chicago Plan Commission unanimously approved...
Chicago’s Last Sears Store to Be Reborn
Recycling is all the rage these days. So when Sears threw two of its Chicago stores in the big blue bin, Tucker Development and Seritage Growth Properties yelled, “Dibs!” The pair is going all Baywatch on the two former department stores, breathing new life into them by turning them into “mixed-use developments with retail and residential components.” The first one is at 1601 North Harlem Avenue (North and...
Obama Presidential Center on Today’s Agenda
The Obama Presidential Center has caught what the British call “the American disease.” That means a lawsuit. The proposal to slurp up a chunk of Jackson Park and close some neighboring streets has neighbors so upset, they’re going to ask a judge to stop it. If you’ve been following this saga, you know that the Obama Foundation ruffled feathers when it decided that instead of using the abundant vacant private...
Related Midwest Drives an 1,100-Foot-Tall Nail Into The Chicago Spire’s Coffin
If you’ve spent the last eight years waiting for someone to drive the final nail into The Chicago Spire’s coffin, Related Midwest is your carpenter. Tonight the River North real estate developer pulled the cloak off of a duo of towers it plans to erect at the site of Chicago’s most magnificent hole — 400 Lake Shore Drive. 400 is an SOM design crafted by David Childs, known mostly for his work on such New York...
Aon Center is the Latest Skyscraper That Wants to Take You For a Ride
If you want to “hang” at the Aon Center, 601W Companies is cool with that. As long as you do it in its proposed 22-person glass pod hanging off the roof. The New York real estate company has unveiled its $185 million proposal for turning a portion of Chicago’s third-tallest building into a tourist attraction. We’ve known since 601W bought the stoic skyscraper in 2015 for $173 million that it thought there was...
Happy Dance in the South Loop: The 78 Gets Updated
Last week ended with architecture nerds bouncing off the walls like a Roomba that just slurped up some crack. River North development concern Related Midwest released the latest iteration of its plans for The 78; and, man, are they something. If you’re just tuning in, “The 78” is the name of the patch of harrowed ground south of Roosevelt Road between Clark Street and the south branch of the Chicago River. You may...
7 Days Until Spirepalooza: Chicago’s Biggest Building Event
Glasses are fogged, butts are perched on seat edges, and pearls are clutched in anticipation of Tuesday, May 15th. The that’s the day Chicago finds out what will become of the city’s infamous Chicago Spire site. Streeterville neighborhood group S.O.A.R. will host a meeting one week from today for real estate developer Related Midwest to unveil its plans for the space that was supposed to hold a 2,000-foot-tall skyscraper by now. What...
Gasp-Worthy Proposal Unveiled for Chicago’s Second-Tallest Skyscraper
As the kids say these days: “Oh. My. God.” That was the reaction — positive and negative — to the proposed new skyscraper unveiled tonight at a public meeting at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. Development duo CIM Group and Golub & Co. pulled the sheet off of a stunning new skyscraper proposal that, at 1,422 feet, would be the second-tallest building in Chicago. It’s planned for the surface parking lot behind the...
We’ll Soon See Michigan Avenue’s Huge New Skyscraper
Remember a few months ago when Alderman Reilly knocked over a pot of beans about the new skyscraper coming to Michigan Avenue? Back then, all we knew was that the planned building could be as much as 1,388 feet tall, making it the third-tallest in Chicago. And at the time, we put together a graphic illustrating what a skyscraper that tall might look like rising out of the Tribune Tower’s parking lot: We also predicted that the...
