Critical Mass

I rode Critical Mass today - it's every last Friday of the month. Maggie met me at work (she took the day off) and we rode down to Daley Plaza where bikers meet up before hand. We got there right at 5:30, when the ride was supposed to start. There were a lot of bikers milling about. We waited for awhile until some people on handmade bike machine showed up with horns and music and slowly started winding everybody up. It took a while to start but after circling around the plaza a bit we took off. We went straight up to Wacker Drive. It was great having the open road with no cars and it felt weird and powerful to have traffic stalled around me. Some of the bikers were angry and agressive towards cars but most were friendly and just demanding to be noticed. I liked a bumper sticker that said "Bikes are traffic, too. Share the road with fellow commuters" and hearing somebody respond to a coaxing cabbie "why should we let you go first? Right now you have to wait for us." Some pedestrians were really friendly and waved. Some people in cars were really cool, too, and were smiling and honking, even though we had gotten then struck in traffic. I think we broke off from the scheduled path pretty quick - the bikers got distracted by a giant pillow fight at that tire warehouse on Kinzie. We spent a lot of time in the loop then headed to river north. At one time it became clear that we were going to cross Michigan which seemed okay, but then the lead bikes turned to take the mass down Michigan. This was probably not the best idea because cars were stopped in regular traffic and could not clear the road so there wasn't much room. I saw the first of several bikes managled by cars. We turned at Water Tower and headed back down to the loop. Took Wacker again, which I really liked, and then down to Union Station. From Union Station towards UIC then Pilsen. Did a couple of loops in the Pilsen, were people seemed very friendly. Maggie and I broke off in the Pilsen and took Damen back up to the neighborhood.
http://chicagocriticalmass.org/

Fisher Studio Homes

This is one of my favorite buildings in Chicago - the art moderne Fisher Studio Homes at 1209 N. State Pkwy. This white brick and glass block apartment was built in 1936 by Andrew Rebori with Edgar Miller. Besides this building, Rebori design a home a block or two away where Bertram Goldberg lived when he designed the Marina City. Andrew Rebori also designed the House for Brick Manufacturers Association of America at the The Century of Progress Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. And Rebori collaborated (not sure how much, but he is credited) with Holabird and Root on the LaSalle Bank Tower.
The sides of the facade and edges of the entrance curve inward. One side of the facade nestles a stairway indicated from the street by vertical bands of glass block rising in stair step. The stair rises to a second floor open air corridor that is perpendicular to the street. The aparments are in a bar that stretches down the side of the lot along this corridor. These units open to a long courtyard that parallels the building. There are some interesting details on the front - a few cast panels that look like one of the metopes from the Parthenon in Athens - South 27 which shows the Satyrs fighting the Lapiths. There is another interesting modern studio building in Old Town.

http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/F/FisherStudios.html

Chicago and Western Art Deco Demolition

I was walking home from work today and came across this building at 2357 Chicago Ave being torn down. It is (or was) a pretty unique white glazed tile building with some nice ornament. The building directly catty corner (the old Lighthouse Diner) to it is also a tile art deco bulding. The columns used to have capitols that projected above the roof line giving it an interesting massing. The building was in three bays - the third one is almost gone. It looks like at least the capitols were salvaged before demolition started.
I'm glad I got a few photos before this one was all gone. I also found a photo from www.cookcountyassessors.com to show what it used to look like.
I took another demolition photo today on my way to work to track progress. They did a bit more after I passed by yesterday, but not much. Will see how much is left today, too.






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Waller Apartments/Fifth City

2840-58 W. Walnut Street Chicago, 1895. Frank Lloyd Wright
Biked by these buildings again and have my own photos. These are in Fifth City, just north of Lake Street, one of the Garfield Park neighborhoods. I love this neighborhood enclave- near a green line station, closed in by quiet sturdy warehouses. There is even a boulevard-esque stretch along Fulton with a leafy canopy and wide spaced modest mansions. But also a little worn down and unnerving. On the way out of the neighborhood going North on Sacramento you pass by the EZ Polish Factory, also by FLW, and end up on the boulevard to Humboldt Park.

http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/W/WallerApts.html
http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Illinois/Waller_Apartments/waller_apartments.htm
http://tigger.uic.edu/depts/ahaa/imagebase/intranet/slide_scans/960827/96.08.27.001.jpg
(this last link is a photo of the Francis apartments, which were behind the Waller Apartments.


Warehouse with huge doors below and a band of windows above.

This is the corner block of the Waller Apartments. It would have been connected to the other side of the building, but one of the units is missing.

This is the long front facade of the building towards Walnut street. The missing gap indicates where a piece of the building has been lost.

The end of the Waller Apartments towards the interior of the block. The two ends are flanked by slightly attenuted "pavillions" each with a centered arched door.

The back of the Waller Apartments

The back of the corner block

A worn down single family house surrounded by lawn space.

EZ Polish Factory Sacramento side - I love the single pier in the back carried through from the facade.

The EZ Polish Factory

Ostia in Chicago/Balbo Monument

Ostia in Chicago

www.ostia-ostie.net/carte_regio4_batiments.html

Here is a link to the Ostia column/Balbo Monument - this is a Roman column given to Chicago by Mussolini in the early 30s. They plucked it from an ancient Roman ruin. The column was originally infront of the Italian exhibition at the Century of Progress Exposition. It's still in the same place just off the lake shore bike path isolated amongst green fields. Not much else around there now. Also included: a link to a map of Ostia.

Washington Boulevard near Damen

This house is right near the United Center and sits alone in the midst of parking lots. It looks like a lot of the neighborhood was cleared. The United Center is like the epicenter of a bomb. It seems churches were spared so there are a few run down ones studded around the pavement. Washington (and it's counterpart Warrren) was once Chicago's tony-iest boulevard lined with elegant mansions. Not many remain east of Damen(though there are some around Union Square. In the less gentrified neighborhoods to the west, such as Garfield Park, there are many delapidated relics. Side note: In 1866 Mary Todd Lincoln bought the house at 375 W Washington boulevard. This was the year after her husband's death. http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln16.html

St Ignatius Prep 04/15/07

Images of St Ignatius. I love the huge fields behind the building.

Little Village/Pilsen 04/15/07

Took a bike ride down Damen to 22nd place recently to see St Pauls Church and Thalia Hall. Looped around the church a few times and them headed over the Pilsen. This is my favorite area of the city for architcture - more urban than a lot of Chicago. The buildings are taller and the urban fabric is denser. I also happened to cross by St Ignatius College Prep. I've passed this several, but biked a loop around it this time. From the back it is much more interesting - big playing fields and wings of building jutting out. Reminds me a bit of an Oxford College - unexpected space.
http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/S/StIgnatius.html
http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/T/ThaliaHall.html
http://www.thaliahall.com/
http://www.stpaulchgo.org/

South Wacker Market

These food halls were constructed by the city of Chicago when the city decided to redevelop Wacker Drive into a two level thoroughfare. At that time, Water Street was the premier food stuffs market place in Chicago. These buildings are located on the West Side around 14th and Cermak - a location picked by Daniel Burnham in his city beautiful plan for the city. This plan also detailed the creation of the boulevards. Currently, these buildings are being redeveloped into condos.

EZ Polish Factory

This is an early building by FLW - a shoe polish factory at 3005-3017 W. Carroll Avenue (cross Sacramento), Chicago built 1905. This is right across the tracks from Chicago Streets and Sanitation. One of the doors along the Carroll side is flanked by a grouping of four squares used by FLW as a signature.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Z_Polish_Factory
http://www.appraisercitywide.com/content.aspx?filename=CustomPage110.x