Major expansion plans for DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus. Some plans already approved!

Huge score for DePaul

NO DISSENT | City planners OK new music, theater schools in Lincoln Park

November 20, 2009

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com

DePaul University’s schools of theater and music would finally have the world-class facilities to match their top-notch talent, thanks to a 10-year master plan for the Lincoln Park campus approved Thursday.

Without a word of dissent, the Chicago Plan Commission signed off on DePaul’s ambitious plan to build new schools for theater and music, a new academic center, and to redevelop Fullerton Avenue with a hotel, student housing and market-rate housing.

The project — with a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars — calls for closing Kenmore Avenue to vehicles between Fullerton and Belden to improve student safety, add landscaping and create a greater “campus feel.” Spectator stands, new dugouts and press box facilities also are planned for Wish Field.

“Those two schools have some of the finest faculty in the world and some of the finest students in the country. And they’re literally performing in spaces with dropped ceilings and walls that bleed sound,” said the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, DePaul’s president.

“It’s not where you learn how to play an instrument. It’s not where you learn how to sing. We need a space where musicians [and actors] can be properly trained.”

The new music school won’t come soon enough for clarinet performance major Philip Espe. But it’s still a dream come true.

“I walk into the practice rooms at 10 a.m. any morning. There’s no place for me to practice. I’m sometimes in rehearsal for six hours a day, and there’s no space. It’s incredibly small. The practice rooms are not acoustically sound,” Espe said.

Holtschneider assured the Plan Commission that there would be no influx of students at the already-cramped Lincoln Park campus….

 

To read the full Chicago Sun Times article about the expansion, click HERE!

North/Clybourn Apple Store to be much like the Scottsdale, Arizona Apple Store.

So word on the street is that the new Apple Store, located at North Avenue and Halsted Street, will look exactly like Apple’s Scottsdale, Arizona store.  After I heard this, I immediately Google’d to find the image and sure enough, it looks like it’s true.  You can already tell from the steel frame of Chicago’s Apple Store that, when finished, they will be the same.  Take a look.

If you’ve walked or driven by the new Apple Store, you’ll definitely notice a resemblence.  Too bad I don’t have a picture from here.

 

The new Apple store to play a key role in the Clybourn Red Line station!

Doors will open on the right at the Apple stop

By: Thomas A. Corfman October 26, 2009

The North and Clybourn station on the CTA’s Red Line may become the iStop.

In exchange for Apple Inc. spending more than $4 million to renovate the scruffy station, the Chicago Transit Authority gave the maker of MacBooks and iPhones first dibs on naming rights, if the agency decides to go that route. It’s apparently the first such deal ever by the cash-strapped CTA. Apple also gets the exclusive right to buy all the ad space in the station, at 1555 N. Clybourn Avenue.

The CTA has been considering naming-rights agreements since at least 2005, but the idea is seemingly getting another look as President Richard Rodriguez scrambles to avoid hiking fares and cutting services to cover next year’s projected budget deficit of $178 million. A CTA spokeswoman did not respond to questions.

Cities nationwide are increasingly looking at corporate sponsorships to ease budget woes. The risk to the CTA is that slapping corporate logos on stations could confuse riders and cheapen the city’s image, and make only a small dent in the massive financial problems….

Check out the full Crain’s Chicago Business article by clicking HERE!  From driving by the construction zone, you can see the general design of the store, which is different from the picture below.  So far, I like where they’re going with it but I hope they keep it very light, open, and covered in glass.

Hopefully VERY preliminary plans...

Free wine seminar with Lush Wine & Spirits and Belgravia Group’s Hartland Park Townhomes!

Tonight at 7pm, Belgravia Group’s Hartland Park Townhomes is hosting a complimentary wine seminar in their model home, located at 1721 W. Schubert Avenue in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.  Lush Wine & Spirits brings the wine and one of their fun and knowledable employees to teach a seminar that feels nothing like a class…well, because it’s fun and I haven’t ever had wine during a class.  Some good food will be there and of course, you can’t beat the free wine can you?  To RSVP give Hartland Park a call at 773-935-0523.

A taste of Latin America at Lito’s Empanadas in Lincoln Park! (5/5 Stars)

I LOVE LITO’S EMPANADAS!  Lito’s, which is located in a small storefront at 2566 N. Clark Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.  I first started making my own empanadas after seeing a recipe in my high school Spanish book…random I know…so when I saw Lito’s open up, I immediately went in to check it out.  If you’re driving by, you may easily miss the restaurant because of its small presence from the street.  Inside, there’s only a small bar with about five stools to eat at making Lito’s good for carry-out. 

Whenever I go, I order one ‘Beef’ which includes ground beef, olives, raisins, potato, tomato and onion ($2.29), one ‘Chicken’ which has chicken, rice, tomato and onion ($2.19) and one ‘BBQ Chicken’ which is made with slow-cooked BBQ chicken and potatoes ($2.29).  One is a snack, two can make me content, but I always get three so I can enjoy my uncomfortable fullness.

