This Fall in Chicago
Then and now River North 1987
This old photograph from Dearborn Street Bridge shows two of Chicago’s most iconic riverfront buildings: Merchandise Mart, opened in 1930, and the Reid Murdoch Building, opened in 1914. The mostly windowless building to the left of Merchandise Mart, the Chicago Apparel Center, was the largest wholesale buying center for the clothing industry when it opened in 1977. A historical tidbit: Congress revised the Clean Water Act in 1987 to help curb sewage and stormwater discharges into waterways. While waste matter still flows into the river during heavy storms, it certainly isn’t as rampant of a problem as it was back then.
2015
Chicago has seen a boom in mid-rise developments over the past 30 years, changing the face of the city’s skyline. Dozens of condos cover the sky to the west, most notably the 60-story 300 N LaSalle building to the right of Merchandise Mart. The Apparel Center (now called River North Point) is home to the Chicago Sun-Times and the first of the three Wolf Point Towers has already started blocking the view of the newspaper’s logo. The Chicago Riverwalk extension opened in May between State and LaSalle streets and will expand to Lake Street in 2016. Beneath it all, the riverfront may be as gross today as it was in 1987, but it’s a hotbed for tourists and real estate developers alike. — Clayton Guse
Roof dreams
Eco-friendly soap manufacturer Method Products clearly believes in going big or going home when it comes to going green. In April they opened a 150,000-square-foot factory on the South Side in Pullman coupled with a 230-foot wind turbine and three 35-by-35-foot solar tracking trees. But they’re not done yet. They’re soon to unveil the largest rooftop greenhouse in the world.
Scheduled to be fully planted in the fall, the 75,000-square-foot
greenhouse will produce an annual yield of 1 million pounds of leafy greens and
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TIMEOUT.COM/CHICAGO September–November 2015
herbs to be distributed through the city’s retailers, restaurants and farmers’ markets.
The greenhouse is owned and operated by Gotham Greens, a Brooklyn- based company that runs three other rooftop farms in New York City. While it won’t be open to the public, the rooftop is a big step in moving toward more sustainable food sources in Chicago. New York might be home to the tallest building in the country (if, you know, you count that spire), but our city’s massive green roof is way, way more badass. — Clayton Guse
See more then and now photos from around the city at
timeout.com/ chicago
PHOTOGRAPHS (FROM TOP): COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; JACLYN RIVAS; ARI BURLING
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