(photo by Lee Bey)

I was cruising through the West Side a few days ago when I stumbled across this five-story commercial building at 4130 W. Madison.

Built in 1929, it is another vacant West Side building. End of story? Not so fast.  Slow down a bit and you’ll notice the eight-decade history of the nearby Madison/Pulaski commercial district is etched across the building’s weathered face. Read the rest of this entry →

The 124th anniversary of architectural great Mies van der Rohe’s birth is March 25th, so I’ll be blogging Mies stuff here and there throughout the month.

Today’s offering is an ingenious Mies music video by TV/video producer and one-time Chicagoan Ted Kamp. Kamp did the video a couple of years ago and the song is catchy as all get-out, I must warn you.  I did an email Q&A with Kemp two years ago for my old Urban Observer blog. Here’s what we said: Read the rest of this entry →

I believe this would be a first for the Vocalo bloggers as Lee Bey showed up on Chicago Tonight Wednesday to talk about the Cook County Hospital building!

(photo by Lee Bey)

Have you noticed the Plymouth Building?

The sliver of a skyscraper, 417 S. Dearborn, hides out between Holabird & Root’s  historic Old Colony Building to the north and William LeBaron Jenney’s Manhattan Building to the south; a waterboy caught between a pair of linebackers.

But the 11-story Plymouth Building holds it own between the two architectural giants.  So much so, the city’s Commission on Chicago Landmarks was set to consider preliminary landmark status for 110-year-old building today as part of a redevelopment project to convert the vacant structure into a student housing. Read the rest of this entry →

(photo by Lee Bey)

I took a stroll down State Street yesterday and took these photographs of the cast-iron restoration work at the former Carson Pirie Scott store.

There is some fascinating work going on there–right there on the sidewalk, right in plain view–as workers re-attach the restored pieces of century-plus iron ornament to the street-level frontage of Louis Sullivan’s masterpiece.  Just look at the entry vestibule now. Read the rest of this entry →

Cook County commissioners today unanimously approved a $108 million plan to preserve the gray lady of Harrison Street–the historic Cook County Hospital building–and convert the 96-year-old building into a hospital administration building.

With the 17-0 vote, county officials will ante- up $5 million, seek $24 million in city tax increment finance district funding, then sell bonds to pay for the remainder of the project. Nearly $20 million will be set aside to restore the building’s Beaux Art facade. The use of TIF funds for the project would require Chicago City Council approval.

The building is located at 1835 W. Harrison.

Built in 1914 and designed by county architect Paul Gerhardt and architecture firm Schmidt Garden & Martin, the building was Cook County government’s primary hospital until the new Stroger Hospital opened in 2002. Read the rest of this entry →

(photo by Lee Bey)

The old church–once a synagogue–crumbles on west Douglas Boulevard.

Built in 1913 as temple Anshe Kenesseth Israel, the house of worship was one of a handful of synagogues on Douglas during North Lawndale’s days as a Jewish community. The former synagogue buildings remain and have been predominantly African American churches since the 1960s.  This one–Shepherd’s Temple Baptist Church at 3411 W. Douglas–was the home of Friendship Baptist Church from 1962 until the congregation built its own iconic African-inspired edifice at 5200 W. Jackson in 1983. Read the rest of this entry →

(photo by Lee Bey)

A reader told me to go look at the vacant Columbus Maryville complex on Montrose just west of Lake Shore Drive. “I’m not sure what they were trying to do there,” he said. “It’s like they were going for something Utopian.”

Developer Marty Paris announced plans this year to raze the former children’s shelter for a $350 million residential/retail project, according to Crain’s, so I decided to have a peek while I could. Read the rest of this entry →

(photo by Lee Bey)

The venerable “M-plate,” the special municipal license plate bearing the prefix ‘M’  that has been affixed to police cars for generations, is being slowly retired by the Chicago Police Department this year, according to a spokesman.

Its replacement? A new state-issued “MP” (for “Municipal Police”) plate  similar to those now being used by other Illinois municipal police departments. Police spokesman Roderick Drew said the department this year began putting the new plates on the Chevy Tahoe SUVs that are being phased in to replace the aged Ford Crown Victoria as squad cars.

“It looks like as they get them in, they’ll [equip] them with the new plates,” he said.

Hundreds of non-law enforcement city vehicles bear the M-plate and would be unaffected by the change. But since at least the 1950s, the M plate-equipped squad car has been one of the more enduring, albeit minor, Chicago symbols. Read the rest of this entry →