Blair Kamin – Page 53

Parking space near Soldier Field could turn into the site for the Lucas museum, but a legal fight may block that. The area with the lot and railroad tracks in the lower left is being proposed as a new site.

Mr. Mayor, move the Lucas Museum off the lakefront, stop demonizing parks group

May 23, 2019 at 3:58 a.m.

For months now, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been peddling the notion that the Friends of the Parks wants to preserve an ugly parking lot where George Lucas wants to build...

An occupied section of the Lathrop Homes CHA project is shown March 15, 2013, looking south from Diversey Avenue over the Chicago River. The campus of low-rise buildings has been added to Preservation Chicago's list of the city's seven most-threatened historic places.

Redevelopment of public housing complex raises questions

May 25, 2019 at 12:42 p.m.

The pictures were pretty. The mood was not. Before the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday approved the redevelopment of the Julia Lathrop Homes, a charming but decaying North Side public...

Chicago's Lathrop Homes is on track for a redevelopment that will eliminate 525 public housing units, though hundreds of the currently subsidized units are unoccupied.

Chicago Plan Commission approves redevelopment of Lathrop Homes

June 12, 2018 at 3:21 a.m.

Setting aside gentrification concerns, the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday approved a controversial proposal that will turn Lathrop Homes, a rare North Side island of public housing that is listed...

Chicago in a bind on sites for George Lucas’ museum

June 9, 2018 at 12:33 a.m.

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas and Mayor Rahm Emanuel were in the room. So were members of the 12-person task force that the mayor appointed to find a site for...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Martin Nesbitt, left, chairman of the Obama Foundation, announce on May 12, 2015, that Chicago will be the home of Obama's presidential library and museum.

Washington Park could have edge for Obama library

April 23, 2019 at 1:21 p.m.

In the site-selection derby for the Barack Obama Presidential Center on Chicago's South Side, Washington Park, surrounded by a gritty neighborhood, may have the edge over the more glamorous lakefront...

A view from the United America building Sept. 26, 1961, shows progress in the construction of Marina City. The core for the east tower has risen 46 stories, with 14 more to go, and the west tower core is beginning to rise.

Marina City landmark status welcome, long overdue

May 23, 2019 at 3:58 a.m.

With so many midcentury modernist buildings under threat or already demolished, it's tempting to turn cartwheels over the Chicago City Council's vote to grant permanent landmark status to Marina City,...

Michael Toolis, chairman of Chicago architectural firm VOA Associates, is photographed Feb. 11, 2016. VOA is being acquired by Stantec, an Edmonton, Alberta-based firm. Toolis says he plans to remain with the company.

Stantec acquires architect firm VOA Associates

June 11, 2018 at 5:42 a.m.

Another familiar Chicago architectural name is about to disappear. This time, it's VOA Associates, whose signature Chicago projects include Roosevelt University's South Loop skyscraper, the ongoing renovation of Wrigley Field,...

Sidney Epstein, shown in 2006 visiting a Chicago bank building his father designed in the 1920s, joined the family firm after serving in the Army during World War II.

Sidney Epstein, former Chicago engineering firm chairman, dies at 92

June 11, 2018 at 6:47 a.m.

Sidney Epstein teamed with his brother Raymond to grow the Chicago engineering firm started by their Russian immigrant father into a global player whose Chicago-area projects include everything from runways...

The new Writers Theatre building in Glencoe strikes all the right notes for its setting.

New Writers Theatre building in Glencoe has a flair for drama

December 17, 2018 at 6:21 p.m.

There's a stirring performance going on at Writers Theatre's new home in Glencoe even though the company won't perform its first play in the Jeanne Gang-designed building until March 16....

Chicago to consider height guidelines for South Michigan Avenue district

May 25, 2019 at 1:01 p.m.

Back in November, after a quarrelsome public hearing on two proposed South Michigan Avenue skyscrapers, including a 1,001-footer designed by Helmut Jahn, I warned that the plans raised a vexing...

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