Located inside the OTC, MetraMarket is a small and old food hall with a handful of options,…read moreoutlets, tables, and restrooms. If you are in a pinch, it's a great spot for food and drinks.

What a cute place. Lots of good eats from American to sushi to dessert to juices. They also have a…read morecouple of markets where you can get some fresh fruits. This is location is also connect to outside eatery. The train is also connected and you can enter thru Oliva bar and restaurant. Parking is street but not sure if they have a private lot.

We stopped here today for some Magnolias cupcakes and Zara. We absolutely love this mall. So many…read moreoptions.

I was followed around today by an associate who was very aggressive even when I told her I was…read morefine. She kept trying to take my clothes or get me in a fitting room and asking me numerous questions. Even in the fitting room she came in at one point when I have half dressed and overall I couldn't feel at peace while I was shopping. It was utterly annoying experience and I was the only one being harrassed, as when I heard other customers asking who helped them, all of them said no one, yet I had the displeasure of having someone following me into every freaking aisle. If you're going to think I'm stealing or whatever, please do so quietly!

There's so many things to say about this building that I don't know where to begin....Let's start…read morewith it's name... 350 West Mart Center was the official name of this building although it was commonly referred to as the Apparel Center or the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza. (No I'm not going to give you a history lesson! Lol) As of late, the building was acquired by Shorenstein Properties in 2012 and officially renamed River North Point in 2013. Now that we've established that the name is River North Point, on to what's inside.... The notables --- on the 15th floor you will find the lobby for the Holiday Inn (with nice views btw) and a restaurant, skipping down some...on the 10th floor you'll find the Chicago Sun-Times, then the 2nd floor you'll find what others describe as a "glass enclosed bridge/skywalk" but I call a pedway that connects this building to the Merchandise Mart (awesome!), and lastly the 1st floor where you'll find the Illinois Institute of Art - Chicago, a convenient store (C&A News), and an informational desk in the lobby. All the other floors are filled with various office spaces that are leased by different companies. This building is located right off the river and easily accessed by the Merchandise Mart Brown/Purple Line. How do I know all of this??? Well I work in this building, duh!

As an up-and-coming hub for regional, national, and international fashion, Chicago has come a long…read moreway from its status as a redheaded stepchild to NYC and LA. The Apparel Center offers a convenient go-to for Chicago-area boutiques and wholesalers to meet without the hassle of business travel, and has quite literally changed the way I purchase clothing for my shop. Rather than schlep hither and yon for wholesale shows in Dallas or Attanta or New York, I can head downtown, put in some orders, and head back to work in the space of an hour. Efficient in layout and clustered on one floor, the showrooms range from spotlessly minimal ro chaotically cluttered, but that's part of the charm. The showrooms at the Apparel Center are staffed by helpful and honest people, and I can often see them within a day or two's notice. The Apparel Center also works in tandem with the Merchandise Mart for Stylemax, the quarterly wholesale show, so I can also see clothing representatives on a regular basis and have local go-to people for emergency orders and the like. I am immensely grateful that this resource exists for people like me and would love to see it grow into an even more vibrant locale for Chicago's burgeoning fashion scene. Until then, I wil continue to thank my lucky stars I can easily do this type of pivotal buying right downtown!

This is my favorite place to chillax during the work day…read more It's the best during the summer b/c you can sit outside by the fountain, steps or mosaic wall. Read a mag, space out, people watch, yap on the phone, sleep : ) During colder days I will hang in the main floor lobby. They have leather armchairs that are great to slip into a 20 minute cat nap. There's also a Starbucks with very friendly baristas. Plus, there's the cafeteria in the basement that has plenty of seating. And if you need an ATM, you're in luck b/c they're all over the place!

This is a great to take a break during the work day. Check out the cafeteria downstairs...so many…read morechoices for food! Seating is great in the summer, you can sit inside or out along the plaza.

Basically this is like Chicago's plaza, which is best known for the Flamingo sculpture by Alexander…read moreCalder. Federal Plaza is next to some important buildings for government. It gets its name because it's next to the Kluczynski Federal Building, which deals with immigration and other things. A lot to see around here. There's also the Old Post Office. It basically is kind of like a town square but instead of grass there's a lot of concrete and granite. Of course it's not completely barren of plant life as there's a few shrubs and trees. There's a few important buildings that you may need to go to if you need documents or whatever. One is the Old Post Office. Though it no longer is a working post office, this is a historically significant place and is now used for office and retail. In the Federal Building is where you deal with customs and immigration. This is where to get passports. Also there's events and festivals. It has a farmers market that goes from spring to fall that features handmade crafts and locally grown produce. The Flamingo statue is the part that gets all the attention but the plaza itself has lots to see too.

