Overshadowed, but Undeterred, Small Chicago Buildings Defy Enormous Neighbors
Every once in a while you’ll see in a magazine, or on the intarwebs, some small house or building that is being loomed over by an enormous neighbor. The stereotype is that this sort of thing happens when a little old lady refuses to sell her lifelong home to some big, evil skyscraper company, so the billionaire owner builds around her, blocking out all of her light and air, while twirling a pencil-thin mustache and kicking...
Another Downtown Parking Lot About to Bite The Dust
When we started this publication 16 years ago, one of the questions we were often asked is why there were so many surface parking lots in downtown Chicago. The reasons are complex, ranging from people banking land to sell when it inevitably becomes worth more, to Chicago being less space constrained than cities like New York and London, so car adoption was higher. There are others, but research we did about a decade ago showed that...
Office Building Penciled in For Illinois and LaSalle
As downtown Chicago grows, not all of the projects sprouting up are beanstalks. Some have to be broccoli: Good, hearty filler that provides essential nutrients for the city’s economy, and are best served covered in cheese. Under the cheese this time is an office building proposed for 450 North LaSalle Street — the corner of West Illinois and North LaSalle — which will erase another evil surface parking lot from the city’s land...
