Hayward

I rode past the Motor Club building on Water Street today. It's one my favorite small art deco buildings. So convenient for this fresh article. The buyers intend to renovate / restore the building into a boutique hotel. http://www.suntimes.com/business/8158503-452/chicago-motor-club-building-due-for-an-overhaul-maybe-a-hotel.html

Here's a Now and Then. Courtesy of Forgotten Chicago. 2400 W. Madison Street. And my photo of it today With condo craze going on nearby, this building went residential as well. There's a few stores on the ground level. Unfortunately across the street are some suburban-esque buildings.

Thanks rob. While some of these large bridges are out of operation, they are excellent artifacts to keep around. Some of them are city landmarks. It's possible one day though the Kinzie Rail bridge may go back into service for the light rail to provide improved accessibility between major train stations and North Michigan Ave. Just imagine getting of Amtrak at Union station, and getting on light rail that would take you to River North, Michigan Ave, and Navy Pier. That would be incredible, and to think the ROW is already been constructed in the basements of the building.

Photo I took from the new Ping Tom Park extension near Chinatown. The bridge with the large concrete counterweights is the St. Charles Air Line Bridge. Despite its age, these bridges were designed to last forever and from the fully lowered, to completely lifted position, it takes just slightly over 1 minute. Best time to view this bridge operating is around noontime Sept-November this year on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Rail traffic passes over sometimes almost daily. View of the approaches. Obviously the track on the left is unused. According to historic aerials, it appears the viaduct was demoed around 2006, leaving it cut off.

Thanks guys! Here's more info on the Admiral BTW. The back part of the building has yet to be completed, but it shouldn't be long before this is finished. http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2011/10/03/new-photos-admiral-on-the-lakedamen-hall.php#admiral-3

Mega Update Time! I couldn't catch everything, and there's a few highrises just breaking ground that I'll catch next time. INSTITUTO DEL PROGRESO LATINO HEALTH SCIENCES ACADEMY Western near Blue Island STUDENT HOUSING 18th near Pink Line Station PING TOM MEMORIAL PARK EXTENSION Chinatown RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE Okay...rather it's just a general panorama, but you can see it behind the Trib. BURBERRY FLAGSHIP North Michigan Avenue RITZ CARLTON RESIDENCES North Michigan Avenue MULTI-TENANT COMMERCIAL RESTORATION Oak Street ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY South Wabash Avenue MIXED-USE BUILDING Devon Ave. DAMEN HALL REPLACEMENT ACADEMIC BUILDING Loyola University - Lakeshore ADMIRAL Foster and Marine OLDTOWN RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT Wells St. All photos by me / creative commons

Below is a view of construction around South of North. Shops on Fremont will replace demolished lowrise structures in the foreground, and SoNo2 is rising in the background. Shops on Fremont will be capable of supporting 20-30 floors on their 3-4 story base. All the small vacant parking lots you see here do have plans. To the right of the car dealership, the site was cleared to make way for an 8-story midrise, which I don't have renderings for. me The larger building at the back is the one that would support a highrise building CRM Properties And while in the area, I haven't heard much about the New City development. The site has fallen silent. Look at that massive garage though! SpyGuy at SSC

I think your right. I was told that the Oak park and Evanston locations were the first two stores outside of Chicago. Interesting when you think about it that they are no longer department stores as both cities could very easily support a large department store in their downtowns....especially evanston. It's very difficult to get to a mall from there, whether by train or car. The Harlem Ave location was a Borders and a rather commanding street corner with a ton off other typical mall type stores around it. I've always been surprised a subway or El hasn't been considered for Harlem Ave, it's a very busy commercial street.

Ironically his studio was on the demolition hold list. The owner proposed to join the studio to a neighboring building with a 1 story connection and renovate the interior portion of the studio. The city stepped in landmarked the studio.

