Chicago magazine blew it the kiss of death just months ago, decreeing it the “hottest neighborhood in America.” Before long, the collapse in credit markets and declining home prices started dominating America’s front pages, making the thousands of new condo units in the works for the South Loop over the next few years a dark cloud over the neighborhood’s recent prosperity. And sure enough, just this month, major real estate developer Lennar Corp. bailed out of a high-rise condo project, even with construction already underway. Of course, the work goes on, now as a rental project, for, while condo prices are no longer rising, downtown rents have hit all-time highs.
Fine Arts Building Act Two: Depression and Decline, Charles Curtiss Dies The Fine Arts Building was not just a home for Chicago’s working artists and crafters but a performance showplace, the city’s most popular destination for musical instruction, and a hotbed of intellectual ferment where artistic ideas and social movements were born. But there were signs the building’s influence was starting to wane.
