UPDATE: City Soles is closing its Southport location on February 15, 2010.
2001 W. North, (773)489-2001 (City Soles), 1566 N. Damen, (773)489-2001 (Niche), 3432 N. Southport, (773)665-4233, citysoles.com
Goods: Shoes and accessories for men and women. Designers: Shoes by Camper, Chie Mihara, Tsubo, Pour la Victoire, Coclico, Corso Como, Farylrobin, CYDWOQ, Cynthia Vincent and Pajar; handmade bags by (h(om)e). Owner: Scott Starbuck, who’s been working with shoes since he was in high school, opened City Soles in 1991. Vibe: Funky window displays feature everything from old street signs to stained-glass flowers. Inside, oriental rugs, cowhide chairs and leather sofas create a downtown-living-room feel. Price Range: Moderate to expensive on the City Soles side; expensive to luxury in Niche. The Look: This shopper has a shoe fetish and a city life. He/she wants to run to catch the El without spraining an ankle; but slipping on an old pair of Reeboks (and wearing ’em with dress pants) is out of the question. Shopper’s Perks: Buy ten pairs of shoes and get $100 off an eleventh pair.
No Sanctuary: Are Historic Churches the Lost Souls of a City? What do you do with an empty church—designed for such a specific purpose, with its stained glass, statues and vaulted ceiling? Sometimes they can be successfully reused for another congregation, or for a community center or residences. But it can be architecturally challenging and expensive. The fabric of the neighborhood is torn by the presence of a church that’s disused…
The Embodied Politic: Solange, RoboCop and the City Hall Ideal (CAB 2023) CAB 5 and the Floating Museum ask us to “challenge and envision alternatives…: how we understand and address the needs of a city, who plays a role in imagining and making the city, and how our potential solutions attend to the overlapping crises that now inform our everyday lives.” How are we to take design, and architecture, seriously as rehearsal…
