Illinois
Reporter Robert Campbell says that the new Springfield Courthouse designed by architect Moshe Safdie is 'one of the most inviting public buildings I've ever seen.'
Boston Globe
What do you get when you designate a carpool lane on a toll road for hybrids and carpoolers? A 'green' lane, say Illinois planners. However, they still pay the toll. Now add a "HOT lane overlay" to it - solo drivers can use it for a 'premium'.
Chicago Sun-Times
Paradoxically, Chicago's roads are more gridlocked than ever despite fewer trips by car overall due to gas prices.
Chicago Tribune
Yorktown was a booming exurb of Chicago, until the mortgage crisis put the kibosh on a number of developments in progress. Residents of these 'ghost towns' find themselves stuck with properties they can't sell.
Chicago Tribune
Chicago preservationists are urging owners of the last of the city's neon signs to keep them intact.
USA Today
The architecture studio that won The History Channel's City of the Future competition last year has gotten some help making its ideas possible.
Architectural Record
Midway Airport may become the first U.S. airport to be privatized if the 99-year lease for $2.52 billion is approved by the City Council and F.A.A., following in the footsteps of privatizing the Chicago Skyway toll road in 2005.
The New York Times
As the 100-year anniversary of the writing of the Burnham Plan for Chicago approaches, the city and its suburbs are thinking big about how to improve the city.
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Housing Authority is considering tearing down a 300-unit public housing project, with a vote expected Tuesday. Residents are understandably unhappy, and advocates say the demand for affordable housing is already greater than supply.
Chicago Tribune
Chicago's Metro is closing down its rolling taverns- not for reasons of temperance, but because they need the room for the growing number of rail commuters.
The Chicago Tribune
A new report from the Metropolitan Planning Council pegs the annual cost of congestion to the Chicago region at $7.3 billion.
Streetsblog
<p>Olympics-related construction in Beijing has impressed many, but does little to make the city a better place. Architecture critic Blair Kamin says Chicago needs to be careful about not repeating China's mistakes if it hosts the games in 2016.</p>
The Chicago Tribune
<p>Author Alan Ehrenhalt says that conditions are ripe for the permanent return of downtown residential neighborhoods, and that a "demographic inversion" has already begun in Manhattan, Chicago and Washington, DC, among other cities.</p>
The New Republic
<p>A non-profit group in Chicago wants to open a museum dedicated to American public housing in the Former Public Housing Authority Building.</p>
The Chicago Tribune
<p>The Chicago Transit Authority has announced plans to remove all the seating from some of its rush hour trains in order to deal with increased demand.</p>
The Chicago Tribune
<p>The American Society of Landscape Architects has awarded the Lurie Garden in Chicago's Millennium Park with it's highest honor.</p>
Marketwatch
<p>More than 2 million people are expected to be added to the metropolitan Chicago region by 2030, and water supplies may not be able to keep up. Officials are trying to find a solution.</p>
The Chicago Tribune
<p>Chicago's Loop is becoming a hot neighborhood.</p>
Reuters
<p>The Chicago Tribune examines what became of an ambitious city project, led by Mayor Daley, to revolutionize public housing. Private developers received public funding to tear down old projects and replace them with mixed-use neighborhoods.</p>
The Chicago Tribune
<p>As part of a plan to utilize the city's rainwater and recycle it back to lake Michigan, Chicago has been renovating its 13,00 alleys to become permeable surfaces, where rainwater can soak back into the ground. 40 alleys have been redone so far.</p>
CNN
