Slice of Life: Flagging Construction

A huge American flag has been unfurled across Cirrus at K Station (365 North Jefferson Street) as it stretches toward its eventual 39-story height.

Slice of Life: Perspective Under the El

Horizon lines on the ground merge with their lofty counterparts created by the CTA's Brown and Pink line tracks near the Ashland Station (1601 West Lake Street) above Lake Street.

Chicago's Meat Packing District

We've published several photos from Chicago's meat packing district in the last few weeks.  It's one of those places that most people assume exists, but few have actually been to.

Does Chicago's meat packing district actually pack meat?  The answer is an unqualified "yes."  And not just meat.  There's a chicken nugget factory and a few places that pack seafood.

But it's clear from a recent tour of the area that it's not what it once was.  It seemed like about half of the spaces that were once slaughterhouses and cold storage facilities are now art galleries, pricey restaurants, and soft lofts.

My late father was tangentially involved in the meat packing industry and as a child I would occasionally spend time in New York's meat packing district.  Wandering the streets of Chicago's version, I felt right at home, once again dodging the fork lifts and listening to the chatter of men with large knives and long white coats.

Getting to Chicago's meat packing district by public transportation isn't convenient, but it's worth the trouble.  For a quickie self-guided tour, head to the intersection of West Fulton Street and North Halsted Street and start walking west.  Keep an eye open for a working class pub and have lunch.  Then wander around a little and head back toward the Loop.  It's a good way to spend an afternoon seeing something new in your own backyard.

The Really Secure Railroad Crossing

We've all seen it on the news -- Random Driver decides to go around the striped arm at a railroad crossing and ends up meeting his maker sooner than expected.

That won't happen at this railroad crossing in West Town.  Not only is there a crossbuck, there are flashing lights, a bell, a crossing arm with reflective stripes and blinking lights, and…  huge concrete Jersey barriers.

Yes, the crossing guard is fully functional.  We snapped this photo as a Metra engine was zipping by unafraid that the SUV might suddenly jump over the concrete wall and challenge its supremacy.

After all, this isn't Houston.*


(*Inside joke about how SUV drivers in Houston are constantly crashing into its light rail trains because they believe the train will yield to a big enough truck.)

Slice of Life: Heart in His Hands

A bridge abutment on North Union Street is the home of this time-worn piece of art.  It's a depiction of a human heart being cradled in a pair of human hands.  Is it creepy?  Maybe.  Is it a social statement?  Who can say?  It's always just wonderful to stumble across works of art in unexpected places.

The Say Good-Bye Gallery

Many of the more enduring memories I have of being a child in the 1970's were of the horrible predictions of things to come.  For some reason the teachers I had in school were always teaching us about things that would very shortly bring about the end of the world.

I remember being taught that there's not enough food in America to support 300 million people.  Now we have 350 million and we're mostly fat.

I remember being taught that the world would run out of water by 1985.  Chicago just had its wettest summer in decades.

I remember being taught that the next ice age was at hand and that the earth was in danger of freezing.  Now we're all aquiver about global warming.

I remember being taught that we'd all die of cancer because of the ozone hole.  Now kids ask, "The ozone what?"

Latch-key kids, crack babies, MSG, and Pac-Man were all signs of the apocalypse.

In summary, every bad thing that could happen would, and we'd all be dead before we finished puberty.  The best scientists of the day firmly believed in Global Cooling/New Ice Age and it made the covers of the news magazines.  Maybe the nuns exposed us to it all in order to give us another reason to pray.

I don't think it was just the nuns who were caught up in environmental hysteria back then.  Check out the "Say Good-Bye Gallery" painted along the railroad viaduct along West Hubbard Street at North Union Street.

The faded and peeling paint proclaims, "Dedicated to our endangered species."  On the wall are murals showing many of the creatures that people in 1974 thought they would shortly have to live without.

It's hard to make out most of the critters, but it provides an interesting glimpse into the mindset of people at the time.  It also shows how nature ultimately wins all battles, since there are trees now blocking where the mural was painted.

Of course, as man can destroy, man can also preserve.  And while I don't go in for a lot of the "green" hype that's thrown around these days, I am above average in my environmental responsibility according to Al Gore's web site.

