Oak Park settles down a bit
Well, from the tenor of the panel discussion in Oak Park this morning, the Fox News-style polarization of preservation has died down a bit. This is a good thing. A developer, a village president/architect, a local architect and two preservationists made up a panel that was distinguished more by how much they agreed than by the false “Preservation or Development” dichotomy that was set up.
The biggest laughs came to Jonathan Fine of Preservation Chicago who said the title “Historic Preservation: Too Much of a Good Thing?” reminded him of “Women’s Suffrage: Too Much of a Good Thing?” or “Child Labor Laws: Too Much of a Good Thing?”. He is right that preservation has to keep justifying itself. Continue Reading
January 16 2007
Lots of landmark news today. Mayor Daley promised $500K to rebuild Pilgrim Baptist Church, the landmark Adler & Sullivan house of worship destroyed by fire a year and a week ago. Fundraising for the small congregation with a new pastor is slow, and the big questions about what it is going to look like aren’t being answered but it seems they are tacking toward a creative rebuilding within the original Adler & Sullivan walls. The architect, Frank Christopher Lee, suggested a range of options from reconstruction to something “unexpected but really nice” within the old walls. Put your money on the unexpected – unless you have a spare $12 million for the reconstruction. Continue Reading
A Deal Falls Through
Strange things always happen in the People’s Republic of Oak Park, a tenacious, opinionated and privileged suburb just west of Chicago – the only suburb with two CTA rapid transit lines.
The other shoe has finally fallen in the Downtown Oak Park development saga, some of which is visible at www.oakpark.us.
Oak Park was embarrassed last year when they adopted a whack plan by Portland firm Crandall-Arambula. I happened to be one of the random telephone interviews during the summer of 2004, so I know how bad their methodology was. The questioner kept asking me to choose between historic preservation and economic development. DUH! Historic preservation IS economic development I tried to say, but their script did not allow this. 250 grand wasted. Continue Reading