Blair Kamin

A new corporate headquarters in Indianapolis designed by Deborah Berke makes a big impact both inside and out.

An Art Deco office building beyond the Loop is reimagined as an urbane hotel by Antunovich Associates with Nicolas Schuybroek Architects and Marc Merckx.

Peter P. Petkoff, a structural engineer who helped realize the visions of famed architects Eero Saarinen and Minoru Yamasaki, died Jan. 9 at age 98 of vascular complications.

Every night, as I walk along the Chicago Riverwalk to my commuter train, I witness scenes that were unthinkable a year ago: young office workers sipping drinks at a packed wine bar, big powerboats tied up at dockside, clusters of kayaks scooting along the water. 

Since entering office, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (third from right) has stepped into a surge of public-space revivals, including the opening of the 606 trail in June. Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel had big—no, huge—shoes to fill when he took office in 2011. His predecessor, Richard M. Daley, was straight out of central casting—scion of a legendary Chicago mayor, more street-smart than book-smart, but nonetheless a visionary who vowed to make his once-polluted Rust Belt burg “the greenest city in America.”