Nostalgic for the pre-Mapquest world? Do your dogeared city guides and abused atlases sit proudly on your bookshelves? Have we got an event for you. The citywide Festival of Maps kicks off tomorrow, and is a tribute to those simpler, flatter world guides we’d consult constantly before the internets helped us find the best non-highway crosstown routes quicker than you could say "Western Avenue." It’s the first fest of its kind, and is a collaboration......

One of Chicago's newest aldermen, Bob Fioretti (2nd) is taking heat from one of the city's older hotels. The 14-story Congress Plaza Hotel, designed and built to accommodate visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, has been embroiled in a strike with UNITE HERE Local 1 since June 2003. According to Crain's Chicago Business, the hotel, owned by Albert Nasser Shayo, a Syrian globe-trotting businessman with residences in New York, Argentina, and Switzerland, who......

Chicago History Books?...

If you take a walk down Erie just a few blocks west of the hustle-and-bustle (and slow-walking) of Michigan Avenue, you'll find yourself surrounded by grand, newly-rehabbed architecture of yesteryear — namely, the Cable House, Nickerson House, and the John B. Murphy Auditorium. What began as admiration by a young man named Richard Driehaus turned into a full-fledged labor of love. Driehaus noticed the old mansions years ago, when he would park on Erie to......

Today’s your last chance to visit ARTropolis. It’s “Student Day” at Art Chicago, where students, professors, and professionals discuss the basics of an arts career. A pass admitting two people to five fairs is $15. The Illinois Bureau of Tourism has announced its Seven Wonders of Illinois, the top regional attractions selected by popular vote. Cubs fans hit the polls early and often, naming Wrigley Field Chicago’s top attraction. Wilmette’s gorgeous Baha'i Temple represents......

Some of us are still recovering from last week's Four Questions, but our readers have an insatiable thirst for answers. One recently posed an interesting question to us concerning Chicago's Olympic bid and the city's flag. As all Chicagoans no doubt know, the city's flag includes three white bars, two blue bars and four six-sided stars. The three white bars signify the North, West and South sides of the city, while the blue bars......

Winter heralds a kind of hibernation in Chicago. Present balmy weather excepted, the colder temps discourage the usual plans that would be a great idea in spring or summer. Citizens hunker down in their radiator-kissed apartments, ignoring the world at large outside. That's why now is the perfect time to shut down the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier for maintenance and repairs. Before the end of January, the 150-foot whirling dervish will wind down until......

We here at Chicagoist love good ideas. We’re so joyful when a simple idea benefits almost everyone, and even more joyful when that good idea benefits historic architecture. The Columbian Exposition of 1893 is probably our most famous world’s fair, but in 1933 Chicago hosted the Century of Progress World's Fair. The fair celebrated design and technology, emphasized by its many streamlined Art Deco buildings. One of the finer points of the 1933 World’s Fair......

Once again, we building lovers are put on the defense. Landmarks Illinois has come out with its fifth annual Chicagoland Watchlist. There are twelve buildings on the list in danger of demolition, including the Chicago Daily Defender Building and the Lakeshore Athletic Club. But the one that made our hearts sink is the Chicago Athletic Association. Losing any historic building is hard, but losing this one would be like cutting out Chicagoist’s heart, a little......

Nothing gets us raging (pun intended) with city pride more than telling people about the Great Chicago Fire. Today marks the 135th anniversary of the fire's two-day rampage. And what a rampage it was! In the weeks before the fire, severe drought cracked the wooden sidewalks and made Chicago a tinder box. All it took was one heavily disputed incendiary incident -- hey, all we know for sure is that it started on DeKoven......

In case you feel like we haven't thrown enough weekend options your way, the Fall Art Season gets underway in earnest tonight. More than 50 galleries are opening exhibits, and that's not counting the dozens of Around the Coyote sites showing off local artists tonight through Sunday. (Remember that the ATC Fest is, once again, your last chance to see Thax Douglas.) Among the highlights: Lee Balterman @ Stephen Daiter Gallery Balterman’s photos capture “the......

What can be said about Millennium Park that hasn’t already been said? If the horse is dead, can we still beat it? There is more to be said, and Timothy Gilfoyle is the one to say it. Gilfoyle is a professor of American History at Loyola, and knows loads about Millennium Park. His new book “Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark”, starts with the history of the park back in the 1850’s and brings us......

We tipped you off a little while ago to the goings-on at Navy Pier. We now have more details on the revamp, and more on the inevitable and totally valid crankiness of local residents. First, we can now confirm that the proposal includes a larger Ferris wheel “closer to the size of the original built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition[.]” Yikes. Wikipedia’s telling us that that Ferris wheel could carry 2,160 people at a......

Daley says he favors a less restrictive smoking ban, the city council still can't agree on anything. This month anthropologists will begin photographing about 20,000 Columbian Exposition items with the goal of making them available on the InterWeb by Sept. 2007. Actual good CTA news: Daley puts the kabash on the CTA fare hike for disabled. The Chicago Card is free from now til March. We can now load up our CTA cards &......

Remember 2004, when every single person on the bus and the "L" seemed to be simultaneously reading The Devil in the White City? Chicagoist was one of those entranced readers, and though we secretly dug the chapters about H. H. Holmes infinitely more than the detailed descriptions of pre-Columbian Exposition politics and planning, we did lament our inability to experience the "White City" in its new electric glory. Enter Lisa Snyder, an architectural historian and......