Chicago Public Art Group recently dedicated the latest public art project it sponsored -- a long mural on a curving wall of the Chicago Christian Industrial League (CCIL) in North Lawndale. CCIL is a nonprofit social service agency that provides clothing, shelter and training and guidance services to homeless men, women and children.

The 107-foot mural, "Connections 2008," includes a variety of motifs that represent the mission and aspirations of CCIL, which will celebrate its centennial next year:

Along with the 8-track, cassette tapes, vinyl records and so many other things, the Polaroid instant photo as we know it may soon become a thing of the past. The company announced in February that it will stop producing its once-popular instant cameras and accompanying film by the end of 2008.

Joy Mann had to base her sketch only on the charred face of a young woman.

The woman was found in a smoldering dumpster on a wintery January day outside Borg-Warner Automotive Inc. in Lombard. Police removed the badly burned body and called Mann, a forensic artist, to do a post-mortem sketch of the face so they could air the picture on the 10 p.m. news.

Ground was broken Tuesday on a West Loop site for what will be Chicago's first green residential building.

“This project will not only stand in the history of Chicago, but I believe in this country and in the world,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said.

Not only is the planned 50-story apartment Chicago’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design registered building, but it marks the first time a new apartment tower has been built in the Loop during the past 15 years.