Events Newsletters Subscribe

August 2007
Housing Bulletin-How One Developer Outsmarted the Condo Market
By Dennis Rodkin

Six years ago, when Golub & Co., the Chicago-based real-estate development company, announced plans to build a high-rise rental-apartment building at 345 East Ohio Street, it seemed like a distinctly contrarian choice. At the time, virtually everyone with a piece of land downtown was building condo towers.

Look at how things have changed: Completed a year ago and dubbed the Streeter, the 481-unit building, now almost fully rented out, was sold last week to the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, reportedly for about $210 million...

Read more
Week 15: Play Ball

Sarah’s nausea has dissipated, and various essential areas of her anatomy are no longer stamped “fragile.” It’s possible, if the stars are aligned, that she could be ready to give sex a go. I’ve tried to improve my chances by telling her that sex will help keep her pelvic muscles toned in preparation for childbirth. Of course, now she is suffering from the worst headaches of her life. Go figure.

What I’ve gleaned from the contingent of Expectant Fathers Goons lucky enough to have sex with their pregnant wives is this: it’s a weird experience...

Read more
Dog Spotting

I grew up with dogs: a white German Shepherd named Gabby, a Norfolk Terrier named Jake, and, later on, another German Shepherd named Woody (the latter two were named for Jake and Elwood of The Blues Brothers). These days, my parents have Harry, the Yellow Lab, and Oliver, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel—but I'm practically the only one among my group of friends who doesn't have a dog; my hardly-at-home schedule just doesn't allow it...

Read more
Six Questions For Bike Film Fest Guy

Starting Wednesday, the Bicycle Film Fest hits Chicago for four days of parties, races, scavenger hunts, and films galore. It’s a huge event in New York, Paris, Tokyo, and other cities, but in Chicago it hasn’t quite caught on. Coda talked to founder Brendt Barbur, who lives in Manhattan, about registering higher on the city’s culture meter this time around.

Read more
Dinner Party with Kara Mann

This post could just as easily be called "How to Have a Dinner Party." Earlier this week, Kara Mann, Chicago’s fast rising interior designer, who’s in her 30s, invited two dozen or so interiors people, architects, and design types into her new showroom on Hubbard Street. The party had a look—that look—that we all try to achieve when we throw parties: classy, but with the idea that things could easily get slightly off-kilter. I guess it just looked fun. I took notes.

Read more
Week 14: The Reveal

Some couples will hatch elaborate plans for springing their pregnancy on the world. Last November, I got talked into having Thanksgiving dinner with Ursina’s family in Maryland. Considering it was my wife’s brother’s wife’s father’s sister’s home 700 miles away, and I knew almost none of the 30 people at the table, I found myself wondering why I’d been invited. (It turns out, they’re just nice people.) Then, just before dinner began, Ben and Ursina made a heartfelt toast, and concluded by requesting that their two sets of parents—who were sitting at the head and foot of the table—look under their seats. When they did, each of them received a shock: an ultrasound photo with the words, “Hi Grandma and/or Grandpa” on it...

Read more