Lee Bey: The Urban Observer

(photos by Lee Bey) 
As soon as this week, they'll start boarding up and closing off the old Kennedy-King College. The concrete behemoth that has pounced over 69th and Wentworth for 35 years has been replaced by a new campus at 63rd and Halsted that officially opens July 18.

I took a stroll around the abandoned campus. I was awestruck by the power and confidence of the design--not to mention the buildings sheer size. When I was a child in the 1970s, buildings like these were new--and they always seemed to promise new things, such as closed-circuit television classes. Seeing one at the end of its lifecycle was sobering.

Built for $31.1 million, Kennedy King College was the height of modernity when it was completed in 1972. In 1970, the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects bestowed a certificate of merit upon the yet-to-built campus, praising it for the openness of its design.  The building's original 50,000 volume library, swimming pool, daycare center, 500-seat theater and internal gardens and plazas were all originally designed to be shared with the surrounding community. The college's TV station, radio station (WKKC) and even the way the massive building opens at center to allow Wentworth Avenue to pass beneath were all planned as a welcoming gestures to the neighborhood and the surrounding area.

The design by the now-defunct architecture firm of Fitch, Larocca, Carrington & Jones is relentless. With its right angles and large panels of scored concrete, the building resembles the retaining walls of the Chicago Skyway.  Some parts are downright bleak and dystopian, such as this probably well-intentioned covered gathering space near the rear of the complex...

...and this open space above Wentworth Avenue. The concrete benches are not bad touches--to look at. Sitting on them is a bit uncomfortable, especially when the only view is an overgrown and ill-kept plaza.

(below) I like this, though:

The college that opened with much hope in 1972--the theater premiered with a production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro--wound up being a nightmare to secure and maintain. When I worked in the mayor's office, a City College official told me the building 26 different roof levels. "And they all leak," he said. There were long expanses of corridors that were not lined with classes--they were simply conduits to get people from one side of the building to another. Factor in years of deferred maintenance that is de rigeur with all public buildings and its easy to see why a new college was warranted.

There are no current plans to reuse the old building, although sources say the city Planning Department might be prepare documents to test the waters for potential developer interest in the 20-acre site. Until then, the Kennedy King stands alone and empty. Its only purpose now is to direct people to the new college a few miles away.