Introduction Part One - The Evolving Metropolis The Mediocre Mile The Mayor''s Maypole: Boul Mich Pylon Plan Reason to Hoist Warning Flags Twice Cursed: Rehabbed Marriott Is Miles and Miles from Magnificent Faking History: Disney''s Make-Believe Architecture Is Just What Michigan Avenue Doesn''t Need That Comeback Street Stately Street: Retro Renovation Puts a Once-Great Shopping Mecca on the Road to Economic and Aesthetic Recovery An Elevating Station: Avoiding the Tunnel Vision of the Past, the Airy Renovation of the State/Roosevelt Subway Stop Sets a Zesty Standard Building a Better Block 37: Good Intentions Simply Aren''t Enough for High Stakes State Street Project Public Works and the Public Realm Updating the Dark Ages: Daley''s Walled-Neighborhoods Plan Would Do Much to Hurt the City and Little to Stop Crime The Bridges of Cook County: Design Enhances Engineering in Citywide Project Triumphal Arches: Damen Avenue Bridge Is a Modern-Day Beauty Making the Past a Part of the Future Tumbling Legacy: Shortsighted Moves by the City Have the Potential to Send Architectural Gems Toppling Like Dominoes Vertical Triumph: Reliance Building Restoration Is a Vote for Old Glory Crumbling Icons: Some of Frank Lloyd Wright''s Greatest Buildings Are Falling Apart, but the Bigger Question Is--What Can We Do to Save Them? Suburbanizing the City City-Escape: A New, Schlocky Brand of Architecture Promotes a Chicago that Never Was Populist Playground: Navy Pier Has Shaped Up, but Aesthetics Have Been Shipped Out The Sky Above, the Dud Below: Developer John Buck Is Skating on Thin Ice When He Compares His North Bridge Project to New York''s Rockefeller Center Urbanizing the Suburbs Shopping for an Identity: Renovated Old Orchard Too Much at Once Losing Yardage: City and Suburbs Worse Off When Homeowners Gobble Up Their Green Space Suburban Skyline: Arlington Heights Fights Sprawl with Urban Innovations Part Two - The Art of Architecture Sizing Up the Skyscraper Still Standing Tall: Plain and Simple, Hancock Rules Reaching for the Sky: After Two Decades, Sears Comes Up Short Bigger, but Better? New World''s Tallest Design for 7 South Dearborn Leaves Room for Improvement Inner Beauty: Stunning Atrium Offsets New Skyscraper''s Public Face Green Giant: Germany''s Commerzbank Is a Breath of Fresh Air for Stale Skyscrapers Unsung Heroes The Man with the Plan: Revisiting Daniel H. Burnham, the Architect Who Bent Entire Cities to His Will Masters of Understatement: Miesian Architects May Get No Respect, but Their Boldly Simply Style Suits Chicago to a T Weese''s Legacy: Historical Society''s Exhibit Salutes a Consummate Man of the City Opportunities Lost (and Found) in Chicago Doing the Wrong Thing Flawlessly: The Arts Club of Chicago Holds on to the Past Instead of Exploring the Future A Fumbled Chance at Greatness: The Museum of Contemporary Art Tries but Fails to Extend Chicago''s History of Design Triumphs Structural Damage: Chicago Has Forfeited Its Title as the Nation''s Architectural Capital A Star Is Reborn: Underappreciated Adler Planetarium Rockets into the Future with Daring New Addition Architecture with a Capital "A": Look Elsewhere Monument to Memory: The Holocaust Museum Is a Searing Space of Pain and Healing Star Attraction: The Hayden Sphere Has Landed and It''s Friendly to Earthlings Welcome to the Future: Frank Gehry''s Stunning New Guggenheim Museum in Spain Is the First Great Building of the Next Century Berlin''s Leading Edge: Helmut Jahn''s New Sony Center Helps Turn a Wasteland into a Thriving Urban Center that Draws Together East and West Importing "Starchitects" Koolhaas''s IIT Campus Center: Success Will Be in the Details Gehry''s Chicago Band Shell: Outsider Art Is Catalyst for Creativity Eisenman''s Aronoff Center in Cincinnati: For a Design to Stand the Test of Time, the Building Must Do the Same Part Three - Architecture as a Social Art Places and Catalysts for Gathering Town Square I: Face Lift Improves Daley Plaza and Maintains Its Special Character Town Square II: Folk Music School''s New Home Strikes the Right Note Moo-ving Tale: Cows Broke Down the Fences that Kept Us Apart Raising and Razing Temples of Sport Comiskey Park: New Neighbor Not Necessarily New Friend The Stadium: The End Is Near for Chicago''s Shrine The United Center: Don''t Take Me Out to the Mall Game Building a Better Life A Leap of Creativity: Old St. Pat''s Is New Again Where Learning''s Fun by Design: Back of the Yards School Is Neighborhood Beacon Day-Care Package: Tigerman Leads the Way toward a Bootstrap Architecture that Gives Low-Income Kids a Leg Up Private Housing: Building Boom, Architecture Bust Strange Neighbors: Bright New Condos Add Vitality to the City--but Something about Them Is Just Not Right Tall Building Comes Up Short: New Apartment Tower Is a Drag on the Skyline Public Housing: Sheltered by Design Housing that Works: Politicians and Bureaucrats Have Been the Real Architects of Public Housing, but It Doesn''t Have to Be that Way Urban Mosaic''s Lost Piece: Creative Planners Have Discarded the "Tower-in-the-Park" Model that Disconnected Public Housing from Its Surroundings Building a Sense of Security: Fences, Individual Front Doors, and Porches Create Safe Spaces that Can Free Residents from Being Virtual Prisoners of Drug Dealers and Prostitutes Myth Must Be Exploded: Stereotyping Ignores Factors that Make High-Rises Livable Buildings or Monumental Eyesores Part Four - The Lakefront: Democratic Vistas Putting the Car in Its Place Gem in the Making: The New Museum Campus Is Chicago''s Latest Lakefront Jewel, but It Still Needs a Little Polishing Park Above, Parking Below: A Subterranean Garage Adds Excitement to a Museum and Green Space to the Lakefront Beauty and the Beach: Three New Castles in the Sand Suit the Lakefront Perfectly Reinventing the Lakefront A Flawed Jewel: The Lakefront Needs Help, and the City of Chicago Has a Rare Chance to Remold It for the Twenty-first Century--but Where''s the Vision? The Great Divide: Carved by Racism, the Chasm between North and South Side Amenities Can Be Bridged, but It Will Take More than a Few Flowers Grant Park''s Double Life: Jammed and Raucous during Summer Festivals, Empty and Sleepy the Rest of the Year, Our Central Park Needs a Single, Vibrant Personality A Landmark of Labor: As a Celebration of Industry, the Idled South Works Steel Plant Could Forge a New Link in the Chain of Waterfront Parks and Museums Striking a Balance: Lincoln Park Is about to Add the Nature Museum to Its Already Full Plate, While the South Lakefront Hungers for Improvements Big Canvas, Little Plans: Mayer Daley Could Be an Architect for the Shoreline, Not Just a Groundkeeper--and Now Is the Time to Act Acknowledgments Illustration Credits Index.