Lee Bey

'Where America shops' needs an architectural makeover

By: Lee Bey | May. 8, 2012

May. 8, 2012

Hey Sears: I passed your East 79th Street store a few days ago. From the front, I couldn't tell if the store was open or closed--not good for a retailer getting its clocked cleaned by the big-box behemoth from Bentonville.

Built in 1928 with a tower that can be seen for blocks, the 79th Street building is one of Sears' oldest free standing stores. It is very much open. And it used to look the part. Sears' own website described the store as originally having "lots of windows for light and ventilation." 

Not anymore. With two-stories of bricked-over shop windows on two major unadorned elevations, the store looks like an unfriendly neighbor with shades pulled. Again, not good. It's a recurring theme with Sears older stores. These places--much like the company itself--need a makeover.

Take a look at the Sears store on 62nd and Western in the photo below.

…Read Full Entry

Old-school Arby's finds new life

By: Lee Bey | May. 3, 2012

May. 3, 2012

My daughters and I were in the Atlanta area last weekend when we stumbled on this bit of well-tended midcentury roadside architecture just outside of Decatur, Georgia.

The restaurant is called Kitsch'n 155--a name that plays nicely off the restaurant's postwar, kitsch styling. The building, built in 1969, was originally an Arby's restaurant. With a curved roofline designed to resemble a Conestoga covered wagon from the old west, these restaurants--and a neon 10-gallon hat sign that read "Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich is Delicious" dotted the U.S. landscape beginning in 1964.

Most first generation Arby's franchises were either demolished for newer restaurants or sold off for other uses in the 1970s and 1980s.

…Read Full Entry

Bye, Norma Jean: Good riddance to Marilyn's statue

By: Lee Bey | May. 2, 2012

May. 2, 2012

I pretty much had my say last July when that big Marilyn Monroe Seven Year Itch statue went up outside 401 N. Michigan.

But in the wake of news the monstrosity is being taken down Monday and shipped to, hopefully, some carnival grounds somewhere, I couldn't resist a parting shot of the 25-ft tall work--and its popularity--by presenting the above video clip from the 1975 film Tommy.

…Read Full Entry

Fading World's Fair star now in peril

By: Lee Bey | May. 1, 2012

May. 1, 2012
The House of Tomorrow, a modernist,12-sided exhibition home built for Chicago's 1933 World's Fair is among Indiana's 10 most endangered buildings, according to the state's leading preservation group.
 
The vacant, 90-year-old home is one of five surviving exhibition homes from the Century of Progress fair that were relocated to Beverly Shores, Ind. in 1934 by developer Robert Bartlett. In its announcement, Indiana Landmarks said the House of Tomorrow is "the most important and [most] deteriorated of the five." The organization said the home is in need of an owner who can repair the property.
 
Designed by Chicago architects George and William Keck, the house wowed fairgoers with then unheard of features such as glass exterior walls, air conditioning, a dishwasher and automatically opening kitchen and garage doors.

…Read Full Entry

End of the line for Santa Fe sign?

By: Lee Bey | Apr. 30, 2012

Apr. 30, 2012

The white-lettered "Santa Fe" sign atop the landmark Santa Fe Building could vanish--refaced with signage touting the building's newest tenant, Motorola, under a permit request being weighed later this week by city officials.

Under a permit requested by Motorola Solutions Inc., sign designer Icon Identity Solution and property manager Jones Lang Lasalle, the decades-old rooftop sign at 224 S. Michigan would be shrouded in a new lighted Motorola sign.

The request is expected to heard Thursday by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks' permit review committee, according to the body's draft agenda. 

Motorola Solutions' request follows the company's announcement last Thursday that it would lease 24,000 square feet on the seventh floor of the Santa Fe, an 18-story 110-year-old beauty designed by D.H. Burnham & Co.

…Read Full Entry

Lakefront home listed among state's 'most endangered' buildings

By: Lee Bey | Apr. 24, 2012

Apr. 24, 2012
A modernist Lake Bluff house and a hulking former West Side hotel from which WFMT once broadcast are among the state's ten most-endangered historic places, the preservation group Landmarks Illinois announced today.
 
“The sites named to the list are all exceptionally important,” the organization's interim executive director Jean Follett said in a news release.“By calling attention to them we hope to encourage solutions for their preservation.”
 
The group released its list at 10 a.m. news conference in Springfield. The list includes the vacant Hotel Guyon at 4000 W. Washington, seen in the photo above. The former 300-room hotel has been vacant for a decade and is in demolition court, Landmarks Illinois said.

…Read Full Entry

Second act for Bronzeville's Forum Hall

By: Lee Bey | Apr. 23, 2012

Apr. 23, 2012
My camera and I visited Bronzeville's historic, but vacant, Forum Hall over the weekend.
 
The 113-year-old structure, which once played a role in labor history, civil rights, jazz and even the advancement of U.S. Communism, came close to being demolished by the city last year when inspectors found extensive structural damage and loose, falling bricks.
 
Now a new owner, Bronzeville developer Bernard Loyd, is trying to figure out what to do with the Forum. Located on the corner of 43rd and Calumet just east of the CTA's Green Line, reuse of the building and vacant adjoining storefronts could provide a spark to revitalized the bedraggled strip. But that will take time and money.
 
Lots of money.
 
For now, Loyd has repaired the loose bricks, has organized volunteer clean-ups of the building and is seeking input from the neighborhood and IIT architecture students.

…Read Full Entry

Sales trailer vanishes, city view remains

By: Lee Bey | Apr. 20, 2012

Apr. 20, 2012
For more than 20 years, buildings have been rising constantly on the eastern edge of Upper Wacker Drive past Columbus Drive with Cityfront Center on the north side of the river and Lakeshore East coming up on the south bank.
 
But now, a noteworthy subtraction: A Lakeshore East sales trailer that for years sat where Upper Wacker Drive dead ends about a block east of the Swissotel is gone now, giving the public a nicely elevated overlook where sky, water and architecture meet.
 
Lots of architecture, too. Turning in place you can see the work of Mies van der Rohe, Dirk Lohan, Harry Weese, Graham Anderson Probst & White, SOM and more. You can see Tribune Tower, the understated/underrated Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building, Lake Point Tower, Aqua Tower, Trump Tower, NBC Tower and more. And there is more to come.

…Read Full Entry

Pages