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Post-It Note Window War Wages Between River North Office Buildings

By David Matthews | September 22, 2017 6:04am
 Two Chicago developers are waging a Post-it note window war in River North, and so far, they're sticking to it. 
Post-It Note Window War Wages Between River North Office Buildings
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RIVER NORTH — Two Chicago developers are waging a Post-it note window war in River North, and so far, they're sticking to it. 

The first salvos were fired Sept. 15, when Related Midwest put up a red Pac-Man ghost on the third floor of its office building at 350 W. Hubbard St. The Habitat Co., the building's fifth-floor tenant, then put up a pink Pac-Man ghost. Then the building across the street got involved.

"It's a friendly competition of sorts," said Maureen Vaughn of The Habitat Co. "Like any game, there's got to be a winner. There's not a winner here, but everybody wants to have the coolest window."

Tenants in this building across the street started putting up Post-it notes, too. [DNAinfo/David Matthews]

The initial window art was inspired by Amazon's Seattle campus' Post-it art program, said a Related Midwest spokeswoman, who said the company was "surprised" when the other businesses followed suit.

"It's a fun, creative outlet," she said.

Both sides went with an old-school Nintendo motif because — like Post-it Note art — it appears pixelated, Vaughn said.

Characters depicted so far at Hubbard and Orleans streets include Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Mega Man, Link and Princess Zelda. 

The window war is a "fun distraction" during the waning days of summer, and a pretty involved one, Vaughn said. She said three or four Habitat accountants are responsible for the Post-It note creations, which entail trips to the CVS downstairs for electric-colored sticky notes. 

The contest has built camaraderie among the companies, with office workers waving to each other as they put Post-it notes up, Vaughn said. But how long the window war will last remains to be seen.

"It could go on for another week," Vaughn said. "Then they're going to run out of windows."