Along with the 100 workers Motorola Solutions plans to bring downtown, the Schaumburg-based company also hopes to install its name in place of the sign that for decades has read “Santa Fe.” more ›

The proposed redesigns of Navy Pier were released earlier this week. Some love it. Some hate it. And some wish the redesign teams would stop using Daniel Burnham's words out of context to explain their own vision. Personally, while we have no idea why the city would want a glacier jutting out of the lake 365 days a year as proposed by !melk/HOK/UrbanLab, we do like the layered and intricate walkways imagined by Davis Brody Bond/Aedas/Martha Schwartz Partners. more ›

We pulled out our Google shovel and started digging, only to discover this video first debuted two years ago in conjunction with the Burnham Plan Centennial. more ›

Two very different visions of Chicago’s future on public display right now. There is the ruinous pocked street scape from the high-profile carnage of Transformers 3 film sets laying waste to our town's iconic sites. And there is the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s GO TO 2040, a 400+ page sequel to Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago with high hopes for the Chi in the decades to come. Think of this as Optimus Prime vs. Primarily Optimistic. And while it lacks stars, throngs of gawkers, wrecked cars and wall-to-wall media attention, CMAP’s plan has the advantage of being far more approachable than Shia LaBeouf or Josh Duhamel---heck, the folks pulling GO TO 2040 together actually want your input. more ›

No question about it: we love It's a Wonderful Life as much as the next person, but every December there are times when we desperately need to take a break from the omnipresent holiday cheer. And this year, with multiple Jim Carreys thrust into people's faces, it's more important than ever to have cinematic options that are devoid of yuletude. Here are some suggestions. more ›

The lakefront at Chicago that's open to the public stretches for 26 miles. But one group - Friends of the Park - wants to see that stretched just a bit further, citing Daniel Burnham: “The Lakefront by right belongs to the people - not a foot of its shores should be appropriated to the exclusion of the people." The group unveiled a plan this morning that would see the four miles still considered private property developed and opened up to the general public. The plan is called The Last Four Miles and features a detailed plan on how the still-private areas of lakefront would be developed. The downside? A hefty price tag: the group estimates the work would cost somewhere between $350 million and $450 million. And, regardless of the cost, not everyone is on board with the plan. Mike Truppa, a spokesman for Friends of the Parks, told the Sun-Times, “There’s some dissent. There’s a small group of homeowners in high-rise condos who use the lakefront as their private beaches...mainly in Rogers Park and Edgewater." If completed, the lakefront paths would stretch from the Illinois/Indiana border to the south all the way to Evanston on the north. The Tribune also has a detailed run-down of some of the proposed development plans. more ›

How much huge, interactive, contemporary art is too much? Millennium Park is trying to find out. Besides the four large Chinese sculptures on display starting tomorrow, two temporary pavilions will also be joining the cavalcade of spectacle in the park this June. The "Burnham Pavilions" are being installed by The Burnham Plan Centennial, a group who, as the name obviously implies, is celebrating the 100 year anniversary of architect Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago. The pavilions are "intended to echo the audacity of the 1909 Burnham Plan, which proclaimed, 'What we as a people decide to do in the public interest we can and surely will bring to pass.'" more ›

• Police have arrested Marni Yang in connection with the 2007 murder of Rhoni Reuter who, at the time, was pregnant with the child of former Bears star Shaun Gayle.
• It seems Rahm Emanuel has several earmarks, worth $8.5 million, in a bill that's before the U.S. Senate this week.
• The City of Chicago has signed on its 11th PR firm, bringing the grand total of money being spent on PR to $55 million.

Sean Chercover definitely writes what he knows. In his debut novel, Big City, Bad Blood, Chercover takes us on a ride with private investigator Ray Dudgeon. Dudgeon is hired to protect a Hollywood patsy, Bob Loniski, who saw something he shouldn’t have and is now being hunted by the Chicago Outfit. Chercover himself was a private eye, and obviously a lover of Chicago, and his knowledge of both make for an enjoyable read. more ›

Whew, Chicagoist had a busy weekend. We had some friends in from out of town, so we went downtown and had a look at some buildings. Luckily spring is arriving, so even behind the scaffolding of the Federal Center, we could see the easy simplicity of Mies van der Rohe’s big black boxes. We told our friends that “less is more” and “God is in the details” and about the evolution of Chicago’s architecture. We... more ›

What's Up With the Diagonals? more ›

Everyone knows how important it is to have a mentor. Even the most savvy and successful individuals needed a leg up at some point. This week we learned that even the mighty Queen of Everything once got some help from a guy in the balcony. Last Monday, Oprah Winfrey told her audience that none other than Roger Ebert convinced her to take her show into the lucrative world of syndication. This occurred while the two... more ›