Zach Mortice

Ppl say America doesn’t make anything anymore but I’d love to see the Chinese try to get a commodity bubble this stupid going.

Saving the Sullivan Trading Room only to demolish it truly would be "suicidally, reputation-killing nuts."

I have a hard time imagining the Art Institute trashing the trading room entirely, but I can see them deconstructing it and pinning its components on the gallery walls like it's a rare beetle or one of Theaster Gates' tar paper roofs. This would still be very bad, and so unnecessary.

A very specific set of skills

Telling Jesus he'll never make it if he keeps being so hostile to wealth. Advising him to moderate his message to appeal to the Galilee suburbs

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson about Henry Kissinger:
“The international godfather of peace
A piece of Vietnam
A piece of Laos
A piece of Angola
A piece of Cuba”

(Bicentennial Blues, 1976)

Cover for report "New Developments in Meat and Meat-Packaging Technology" from Arthur D. Little, Inc. Illustration of a cow marked with dashed butcher-cut lines, centered within a white outline of the state of Iowa.

Prayers up, I just sent a weird pitch about my strangest obsession.

It finally happened, I pitched someone's substack

As Uptown Loses Another SRO, Low-Income Renters Forced To Leave Area: 'Rent Is Skyrocketing' The Chatelaine is the second SRO in Uptown to be sold or close due to building conditions since December. There are fewer and fewer places for their low-income residents to turn for housing — and some...

New typology needed: combination SRO/tenant union meeting hall blockclubchicago.org/2026/03/05/a...

Corporate Fear Factor

Will Art Institute expansion leave Louis Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange room in the cold? No decision has been made, but the museum says "the east side of the building — where the Trading Room is located — represents the area where gallery space could increase the most."

It would be a huge mistake to move this and I cannot believe they are even considering it.

Neil is so knowledgeable about the city and about the nuts and bolts of American architectural history writ large — this is going to be a great project

Gonna build a tower to heaven on all the incoming “this example of US-led regime change is not like every other one!” takes

All of this has happened before, all this will happen again

You can just say things.

I’m reading Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor’s biography or Richard Daley American Pharaoh, and I just came across my favorite ever diss of the dastardly lace-curtain Irish:

Or, after they get laid off b/c bots are now writing the pitch emails. Could go either way!

I just replied all to an email with like three dozen recipients, I am totally powerless in the holy crusade to not become my parents, oooofff

Lots of people are getting paid to send me AI booster pitch emails that are about 20 percent comprehensible, and I am authentically wondering what they're gonna do when this bubble bursts.

DePaul Art Museum will close in June The university’s museum closes due to budget cuts after occupying a space on Fullerton Avenue since 2011.

FYI DePaul has a billion dollar endowment www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/26/d...

Just called 311, was transferred to the fire department, and was assured they would “let ‘em know”

It’s pretty easy to just sigh and move on from the constant reminders that the ship is sinking but today I’m drawing the line at “my neighborhood smells like a dumpster fire fueled by he-man action figures from 1984”

That’s a lot of money, but adaptive reuse projects like this can often be more expensive than new construction, and are not what you automatically reach for to keep expenses low. Much cheaper than Lincoln Yards/the 78 in any case!

AI is not gonna revolutionize anything. It’s just gonna be a meaner and more persistent way to dehumanize us.

looksmaxing and bonesmashing? you mean adaptive reuse?

Margaritaville-ass Bay of Pigs

I like how this view always looks like a backdrop for the opening credits of a gritty 70s or 80s drama.

If you didn't know your favs would be implicated you weren't paying attention!