Very interesting. I've been trying to learn more about the neighborhood. And my landlord has asked my help for looking up old information on our building. No one really knows much about it surprisingly. They are hoping to find photos of the building or at least the street from every decade. I used to think much of Chicago was fairly intact, but the more I look through old photos, the more I find that this city has demolished an incredible amount of buildings. The only old buildings that ever seem to get saved around here are ones that managed to make it into a historic district decades ago.....are tall and big....or located in lower income neighborhoods where tear down and rebuilds are far too expensive. i've also noticed that brick structures have a likelier chance of being spared from demolition than wood houses.....probably because they can endure vacancy longer and are easier to seal up Check out this murdered intersection http://whatwasthere.com/b/4960 Ahh, those bastards! http://whatwasthere.com/b/1301

...near north side of Chicago? Yeah that place is probably unrecognizable for old timers... Yeah Oak And Rush. Tons of topless places, bars, and greaspit diners. Lots of neon, grime, and rundown buildings too. I would love to take a trip back then to see it. At that time, my building was operating as a residential hotel in the middle of it all. It looks like the neighborhood had shifted in the 80's, but the real work came in the 90's when some new residential towers went up. Finally, a few older lowrises got gentrified up and some nice places opened in them....but it wasn't enough. The real estate was too valuable and they were destroyed and replaced with tall buildings.

Bad for people who may be job hunting too. I remember hearing somewhere that employers will not leave messages on machines were the person does not identify themselves

whatwashere is my favorite website now. My neighborhood looked terrible back then, but at least the building stock was better. I can't believe the prada store was once a greasy burger joint. That's hilarious. The old Barney's looks like it was some shady roadside diner. MTS would be horrified.

I don't know if this is a pet peeve or just be astounded by something I couldn't believe happened. I understand everyone is in a rush to get home after work. There's kind of a flow to the way people walk and the sidewalks on Michigan Ave are generously wide. Northbound peds keep right, and southbound to the left. Well, I'm following behind this girl, and there's a planter to her right, so her only option is move forward. Some guy nearly twice her height, and probably 2.5 times here weight cuts diagonally over into her path and knocks her into the planter. He doesn't even say sorry and then guess what, I'm next! I stand like a rock, and he slams into me, but fortunately I remain unmoved. This disturbance made him miss the bus. All that to catch a bus!! If he was in that much of a rush, he should have just gotten a cab. Went over to the girl and she was ok. But we were both astounded that someone would just plow right into people like that.

There's disaster photos in there as well.

LOL everything 2012 is pretty tentative. The SF trip in August is definite though. My sister and some friends are going to Outside Lands Festival. I envy you folks that do roadtrips. I really like the experience of driving somewhere and stopping at places along the way. Problem is I don't have a car

Obviously a lot of people on this site travel around. I was curious where you all plan to head or where you've gone this past year. 2011 has been a busy traveling year for me. I try to get out and go someplace at least once month, even if it's not too far away. Please exclude business travel. I know if it was included it would make the list more impressive, but these are supposed to be places you go to explore or for vacation. Home Base: Chicago March 2011: Cincinnati April 2011: Ann Arbor and Detroit April 2011: Los Angeles, Palm Springs (Coachella Music Festival) May 2011: Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City June 2011: Indianapolis July 2011: Toronto September 2011: Madison, WI --------------------------------------- September 2011: Washington DC October 2011: Pittsburgh October 2011: Milwaukee (Riding my bike there!!!!!!!) November 2011: Ann Arbor and Detroit November 2011: Saginaw ,MI December 2011: Saginaw, MI April 2012: Atlanta, Seattle, and Los Angeles. June 2012: Minneapolis August 2012: San Francisco As you can see, I don't travel much between January and February. The reason is my paid time off from work is pretty much all used up from the holiday season. I don't accrue a decent amount of time off until March where I can take off several days in a row. Another thing is, I don't like traveling to other cities where it's still mildly cold. I'm usually going to take pictures and want the best weather possible.

Great housing stock!

