Furnished apartments in Chicago, IL

Chicago is the most liveable of the big American cities, and the reason is mostly geography. The lake sits along the entire eastern edge, the grid runs flat and legible behind it, and an elevated train loops the centre — so a city of nearly three million behaves like somewhere you can cross in twenty minutes. Our residences sit in two lakefront towers, Coast Lakeshore in Streeterville and The Reed in the South Loop.

Streeterville puts you between the lake and the Magnificent Mile, north of the river. Navy Pier and Ohio Street Beach are a short walk, the Art Institute and Millennium Park are a straight line south along Michigan Avenue, and Northwestern's downtown campus and hospitals sit in the same few blocks. The South Loop trades some of that density for the Museum Campus, the planetarium and the lakefront path running down toward Hyde Park.

Winter is the thing everyone warns about and the thing residents plan around rather than avoid. A building with a pool, a gym and somewhere warm to be downstairs changes January entirely, which is why the amenity floor matters more here than it does in a Californian tower. The lakefront path is still worth walking in the cold; there is simply less argument about it.

The rest of the year is the argument for the city. The lakefront turns into eighteen miles of beach and bike path, the summer festival calendar takes over Grant Park, and the restaurant scene — which never needed the weather — runs from West Loop tasting rooms to the Italian beef counters that have been in the same place for sixty years.

For a stay of a month or more, Chicago offers something the coastal markets do not: genuine space for the money. A one-bedroom here is a one-bedroom, with a separate kitchen and room to have people over, at a rate that would buy a studio in Manhattan.

Where things are

Streeterville

Between the lake and the Magnificent Mile, north of the river — Navy Pier, Ohio Street Beach and Northwestern's downtown campus all within walking distance.

The Loop

The office core inside the elevated tracks, with Millennium Park and the Art Institute along its eastern edge.

The South Loop

South of Congress toward the Museum Campus, the planetarium and the start of the lakefront path down to Hyde Park.

The West Loop

The old meatpacking blocks turned restaurant district, and the tech and consulting offices that followed them onto Fulton Market.

River North

Galleries, hotels and the bulk of the city's bar and dining rooms, immediately west of Streeterville.