Street Photography at The North Hotel Chicago

Walk through the lobby of The North Hotel Apartments and you’re met by black-and-white street photographs that continues up through every floor. Tim Klein created the series—12 images from Italy, Spain, and Chicago—exclusively for the building’s reopening. Each picture is printed three times, forming a 36-piece installation that lets repeating shapes, shadows, and gestures reveal new nuances as you move along the corridor.

Formerly a 1920s single-room-occupancy hotel, The North has been reimagined by Flats into 39 loft-style studios while keeping beloved details like exposed brick and soaring ceilings. Klein’s Leica-shot photographs echo that blend of heritage and modern living: a sun-bleached archway in Barcelona, a quiet scooter lane in Verona, a slick Loop crosswalk post-rain. The deep blacks and glowing highlights sit naturally against fresh white walls and vintage masonry, turning everyday routes—mail room runs, laundry trips—into a small visual journey across continents.

More than wall décor, the collection links the building’s past and present. The imagery bridges European plazas and Chicago streets just as the renovation bridges historic bones and contemporary design, giving residents a daily reminder that city life—no matter the city—shares a universal pulse of motion, light, and human curiosity.