modernist landmark in Chicago's Chatham
community.
I'm trying not to make this website an ode to
South Side buildings. But it's hard. Because with
the exception of crime stories in the news, the
South Side of Chicago---particularly its
architecture---has been overlooked historically. I
promise to spread things around a bit in the
upcoming days and weeks with stories of new
architecture and great buildings; please allow me
a few more swings in the land south of Madison
Street.
****
East 79th Street is a typical business district, with
a run of 1920s brick and terra-cotta retail
buildings with apartments above. Things change
considerably at St. Lawrence Avenue, where
someone ushered in a bit of the Space Age---in the
form of a dry cleaners.
Built in 1959, Pride
Cleaners disrupts
the sober run of
stores along 79th
Street. Its free-
standing, marquee-
like sign, which
must have exploded
with bright colors and blinking lights when it was
new, grabs the eye long enough to notice the
building behind it: a modernist dry cleaners with a
stunning, concrete hyperbolic paraboloid roof. The
roof dips low (so low, its fenced-off in the back to
ward off skateborders and other adventureous
types) then rises about 20 feet at its highest point.
The cleaners was designed by Gerald Siegwart, a
Chicago modernist who also designed at least one
house in Lake Forest, IL and a few suburban
Chicago bank buildings and grocery stores in the
1950s and 1960s. And there is a purpose behind
the roof's shape: the structure doesn't need interior
support, which frees up space on the inside for the
dry cleaning plant and personnel. The roof also
drains easily.
Pride Cleaners does brisk business today. But
customers are in and out so fast, few probably
notice the original teal and aquamarine interiors
and signs.
