Category: Architecture, design
Hidden fireplace, funky cornice and other treasures in Pine Grove home
The top-floor cornice at 2735 N Pine Grove Ave caught our eye, but we quickly found out that the Victorian stylings are only part of the building's [...]
Instead of remodeling, maybe they just should have started over
In the "what-were-they-thinking" dept., somebody in charge at the Apollo Theater complex on Lincoln Avenue has managed to do what seemed impossible: [...]
1550 North State: old-school starchitecture
We posted an item earlier this week about some homebuyers' tendency to talk of themselves as living "in a Helmut Jahn," or a Mies, or whichever starch [...]
Living "in a Helmut Jahn" is state of mind for Chicago condo buyers
Ever noticed that some people don't live in Streeterville, they live in a Mies? Well that's what it's going to be like at the high-rise 600 N Fairbank [...]
Wolcott Terrace condos: a plus for the streetscape, nothing to hide
Real estate developers are not, in general, publicity-shy. You probably know that easterners began calling Chicago the Windy City not because of meteo [...]
Designing your week: Booth Hansen on Shubert renovation
Looking forward to restoration efforts after Hurricane Katrina and looking back on the history of Chicago's first subsidized housing, it's a big week [...]
Drexel Boulevard architecture challenge
Describe the architectural style of the fountain in the foreground. I'm going with Chalice Wright / Falling Altar. Your take? [...]
3660 Lake Shore Drive, located in the People's Republic of Lake View
Here's a rendering of the eastern elevation of American Invsco's upcoming 3660 N Lake Shore Drive, the high-rise and townhome development we told you [...]
Neighborhood markers a sign of the times in Lincoln Square
In case you were wondering, you just entered LINCOLN SQUARE! Obnoxious markers like the one above have popped up in various neighborhoods in recent [...]
Details, divinity and architectural terra cotta
Yes, Mies van der Rohe's proclamation that "God is in the details" has become a tired cliche. Which doesn't mean it's not so. It's just suffered fro [...]
860 N. Lake Shore: authentic Mies for $375,000
Last week we posted on the Park Tower Condos building, one of the many Mies imitators loitering around Chicago. Don't get us wrong; there's absolutely [...]
Demolition should have been starting point for Streeterville tower
Is this the ugliest garage you've ever seen? Sadly, it probably isn't, since an ugly garage base seems to have been a prerequisite for most resident [...]
The architectural unicorns: revisionists build homes in "old" styles that never existed
One of life's great injustices is the failure of too many people with too much money to exercise either good judgment or imagination or both when th [...]
Designing your week: IIT prof presents "The Archeworks Papers"
YoChicago's architecture journal, City spaces, highlights a couple of events exploring urban architecture and development:
Illinois Institute of Tech [...]
Is Edgewater's Statesman removed from lives of ordinary citizens?
Across the street from the Edgewater Beach Apartments stands --or floats -- The Statesman, at 5601 North Sheridan Road. If Chicago is the city in a g [...]
Lagrange looks forward with the leaning towers of Prairie
It does our heart good to see the name of Lucien Lagrange, architect to Chicago's wealthy (think The Park Tower, 840 N. Lake Shore Drive, The Elysian, [...]
Appreciating novelty in Chicago's new construction
You would have to be blind or unconscious not to notice the infestation of red brick behemoths wherever gentrification has steamrolled in. Let's just [...]
Trump praises his penthouse, knocks Fordham Spire
Yesterday we reported that The Donald was keeping the $28 million penthouse at Trump International Hotel & Tower for his Chicago pad. The Chicago Sun- [...]
Renzo Piano's designs on The Art Institute of Chicago
Here's a rendering of Renzo Piano's design for the $220 million Modern Wing of The Art Institute of Chicago, courtesy of the Art Institute.
This is a [...]
Lakeshore East's Aqua is a long drink of water
Meet Aqua, which at 82-stories, will be the tallest high-rise at the Lakeshore East development, that sits on land south of Wacker Drive and west of L [...]