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10 Years Later: Millennium Park
On a crisp autumn night, September 26, 2003, a young journalist sat down at a desk in what was then called Hotel 71, unfolded a keyboard, slotted in a travel-worn U.S. Robotics Palm Pilot and started...
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Status Update: Maggie Daley Park Gets Blocked
Everyone is expecting big things from the new Maggie Daley Park. But unless you were there decades ago when the park was originally built at Daley Bicentennial Plaza, you might not have expected...
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Grant Park Getting Another Music Garden
Another piece of public art is going on display in Grant Park. It’s a monument to Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, and is being paid for by the Chicago branch of the Chopin Foundation. You may have...
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Grant Park Skate Park Grinding Ahead [updated]
The Chicago Plan Commission has approved the construction of a new skate park complex at the south end of Grant Park (using the address 300 East 11th Street). The project initially included features...
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A Nod to Train Stations Past and Bocce Courts of the Future
Illinois Central Randolph Street Station. This space is now better known as Millennium Park. Construction continues on the new Grant Park Skate Park, just south of the 11th Street pedestrian bridge...
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Status Update: The First Tree is Planted in Maggie Daley Park
The very first tree being planted at Maggie Daley Park. We shall call her “Lisa.” It’s been a long 21 months since construction began at the future site of Maggie Daley Park. When complete, it should...
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Slice of Life: Chicago on a Black-and-White Rail
They’ve been pared back, decked over, repurposed, and there was even once a proposal to turn the whole shebang into a field of wildflowers; but Chicago’s lakefront railroad tracks continue to carry...
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Lucas Picks a Pair of Rising Starchitects for His Chicago Lakefront Museum
They wanted iconic. They wanted different. And it seems the people behind the proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art have picked talent matching those parameters to design the new museum on...
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Millennium Park Turns 10; Demands Cake
Millennium Park under construction. Bonus: You can see Lakeshore East is still just a giant mud puddle in the background. It would sprout 7½ skyscrapers, a supermarket, a park and a school over the...
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Slice of Life: The Fountain of You
Chicago is a city in a garden, and that garden’s city has a number of great fountains. The big bad daddy of them all is, of course, Buckingham Fountain. Broad enough to entertain throngs of...
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Better Than a Parking Lot, But Is This the Museum Chicago’s Looking For?
The people behind the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art have released their vision of a new lakefront home. The controversial museum would be located near Soldier Field in the Chicago’s Museum Campus....
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Video: Mighty Morphin’ Maggie Park
It’s hard to believe, it’s been two years since construction began on what will very soon become Maggie Daley Park (337 East Randolph Street). In fact, the two-year anniversary was two weeks ago,...
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Mark Your Calendar — You Have a Date With Maggie Park
Friend-of-the-blog, Richard Ward, the president of the New Eastside Association of Residents tells us and everyone else on his mailing list that Maggie Daley Park (337 East Randolph Street) will be...
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Chicago’s Christmas Ribbon is About to Take a Bow
Dontcha just wanna lick it? Photograph courtesy of the Chicago Park District. We doubted it would happen, and we’re happy to be proven wrong. The Chicago Park District has told us that Maggie Daley...
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Maggie Daley Park Skating Ribbon Opens to Eager Crowds
For the second time in two weeks, a skate park has opened in Grant Park. In this case, it was the ice skating ribbon at Maggie Daley Park (337 East Randolph Street), the northeast corner of Grant...
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Hate Lucas on the Lakefront? This Will Make You Lose Your Mind
Drawing of the Chicago Tower, courtesy of Goettsch Partners This is the fourth episode of our Chicago Neverbuilt series where we celebrate the work of great architects that, for one reason or another,...
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A Doggone Good Outcome For Maggie Daley Park’s Unpopular Canine Ban
Dogs have rights, too There were no TV crews at the Grant Park Advisory Council & Conservancy meeting on Thursday night. Not like a month ago when the agenda included the park’s dog ban—a move that...
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Parks Promoters Warn Chicago’s Greenspace Being Nibbled to Death
July, 2012 plan for what was then being called “North Grant Park.” Note the space at the bottom center set aside for a restaurant marked The Green at Grant Park A restaurant here, a museum there, and...
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Mayors Emanuel and Daley Dedicate Maggie Daley Park
Ribbon-cutting season continues in Chicago with the formal dedication and opening of Maggie Daley Park. The northeast corner of Grant Park, formerly known as Daley Bicentennial Plaza, recently...
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Tying up the Loose Ends at Maggie Daley Park
The lakeside park that started with a bang of controversy is wrapping up with the whimper of compromise as the Chicago Park District ties up the loose ends at Maggie Daley Park (337 East Randolph...
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Lucas Museum Groundbreaking Imperiled; Mayor Accused of “Cover Up”
Revised rendering of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (Courtesy of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art) The city of Chicago’s effort to throw out a lawsuit opposing the construction of the new Lucas...
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Building Great Chicago Open Spaces From Above and Below
Do you love parks? Of course you do! Do you love construction? Of course you do! Like chocolate and peanut butter, the good people over at Walsh Construction have put together parks and...
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Still Holding Lucas Museum Hostage, Park Pals Have Ransom Demand List
Rendering of the Lucas Museum for Narrative Art replacing the McCormick Place Lakeside Center After nearly suing the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art out of existence, Crain’s Chicago Business reports...
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The View From Grant Park Keeps A-Changin’
If you’ve gone to a festival, played softball, or just walked around Grant Park in the last decade or so, you’ve been a first-hand witness to the changing of Chicago’s skyline. 340 On The Park, The...
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Art Institute of Chicago Buildings Getting a Makeover
One of the city’s most important buildings is in for a change. Spanish architecture powerhouse Barozzi/Veiga plans to transform the Art Institute of Chicago’s multi-building campus which sprawls...
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