Disputed projects win approval

Plan Commission gives OK to Rockwell, dorm

06/24/2009

In addition to giving the strike-enmeshed Congress Hotel permission to expand, members of the Chicago Plan Commission approved two disputed 2nd Ward development at their meeting last Thursday. Read More...

Fearing the worst

Budget uncertainty sparks social service providers to hit the streets

06/24/2009

Thousands of social service providers, clients and their supporters massed last week outside of the Thompson Center to demand the Illinois General Assembly pass a budget - and an income tax increase - that would pay for the state's human needs infrastructure, a spectrum of programs encompassing everything from counseling for abused women to grants for homeless shelters. Read More...

Old phase, new phase

New commitments on the table from East Lake

06/17/2009

The powerful developer contracted with remaking Rockwell Gardens, a Near West Side public housing complex, offered a series of commitments Tuesday about the next phase of the redevelopment's design and operations. Read More...

Going after the earnest money

Buyers who didn't close are losing what they put down

06/17/2009

In September 2005, Mark Buonincontro put down $45,450 in earnest money for condominium unit 1904 and a garage space at 1347 S. Michigan, a building marketed as 1400 Museum Park and part of the sprawling Central Station development. Read More...

Big items at land-use body

Chicago Plan Commission set to hear controversial items

06/17/2009

A hotel enmeshed in the country's longest-running strike wanting to expand. A developer seeking to build a massive new student dormitory when the economy gets better. A powerful firm needing permission to roll a series of zoning changes into a "planned development" for the next phase of a public housing transformation project.
Read More...

An Olympic stadium's lasting legacy

What's the impact of the proposed Olympic stadium?

06/17/2009

Both men love baseball. Both men love Washington Park. They work tirelessly in the community, using their favorite sport as a means to keep the youth of the neighborhood off the streets and out of trouble. Read More...

New theater on Roosevelt

Provision finds a home

06/17/2009

Vagabonds with a taste for drama have found a new home on the Near West Side. That is to say, Provision Theater Company has signed a four-year lease for the black box theater space in the old Duncan YMCA building at 1001 W. Roosevelt, a structure being used by Easter Seals of Metropolitan Chicago. Read More...

A downtown made by laser

'Chicago Model City' is scaled at one inch to 50 feet

06/17/2009

Lynn Osmond, president of the Chicago Arch-itecture Foundation, was moved by a reconstructed model of the city of Paris at L'Arsenal in 1998. She saw something similar at the 2001 Olympics in Sydney, Australia and again at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Osmond was convinced that Chicago needed a model of its own. Read More...

State cash for capital projects

A range of groups set to get funds - bill not yet signed by Quinn

06/10/2009

Community centers, hospitals and social service providers are among the Near South and Near West side institutions that could benefit from a capital bill passed May 31 by members of the Illinois House and Senate. Read more...

Old post office to be auctioned

Deal to revamp empty downtown structure dead

06/10/2009

An ambitious proposal to convert the Old Main Post Office - the 3 million square foot facility that looms over the Eisenhower Expressway near the Chicago River - has fallen though. The United States Postal Service announced Tuesday that it has hired Rick Levin & Associates to auction the building Aug. 27; the suggested opening bid is $300,000. Read More...