South Loop

The South Loop is everything south of Ida B. Wells Drive and downtown’s office core, from the Printers Row loft blocks on Dearborn down through Dearborn Park, Central Station and the Museum Campus to Cermak Road and McCormick Place. Thirty years ago much of this was rail yards. Today the yards are townhouses and towers, the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium sit on the lakefront, and Soldier Field and Wintrust Arena bring the crowds. Residents are a mix: young professionals in the high-rises on Michigan and Wabash, families in the townhouse enclaves, Columbia College students in the rentals, and empty nesters who wanted the lake without the North Side prices.

Where it is

The South Loop covers the south end of the Loop community area and most of the Near South Side. Ida B. Wells Drive is the northern edge, the lake the eastern edge, the river and Clark Street the western edge, and Cermak Road or the Stevenson the southern line, with Chinatown beyond. The Red Line stops at Harrison, Roosevelt and Cermak-Chinatown under State, and the Green and Orange lines stop at Roosevelt on Wabash, with the Green Line continuing to Cermak-McCormick Place. Metra Electric and South Shore trains stop at Van Buren, Museum Campus/11th Street and 18th Street. The 12 Roosevelt and 146 buses reach the Museum Campus. Drivers use the Roosevelt or 18th Street exits off DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The Loop is a walk or one L stop.

What to know if you’re moving here

The South Loop is the cheapest way to live downtown, and the price gap with River North and the West Loop is still real.

• Housing is Printers Row loft conversions from the 1890s to 1920s, townhouses from the 1980s and 1990s in Dearborn Park and Central Station, and towers built since 2000; as a broad editorial estimate for September 2026, condos run from about $250,000 for a one-bedroom to $1 million for large lake-view units and townhomes.
• Townhouse blocks in Dearborn Park and around Prairie Avenue have residential permit parking, while the towers on Michigan and Wabash have metered streets and paid garages.
• Public schools fall under Chicago Public Schools, with South Loop Elementary on State Street and Jones College Prep, a selective-enrollment high school, on the north edge.
• Assessments in the newer towers are generally lower than in older downtown buildings, but many include amenity floors and door staff, so the numbers vary a lot by building.
• The neighborhood is still filling in, which means empty lots along Clark and Wells and stretches of Michigan Avenue where the only ground-floor tenant is a bank branch.
• The drawback a local would mention is event traffic: Bears home games, Lollapalooza, marathon weekend and McCormick Place shows close streets and fill the L for days at a time.

What to do if you’re visiting

Visitors end up on the Museum Campus, and the walk from the Roosevelt L stop east along the lakefront is flat and about fifteen minutes.

• Spend a full day between the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium on the Museum Campus, and walk out to the end of the planetarium peninsula for the best skyline photo in the city.
• Tour Glessner House on Prairie Avenue, H.H. Richardson’s 1887 house, to see what the neighborhood looked like when the Pullmans and Fields lived here.
• Browse the bookstores and cafes of Printers Row on Dearborn, and get a beer at Kasey’s Tavern at Dearborn and Polk, a corner tavern that has been pouring for more than a century.
• Eat a Cuban sandwich at Cafecito on Ida B. Wells Drive, or pastrami at Eleven City Diner on Wabash.
• Catch a show at Reggies on State Street, a bar and music venue near the Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line stop.
• Walk or bike the lakefront path south past Soldier Field to Northerly Island, the park on the old Meigs Field runway.