Island, goes into rehab, loses its Mid-Century Modern cool.
Built on the southern tip of Stony Island Avenue in 1959,
the Seville Motel was a nice bit of modernism.
This was more "wow house" than Bauhaus. Instead of
the exact, sober lines of Miesian modernism, the Seville
was loud, boxy and low-slung, the doors were painted in
bright colors with funky geometric patterns that
enlivened what would have been blank elevations on the
north and south. Motorists exiting the then-Calumet
Expressway were beckoned by the Seville's two-story,
multicolored neon sign with its promises of television, air
conditioning and a telephone switchboard.
The Seville is no more. The establishment underwent a
makeover and has become the Lake (No, the motel is
nowhere near the lake, but then again, it wasn't close to
Seville, either). The mod colors and plate-glass room
windows are gone. The exuberant Seville sign has been
replaced by one of a smaller, utilitarian, light box variety.
No doubt the building is spruced up. But it is one of the
clumsiest quick-changes outside of what might happen
once an irate husband pounded the door of room 12.
The city has more pressing preservation issues, yes. But
the Seville is more proof that architecture of the recent
past, as a whole, is overlooked---and as a consequence,
endangered. Whether its Gordon Bunshaft's Travertine
House to the Doo-wop Motels in Wildwood, NJ, postwar
architecture is a troubled lot. That America is largely
ambivalent about the value of mid 20th century
architecture is surprising , given this country's five
decade-long romance with almost anything associated
with the 1950s and 1960s.
Think about it. The automobiles at classic car shows are
not 1978 Dodge Aspens, but good old Detroit steel from
the 1950s and 1960s. Nostalgia-themed restaurants are
almost always done-up in the decor of the 1950s. And
half of FM radio---at this very moment---is playing Elvis, the
Beach Boys or the Rolling Stones. Something in the
American pop psyche desperately wants to preserve
nearly every element of those times....except its
architecture.