thewolley's Profile

Pretty cool, but I'd say that at least half of these examples are actually quite large (this from someone who lives in Chicago, City of Big Apartments). Nice enough spaces, though.

Cheerful, attractive, unpretentious, welcoming. I dig!

I live in an apartment building that doesn't have recycling options but now that blue bins have made their way to Albany Park, I put smaller items in various bins around the hood. Is that bad...?

What a great idea! I'm not sure that it's dangerous as some have mentioned. One might have to adapt to the ever-so-slightly different configuration, but what's bad about that?!

Wow, guys. The mix of styles works really well to create a wonderful personality. Very tasteful, thoughtful, and not at all overwrought. Nice space, nice home. I love it.

I try to brew at home with beans from Intelligentsia or Metropolis (unless I venture close to either place). We have a lot of sad coffee in Chicago.

Umm, good coffee is hard to come by in NYC. Ninth Street Espresso is good, as are Café Grumpy and Gorilla Coffee, but the options fall off sharply from there. Quite shocking, for a city like that.

Priority check, please. This is nuts.

It's not so much that the building won't fit its surroundings; there's nothing wrong with striking out in a new direction. However, this has got to be Calatrava's weakest design to date. It's completely rote. The sad thing about contemporary architecture in Chicago is that we don't give much support to true innovators. Instead we jump on bandwagons and end up with watered down versions of stuff that already exists elsewhere. Case in point: Gehry's extremely tired Pritzker Pavilion. Hopefully someday we'll stop playing it so safe.