WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

(photo by Lee Bey)

Apologies for the poor photo quality above. I shot this picture of the demolition of Michael Reese Hospital earlier this week through the greenish tinted windows of a moving Metra Electric train.

The building in the foreground--the one with its carcass laid open--was once the Meyer House, a four story neo-classical brick pavilion with a facade as graceful as a 1920s apartment house.‚  The 13-story women and children's hospital from 1970 that sits behind Meyer will dance at the wrecker's ball soon enough.

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(photo by Lee Bey)

It's been more than 20 years--can it be?--since NBC Tower popped up on Cityfront Center. An Art Deco building 60 years after the fact; a piece of the 30 Rock that had landed in the Midwest.

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Promontory @ Sunrise (photo by Lee Bey)

I am listening to "Warm Weather," a 1981 groove by the jazz R&B group Pieces of a Dream.

We could use some warm weather. But that song (and maybe this one) is as close as I could get for now. Well, that and the summertime in Chicago photos that you'll see today. Just a reminder than the winds, no matter how cold, must ultimately yield to warm breezes ahead.

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(photo by Lee Bey)

There was potential good news last week for Hyde Park's former Shoreland Hotel. The one-time luxury hotel-turned-University of Chicago dorms might have a new incarnation as upscale rental apartments.

It would be a great save if developer Antheus Capital LLC, of Englewood NJ,‚  can pull it off. The faded 84-year-old grande dame with the outstretched arms at 55th and South Shore Drive was a hub of Hyde Park life--and is a beautiful remnant of the brief‚  time between World Wars when hotels along the city's north and southern shore rivaled the ones downtown.

Those days are long gone. But the old girl still deserves to kick up her heels again.

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(photo by Lee Bey)

There is a nice collection of workaday mid-century modernism scattered across the Southeast Side.

Sometimes, you get clusters of it, as is the case with the postwar residential community of Marynook between 83rd and 87th streets west of Dorchester (and its upscale cousin, Pill Hill).‚  Other times, you're just rolling down the street--minding your own business--and something funky and near-avante garde will jack your attention, as was the case when I passed this clinic near 79th and Yates.

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(photo by Lee Bey)

North Grand High School.

(photo by Lee Bey)

Built in 2004 and designed by Chicago firm OWP/P (now OWP/P CannonDesign), North Grand High School is one of the city's most daring examples of public school architecture.

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(photo by Lee Bey)

I was driving through Jackson Park a few days ago and spotted--as I have for years--the 30 foot tall goddess of gold watching over the park as she has done since 1918.

Even though she's had a little work done here and there, the old gal looks pretty good for a 92-year-old.‚  I decided to hop out with the camera and get a closer look at The Republic, designed by Daniel Chester French, best known for his sculpture of Abraham Lincoln seated at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

The Republic is a replica of French's original plaster colossus that stood in the Court of Honor at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Jackson Park.‚  The figure wears a laurel around her head and holds a staff in her left hand that reads "Liberty" and a globe and an eagle--the fair's symbol--in her right. But here's what I didn't know about the statue until I stayed up too late last night doing research (and can you believe it leads to Andy Warhol? More later):

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