Tarot to Tacos - Upscaling of State north of Viagra starts small, with velvet

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It was back in January that we wrote about the big changes coming to Rush and State Streets just north of Viagra Triangle.  So far, though, it's pretty much been the sound of crickets, as a number of ambitious projects seem to be going nowhere.

At the start of the year, bulldozers made quick work of the 1919 Regina Court apartments at Elm and State, to make way for Solomon Cordwell Buenz's 4 East Elm, a 25-story, 335-foot-high tower to hold all of 40 units.  Are we running out of rich people?  Regina Court was nothing but remnant debris all the way back in March, but three months later, the site remains strangely somnolent, clean as a whistle but with no signs of life . . .

Other nearby projects, lingering for years, remain unrealized.  Despite announcements of everything from tearing it down for a new Hotel Mondrian to other upscale rehabs, the Cedar Hotel, with its rich terra cotta ornament, remains empty, the only occupant the seasonal open air bar, formerly best known as Man vs. Margarita, which has survived as an popular and often packed singles hangout for still one more summer.

Just a block to the south, the site where the Hunt Club once stood also appears to continue, despite a succession of development proposals, to be uncontaminated by any signs of life.  (Although the townhouse next store that once was home to the Waterfront restaurant either has or is about to be demolished.)

Surprisingly, it's what's in between the Hunt Club and Cedar Hotel that's winning the first-to-the-finish-line sweepstakes, in a modest (and much to be modest about) structure that had been the only Subway sandwich shop with its own astrologer, Mrs. Devon.

Within the last couple weeks, workers have been assiduously scraping all signs of Subway's identify from the building.

According to a story by Micah Maidenberg in today's Crain's Chicago Business, the structure is to rehabbed into the two-story Chicago outpost of Velvet Taco, the Texas-based chain that serves up 21 different kinds of tacos with distinctive fillings such as calamari, kimchi, and farm-raised mammoth meat.  No word yet as to whether tufted fabric will be available either as an ingredient or wrapper.

Read More About the Changing Face of Rush (and State) Streets . . . 

Bertrand Goldberg's Walton Gardens: The History of Rush Street through the Eyes of a Single Building.

A Walk Through the City on a Warm December Night . . .

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 continue the journey, after the break

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Later that same night . . .

Art Friday: Kanecko Finally Re-Opens; Red Tables on State; and a Great New Gallery Arises Out of Block 37's Ruin

I've just decided that I won't be able to finish up my story on the winning entries to the Chicago Architectural Club's bus rapid transit shelter competition until next week, so for this weekend - in addition to this year's Chicago Blues Festival and the Printers Row Lit Fest, here are a few more great things to visit in Chicago.

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It's been almost two months, but Millennium Park's Jun Kanecko Exhibition is finally open, and it's a wonder.  Opening day, April 12th, there was an accident involving some idiot climbing on one of the colorful, oversized ceramics, and the show was shut down to allow all the sculptures to be more securely seated.

 

The North Boeing Gallery, filled with Kanecko's whimsical Tanuki's, re-opened a week or two ago, and the South Gallery, filled with more traditionally sculptural Dangos, has now re-opened as well, complete with new signs reminding people, �Do Not Climb on the Sculptures�.

Dango means �rounded form� or �dumpling�, while the Tanuki �is considered to be a trickster who causes trouble and mayhem in both the human and supernatural worlds,� which will probably be the legal defense of the person who damaged the art - �a Tanuki made me do it�.  It's a delightful addition, running through November 3rd, as custom-made for photo-ops as Kapoor's bean.

Meanwhile, over on State Street, art meets street furniture in something called �The Gateway� an experiment in placemaking from the Chicago Loop Alliance designed to mark the entry into the Loop at the expanded median just south of Wacker and a way to animate an underused asset with fire engine red tables, blue chairs, and, perhaps most importantly, active management by a cleaning team and support staff from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily through September, providing an Al Fresco meeting place for patrons of neighboring restaurants and fast-food joints, including a soon-to-open Chick-fil-A in the Page Brothers Building . . .

. . . where yesterday morning finishing touches were being applied as uniforms, personally addressed to each new employee, were arrayed along a window-side counter.

Our last item today may be the most interesting.

Block Thirty Seven Pop-Up Gallery Opens

The Chicago Loop Alliance has taken on a 17,000-square-foot, never-occupied space in the tenant-challenged Block 37 complex that  to create Block Thirty Seven, a Pop-Up Art Gallery curated by the Chicago Design Museum.  Currently on display is a great show featuring the work of graphic designs Marian Bantjes, John Massey, Michael C. Place and Wolfgang Weingart, as well as a special exhibition, Re/View focusing on optical illusions.  Tomorrow, June 8th, from 2:00 to 4:00 p,m, the gallery will feature a talk by designer, typographer, writer and illustrator Marian Bantjes to kick off Chicago Design Week.  Tickets are $20.00.

This is an incredible space, with spectacular views onto State and Washington streets through huge, floor to ceiling windows.  It's entirely raw, and all the better for it.   We wish, of course, Block 37's new owners, L.A.'s CIM Group, the best of luck in finally leasing the upper reaches that have remained pristinely free of tenants ever since the mall opened in 2009, but in the interim, Block Thirty Seven is a major addition to the life of the Loop, with enormous potential.

"Upper Levels Will Be Opening Soon" -
cardboard, ink, steel, glass and granite.  Artist unknown.  2009-

More reading on Block 37:

Can Signage Save Block 37?
Block 37 - The Curse Lives!
The Entombment of the Plug Bug
Planning and its Disconnects: The Cautionary Tale of Block 37