Lee Bey: The Urban Observer

 (photo by Lee Bey)

The story of architectural modernism is often told in simple strokes: Mies van der Rohe, SOM, Mies and more Mies. But the city offered so much more---good stuff, too---even by lesser-known modernists.

The 21-story 320 W. Oakdale by architect Milton Schwartz is a sterling example. Built for $2 million, this residential tower was a bit of a revelation when it was completed in 1954. Its overhanging, exposed concrete floor slabs and horizontal bands of floor-to-ceiling window differed from the dark, steel-and-glass-tower model established by Mies' 860-880 Lake Shore Drive. Visually, the building appeared weightless at night as darkness reduced the tower's profile to streams of light shining out from its 57 units. 

The tower took on a bit of infamy in 1960 when it was reportered mob underboss Frank "Strongy" Ferraro lived there. The overhangs were "concrete eyebrows [that] protected him from undue exposure," the Chicago Tribune quipped. Schwartz himself had a nice run in the 1950s and 1960s, designing what is now Hotel 71 at 71 E. Wacker in 1957; a modernist home in the city's Chatham neighborhood for Dr. Earl Renfroe, an African American orthodontist; and buildings in Philadelphia and Las Vegas. Schwartz also oversaw the interior restoration of a Louis Sullivan-designed residence at 2147 N. Cleveland in 1960.