Change Brewing on North Michigan Avenue
Permits have been issued for the nearly $10 million transformation of the former Crate and Barrel flagship store on the Magnificent Mile into a new mega Starbucks. INTERIOR & EXTERIOR ALTERATIONS (GROUND THROUGH 5TH FLOOR) FOR SHELL & CORE ONLY TO INCLUDE NEW ROOF DECK OF AN EXISTING FIVE (5) STORY MERCANTILE BUILDING AS PER PLANS. The four-story building at 646 North Michigan Avenue opened in 1990, and it shaped like a (wait...
Crate and Barrel-Shaped C&B Building to Become Verismo-Shaped Starbucks Building
The transformation of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile from a string of exclusive boutiques and unique shopping experiences into a suburban mall continues with the arrival of a mega Starbucks. The Seattle caffeinator is the latest international homogenized brand to bigfoot its way onto the Boul Mich with a flagship store. This one taking over the Crate and Barrel building. As is often the case on Michigan Avenue,...
Flagship Starbucks Opened in Gold Coast Yesterday; Serves Booze Tomorrow
It’s been a few months since we last checked in on the new flagship Starbucks going up in the Gold Coast, and guess what — it’s open! The store at 1003 North Rush Street opened Tuesday, December 4th and brings the coffee chain’s latest design iteration to downtown Chicago. Like the Starbucks stores we’ve written about in Seattle, this one goes heavy on recycled, reclaimed, and reused. The walls are lined...
Status Update: Flagship Starbucks
The new flagship Starbucks store at 1003 North Rush Street in the Gold Coast is taking shape. You can see the two balconies that will hang over the public sidewalk. Neighbors complained about this encroachment into the public right-of-way when the design was introduced, but Starbucks assured them it wouldn’t be that big a deal. The ‘bucks guy appears to have been right. The balconies don’t impose any more than the...
Status Update: Flagship Starbucks
Work is progressing nicely on the new flagship Starbucks store at 1003 North Rush Street. Back in January the original structure there was torn down so the space could be transformed from a Geneva Seal watch store into an upscale version of the ubiquitous coffee shop chain. Starbucks is building six flagship stores around the world, and this will be one of them (the others are in New York, Seattle, Seattle again, Los Angeles, and...
Status Update: Flagship Starbucks
Demolition is underway at 1003 North Rush Street, the future home of Chicago’s Flagship Starbucks store. We were the first people to tell you that the store is intended to be upscale, serving wine, craft beers, and better food in Starbucks’ new store layout and materials, tested over the last couple of years in Seattle. The Chicago flagship will have a balcony hanging over the sidewalk on the second floor, a green roof,...
New Flagship Starbucks Cuts Wood, Stacks Bricks
Our recent series of articles on the flagship Starbucks to be built at 1003 North Rush Street have been very popular (previous coverage here, here, and here). According to Google Analytics, tens of thousands of people have read them. So when someone e-mailed me a revised drawing of the building, I thought I should post it here right away, and using some fancy schmancy special effects. If you have an up-to-date web browser, you should...
