By Emily L. Hauser
Chicago’s airports may be crowded and full of delayed passengers, but there’s one big advantage to flying out of here—it’s cheaper. Here’s why plane tickets cost what they do. Read more
November 2007
My one regret about Au Revoir Parapluie, playing now at Chicago Shakespeare on Navy Pier, is that I didn't get in to see it earlier in the run. The hauntingly beautiful show closes Saturday, and unfortunately, it's sold out this year. In case its creator, James Thierree, returns to Chicago, I'll tell you about it anyway.
Why is the show so great? First, I've never seen anything exactly like it. Imagine taking the stunts of Cirque de Soleil, the quirky-meets-psychedelic aesthetic of Chicago's own Redmoon, and the ferocious dance ability of...
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The Most Creative and Simultaneously Self-Deprecating Birthday Bash Award Goes to … Rockit Ranch's Arturo Gomez. Upon entering his party last Wednesday at The Underground, every guest was handed a pair of thick, black-plastic eyeglass frames and instructed to wear them throughout the evening, so that everyone resembled the guest of honor, whose ubiquitous Prada specs never leave his face. A roomful of pretty people sporting nerdy glasses? Priceless.... PLUS: quotes & notes, most interesting press release, things to do tonight, more...
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List Price: $1.695 millionThe Property: From its triangular floor plan to its hanging chimney, internal balconies, and master bathroom tiled in black polka dots, this Wilmette house built in 1981 is a study in unconventional design. The work of the late Marion Gutnayer—a University of Illinois architecture professor whose own even more unusual home is just a block away—this four-bedroom house has a big eight-sided living room whose brick walls shut out the sight and sound of the busy street outside, while its tall, slender windows frame views of trees and garden space. Upstairs loft spaces near two children’s bedrooms overlook the living room, and they are matched in the rear of the house by a broad balcony off the master bedroom that looks out over the glass-walled family room and into the yard. There is also a wide spiral staircase, vertical cutouts in some brick walls, a large-panel terrazzo floor, and... Read more
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November 28, 2007
Housing Bulletin: Dimon in the Rough
Jamie Dimon, the banking executive who now heads New York–based JP Morgan Chase, has cut 11 percent off the asking price of the 26-room Gold Coast mansion where he lived while he ran Bank One. Originally listed at $13.5 million, the house now has a price tag of $12 million.
The broad house, faced with rough-hewn orange limestone, was built by Potter Palmer in 1889 as part of his effort to make the nascent Gold Coast into the fashionable new neighborhood. The architect Ernest Graham, of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White (think Wrigley Building and Field Museum), did a later expansion and remodeling. The house’s exterior is a many-textured composition of hefty stones, arched windows, copper-topped turrets, and dormers puncturing a...
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