According to their website, Lito’s now delivers and caters their empanadas which range from sweet (Choco-Banana), savory (Beef and Rice), and even vegetarian empanadas…all for a pretty awesome price.  I have to give props for their marketing efforts because I constantly see articles on them in places like the Red-Eye and Time Out Chicago.

Proposed residential building to replace an ugly Walgreens at Clark/Diversey/Broadway.

Here are recent plans for a proposed residential building, located at 544 W. Diversey Parkway, at Chicago’s Lakeview/Lincoln Park border.  The current site houses one of a million Walgreens stores so even if Walgreens decides to re-occupy the first floor space, this building will be an amazing change for this busy intersection.  Plus, the possibility of a nice green roof is pretty exciting too.  I don’t have any further information about this proposed building so if anyone knows of ANY information, it would be much appreciated.  Hopefully this gets built soon because I believe the Clark/Broadway/Diversey intersection deserves more buildings like this one.

Proposed building will replace the Walgreens at the lower right side.

Wine seminar at Belgravia Group’s Hartland Park Townhomes and Lush Wine & Spirits!

One of Belgravia Group’s townhome developments, Hartland Park II, will be partnering up with Lush Wine & Spirits to host a complimentary wine seminar this Thursday night, May 21st from 7pm – 8:30pm.  These monthly wine seminars take place the third Thursday of every month at Hartland Park II’s sales center, which is located at 1721 W. Schubert Avenue.

Again, this is a free event so bring your friends and family with.  It’s always a fun time and you will even walk away with a bit of knowledge about wine at the end of the night.  Hartland Park II’s sales center is open 7 days a week from 10am – 6pm so stop in to take a look or give them a call at (773) 935-0523!

Sugar high at Molly’s Cupcakes in Lincoln Park (4.5/5 stars).

So on a day of binging, James, Anna, Melody, and I drove North to Molly’s Cupcakes, located at 2536 N. Clark Street, in Lincoln Park.  We visited on Wednesday night and we had to speed up there because they close at 10pm Sunday through Thursday and are open till midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.  Molly’s Cupcakes is amazing and reminds me of being a kid…if only my adult body could handle that much sugar in one sitting.  There are plenty of board games and even some swings, yes swings, up by the counter to enhance your flashback to childhood.

I ordered the peanut butter Nutella cupcake which is a peanut butter cake, Nutella filling, and a buttercream Nutella frosting.  I also bought a wild berry cupcake which is a blueberry cake, raspberry/blueberry filling, and a buttercream with fresh berries.  ($3.75 each).

Melody ordered the tiramisu cupcake which is a vanilla butter cake, classic tiramisu filling, and a fluffy buttercream as well as a lemon meringue cupcake ($3.75 each).

Anna ordered the chocolate decadence cupcake ($3.75).

James ordered the cookies-n-cream cupcake which is a chocolate cake, cookies-n-cream filling, vanilla buttercream, and a cookie topping as well as a cookie dough cupcake ($3.75 each).

Now, I do realize that $3.75 is pretty insane for just one cupcake, but I obviously won’t go out and get these every day.  Molly’s Cupcakes is great for the occasional time you treat yourself.  We all came in about ten minutes before Molly’s was to close but the staff was still extremely nice and very helpful.  Thank you to Yelp Chicago for the pictures and also to Molly’s Cupcakes’ website for all of the information!

Wine seminar with Belgravia Group’s Hartland Park II and Lush Wine & Spirits!

One of Belgravia Group’s townhome developments, Hartland Park II, will be partnering up with Lush Wine & Spirits to host a complimentary wine seminar this Thursday night, April 16th from 7pm – 8:30pm.  These monthly wine seminars take place the third Thursday of every month at Hartland Park II’s sales center, which is located at 2649 N. Hermitage Avenue.

Again, this is a free event so bring your friends and family with.  It’s always a fun time and you will even walk away with a bit of knowledge about wine at the end of the night.  Hartland Park II’s sales center is open 7 days a week from 10am – 6pm so stop in to take a look or give them a call at (773) 935-0523!

Forno Diablo = fire oven? Eh, I have no idea. (3/5 stars)

Forno Diablo is located at 433 W Diversey Parkway.  The restaurant has a great outdoor eating area for the Chicago summers, and inside, the restaurant has plenty of tables and a row of oversized booths along the side wall.  The atmosphere inside the restaurant is, dare I say, pretty sexy.  Forno Diablo is decorated with deep reds everywhere, the tables and booths are a rich, dark color, and the lights are always low….but not so low that you can’t see where the bathroom is. 

I’ve gone to Forno Diablo twice now, once with friends, and the other time with my mom and sister.  When you sit down at your table, you are given complimentary parmesan cheese, olive oil, and bread to keep you occupied until your food comes out.  For my first visit, I ordered their margherita pizza then switched to their pancetta and arugula pizza for my second visit.  The pizzas came out with delicious toppings and a perfectly cooked, thin crust each time.  I even had enough for leftovers the next day.  Service was great for my first visit but for my second visit, the service was so terrible that it HAD to have been a fluke.  Our waitress was horrible to the point where we didn’t even leave a single penny as a tip.  I can’t remember the exact prices but Forno Diablo is definitely affordable.