Author Archives: Dennis McClendon

Ben Joravsky might have been a bit more inquisitive about the issues at stake in the South Loop rather than simply transcribing the complaints of next-door neighbors and the developer’s defense [The Works, September 30]. For one thing, the Near South Community Plan says nothing about a park on the northwest corner of Polk and […]

Philip Berger put together an enjoyable piece on el station design (March 29). Alas, even more blunders are planned. The State Street mall renovation now under construction includes trumped-up 1920s-style entrance kiosks to sit atop the subway’s original moderne-style mezzanines. At the Roosevelt Road station, a similar kiosk (determined without benefit of any public comment […]

A small error in Paul Pekin’s otherwise enjoyable story “Home” (Nov. 25) offers the opportunity to correct a popular misconception. Chicago’s boulevard system is not a legacy of Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett’s 1909 Plan of Chicago any more than Lake Michigan is. The boulevard system, first envisioned in 1849, was laid out in 1869, […]