Less is more! This is sort of the town square for Chicago,…read moreI guess. It's in the International Style, designed by famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe so that it's all black glass and steel, rectangles and straight lines, without a bunch of decorations or anything. Then in the center, you have the Alexander Calder statue, Flamingo, which is a bright pop of color in the center. It makes for a great place to sit and people watch and hang out in the shade on some of the public seating. It's kind of austere, and unwelcoming. It looks like it could be the center of Darth Vader's central offices for the bureaucratic side of running the Empire. There's three buildings that make up the Plaza- The Post Office which is a low flat building that matches all the others here. John C. Kluczynski Building that's known as the building where 'People go in, but don't come out' since it has Immigration and Customs Enforcement in here. Be weary if you need to go here to ask questions or 'get a document' or something. I don't know what happens at the third building, Everett McKinley Dirksen Building. The buildings all have the same motif- they have this rigid system of lines all running parallel or at even angles. You can find all kinds of spots where everything just aligns perfectly and makes a really cool scene with the black buildings and the Flamingo- it's absolutely worth checking out.

One of the best racks I've been to. The selection is organized, and their designer items are…read morereasonably priced. Service is friendly. Always look forward to coming to this store when I am in Chicago.

This Nordstrom Rack had a pretty good selection of inventory! I was able to pick up a few pieces…read morefor myself by Adrienne Papell and some house slippers for my hubby. The total came out to be less than what I had expected which was a nice surprise. Didn't have to wait long to pay either and change rooms were relatively empty. Although I did go on a Thursday. Parking is expensive around this area so my hubby dropped me off to shop. Also it's right next to my other favorite shop, Uniqlo! Block 37 has all the best shops and is super convenient and walkable.

This shopping center is in South Loop between Canal and Clinton. I almost called it "new", but it's…read morebeen at least a decade now that it's been here. Having said that, it still does look still fairly new. I've only shopped at a few stores here but it's fine, like just about any mall. There are a few stores you can enter from the street and others you have to enter through the interior of the mall. There is parking on the street as well, which *can* be cheaper depending upon how long you're planning to be here. You have to pay for parking on the street for the duration of your stay, however long or short it may be; however, you can park in the garage and there's free parking for 90 minutes with validation. I don't know how validation works at all stores (perhaps you have to buy something), but at some of them they have a little machine where you can get validation. The biggest problem I had here was with the parking. The lot is far too compact. When I was driving in looking for a place to park, three cars were pulling in and out of spaces to center themselves because the driveway of the lot is too narrow to get a good approach. I'll admit it was annoying because it took several minutes--car 1 backs out and then back in, followed by cars two and three, and then they each do it again until they're in whilst I and anyone else behind me has to wait for them to finish their dance. When I was leaving, I had to wait while another couple cars did this too. This was pretty poor planning on the part of the builders.

Good shopping center. There are a bunch of stores here, so you have a selection to pick from…read more There is onsite parking, so basically park and go straight to the shops. I used Spot Hero and got $7 parking here for an event at Soldier Field. It's a bit of a walk, but one of the closer places to park.

This plaza is a scam. They charged double price of parking fee in downtown Chicago, then mailed me…read morean $87 ticket three weeks later -even though I already paid for parking and exited only a few minutes after my time expired. It seems like they will issue an almost $100 ticket just for driving into the plaza even if you don't actually park. There were no gates or clear signs saying payment was required upon entry, yet they still mailed a ticket weeks later. Very misleading and frustrating experience

Over $16 (after AMC validation) for AN HOUR of parking is absolutely outrageous and this corporate…read moregreed is getting to your heads. Which idiot thought this price would be fair? $16 an hour to park a car is ridiculous and no one should be putting up with this. They changed it to where now you can pay by plate online and it scans your plate when you're leaving, is that why they increased the price? For this extra bs tech that no one asked for? REDUCE THE PRICE!!! Won't be going back