Let's just hope mountain lions and coyotes really don't start marching down Wacker Drive in search of human blood because there's no water in the prairies for them to drink.

Slice of Life: Our Favorite Alley

Historic cobblestones?  Check!
Overflowing vegetation?  Check!
Dark tunnel?  Check!
Trains rumbling above?  Bonus check!

This little stretch of cobbles linking West Grand Avenue with West Hubbard Street is our new favorite Chicago alley.  Of course, visiting with the noonday sun at our backs is easy.  Coming back after dark is where the challenge lies.

Slice of Life: Chocolate Neighbors

So, what's the story with this picture?  We spotted this South Bend Chocolate Company truck leaving Chicago's own Blommer Chocolate factory (600 West Kinzie Street) in West Town.

South Bend Chocolate has its own factory in Indiana.  So maybe it was just one chocolate factory borrowing a ton of sugar from a neighbor the way you might bum a beer from the guy down the hall.

Check out the history section at Blommer's web site.  I don't think most people realize that Blommer has factories across the country.  More importantly, it has a machine that can pump 1,000 pounds of liquid chocolate per minute.  Just writing that triggered my drool reflex.

Status Update: Alta and Cirrus at K Station

The twin towers of Alta and Cirrus reach into a cloudless sky at K Station, the high rise community going up in West Town.

One Hines Done, Another Hines May Not Happen

If you've scanned the Chicago skyline lately, you've probably noticed that the Hines tower at 300 North LaSalle is pretty close to done.  Just about.  Almost.  But another Hines project a few blocks away at 414 West Lake is in jeopardy.

For months we though that the big shiny tower that Hines was planning to build along the Amtrak tracks next to the Riverbend Condominiums was cancelled.  Now we learn from Crain's Chicago Business that it's not dead, it's just pining for the fjords.

The article says that Hines is having a hard time getting banks to lend it the half-billion dollars is needs to make the 52-story project a reality, even though it already has two anchor tenants lined up.

Of course, in these tough economic times banks are reluctant to lend money to anyone, so it's not necessarily Hines' fault.  But it does illustrate why America is falling farther and farther behind in the skyscraper race.  In pretty much every country in Asia and the Middle East, if you have a big company and want to build a skyscraper, you go out and build it, paying for it up front and reaping the rewards on the back end.

In America and Europe, companies borrow money to build skyscrapers, build them with someone else's money, then hope to make enough money on the back end to pay off the debt plus interest.   So in essence, the developer (Hines, or whomever) hasn't built a skyscraper -- the bank has.  But the developer takes the credit.

It's that kind of deeply engrained house of cards mentality that caused the current economic crisis.  There's a mantra in American real estate which states, "Never build with your money, you build with someone else's."  Such a thought shows that these companies have no pride in what they're doing, or faith that their projects will work since they just shift the risk onto the bank.  It would be unthinkable to do such a thing in other cultures that value personal responsibility.

If your company doesn't have the money to build a skyscraper, then it's not all that big a company, is it?  All those brochures with pictures of shiny buildings -- they all belong to someone else, don't they?  So, what's the point of having your company at all?  Why not just deal with the banks?  Well, that's the way it seems to be going once again.

In the 40's and 50's and 60's, it was banks and insurance companies that built skyscrapers (the John Hancock Center , for example).  Then it went to developers.  Now the banks are getting back into the game -- cutting out the middle man.

That's why in ten years the ten tallest buildings in the world are not going to be in America.  But real estate people will keep telling themselves that it's better to build with someone else's money.

How's that working out for you, Hines?

Another parking lot bites the dust (we hope)

If there's one thing that doesn't belong in downtown Chicago it's surface parking lots.  They contribute virtually nothing to the economic, social, and visual vitality of the area.  And fortunately, there may be one fewer soon.

According to the Fulton River District e-mail bulletin, the parking lot at 108 North Jefferson could soon make way for a multi-use building.


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That's the lot a block behind the Citigroup Center, northwest of the ABN AMRO Technology Center.


As more and more people move into the area, we can hope that fewer and fewer surface parking lots will survive and the area can become a thriving home to thousand of new Chicagoans.