[Interactive] Circle Interchange Reconstruction Faces Little Opposition From Neighbors
The Chicago Blackhawks are the best professional hockey team in America. The Circle Interchange – a couple of miles from the United Center – is arguably the worst traffic bottleneck in the country. In fact a study by the American Transportation Research Institute ranks it the the slowest, most congested interchange in the nation. Now the Illinois Department of Transportation is getting ready to overhaul the interchange which links the...
K2 Open and Ready for Chicago’s New Generation of Renters
Just in time for apartment-hunting weather, another shiny new Chicago apartment tower is now open for business. K2 (365 North Halsted Street) is the final piece of the K Station development in the city’s Fulton River District. It offers 496 apartments in a 34-story skyscraper connected to both North Halsted Street, and to the new Jewel supermarket on North DesPlaines Street. The building is designed for the new set of urban...
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...
K2 OK, Becomes Chicago’s First New Apartment Tower of 2013
If there’s a race to be the first new residential building to open each year in Chicago, then K2 just won it. The Fifield/Wood Partners project at 365 North Halsted Street in the Fulton River District received its certificate of occupancy this past Thursday, January 7th. However, the championship title may be one that Magellan Development’s The Coast might want to dispute. The Coast (345 East Wacker Drive) anticipates...
Greektown Welcomes New Italian Neighbor
From the “Gee, that was fast” file — The Mariano’s supermarket in Greektown is now open at 40 South Halsted. It’s the second grocery store to open in the area in the last year, putting additional pressure on the decrepit Dominick’s grocery store that the neighborhood had been living with for a long, long time. Mariano’s is part of The Gateway development, which is supposed to eventually...
Another Greektown Tower Gets The Green Light
The City of Chicago’s Zoning committee has approved plans for a new skyscraper to be built at 1 South Halsted Street. One South Halsted will be a 46-story residential apartment tower that will go up in what is now a surface parking lot for the Crowne Plaza Hotel. It’s directly across the street from the landmark Skybridge tower (1 North Halsted Street), but with its mass pushed towards the highway instead of set back from...
Fifield Beaming as K2 Tops Out
The last skyscraper in the Kinzie Station development topped out today. Developers, bankers, architects, and others signed a ceremonial beam that was lifted into place at the top of the 34-story tower. It was almost exactly one year ago today that Fifield broke ground on the building at 365 North Halsted Street. The first residents are expected to move in within six months. Randy and Steven Fifield, of Fifield Companies,...
The Ramova Theater’s Condition: Stable But Critical
When we heard last week that Bridgeport’s long-neglected Ramova Theater (3518 South Halsted Street) was finally getting some love, our hearts went aflutter. The Ramova is the big sister of Lakeview’s beloved Music Box Theater. But while the Music Box enjoys a loyal following and star status, the Ramova slowly decays, turning into a pile of soggy sawdust and foul-smelling grit. There have been a number of attempts to...
Halsted Street Bridge Reopens
The Halsted Street Bridge over the Chicago River’s North Branch Canal opened today (Friday, December 23, 2011) after being closed for more than a year. Not sure where that is? It’s the part that connects Goose Island with Division Street. The new bridge is four-lanes, plus two bicycle lanes. Previously, this bridge was only two lanes. Here’s the full press release from CDOT: The Chicago Department of...
K2 Part 3
We have a few more details about K2 (365 North Halsted Street), which you’ll remember had a ceremonial groundbreaking last week (previous coverage here and here). The building is 366 feet tall from Kinzie Street dirt to the top of the mechanical penthouse. The building is designed as three blades, each 36 feet wide. The total building width is 104 feet. It’s not a real pool, just a splash pool. It’s only...