Modern cities are amazing creations, pulsing with life 24 hours a day, and built to cater to every need of residents. Take away just one of any city dweller’s basic necessities like plumbing, electricity or heating/air conditioning, though…

Time was that a nice, spacious condo unit with a good location, a good view and several basic amenities such a laundry room, a doorman and maybe a fitness room were what Chicagoland buyers wanted. But as more buildings are constructed or r…

Many aspects of the American work landscape have changed radically in the last two decades. As the service and information economies have overtaken manufacturing and other more traditional forms of labor, the old 9-to-5, office-bound workd…

Someone once said, "People who say that small things don't bother them have never tried to sleep in a room with a mosquito." The truth is that there are little irritations—otherwise known as pet peeves—about a job, relationship, or o…

Any building in Chicago taller than, say, five stories usually has an elevator—and often, new buildings of even three stories have an elevator. If you live in a high rise co-op or condo building on Lake Shore Drive or elsewhere in Chicagol…

Living in a condo means putting up with certain occasional inconveniences: that curious odor emanating from the neighbor’s unit, the downstairs saxophone player who practices every Tuesday afternoon, or that one resident that insists at ev…

You may love your building. You may even love your neighbors and the members of your board. But there are few people who can say that they love their monthly board meetings or annual shareholder meetings. That’s because many of these meeti…

Finding the right balance of involvement between homeowner associations, co-op boards, condo boards and residents can be like maintaining a healthy relationship with a significant other: you want to be compassionate, responsive and attenti…

There’s nothing worse than being a unit owner in a building and seeing someone breaking a rule and seemingly getting away with it. It's even worse if that person happens to be on the building's board. Some board members believe that …

The Chicagoland Cooperator and Yale Robbins, Inc. welcome you to The Chicagoland Cooperator’s third annual Chicagoland Condo, HOA, & Co-op Expo. The Chicagoland Expo is the largest expo in the state entirely dedicated to connecting c…