What Lauren Patron does with a drink is akin to what Theaster Gates does with abandoned buildings: enhance what everyone overlooks into something legendary. Still Steve Harvey’s favorite bartender, as the newly appointed bar manager for Chicago’s latest entry into the luxe hotel renaissance that has taken over the city (she built out the Loews Chicago bar portfolio before coming to the Kimpton), Parton is on a mission to make Vol. 39 the ultimate Chicago destination spot. And even as she moves into the corporate side of the business, don’t let the pantsuit fool you, still a liberationist.
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.
