Lee Bey: The Urban Observer

(photos by Lee Bey)

I drove past 37th and Vincennes twice this week, just to check on our old friend, the former Sixth Presbyterian Church. The edifice--shuttered for years--is one of a few buildings standing where the old Madden/Wells/Darrow public housing complexes once were.

The church is disintegrating. The stone face above the rose window is falling, revealing the underside of the roof. There are holes in the steeple and metal bracing holding the front entry. A canopy has been erected to protect passerby from falling pieces. What a difference a year makes, Here's the church in March 2008, looking almost salvagable:

At any rate, here are more images from June 30 and July 1.

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(photos by Lee Bey)

The planned razing of Michael Reese Hospital took a quiet, but significant, step forward today as the city's Public Building Commission asked contractors to submit qualifications to demolish the 37-acre medical campus.

In the announcement, the PBC said it seeks prime contractors to tear down the entire 29-building complex, including Main Reese--a six-story Prairie School structure from 1907 that lies at the core of the campus--and a cluster of modernist buildings on the south end of the once-great medical institution that bear the stamp of Bauhaus great Walter Gropius, according to preservationist Grahm Balkany.

The RFQ comes three days after members of International Olympic Committee visited the city--and the site--in their assessment of Chicago's 2016 Olympic Bid. The city seeks to build an Olympic Village on the former hospital campus. 

Among the lost would be:

Levinson Building (1953) 503 E. 31st

Wexler Pavilion (1962) 2960 S. Lake Park

Seigel Pavilion (1970)  3033 S. Cottage Grove

Main Reese (1907) 2839 S. Ellis

(L-R) Klein Woman's Hospital & Kunstader Children's Hospital (1970) 539 E. 29th; Florsheim Memorial Library (1935) 3033 S. Cottage Grove; Dreyfuss Research Lab (1965) 504 E. 29th.

Rothchild Center (1928) 2816 S. Ellis

Laz Chapman Pathology Institute (1965) 505 E. 29th

Max Straus Tumor Clinic (date unknown [to me]) 29th and Lake Park

And even, perhaps, this marble marker on Lake Park south of 29th Street, honoring the site where the game of softball was invented:

A quarter-mile of underground tunnels built in 1952 that run the length of the former hospital site are also part of the demolition. The winning contractor is expected to being work in July and have the site clearance "substantially completed" by October 1, 2010, according to the PBC.

The RFQ is pretty good reading, with maps and other info of interest.

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(photos by Lee Bey)

The Urban Observer has devoted a lot of space to abandoned and half-dead houses of worship. With Easter upon us, I figured it was time to give some praise to place that is very much alive: Liberty Baptist Church at 49th and King Drive.

Built in 1954 for $500,000, imagine the splash this modernist beauty must have made back then.  With that paraboloid roof and acres of glass panes smiling beneath, the church joyfully disrupts the sober line of graystones and other early 20th century buildings along King Drive; a big fast Coupe DeVille, flashing its way to the front of a pack of Model Ts.

The church is the work of architect William Alderman.

I like the script here. Especially how the "L" in "Liberty" pays homage to the curve of the roof:

Here's a shot showing the church's great color scheme:

Liberty was built by black people for a black congregation--worth noting because many of the city's fine religious edifices were built by white congregations who moved out. At a time when black folk were still often deprived of basic rights, here is a 1,600 church as modern as Peyton Place--complete with nursery, kitchen, terrazzo floors, acoustical ceiling tiles...the works. The architect, Alderman, was white.

A 90ft bell tower was also planned, but was never built. Too bad. That would have been fun to see (and hear) on Easter.

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(photos by Lee Bey)

At the Urban Observer, we like midcentury moderism. So much so that I stood up on my brakes while traveling down Ogden Avenue in Brookfield recently, just to pull over and get a better look at this beauty.

I wish I could tell you more about it, other than it's an active Citibank branch at 9009 Ogden in the westerm suburb. I'm going to take a wild wild guess and say it was built in 1965. The circular pavilion is held aloft by these stainless steel-clad buttresses. The building is in mighty fine condition. Peep through the glass: the bank looks as if it has retained a lot of Googie goodness on the interior:

If I discover anything about the building's history, I'll pass it on.

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(photos by Lee Bey)

The shuttered former Sixth Presbyterian Church near 37th and Vincennes was always on borrowed time. As I photographed the church over the weekend, I was fairly convinced that its time just might be up. 

It looks as if a relatively recent fire has damaged the building. It sits alone and isolated; a relic of  keeping watch as the community around it is bulldozed and rebuilt for the second time in the church's 130 year history. And...perhaps...awaiting a judgment day of its own.

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(photos by Lee Bey)

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(photos by Lee Bey)

Above: A Ford Galaxie 500---if that isn't the coolest name for a car, I don't know what is---is on the receiving end of an earthly parking ticket in the Beverly neighborhood.

And below: A 1957 Chevy Bel-Air two door at a gas station near Flossmoor. The car is red in real life:

 And here--A mirror sits on the curb in front of a Victorian office building (I wonder if it was originally a house?) in Homewood, IL. In retrospect, I should have taken the mirror with me. But if I broke it, I have something like 770 years of bad luck, as big as that thing is:

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(photo by Lee Bey)

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ABC-TV is resurrecting "Cupid," the never-should-have-been canceled set-in-Chicago comedy that starred the great Jeremy Piven as the angel Cupid who is looking to matchmake his way back to Mt. Olympus.

But there's only one thing wrong with the new show. Okay, maybe two: Neither Piven nor the original cast will be in the remade series when it airs in March 2009. And as this trailer shows, the new Cupid will fly in New York, rather in Chicago.

Boo! The old series, which premiered in 1998 and lasted a season on ABC, was filmed in Chicago and had such a great eye for the city and its architecture. Characters turned turned up in Wicker Park, Bucktown, Hyde Park..one episode had an impressive shot of Piven's character, Trevor Hale, perched atop the dome of 35 E. Wacker.

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(photo by Lee Bey)

Taken from the 31st floor of the 70 W. Madison Building.

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