Blair Kamin – Page 42

Obama’s reaction to architects’ first design for his library: ‘He said it was too unflashy.’

May 23, 2019 at 4:02 a.m.

Barack Obama is building his presidential library on Chicago's South Side, in Chicago's Jackson Park and next to Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood. Chicago residents will weigh in on it, Chicago aldermen...

In this Dec. 13, 2016 file photo, an Uber driverless car heads out for a test drive in San Francisco. In the first major congressional attempt to address the advent of self-driving cars, two key senators said Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, they're launching a bipartisan effort to help to speed up the deployment of the vehicles on the nation's roads.

Driverless cars could change urban landscape

May 23, 2019 at 4:02 a.m.

The scenes are straight out of a Jules Verne novel or the 1960s cult cartoon "The Jetsons." Driverless cars streak down the Stevenson Expressway, traveling in platoons for reduced wind...

White Ballroom of the former Chicago Athletic Association that reopened as a boutique hotel.

Landmark crisis paved way for measures that continue to preserve city’s historic buildings

May 23, 2019 at 4:02 a.m.

The renovated Venetian Gothic elegance of the Chicago Athletic Association hotel. The good-as-new wedding cake sheen of the Wrigley Building. The restored charm of Wrigley Field's terra cotta roofing and...

New hope for South Works, but will plan live up to site’s potential?

May 22, 2019 at 11:03 p.m.

Is the biggest chunk of vacant land on Chicago's lakefront, once home to U.S. Steel Corp.'s legendary South Works mill, finally going to get developed and become a vibrant link...

Former longtime NBC News reporter Cecilia Alvear, who fought for Latino inclusion in newsrooms, died on April 25, 2017, in California. She was 77. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-cecilia-alvear-dead-20170425-story.html" target="_blank">Read more</a>.

Carter Manny Jr., architect who also directed Graham Foundation, dies

June 6, 2018 at 1:42 a.m.

Chicago architect Carter Manny Jr. was in the news on the day he died — a timely reminder of his searching intelligence and considerable impact on projects that ranged from...

Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

‘Then the scaffolds drop’: Emily Dickinson’s home getting new life

December 17, 2018 at 5:18 p.m.

I dwell in Possibility –A fairer House than Prose –More numerous of Windows –Superior – for Doors –Of Chambers as the Cedars –Impregnable of eye –And for an everlasting RoofThe...

Alexander Calder's motorized mobile "Universe" in Willis Tower atrium in Chicago. Since the Sears Tower opened in the 1970s, the nation's tallest building has changed owners and even its name. But at least one feature remained constant: the giant, brightly colored Calder sculpture in the lobby.

Calder’s ‘Universe’ sculpture not part of Willis Tower renovation

May 23, 2019 at 4:02 a.m.

Now you see it. Soon you won't. Artist Alexander Calder's "Universe," a brightly colored large-scale work that has graced the lobby of Willis Tower since 1974, appears destined to be...

Willis Tower redo makes iconic skyscraper more inviting, less dramatic

May 23, 2019 at 4:02 a.m.

Surrounded by a plaza that rises menacingly above the sidewalk, its black and bronze-colored walls slamming straight to the ground from above, Willis Tower has always seemed like it was...

A bicyclist in Jackson Park near the site of the Obama Presidential Center on April 14, 2021.

Landscape designers named for Obama Presidential Center

May 22, 2019 at 11:01 p.m.

The Obama Foundation on Monday named a team of landscape architects for the Obama Presidential Center, to be led by the designer of Chicago's 606 trail and Maggie Daley Park....

Cormell Drive, left of the sports fields and track in Jackson Park, could be closed between 60th and 67th streets.

Cornell Drive cutoff could aid pedestrians in Jackson Park

May 23, 2019 at 4:02 a.m.

Whether or not the Obama Foundation gets the green light to close a major road that helps connect Lake Shore Drive and the Chicago Skyway, give the concept this much:...

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