Land trust proposed to keep affordable housing affordable
The Daley administration has proposed an ordinance establishing a "Chicago Community Land Trust," to keep a stock of affordable housing -- both for-sa [...]
Chocolate Cafe is West Loop's hidden gem
Randolph Street's "Restaurant Row" is about four blocks from my apartment in the West Loop, and sounded as good a street as any to explore possible ni [...]
Pools make a splash in Chicago highrises
While fitness centers with "state-of-the-art equipment" are as mandatory as granite countertops in downtown highrises these days, swimming pools are l [...]
A Chicago condo by any other name
Image is everything in sales, so we probably shouldn't be surprised by the weird and wonderful names developers and ad-agency execs dream up to hawk c [...]
Santa bringing lump of coal for renters
Landlords already are preparing their New Year's resolutions, and they might not be good news for Chicago area renters. A local trade group predicts t [...]
Chicago's all Greek to me
I dye my hair darker instead of blonder. I don't own big furry boots to tuck my jeans into, and I never had a pair of UGGs. I never had one of those [...]
Four plus one = attractive building in Lake View
Prettying up the dreaded four plus ones that dot the North Side like so much acne might be the real estate equivalent of giving face transplants to bu [...]
Lions in winter
Lest the Art Institute lions grab up all of the holiday glory with their Christmas wreaths, another Chicago institution, The Second City, has adorned [...]
Oh what a feeling – Evanston condos
What do Evanston condo developers and Toyota have in common? Both look like they are desperately trying to unload end-of-year stock. If you always fan [...]
Chicago highrise offers winter balcony
This new real estate trend would have to be a strong seller among sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder...
The latest thing in highrise condos in [...]
Pho soup's sake
Not that a bowl of the classic Vietnamese soup, pho, isn't delectable in the dog days of summer (and it is), but when the weather turns ugly--like now [...]
Chicago developer awarded for contribution to city
In the eyes of the general public, real estate developers usually rate somewhere down near journalists and used-car salesmen in a ranking of occupatio [...]
Custom House opens house
With the opening of Custom House restaurant in the Printer's Row neighborhood, chef Shawn McClain now has all of the bases covered. The new steak-cent [...]
The circus comes to the CHA
This priceless little gem comes from the vault of the Chicago Housing Authority. It happened four years ago at Washington Park Homes, a family develop [...]
Will $500,000 cabanas catch on in Chicago?
Cabanas - those tiny ocean and pool-side shacks better known as the love nests of Desperate Housewives-types and their compliant poolboys than as hot [...]
Fundraiser for CAR's Jennifer Maley
The Chicago Association of Realtors is sponsoring a fundraiser for its director of communications, Jennifer Maley, who was recently diagnosed with a b [...]
Rent and build equity on a Chicago condo
Renters who are thinking of buying but want to test out a neighborhood first have an interesting new option at the Lakeshore East development, a 28-ac [...]
Legacy condos: something old, something new
Mesa Development plans to preserve facades on a classic Chicago block as it builds The Legacy at Millennium Park, a strikingly modern 73-story tower p [...]
Error Repeated in story on The Bernardin
We've enjoyed Lynn Becker's architectural treatises in local rags and his entertaining Web site, Repeat, but we feel compelled to point out that the n [...]
New-homes boost keeps pundits guessing
Wouldn't it be refreshing, amidst all the predicting and prognosticating about a housing bubble, to hear an expert say he wasn't sure where the housin [...]