In honor of Valentine's Day: Who remembers "Cupid?"
I can't be the only one. But then again, given the made-in-Chicago 1998 comedy starring Jeremy Piven lasted barely a season on ABC, I just might be. The show is worth examining, though. And not just because of the phony, money draining holiday that approaches, but because the "Cupid" made good use of Chicago architecture and locales.
The Yale Apartments at 6565 S. Yale is a gem of Chicago architecture--a very fine example of Richardsonian Romanesque design tucked away on a side street in Englewood.
Built in 1892, The Yale shows Englewood's‚ roots as a middle-class, gaslight era suburb.‚ At seven commanding stories, The Yale was taller than anything around it.‚ Apartments--ringing a light court and atrium--were accessible by an open cage elevator.‚ There were two other apartment buildings like it in city: the extant Brewster Apartments at 2800 N. Pine Grove, built in 1893, and the storied--please click on this link--Mecca Apartments at 33rd and State which were demolished in the early 1950s to build IIT's Crown Hall.
Hotel Florence, 111th just east of Cottage Grove (photo by Lee Bey)
A blanket of snow has fallen on the city. S0 take a drive--better yet, a ride on the Metra Electric commuter rail--to the city's historic Pullman neighborhood on the far South Side.‚ Few places in Chicago are as picturesque after a snowfall.
111th Street Metra Electric platform looking north.
Pullman Clocktower on the left (Photo by Lee Bey)
(photo by Lee Bey)
The Cabrini Green public housing building at 660 W. Division is coming down.‚ As demolition workers pound the 15-story concrete slab into oblivion, take note of something beside the spectacle of crumbling concrete and the hair-like strands of‚ exposed rebar:
There is color.
Columbia College Media Production Center (photo by Lee Bey)
Columbia College is an historically non-traditional arts college housed in series of‚ traditional-looking converted late 19th and early 20th century commercial buildings in the South Loop.
But suppose--just suppose--the 120-year-old college, whose graduates are an eclectic mix of artists, actors, journalists, dancers, filmmakers, music and television professionals, constructed a building of its own? What would that look like?
Many will find out today as the school and dignitaries cut the ribbon on the $21 million,Columbia College Media Production Center at 16th and State Street. It's first building the college has constructed.
Viceroy Hotel (photo by Lee Bey)
The former Viceroy Hotel is expected to take a step closer to protected landmark status today.
The city's Commission on Chicago Landmarks is scheduled to vote whether to recommend the city council grant‚ landmark status to the vacant six-story Art Deco hotel at 1519 W. Warren Blvd.‚ In addition, the commission will also vote on recommending the Viceroy--originally known as the Union Park Hotel--to the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council for a possible listing on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the meeting's agenda.
The two designations would make the 81-year-old building eligible for incentives that would help Heartland Housing and nearby First Baptist Congregational Church's efforts to redevelop the property into a 90-unit, LEED-certified development for the homeless and unemployed.
Hotel 71 (photo by Lee Bey)
Hotel 71 almost never gets name-checked when people discuss the city's better architecture. If it isn't forgotten, it's certainly overlooked.
No reason why it should be, though. Built in 1958 as the Executive House hotel, the 36-story 71 E. Wacker is a slick postwar addition to the mainly early 20th century Wacker Drive streetwall. The original facade was made flush awhile back, removing the original recessed balconies, but the move improved the tower's looks. Designed by under-heralded Chicago modernist Milton Schwartz, the hotel looks fresh enough to have been built yesterday.
Speaking of yesterday, how weird is this?
(photo by Lee Bey)
I came here to complain about the mid-century Austin Federal Savings & Loan having to suffer the double indignity of being boarded up and partly slathered with posters of Ke$ha:
(photo by Lee Bey)
But I won't. Truth is, I like Ke$ha's "Tik Tok," much to the horror of my teenage daughters‚ (even if her hair on the poster makes her look like a displaced member of‚ Kajagoogoo).