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Dear Great Pumpkin...

Halloween is almost here, and as the leaves fall, Chicago's cranes rise, bringing sweet treats to all the good little architects and developers.

The latest morsel plunked into our plastic pumpkin is JDL's North Union development, which has just been scheduled for a public hearing two weeks from Thursday. This will transform all of that underused land behind the Moody Bible Institute into... wonderful things.

Until that happens, here are some other bonne bouches to tide you over.

Seventy-Six-Story South Loop Skyscraper Officially Finished
While you’re shining up your comically oversized turkey fork for Thanksgiving, keep it handy for your next trip to the South Loop. There, you can stick it in NEMA Chicago, because that building is done.

Downtown Chicago Fertile Ground for Mechanical Beanstalks
If you’re going to get jumped in downtown Chicago, try to be a crane.

Chicago Skyscraper Developers Adjust to Work-From-Home Era
We love working from home the way a Sox fan loves a bar fight. But not everyone has the luxury of a private balcony from which they can watch a hawk disassemble a pigeon on the roof of the Bankers Building during a Zoom meeting.

Lincoln Park Church Wants to Add Mid-Rise Residential Building
In Chicago, church-to-residence conversions are as common as Mexican restaurants on Check, Please!. It’s getting so that you can’t swing a censer without knocking out a stained glass living room feature window.

Another Hotel Coming to Downtown Chicago
It’s a brand we have not heard of before, and searching the interwebs for “Stob” only turns up a village in Bulgaria. So we will posit that “Stob” is slang for “Just killed another surface parking lot.”

West Loop Office Building Moves Forward
The project was designed by Antunovich Associates, and will preserve the evocative four-story code orange pile on the corner of Randolph and Jefferson streets. Though its new 15-story cousin will hang over part of the older building.

Le Colonial’s Former Colony Under Siege
937 was the home of Le Colonial, one of the Gold Coast’s social touchstones. A frequent haunt of shopgirls and their clients, ladies who lunch, and people trying to channel their inner Graham Greene or Somerset Maugham over rice crepes and under palm fronds.

Open House Chicago Now In Extended Play Mode
Obviously, none of this is the Chicago Architecture Center’s fault. It washes its hands. It wears a mask in public. It’s been Lysoling the joint like a five-year-old running around with imaginary Cootie Spray.

Jim Lowenberg 1934-2020
Where some saw stain on the city’s urban fabric, Mr. Lowenberg saw a vibrant community of green grass and blue glass rising into the Chicago skyline.

A New Skyscraper Opens in The Loop
If you work in this building and don’t have a corner office, that means there are at least 14 people more important than you in the company.

This week’s taste of Chicago comes from Skinner Bark Park in West Town. Local bitzers and their owners recently celebrated the sixth anniversary of the opening of what is officially known as Chicago Park 569 Dog Friendly Area with a fundraiser. They raised $6,000 for the care and feeding of this little patch of green in downtown Chicago.

Photograph by Skewed View Photography, courtesy of 1400 Monroe. 1400 Monroe is a Silver Paw sponsor of Skinner Bark Park.

Programming notes:

We’re still locked out of our Facebook account, which is annoying, but we've been kicked out of better places. We’re still poking around on Twitter when we have a story to share. RSS feeds are still a thing, too.

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