River North Gallery District, Near North Side, Chicago
Encyclopedia
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, is in the Near North Side, Chicago
Near North Side, Chicago
The Near North Side is one of 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located north and east of the Chicago River, just north of the central business district . To its east is Lake Michigan and its northern boundary is the 19th-century city limit of Chicago,...
. It hosts the largest concentration of art galleries
Contemporary art gallery
A contemporary art gallery is a place where contemporary art is shown for exhibition and/or for sale. The term "art gallery" is commonly used to mean art museum , the rooms displaying art in any museum, or in the original sense, of any large or long room.-Identity, function and locality:A...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, outside of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. A common definition puts the District in the area north of the Merchandise Mart
Merchandise Mart
When opened in 1930, the Merchandise Mart or the Merch Mart, located in the Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, was the largest building in the world with of floor space. Previously owned by the Marshall Field family, the Mart centralized Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating vendors...
, south of Chicago Avenue, east of Orleans Street and west of LaSalle Boulevard. As it has grown and the area has gentrified, galleries can also now be found west of Orleans and east of LaSalle, though the core area still contains the highest concentration of galleries. Along with hundreds of art galleries, the area holds many bars, dance clubs, popular restaurants and entertainment venues. Subsections of River North include:
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- The Gallery District, the official district designated by the City, primarily along Chicago, Superior and Huron streets between Lasalle and Orleans.
- The Contemporaine Building - 2005 AIA Honor Awards For Architecture site: http://www.signaturestpete.com/uploads/NYT_102404_Contemporaine.pdf , site: http://www.aia.org/SiteObjects/files/Fact-Contemporaine.pdf
- A design district, with shops and showrooms selling commercial and luxury interior furnishings, in the blocks north of the Merchandise Mart.
- Kingsbury Park, an area of newly built residential high-rises surrounding Erie Park, at Erie Street and the Chicago River.
More information on galleries in River North, as well as other districts in and around Chicago, may be found on the Chicago Gallery News site:http://www.chicagogallerynews.com
Brief, historical information regarding the River North Gallery District fire in 1989 may be found on the Encyclopedia of Chicago's website:http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/72.html
History
The River North neighborhood got its name from Chicago real estate developer Albert Friedman (chief executive of Friedman Properties Ltd.), who in 1974 started to buy, restore and build commercial property in the southeast sector. Much of the area was skid row at the time, so in an effort to attract tenants Friedman started calling the area "River North". Within a few years, Friedman found photographers, ad agencies and art galleries willing to rent the low cost space and coalesce into what is now the The River North Gallery DistrictRiver North Gallery District, Near North Side, Chicago
The River North Gallery District, in Chicago, is in the Near North Side, Chicago. It hosts the largest concentration of art galleries in the United States, outside of Manhattan. A common definition puts the District in the area north of the Merchandise Mart, south of Chicago Avenue, east of...
, which has the largest concentration of art galleries in the United States outside of Manhattan.
Economy
The Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in ChicagoDiplomatic missions of the People's Republic of China
This is a list of diplomatic missions of the People's Republic of China. The People's Republic of China has a large diplomatic network, representing the country's significant economic, commercial, political, cultural and military links around the world....
is located at 100 West Erie Street in the River North Gallery District. The consulate's visa office is located east of the River North Gallery District, The consulate's education section is located in an area north of the gallery district.