WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

A bare auditorium, with dome, arched
windows and altar (photo by Lee Bey)

Hyde Park's vacant former St. Stephen's Church--an edifice that has been the subject of a decade's worth of failed redevelopment plans--is now for sale. Asking price:$1.7 million.

Built in 1915 as the Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist, the building's limestone facade with curved walls that open like a pair of welcoming arms still conveys a certain pride and strength. But a decade of disuse has turned the interior into a heartbreakingly beautiful ruin; its majestic spaces sit beneath a veil of failing plaster, graffiti, broken glass and decay. How did it get this way? University of Chicago Maroon reporter Asher Klein nicely chronicled the church's recent history in this 2009 piece.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

(photo by Lee Bey)

This week, the sky didn't fall; it eased down slowly, covering the city's buildings in misty white vapor and bringing the tallest buildings down to earth.

Clockwise from the bottom: (1) Hotel Fairmont (2) Aon Center (3) Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tower (4) Aqua Tower (5) Michigan Plaza South.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

(photo by Lee Bey)

Mr. Pee's Hand Car Wash on south Racine avenue is no longer in business. And with a name like that, we are hardly surprised.

I found the strangely-named establishment a couple of years ago. It's part of a collection of pics I've taken of odd signs, wonders and assorted goings-on--things I've stumbled upon while heading someplace. The pics are more snapshots than photographs and are all taken at the spur of the moment. But to me they show Chicago, for all its toughness, can be a very funny city. Even if it is unintentional. Here are my faves:

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

(photo by Lee Bey)

The new 82-story Aqua Tower, designed by architect Jeanne Gang of Studio/Gang Architects.

(photo by Lee Bey)

I can hear you. "Sure, it's a cool building, Lee. But aren't you a little late to the party? Everybody and their mama has written about Aqua." Well, that's true. And here's a Q&A I did with Gang more‚ than two years ago on Aqua, 225 N. Columbus, for my old Urban Observer blog while the tower was still under construction.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

(photo by Lee Bey)

Artist Alexander Calder liked circuses. I didn't know that. But as I contemplated‚  Flamingo, his still-impressive stabile at Federal Plaza the other day, it rather made sense. Only a sculptor with a sense of whimsy, razzle-dazzle, "how did they do that?" showmanship would create a 30 ton, five-story work made of industrial steel--and yet have all that mass touch the ground with the daintiness of a ballet dancer.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

(photo by Lee Bey)

1. Masonry workers at 53rd and Harper.

2. Construction guys working on facade of the Fine Arts Annex, 421 S.Wabash.

3. Workers in a empty parcel in the Lake Shore East development near Columbus just north of Randolph, behind the Blue Cross/Blue Shield building.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet

When Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America was published in 2003, it seemed to be only a matter of time before the brilliant book would become a motion picture.

The lavishly told tale of Daniel Burnham's heroic efforts to plan and construct the Chicago 1893 World's Fair juxtaposed with that of serial killer H.H. Holmes who ran a murderous house of horrors mere miles west of the fair captured the attention of actor Tom Cruise's company, which purchased the book's film rights in 2003. At the same time, Leonardo DiCaprio's camp said it had been working on its own film regarding Holmes. You could imagine a heck of a film, with special effects that would allow us to truly see the White City fairgrounds as they were--and how they served as a backdrop for an astounding cast of characters from Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass to Little Egypt (a rumpshaker) and Buffalo Bill Cody.

…Read Full Entry

• Comments
• Send
• Print
• Share
• Recommend
• Tweet