Lake Shore Drive, Riverwalk show the importance of urban edges
Today's column is about urban edges — not the literal borders between a city and its suburbs, but the sharp contrasts in density and character that give cities their distinctive...
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Lakeshore East towers would make a skyline splash but at ground level, let the buyer beware
Because it includes a proposal for Chicago's 10th-tallest building, a striking serrated tower that would soar over Lake Shore Drive like a ship's prow, a new plan for four high-rises...
Tool kit offered to improve Chicago’s Pedway; city should put it to use
Picture this: A winter storm is pelting you with snow as you head west on Randolph Street from Maggie Daley Park's skating rink. It sure would be nice to get...
Public art appears — and disappears — in year celebrating its impact on city
Public art is in the headlines, even on the front page. A sculpture of an oversize deer has taken up residence on the Chicago Riverwalk. A beloved mural, which richly...
McCormick House project aims to restore Mies gem
The other Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed house in Chicago's suburbs is about to have a coming-out party. The best-known Mies house is the iconic Farnsworth House in far southwest...
New Apple store that resembles a laptop wouldn’t be the first building to hawk a product
Inspired by a report that an Apple logo appeared atop the company's under-construction North Michigan Avenue store, making it resemble a giant laptop, I did what any digital-age architecture critic...
Lack of coordination on Obama center, Tiger Woods golf course threatens Jackson Park redesign
Before he became America's foremost landscape architect, shaping Chicago's Jackson and Washington parks as well as New York's Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted was a fervent abolitionist. So it's easy...
A new window into Wright
On the sesquicentennial of his birth, Frank Lloyd Wright is at risk of being analyzed to death. He is a brand, an industry for scholars, authors, tour guides and reproduction...
‘Wright at 150’ at MOMA is a deep dive into the first ‘starchitect’
Marking the 150th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's birth, the Museum of Modern Art on Thursday previewed a major exhibition that offers new perspectives on the man many consider to...
Chicago buildings named for possible inclusion on list of world’s leading cultural sites
A group of Chicago buildings that played an essential role in the development of the steel-framed skyscraper and the modern city has taken a first step on the long and...