500 North Milwaukee Now Called Kenect Chicago
The low-and-high rise development formerly known by its address of 500 North Milwaukee Avenue is now being called Kenect Chicago. New signs went up around the construction site recently where Akara Partners‘ 14-story residential block and a matching four-story combo residential and retail building are being constructed. There’s also a knectchicago.com web site to go with it. The different shades of orange triangles and...
Height and Depth Mark Progress at 500 North Milwaukee
The two-building complex Akara Partners is developing at 500 North Milwaukee Avenue is well underway, though one might question what these two structures have in common if visiting the site for the first time. On our last drop-in, the four-story portion of the project, located on the east side of Green Street, had barely had its surface scratched. And when we stopped by this week, what used to be a dirt lot is now more of a dirt hole,...
Residents Begin Entering West Loop Through The Gateway
We’ve been watching rooftop construction at the new Gateway West Loop (11 South Green Street) with great interest for the last couple weeks. Normally, roofs don’t catch the eye, especially in an unfinished state. But from high atop our West Loop bureau, we’ve been able to observe first-hand as Gateway’s amenities floor takes shape. Curious, we wandered across the Kennedy Expressway for a closer look....
Public Parking Paves the Way for a 10-Story Condo Project
The NIMBYs were nowhere to be seen Tuesday night in West Town. At least not at the Merit School of Music, where F4 Consulting revealed its updated plans for a condo development at 200 South Green Street. The community meeting was strangely devoid of neighborhood residents decrying anything taller than a two-story townhouse. The key to success turns out to be parking. Finding a parking spot is getting tougher in the West Loop. The City...
![One of Chicago’s Worst Blocks May Finally Get Nuked and Rebuilt [updated]](https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/500-North-Milwaukee-0011-240x240.jpg)
One of Chicago’s Worst Blocks May Finally Get Nuked and Rebuilt [updated]
With autumn here, we’re required by law to use fall references wherever we can. In this case, we’ll go with “One bad apple can spoil the bushel,” because that’s what people in the Fulton River District have been dealing with for as long as many people can remember. The bad apple is the smelly, boarded-up, eyesore of a building that squats on one of the corners of Grand, Milwaukee, and Halsted. It’s...
Latest Greektown Skyscraper Cut Down Again, Residents Finally Say Opa!
The West Loop’s Gateway Phase II residential development (9 South Green Street) is finally moving ahead. Tuesday night, 130 residents gathered at the Merit School of Music and voiced their approval of the latest version of the residential development at the corner of South Green and West Madison. The meeting was hosted by the West Loop Community Organization and 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. Like many West Loop meetings where...
Proposed Near West Condo Project Has Residents Feeling Like They Got Hit By the Ol’ Switcheroo
Alderman Danny Solis (25th Ward) hosted his first Near West Side community meeting last night at the Merit School of Music and he heard firsthand how protective the neighborhood’s residents are about green space, parking and density. The subject of the gathering was a proposed residential building at 200 South Green Street between Jackson and Adams, on what is now a surface parking lot on the western border of Greektown. The...
Smaller Greektown Tower Still Unpopular, Gateway II Faces a Murky Future
An overflow crowd of more than one hundred people, most of them West Loop residents, met last night (February 26th) to learn about the latest plans for Phase II of The Gateway — the mixed-use retail and residential tower that remains half-built in the northern end of Greektown. The first part of The Gateway, a retail building anchored by a Mariano’s Fresh supermarket, was completed last year at 40 South Halsted Street. The...
