Blair Kamin

St. Regis Chicago from McClurg Court.

As Harold Washington Library nears 35, officials seek new chapter for the institution The city — the world — has changed since the library's 1991 debut. Can the Harold Washington Library's programming and design change also?

chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...

Editorial: A new CTA day for Edgewater and Uptown. But what about Broadway? None of these new CTA stations are architectural marvels. But they’re also all vast improvements.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/22/e...

Edward Keegan: The future of public housing is on Chicago’s Taylor Street Chicago’s new National Public Housing Museum and Roosevelt Square mixed-use apartments show glimmers of architectural success.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/13/c...

Former Lincoln Yards site to become smaller, walkable residential community, developer says. ‘Bigger is not necessarily better.’ The new 31-acre development, called Foundry Park, will eventually total about two to three thousand units, including single-family homes, condos, rental apartments, townhomes and affordable housing…

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/10/l...

City panel to weigh revitalization of LaSalle Street skyscraper If it makes it through the approval process, the planned work would comprise a significant first step of a $241 million effort to turn the Field Building into a mixed-use tower.

chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...

Edward Keegan: NASCAR has embraced the Chicago backdrop, but will it return? The NASCAR Chicago Street Race is an exceptionally well-conceived and packaged mirror of the city.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/29/c...

Back from Ireland, where they know how to make stone walls sing.

A peek at the Thompson Center’s new curtain wall.

Edward Keegan: Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home an example of the ordinary architecture Chicago does well In Chicago, whether it’s architecture or Catholicism, we do ordinary very well. It’s one reason we now call Pope Leo XIV our own.

An insightful column by Edward Keegan connects the childhood home and church of the new pope to the ordinary architecture that Chicago does so well—Chicago Tribune. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/18/c...

Glencoe’s Frank Lloyd Wright cottage fundraising to open architectural gem Glencoe’s Ravine Bluffs Cottage, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, has had a colorful past — being physically moved twice and last year being renamed because its namesake had an ugly racist history. …

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/13/g...

Marilyn Hasbrouck, co-owner of architecture-themed Prairie Avenue Bookshop, dies at 91 She created a bookstore that was a meeting ground for architects and design devotees, where buyers could find rare works or the latest ones — then kick back in furniture designed by the likes of Mies ...

chicago.suntimes.com/obituaries/2...

How the new Pope Leo XIV’s childhood church in Chicago fell into disrepair — and what may lie ahead Many sites associated with past popes have become museums or holy destinations for the faithful. But Pope Leo XIV’s childhood church closed years ago.

How the new Pope Leo XIV's childhood church in Chicago fell into disrepair — and what may lie ahead—Chicago Tribune www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/10/p...

Congratulations, Alexandra Lange!

Arlington Park’s rebirth: What closing the deal on a Bears stadium represents for the Northwest suburb's new mayor The Chicago Bears have flirted with building a stadium in Arlington Heights for more than 50 years. The new mayor aims for a long-term commitment.

A little-known architect, now mayor of Arlington Heights, will lead the effort to lure the Chicago Bears to the site of the former Arlington Park racetrack. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/04/c...

Eternity in lacy concrete: Baha’i Temple, Wilmette, Illinois.

Edward Keegan: Millennium Park has failed to live up to its promise Ticketed events should be the rare exception at Millennium Park. Gates and fences should be eliminated.

With security barriers and ticketed events, Millennium Park is failing to live up to its identity as a great public space Ed Keegan in the Chicago Tribune—https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/03/column-millennium-park-chicago-keegan/

Bernie Mac's high school, a Frank Lloyd Wright home are among the state's 'most endangered' buildings Buildings on the list "all celebrate cultural heritage and tell the important stories of the people who have shaped our communities," Landmarks Illinois CEO Bonnie McDonald said.

chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...

A casualty of a car crash and Father Time, a long-neglected Jackson Park pavilion needs help The historic structure, designed by D.H. Burnham & Company, must be restored.

chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...

Long-awaited DuSable Park takes a big step forward Chicagoans have waited 38 years for this park honoring DuSable. But now the wait appears to be ending.

chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...

Pope Francis is an urban critic Who knew? Pope Francis is an urban critic — a tad earnest, perhaps, but as lucid and biting as they come. One of the most intriguing aspects of the pope’s new encyclical on climate chan…

RIP to a great spiritual leader, Pope Francis, who paid laudable attention to the built and natural environments, preaching the virtues of equity and humanity in urban design. My column about his encyclical on our ‘common home’: www.chicagotribune.com/2015/06/19/p...

Edward Keegan: Eero Saarinen’s particularly strange house in Columbus, Indiana The Miller House in Columbus, Indiana, is a challenging piece of architecture that can delight, surprise and befuddle.

Edward Keegan in Chicago Tribune on Eero Saarinen’s glorious, and “particularly strange,” Miller House in Columbus, Indiana www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/20/e...

St. Thomas no More? Archdiocese to end services at Ashburn church next month The 67-year-old St. Thomas More — a striking example of modernist Catholic ecclesiastical design — will hold its last liturgy on May 25 and will no longer function as a church after that.

chicago.suntimes.com/religion/202...

Pope Places Antoni Gaudí, ‘God’s Architect,’ on Path to Sainthood Pope Francis on Monday signed a decree that recognized the 20th-century visionary’s “heroic virtues” and put him on the path to possible sainthood.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/w...

Vulgarian at the gates.

North Lawndale's historic Sears sunken garden closer to start of restoration project Restoration work on the garden's main feature, a 100-foot long Mediterranean Revival-styled pergola, is set to begin this summer.

chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...

Pullman community steps on the gas to reopen historic Greenstone Church Neighbors have raised $20,000 to reopen Greenstone Church in Pullman, which has been shuttered for years because of unpaid bills.

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/14/p...

Two more projects in La Salle Street revamp in line for $65M in city subsidies The City Council Finance Committee Monday authorized the twin subsidies for 111 W. Monroe and 208 S. LaSalle from the cash-rich Central Loop TIF, advancing the "LaSalle Street Re-Imagined" project con...

chicago.suntimes.com/politics/202...

Conservation group seeks better protection for city's iconic lakefront Given the constant churn of development proposed for the lakefront and the nearby neighborhoods, now is a good time to rethink the laws that are supposed to safeguard the iconic waterfront.

chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2...

Edward Keegan: Wrigley Field is losing some of its magic with demolished historic buildings Three vintage three-flats represented Wrigley Field’s history and the architecture that has made Chicago’s neighborhoods enduring.

A passionate, piercingly articulate Edward Keegan column in the Chicago Tribune bemoans changes to, and around, Wrigley Field. He sees these changes as representative of soulless new construction all around Chicago. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/06/c...