Do you gaze from your balcony at the drama of Chicago's skyline – or stare out your window and wish you had a balcony and a view? Do you mingle with the beautiful people in your lobby – or wonder where the beautiful people live? Is your doorman an indispensable helpmate – or the guy on the sidewalk hustling spare change?

If you live in a high-rise in Chicago, or dream of living in one, become a fan at our Highrise-living in Chicago Facebook page and tell everyone what's great about your building or the one you're dying to move into.

I was at the outer limits of my zoom range (280mm) on this shot. That appears to be a gargoyle sitting on the Elysian, but I can't be certain. Click the image to view a larger version and tell us what you see.

Watch the construction of Optima Old Orchard Woods from bare dirt to near-finished product in the video from a talented photographer who goes by the screen name of skyscraperjunkie at YouTube. At SkyScraperPage.com he goes by the name of Chicago Shawn.

If you're an architecture / photography / urban planning buff SkyscraperPage is a must-visit site for great photography and intelligent conversation.

Tip: Right-click the video above to watch it at YouTube, Click HQ and select full-screen for the best viewing results.

This shot was taken by Michael Kardas from the 19th floor of Optima Old Orchard Woods in Skokie. The Edens Expressway, Niles North High School and Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center are in the foreground. In the center distance (four miles away) you see the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette, and Lake Michigan.

We'd previously posted a view of the skyline from Optima Old Orchard. The view to the west is forest preserve that seems to extend to the horizon.

Stay up to date with the latest from Optima Old Orchard at New Home Notebook, and see a video introduction to the development at New Home Notebook's YouTube channel.

We're not hearing anything. How about you? Winter weather is almost history, Trio — hibernation time's over!

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review Trio's high-rise condos
• Rate and review Trio's mid-rise condos

"What's with the rust-colored railings?" That was reader cgcg's question following our last set of snapshots of 1555 Wabash, New West Realty's 176-unit high-rise at 1555 S Wabash Ave in the South Loop. We wondered the same thing, but since I couldn't get in touch with anyone from New West in the days following the post, I decided instead to check back in a few weeks to see if the rails had changed.

They have. Most are now covered in silver paint, although a few on the northeast corner are still bare. A white coat of paint was already covering the concrete on the tower's southern face in early February, but as you can see below, it still hasn't made its way around to the western, Wabash-facing side of the building.

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review 1555 Wabash

It's hard to get a read on just how many units are available in Russland Capital Group's Michigan Avenue Tower II in the South Loop. Along with the 27 one- and two-bedroom condos the developer classifies as unsold units, there are a number of homes inside the building that have defaulted and are going back on the market. I don't know what that number is, but I did get a run-down of price-ranges for those 27 pristine, never-touched units, thanks to Frankel & Giles agent Rhonda Hoff, who showed me around the models you see in the pictures above and below.

Those unit styles and prices include:

• 692 square-foot one-bedroom / one-baths with western exposures, priced from the $250s to the $260s
• 751 square-foot one-bedroom / one-baths with northern, eastern or southern exposures, priced from the $260s to the $320s
• 783 square-foot one-bedroom / one-baths with southern exposures, priced from the $260s to the $310s
• 826 square-foot one-bedroom / one-baths with northern exposures, priced from the $260s to the $310s
• 1,027 square-foot two-bedroom / two-baths with northwestern or southwestern exposures, priced from the $350s to the $410s
• 1,260 square-foot two-bedroom / two-baths with northeastern or southeastern exposures, priced from the $440s to the $480s

Eight resales surface in an MLS search for the tower's address, 1400 S Michigan Ave. They include:

• One 3,471 square-foot four-bedroom / 3.5-bath priced at $2.99 million
• Two 1,260 square-foot two-bedroom / two-baths priced in the $490s and $500s
• Two 826 square-foot one-bedroom / one-baths priced in the $290s and $370s
• One 751 square-foot one-bedroom / one-bath priced in the $280s
• One 692 square-foot one-bedroom / one-bath priced in the $270s
• One 783 square-foot one-bedroom / one-bath priced in the $230s

Nine one- and two-bedrooms are also listed as rentals, at prices ranging from for $1,275 to $2,495 a month.

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review Michigan Avenue Tower II

Related posts:
• We like to watch: Views of the South Loop and beyond from Michigan Avenue Tower II (March 25)

I finally worked my way into a few condos at Russland Capital Group's Michigan Avenue Tower II, located at 1400 S Michigan Ave, and came back with some pricing info and interior shots. You'll get all that a little later, but for now, soak in the sights of a cloudy afternoon in the South Loop!

Those of you who took an interest in Mark's recent Coliseum Park update will want to click the image above. I wasn't paying close attention at the time I shot it, but you can see a clear difference between the new building (fronting Wabash Avenue) and the old one (sandwiched between it and the elevated tracks to the west).

South-facing units halfway up the 28-story building have a clear view of the lake to the southeast, thanks to the low profile of the 1500 blocks of Michigan and Indiana avenues. You can still see a sliver of lake from as low as the seventh floor if you have an east-facing unit. Northwest-corner homes on that level have Juliet balconies overlooking Michigan Avenue, providing sightlines all the way down 14th Street to the Museum Campus (bottom left).

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review Michigan Avenue Tower II

A number of new condo buildings that we've written about in the West Loop this year, including Emerald, CA23 and VB1224, have tended to focus on the "lifestyle" aspects of the developments, but compared to the king of lifestyle-themed living, the Ritz-Carlton Residences, those West Loop developments look plain, practical and gauche.

Take these watercolors that I pulled from a Flash-animated slide show on the development Web site, for example. In the first image (top row, at left), Phillipe, who appears to be part of the Ritz-Carlton staff, "is playing a nice eclectic mix from Chopin to Cole Porter," while a group of blue bloods and silk stockings place orders with Chef Hans, whose creations are "(almost) too beautiful to eat!"

We're told that the gentleman in the second photo (top row, at right) "would never make it through a crossword w/o the covert assistance of a discreet staff!" Meanwhile, Webster the dog (second row, at left) is "making friends wherever he goes!"

These watercolors show a playground for Chicago's upper crust, where carefree residents won't have to lift a finger, and servants will never be more than a few steps away. All emphasis is on price and service at the Ritz, which is located at 664 - 670 N Michigan Ave, or "the center of the world as we know it," as it's described in the caption on the fourth image (second row, at right).

The only quote displayed on Prism Development's Web site is from a 2006 Crain's article, and it pretty much sums it up: "…the most expensive new condo development in the city.” That's pretty accurate, because the remaining homes at the Ritz-Carlton start at about $1.90 million, or $1,100 per square foot.

NewHomeNotebook:
• Rate and review Ritz-Carlton Residences
• View our list of Lucian Lagrange-designed high-rises

"The data speaks for itself," a spokesperson for The Peshtigo told a Crain's reporter who was hunting for a statement in January on the proposed Streeterville high-rise's future. The Crain's item included some figures obtained from Appraisal Research Counselors, showing that just 17 percent of the 358-unit building had been sold by the third quarter of 2008.

A more telling sign perhaps is that The Peshtigo has been removed from the list of active developments on developer Related Midwest's Web site and none of the condos are currently listed on the MLS. The 57-story, Ralph Johnson-designed high-rise was planned for 515 N Peshtigo Ct in Streeterville, but sales were slow in 2008, and the building never got off the ground.

It seems likely that the developer is tossing The Peshtigo in the dumpster, as Joe Zekas artfully depicted in the PhotoShopped image at the top of this post. If the project is indeed dead, The Peshtigo's slogan — "Living never looked so good" — couldn't be more appropriate.