In what could have been a nightmare come true, part of the glass floor in a viewing box high above Chicago cracked right below a group of California tourists. [...]

Alejandro Garibay and his family were taking in the sights at Chicago's Willis Tower on Wednesday night. The tower's Skydeck, which opened in 2009, is on the 103rd floor, about 1,353 feet above Chicago's downtown. [...]

While on the glass, Garibay heard cracking. — mashable.com

AIA Chicago gave a big shoutout to some of the city's best small and emerging architectural firms in the annual 2014 Small Projects Awards. The awards program promotes upcoming small firms as a resource for design excellence and also the valuable contributions of architects in even the smallest works.

Out of 96 entries, 13 projects received awards -- including four Honor Awards and one Special Recognition. — bustler.net

If you find your way into the Windy City anytime soon, catch a glimpse of the recently debuted "Chicagoisms" exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago now until Jan. 4, 2015.

Exploring Chicago's enduring influence in modern architecture and urban planning, the exhibition presents five new interpretations and critical analysis of "Chicagoisms" designed by contemporary architects and designers. — bustler.net

Little remains of Chicago's Cabrini-Green, a mid-century public housing complex once home to as many as 15,000 people. The poorly maintained high rises, rife with gang violence, were eventually demolished (the final one came down in 2011). [...]

The Chicago Housing Authority hopes to see it all redeveloped soon. [...]

CHA says half the new residential units to be market rate, another 30 percent public housing, and the remaining 20 percent affordable housing. — The Atlantic Cities

Architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, Blair Kamin, writes about China's building boom in his story, "Designed in Chicago, made in China." [...]

"Chinese developers lack the expertise to do great skyscrapers," he says. "During the Cultural Revolution their architectural profession was decimated. It really became more about purely engineering. So if you're a Chinese developer, you go to Chicago." — Public Radio International

Great cities don’t rest on the laurels of their great public spaces. They make them greater. That’s what Chicago is doing here, despite the objections of naysayers who argued during the recession that the project was an unnecessary and unaffordable extravagance.

But recessions come and go. We only cheat ourselves if we use downturns as an excuse to lower our sights and not build a better future. Now the future and better times are here. — chicagotribune.com

A Catholic church, a theater and one of the nearly 50 schools closed by Chicago Public Schools last year are among the most endangered buildings in the city, a local preservation group said today.

Preservation Chicago today released its Chicago 7 list, an annual collection of seven local, historic properties in danger of being lost to demolition or decay. — chicagobusiness.com

The Irish developer behind the Chicago Spire said it has found an investor to pay its creditors, allowing it to emerge from bankruptcy and possibly restart work on the long-stalled residential project. — chicagotribune.com

Chicago would be turned into a Midwest version of Paris — La Ville Lumiere, the City of Light — under a mayoral plan showcased Wednesday to boost tourism by spotlighting the city’s architectural wonders. [...]

It will start with an “international design competition” that invites teams of artists, architects, engineers and designers to envision ways to light up Chicago’s “buildings, parks, roads and open spaces.” — suntimes.com

In the competiton seeking proposals to replace Bertrand Goldberg’s iconic Prentice Woman’s Hospital in Chicago, Northwestern University has selected Perkins+Will as the winning firm.

P+W prevailed over two other shortlisted teams — Goettsch Partners/Ballinger and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture/Payette — and will get to design the new 600,000 square foot Biomedical Research Building for the Feinberg School of Medicine on Northwestern University’s downtown Chicago campus. — bustler.net

In the wake of the controversial demolition of Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital, Northwestern University has moved forward with the process for selecting an architecture firm to design the building's replacement. Firms that protested the demolition, however, have been excluded from consideration for designing the building's replacement—and may be blacklisted from other projects at Northwestern. — architectmagazine.com

Modern architecture, and the fight for its value in the world, is brought into sharp focus in this documentary examining the battle over the preservation of former Prentice Women’s Hospital in downtown Chicago, designed by master modern architect Betrand Goldberg.