We Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost Signs in Chicago
Look around at the architecture in Chicago and you just may cast your eyes upon a specter…but this is nothing too frightening though! Just one of the city’s many ghost signs. Ghost signs are historic advertisements, usually painted on the sides of buildings, which have been left up for decades. Many of them, perhaps even […]
Should We Trash or Save the Thompson Center?
The James R. Thompson Center is only thirty years old, but Governor Bruce Rauner announced in the fall of 2015 that he wants it sold and demolished. Just this month, in January of 2017, he floated the idea of a 115-story skyscraper taking its place. That raises a question for us Chicagoans to consider: should we trash or […]
The Evolution of Wolf Point’s Buildings
Wolf Point, the Y-shaped spot where the North, South, and Main Branches of the Chicago River meet, is the at the very heart of Chicago. That junction hosted the first permanent settlement of Native Americans, French-Canadian fur trappers, and American settlers that became the city of Chicago. The ubiquitous Y-shaped municipal device that covers Chicago memorializes this location. […]
Theater’s Architectural Relic Discovered on State Street
Architectural Relic at Demolition Site I found a pretty cool architectural relic yesterday. Clinging to the walls of the former Amalgamated Bank building on State Street are plaster details that looked distinctly like they were once in a theater. My guess was that over time the details on the bottom levels of this former theater had been […]
Five Kids Activities in the Loop for Spring Break
Spring Break is finally upon us! It’s an exciting time to be a kid this week. However, Chicago’s public school parents might be stressed about figuring out what to do with all this free time. So we came up with a list of the four great kids activities in the Loop. #1: Playing at Maggie […]
Four of the Oldest Buildings in the Loop
The oldest buildings in the Loop can be hard to find. Downtown Chicago is justly famous for its wealth of modern skyscrapers. Behemoths like the Willis Tower dominate the skyline and our attention. It always makes me feel like everything in the Loop sprang up in the middle of the 20th century. However, there are […]
The Wabash Lights and New Trends in Public Art
The Wabash Lights, a new Kickstarter-funded interactive public art installation, launched its beta test Thursday night. The beta test is an installation of four twelve-foot lengths of LED lights underneath the ‘L’ tracks between Monroe and Adams. Eventually, the Wabash Lights will run the length of seven blocks, from Van Buren Street to Lake Street. Passers-by will use their phones to change the […]
From Glamor to Gloom at the Pittsfield
In the 100 years of its history, the Pittsfield Building is a big art deco skyscraper that has gone through an incredible transformation. Despite being located adjacent to the bustling Millennium Park, this 37-story skyscraper was once practically empty. From the outside, the Pittsfield appears to be your typical 1920s building, constructed in a throne […]