New Kennedy King College
(photos by Lee Bey)
We take our first look today at the new Kennedy-King College campus which officially opens this month at 63rd and Halsted in the Englewood community. The 40 acre-campus is composed of six buildings running along the east side of Halsted Street between 62nd and 65th streets. A quadrangle (above) with a clocktower and green space is the heart of the campus.
(above) The southeast corner of 63rd and Halsted, showing the urban, almost mercantile feel of the campus. It is a far cry from the now-mallballed old KKC campus at 69th and Wentworth.
Designed by the Chicago's Johnson & Lee Architects, the campus represents a stunning improvement for the once-beleaguered 63rd and Halsted area. The intersection was once a thriving mini-downtown--the city's most prosperous shopping district outside of the Loop--until Englewood went through racial and economic changes that were all-to-familiar in 1960s and 1970s Chicago. The city tried to preserve the intersection's retail power by turning it into the ill-fated suburban-style Englewood Concourse pedestrian mall. It was a planning mistake only surpassed by the State Street Mall in 1979. Money still changed hands, but in largely low-grade shops that catered to the gold-chain-and-sneaker trade. This for an area that has national retailers as late as 1980. Back in 2005, I photographed some of the remnants of the old mall such as these clocktower kiosks, pedestrian canopies and brick pavers, just before they were mercy-killed by bulldozers.
(above) A student walks by a trio of first-floor windows framed by light shelves along Halsted.
A theater and broadcast studios for WKKC-FM radio and WYCC-TV are in this complex on the northeast corner of 63rd and Halsted:
Is a two-year college, no matter how impressively-designed, enough of a draw to return Englewood's luster? While taking these photos, I ran into a real estate developer who was also getting the lay of the land. He not only noted the new college but the nearby elevated train station and the easy access to downtown it provides.
"You don't make this kind of investment in an area unless you know something is happening next," he said.
Comments
Hi Lee,
Great work on this latest content, thanks for the update on the new KKC...you note that the pedestrian mall was torn up in 2005, but from what I recall, the old Sears (I think), etc. were demolished as well (which provoked slight controversy at the time). Do you have any photos of the street prior to the KKC buildings?
Posted by: Brendan | July 9, 2007 10:18 AM
Lee,
I always loved your writing for the "Sun-Times", so I'm excited to find you writing again on your own blog. Keep up your amazing work!
One comment about this post: I think you embedded the same picture for both the northeast and southeast corners of 63rd and Halsted (unless they look identical)?
Posted by: Jeff Singer | July 9, 2007 10:35 AM
Brendan: Thanks for stopping by. I think the Sears store got demo'd in the 1980s? I should check. And I do have some pix of the pre-KKC mall. I took em back in 2001 or so on film. I just got a scanner today and will begin hunting them down.
Jeff: Thank you! It feels good to be read again, thank you. I thought I embedded the same pix, too. But if you look closely, one has satellite dishes on top (the one on the northeast corner) while the one on the southeast corner doesnt.
Posted by: UrbanObserver | July 9, 2007 08:02 PM
Your real estate developer friend had the same thought I did. I could spur development. A community college is a good start.
I was looking at some of the plans. It was unfortunate to see many of the commercial buildings razed, but then in the future there will be places to work for those KKC students. I think 63rd and Halsted with that L roaring by would be perfect for those student to come to school then go to work there.
Posted by: Levois | July 10, 2007 03:24 PM