Apartment Choice

Travel accommodation is frequently seen as a mixed bag; something to be approached with equal parts wariness and trepidation. It’s a sentiment often reflected in popular culture, from the iconic motel shower murder scene in the film Psycho , to the famous lyrics of the Eagles’ Hotel California describing a hotel where “you can check out any time you like (but you can never leave)”. Nonetheless, most hotels can be relied upon to deliver a basic standard of quality, along with safety, security, and stability – important considerations when HR is sending its employees off to unknown foreign locales . A guest can expect a standard template of amenities when checking into a hotel room: bed, bathroom, desk, mini-bar, breakfast buffet, and daily housekeeping at the very least; room service and laundry if they're willing to shell out a little more. The shared option? Airbnb, in contrast, promises character and homeliness at a fundamental level. No two homes are the same – likewise, n...

Well before the imposing student apartment complexes towered over Green Street, before the street was alive with coffee shops, restaurants, and bars, and before many of us were alive, Campustown was a neighborhood of homes and small businesses. Turn-of-the- century houses housing professors , U of I faculty, and students shared blocks with intricate fraternity homes and local residences. The streets were small and lined with large trees, streetcars once serviced certain streets, and bars and apartments were almost non-existent. Though our beloved Campustown today is vastly different, vestiges of the area’s first buildings still remain. Champaign-Urbana’s urban fabric is unique among college towns, as the University of Illinois developed between the downtowns, not adjacent to either center city. Instead of growing organically together, Downtown Urbana, Downtown Champaign, and the University all grew differently at their own pace. For this reason, much of the historic architecture i...