Demolition reveals Cabrini Green (…red, orange and blue, too)

(photo by Lee Bey)

The Cabrini Green public housing building at 660 W. Division is coming down.  As demolition workers pound the 15-story concrete slab into oblivion, take note of something beside the spectacle of crumbling concrete and the hair-like strands of  exposed rebar:

There is color.

Look closely the photo above. Demolition unmasks the building’s drab grid-like face, revealing apartments that were painted in bright orange, reds, blues and greens; a Mondrian large-scale and in 3D. I hadn’t noticed this until Lisa Lenoir, who was a fashion editor at the Sun-Times during my time at the paper, mentioned it to me a few days ago.

Lisa drew a nice parallel between the predominantly-black Cabrini Green’s vividly painted units and the simple and brightly colored homes in Africa and the Caribbean. “We are a diaspora,” she said. I think she’s on to something:

(photo by Lee Bey)

(photo by Lee Bey)

Related Posts:

• The end of an era? The demolition of the Standard Bank Building at 95th and Western
• Cool Building Wednesday: Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tower
• City Colleges moves to demolish former Kennedy-King campus

Tags: Cabrini Green, Chicago Housing Authority, Demolition pictures

About The Author

Lee Bey

is interested in studying, covering and impacting architecture, urbanism, historic preservation and the role politics play in the creation of the built environment. He was architecture critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, worked as a mayoral deputy chief of staff for Richard M. Daley, served as director of governmental affairs for the Chicago office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and now is executive director of the Chicago Central Area Committee. His photography has appeared in Forbes, Old House Journal magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Architect magazine.

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08

02 2010

by Lee Bey

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Lee Bey

5 Comments

5 Comments Add Yours ↓

1. amt0407 #

   02.08.2010 10:14

   1

   Well done!
2. Lee Bey #

   02.08.2010 13:56

   2

   amt: thank you!
3. Genevieve M #

   02.09.2010 17:43

   3

   Thanks for the visual parallels and the thought of the peoples of the diaspora. My favorite visual architectural buildings in Suth Africa belong to the Ndbele tribe whose women paint their homes in amazing designs and colors amidst the tawny beige brown of the savannah. Deftly done.
4. Selima Ani #

   02.11.2010 14:18

   4

   I JUST noticed this last week myself. Glad you had the camera to catch it.
   Beautiful, Lee!
5. Lee Bey #

   02.11.2010 15:08

   5

   Genevieve M: I had a book of those homes once…beautiful work.
   Selima: Thank you! And that building is disappearing fast, too.