Chicago is Manhattanizing--like it or not

Interesting article from November's New Homes Magazine. Click the link to read the whole thing: 'Manhattanization' is changing the face of downtown Chicago Twenty-five years ago, a stroll south down Wabash Avenue toward the Chicago River on the Near North Side of Chicago was sooty and uneventful. A highlight might have been the aroma of fresh-baked deep-dish pizza wafting from UnoÂ's and DueÂ's, legendary pizzerias housed in two Victorian buildings that still stand on Wabash Avenue between Ohio Street and Grand Avenue. Nearby, stood the aging Medina Temple and the landmark Tree Studios, an artist and writerÂ's haven at State and Ohio streets. Then youÂ'd stroll pass a series of rundown loft buildings and a couple of newer residential highrises before the Wabash Avenue bridge came into view – flanked by the squat Chicago Sun-Times Building on the left and the IBM Building, on the right. A decade or so earlier, before Mies van der Rohe designed the stately IBM Building, the riverfront site was a parking lot dotted with three-story buildings, including Gitano, a rowdy flamenco nightclub. Today, if you walk south down Wabash Avenue toward the river in what is now called River North, itÂ's like strolling through the bottom of a dark highrise canyon in Manhattan. And the bumper-to-bumper traffic makes the neighborhood nearly as congested as Midtown New York. For more, click: http://www.**************/NHNew/Colum...ter2005-06.htm>