When the Sun-Times building (a really ugly building, it has to be said) was demolished around five years ago, it was greatly regretted - but the newspaper itself, an icon of Chicago, moved and thrived in its new digs further up the river to the west. At that time it was owned by Hollinger, which was controlled by the notorious Conrad Black. All that has passed. But the paper suffers in common with printed media generally.
I was struck by the change in lifestyle as I commuted to the office yesterday morning. A crammed bus, and it was one of those extended bendy buses, had just two passengers reading a printed newspaper. One was the Wall Street Journal, the other the free sheet distributed by the Tribune organization. But not a single New York Times, not a single Chicago Tribune and not a single Chicago Sun-Times. There was no conversation - just iPhones and Blackberries, and whatever other "smart phones" there are.
Meanwhile the site once occupied by the Sun-Times has the Trump International Hotel and Tower, now almost completed, pictured here in the gloom of yesterday which continued in its moistness today! It also appears to be suffering from the current economic malaise. Nobody seems to come from it or go there. But it is actually rather a handsome beast and may be a valuable addition to Chicago's living museum of architecture. It is the work of the same firm responsible for the Sears Tower and the John Hancock building, two of our favorites. They are of course Skidmore etc. .
