With Black Friday and the holiday shopping season on the horizon, a popular suburban mall just got a $9 million facelift, with renovations including updated and modernized flooring, ceilings and a revamped main entrance.

A new Barnes & Noble bookstore in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood opens to the public Wednesday, inside an architecturally historic building that once housed Walgreen’s iconic “Vitamin Vault.”

Other nearby suburban malls are also going through similar projects, including Old Orchard in Skokie, Golf Mill in Niles and Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale.

One of Westfield Old Orchard Mall’s most recognizable areas will soon be demolished to make way for new buildings set to contain hundreds of apartments, a new common area and event space, new retail and restaurant options, a parking garage and potentially even a hotel, according to a press release from mall developer Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.

The Edens Expressway is closed in both directions between Old Orchard Road and Dempster Street after a multi-vehicle crash and hazmat spill, according to Total Traffic.

Significant delays are being reported in the inbound lanes of the Edens Expressway near Old Orchard Road following a crash, according to Total Traffic.

Westfield Old Orchard Mall in Skokie on Friday released updated renderings of the shopping center’s redevelopment plans, which were given the green light by the village’s Plan Board one day earlier. Applications submitted for the “transformative” redevelopment plan, which includes 400 luxury apartments and 15,000 square feet of street-level retail space, were unanimously approved by the Plan Board on Thursday night....

Suburban Chicago’s mall boom continues as six new stores are set to open at Westfield Old Orchard mall in Skokie, including a new dining option and the highly anticipated opening of the mall’s new Pottery Barn location inside the renovated space once occupied by Lord & Taylor.

All outbound lanes of the Edens Expressway (I-94) at Old Orchard in Skokie were blocked early Wednesday after a semi full of seeds overturned on the highway, according to the Illinois State Police.

Zara, Pottery Barn, Arhaus and Puttshack will all open at the former Lord & Taylor space