Real estate news & trends
Architecture
Chestnut Tower is a 230-unit, 36-story apartment high-rise on Chicago’s Near North Side. Chestnut Tower was completed in 2000. It was the last apartment tower built in Chicago in the 20th century and marked an end to a nearly 10-year drought of new apartment construction on Chicago’s Near North Side. A joint venture between Nicholas ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on December 9, 2013
It was late January when I toured The Emery House in Elmhurst with Tom Makinney of Coldwell Banker’s Gracik Makinney Group, one of our sponsors. The home was listed for sale in early February, and is still available for purchase at a list price of $1,750,000. The home, at 281 S Arlington, was designed by ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 26, 2013
According to Chicago Real Estate Daily: Developers closed 159 condo sales downtown in the third quarter, up slightly from 151 sales in the second quarter and 154 a year earlier, according to Chicago-based consulting firm Appraisal Research Counselors. Sales have not taken off like they have for existing condos simply because there aren’t a lot ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 13, 2013
The bold façade of the single-family home at 3652 N Bosworth Ave in the Southport Corridor announces that something special lies within. This innovative hyper-contemporary home boasts soaring two-story spaces and sleek finishes. Wood is used liberally on walls and ceiling areas to add warmth. An open catwalk connects a second-floor family room with the ...
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Posted by sponsored post on November 11, 2013
Unit 6901 at Aqua, 225 N Columbus Dr, was purchased for $905,000 in May of last year. The purchase price of the 1,756 square foot, 3-bedroom, 2 ½ bath unit included a tandem parking space. The unit’s back on the market with an asking price of $1,250,000 plus $67K for the parking. That pencils out ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 8, 2013
Chestnut Place is a 280-unit, 30-story apartment tower on Chicago’s Near North Side. Chestnut Place was completed in 1982. The building has a very distinctive look. Two stories of darker brick define its base, and shades of lighter-colored brick alternate on the upper floors along with alternating window placements. The serrated façade results in all ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 8, 2013
We don’t ordinarily write about institutional or commercial properties. We do, as a matter of course, try to bring to your attention videos that focus on Chicago architecture. When a video includes quality photography of a variety of venues and serves up multiple perspectives on a work of architecture, we can’t resist featuring it. We ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 31, 2013
In the early 1950s when 29 year old Chicago architect Milton Schwartz designed the structure that sits at 320 W Oakdale in Lake View, little did he know that one day the building would be included in the National Register of Historic Places. Agent Don Breitfelder of Koenig & Strey’s Gold Coast office is a ...
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Posted by sponsored post on October 25, 2013
Amazon informs us that Ralph Johnson of Perkins + Will: Recent Works is out of print. Don’t despair. The publisher has posted a page-turning look at its contents at Vimeo. The video makes a point that we’ve called attention to in the context of Ralph Johnson’s 235 Van Buren: great architecture inspires great photography. You ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 22, 2013
Asbury Plaza, 750 N Dearborn St, is a 33-story, 384-unit apartment tower in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. Asbury Plaza was completed in 1981. It was only the second rental high-rise ever built in River North, a neighborhood that was then far from achieving its current popularity. The first rental building, River Plaza, is now a ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 14, 2013
Mondial, in River West, is an apartment project that we’ve followed in dozens of posts through many ups and downs over more than seven years. Our keen interest in the project traced to the fact that I’ve known the project’s architect / developer, Jack Berger, since we were developing adjacent projects on the 1800 block ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 11, 2013
Architect Edward Dart completed nearly 100 projects before his premature death at 53, among them a landmark home at 350 Sunrise Circle in Glencoe. The current owners of the home were captivated by it from the moment they first saw it, and enjoyed it for 38 years. The 17-room home has 7 bedrooms, 4 full ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 7, 2013
420 East Ohio is a 40-story, 263-unit full-amenity apartment tower at 420 E Ohio St in Streeterville. It was completed in 1990 and was one of the first rental buildings to offer in-unit washer / dryers. Dirk Lohan of Lohan Associates, now known as Lohan Anderson, was the architect for the building. Lohan was Mies ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 2, 2013
Onterie Center is a 60-story, 615-unit full-amenity apartment tower at 441 E Erie St in Streeterville. The building’s name is derived from the streets it fronts: Ontario and Erie. Onterie Center was completed in 1986. It’s visually distinguished by its diagonal cross-bracing, which was translated from the steel of the Hancock Center to concrete by ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 2, 2013
Streeter Place is a 54-story, 480-unit full-amenity apartment tower at 345 E Ohio St in Streeterville. It was completed in 2009. Golub & Company was the developer, McHugh Construction was the general contractor and Solomon Cordwell Buenz the architecture firm. The apartments Streeter Place offers 17 different floor plans of studio, convertible, one-, two-, and ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 1, 2013
Lake Shore Plaza is a 38-story, 567-unit full-amenity apartment tower at 445 E Ohio St in Streeterville. It was completed in 1986. George Schipporeit, better known as the co-designer of Lake Point Tower, was the architect. Early in his career he worked in the office of Mies van der Rohe. The Miesian influence is evident ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 1, 2013
The Hancock Center, an iconic presence on Chicago’s skyline, had a troubled and mostly-forgotten early history. I was reminded of that history when tripping across recent obituaries for Jerry Wolman, the Hancock’s original developer. Wolman, a high-school dropout, had become one of the country’s most successful and wealthy developers, and the owner of the Philadelphia ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 1, 2013
McClurg Court is a 45-story, 1,075-unit full-amenity apartment two-tower complex at 333 E Ontario St in Streeterville. The complex was completed in 1971. It originally included a 1,000+ seat movie theater that once drew crowds but has since closed. The space is slated for redevelopment (pdf) as restaurants and retail shops. Jerrold Wexler, who may ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on September 30, 2013
The Streeter is a 50-story, 481-unit apartment tower at 345 E Ohio St in Streeterville. It was completed in 2007. Golub & Company was the developer and Solomon Cordwell Buenz the architecture firm. The apartments The Streeter offers 14 different floor plans of studio, convertible, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. Floor plans are online as ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on September 23, 2013
In the video, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Michael Darling talks briefly about the “organic” and “sculptural” quality of Bertrand Goldberg’s architecture and some of the architects who influenced his work. In his oral history at the Art Institute Bertrand Goldberg reports Mies van der Rohe’s dismissive summary of Marina City: “Well, everybody has to ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on September 20, 2013
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