This fall is really going to be buzzing with new highrise activity and I hope to get a bunch of photos. But what really has me interested is this project not far from my apartment. The owners of Atrium Village, a mixed income community intend to upsize their community with more units and enlarged park space. They would demolish and replace the existing apartment buildings with higher density development. I really hope the NIMBYs don't kill this one. The plans also a suggest a brown line station on the L. There used to be a station there until 1949. All photos are from archpaper.com ATRIUM VILLAGE Existing building in Atrium Village source yelp

I'm sorry, X but I disagree. You as the driver are human, and in an urban environment can't with high enough accuracy judge the speed of a bicycle within those moments which is how so many bicyclist get hit. Illinois law requires drivers turning right to STOP and let approaching bicyclists on the right pass. These same laws applied when I was in Michigan...and California....so I'm sure many other states have that explicitly stated. And originaljbw I disagree as well. Bicyclists can travel just as fast or faster than vehicles in the city. The speed limit is 25-30 mph in the city...speeds achievable by at least 15% of cyclists regularly. In fact, because they are more maneuverable, it's easier to get up to speed limit. Drivers must yield to cyclists on close approach in the city. It's the law. It's also illegal to attempt to overtake a cyclist to make a right turn. It is not illegal to stop on a green when you have a valid reason to. It's called yielding to pedestrians and cyclists, which is posted on signage in many places. My actions were reasonable, the cyclists in each of these incidents were 2 car lengths behind me. That would just be plain stupid for me to turn in front of them since they would obviously have to slam on their brakes. Maybe it's different where you live, but in downtown Chicago you have a lot visual noise. I'd rather drive defensively and go by the rules of the book especially since I hadn't driven in a very long time. Furthermore, I've never been in an accident or even bumped into anything. I'd like to keep it that way. From Cyberdrive Illinois Rules of the Road

EXACTLY!!!!!!! Not in Chicago, but somewhere else I had a driver driving in the bike lane behind me laying on their horn. I just hit the brakes and sat there. The only 4-wheeled vehicles allowed in this lane are emergency ones and clearly you aren't one of those.

Another one of my bike-car related pet peeves. I've been driving more around the city lately. And because I bike 95% of the time vs driving, I tend to be more conscious on the road of cyclists. For example, when I'm about to make a right turn, I'll USUALLY slow down to a near complete stop on a green light to perform a right turn to double check for bicyclists in the lane to my right or look out for pedestrians. But I've had at least 3 incidents of cars nearly rear ending me. And it's not like I'm slamming on the brakes, I'm slowing down gradually. Two of those times, there were in fact bicyclists quickly approaching behind me. And one of those drivers was laying on the horn angry. I wasn't in a hurry, so I just allowed the stale green to go red to make him wait longer. On another scary story, driving into town sunday morning around 3 am, I had a drunk motorcyclist driving 1 foot behind my car. Yup, 1 foot. I could see all the clear details on her face in my rearview mirror. Moments later there were blue lights behind. I pulled over just to be certain and she goes around me! Police car then follows her down the street more. So basically that's (likely DUI) following another vehicle to closely and failure to pull over for an officer. Here in Illinois, you drink, you drive, you're done on the road.

LOL, I don't want to be a part of the great debate. I use both machines everyday, technically PCs more. But when I get home, I appreciate the minimalism of macs. I'm so bombarded everyday by technology it's nice to have an iphone that does it all, and an all in one computer that is powerful enough to render and leave 300 photos open in photoshop. This hard drive is my only big deal. Like most people who use computers. I buy, minimally upgrade, and after 4 years, donate and replace it.

Okay, I read the documents and I should distinguish between Apple Warranty and Apple Care While under warranty, you may not remove the LCD panel to replace parts. Since one year has passed, I'm free to open up the computer since the warranty no longer applies. However, I still have Apple Care. Under such, I may open my computer. All original components are covered. However the new hard drive I install is not covered since it's not an original component. I will be replacing my existing WD 500 GB drive with a 2 TB one. I haven't decided what to do with the existing hard drive. Maybe I'll reformat and see if I can install it in my Desktop at work. I'm near 3 TB of files at work!!! I have 3 passport drives on my desk to hold half of that.

The city changed the zoning designation in the historic Motor Row to block future residential development. It will assist in the preservation of some the buildings and develop the area into an entertainment district. This is very good news as the area lacks a good business district, but the type of buildings on Motor Row certainly lend themselves to what could be a vibrant place http://www.suntimes.com/7409066-417/city-council-moves-to-transform-motor-row-into-music-row.html