Loop Plot Zoned For a 600-Foot Tower Getting a 140-foot Hotel
There was a time when we’d sit in the Starbucks in the Hotel Allegro, write stories about architecture, and gaze through the rain wondering what might become of the surface parking lot next to the wonderful Randolph Tower (188 West Randolph Street). 180 West Randolph Street The wondering is now over, as 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly has told his constituents that the West Loop’s Convexity Properties wants to put up a...
Planned Loop Tower Two Stories Shorter, and 40% Closer to Reality
It’s been a year and a half since Crain’s Chicago Business let the cat out of the bag about 50 East Randolph Street. Back then, the Thomas Roszak proposal was expected to replace a grungy parking garage with what was speculated to be a 27-story residential tower. Our guess was 35 to 40 stories, and we were totally wrong. May 2019 rendering of 50 East Randolph (Courtesy of the Office of Alderman Brendan Reilly) Forty-second...
River North Proposal Could Ace Two More Parking Lots
A three-part proposal in River North will see a seven-story building preserved, a new six-story building built next door, and a new 15-story office building around the corner. All while erasing two surface parking lots from Chicago’s land use map. The trio was tipped by 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly in a note to his constituents. The location of 308 West Erie (Base map via Apple Maps) The building that will get a new life is...
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...
Another Hotel+Residential Tower Wants to Squeeze in On Michigan Avenue
It’s been almost two years since we first showed you the renderings someone dropped in our tip line of a potential new skyscraper for 300 North Michigan Avenue. Now it looks like those pictures were the genuine article. March 2019 rendering of 300 North Michigan Avenue 300 NMA will kill an unremarkable brick building kitty-corner from Michigan Plaza. It used to house Chicago’s most depressing Walgreens, and a few offices...
Is The City Trying To Hurry Up the Chicago Spire Replacement?
We’re not going to pretend that we fully understand all of the nuances of the delicate waltz known as Chicago Zoning. But something popped up on the radar that’s worth noting now, just in case it’s something later. 400 North Lake Shore Drive, Related Midwest’s replacement for the failed Chicago Spire, may soon have a deadline to begin construction. In March the Chicago Plan Commission will be asked to amend...
Aon Center Elevator Attraction Looks Like A Go
Late this week the Chicago Plan Commission is expected to vote on whether to allow the new owners of the Aon Center to clamp a glass elevator to the northwest corner of the city’s third-tallest building and put a thrill ride on the roof. If you’re not into that whole “waiting for stuff to happen” thing, here are some tea leaves for you to read: It’s gonna happen. How can we prognosticate in such an...
What Friends of the Parks Sees for Chicago in 2019
It’s the time of year when everything useful has pretty much wrapped up, and all that’s left to do is balance the books and figure out who to blame for sticking you with rotisserie chicken-flavored candy canes as a Secret Santa present. So looking ahead to next year, we asked a selection of Chicagoans what they expect 2019 to bring. Here are five predictions from Juanita Irizzary, Executive Director of Friends of the...
Chicago Spire Replacement Not Dead Yet
Yesterday we told you that 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly decided that Related Midwest’s two-tower plan for the space that failed to become the Chicago Spire is a non-starter. The alderman had a fair number of rather significant problems with the plan for 400 North Lake Shore Drive, including traffic, security, the big honking podium, and the mere existence of a hotel. Fortunately, the height of the towers in the project...
Alderman Spikes 1,100-Foot-Tall Chicago Spire Replacement
In a blocking move that would make Hakeem Olajuwon say, “Oh, snap!” 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly pulled on his Bulls jersey, reached up with political hand spread wide, and blocked a planned supertower in Streeterville. The project in question was 400 North Lake Shore Drive, a pair of skyscrapers at the site of the long-dead Chicago Spire, and the even longer-dead Fordham Spire. If you don’t know what either of...
Recent From Proposals
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Fulton Market Tower Gets Taller, Drops Solar June 5, 2019 -
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