Long Live Historic Preservation. In what might seem a contradiction to anyone who does not live in Chicago, the very same week that Mayor Daley is promoting Chicago's architecture as an elegant backdrop for the 2016 Olympics the Chicago Landmarks Commission okayed the replacement of the Farwell Building on the Mediocre Mile with a parking garage with Farwell Building icing. Think the Vincent D'nofrio character from Men in Black. Bookmark Lynn Becker for the ongoing autopsy of the whole situation. The architect presiding over this mess: Lucien Lagrange. From (of all places) Chicagoist.
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I forgot to mention why this is so important - This building is (was) a designated historical building. With this ruling any historic building, at least in Chicago, can be declared "distressed" and then torn down, replaced with a parking garage with the facade of the original building pasted back over it.
This is a new low even for Chicago. In summary, a developer knowingly buys a landmark building on land unable by zoning to support his proposal, it gets voted down, it gets rejected by the landmark commission, and yet here we are ready to build.
Im not a rabid preservationist. But I work in a beautiful old terracotta clad structure on State St. One of the last left standing. The landlords of it have let it deteriorate so bad, its been deemed unsalvagable. They sold it to the Fed Govt to create a buffer zone around a court house ( the plan is to tear it down)
What is going on? You take care of your property you get higher assessed taxes and limited freedom to remodel. You let it fall to shit, you get capital savings, landmark waivers, and possibly a fat federal buyout? Is this America anymore?
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