Mumford House Saved!
Wow! Somehow, the letters to the Trustees and the continued support of Landmarks Illinois, The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and tireless local preservationists Alice Novak and Karen Kummer, the Mumford House on the U of I campus – its oldest and most original building from 1869 – was saved by the Trustees in Board meeting this morning. I was most pleasantly shocked by this news and kudos go to Alice and Karen and Jim Peters at Landmarks Illinois and Jan Grimes at IHPA and Chairman Shah and Trustees Vickrey and Schmidt and Carroll. Thanks also to Susan Appel for reading my letter (blog below on January 14 2009) into the record back in January. This is a great victory for common sense, historic context. Thanks to the University of Illinois Trustees!
Chicago 7
Preservation Chicago released its “Chicago 7” list of endangered Chicago landmarks on Monday, and one of them was very close to my heart – the “old-fashioned” wood window. I have often spoken about the virtues of old wood windows – made of stronger, straighter, better insulating wood, and how with a little caulk and a storm window they can outperform any vinyl replacement unit. You can scroll back through the old blogs – in November I reglazed one of my windows in my 110-year old house and marveled at a project that cost a couple hours and $20, versus the hundreds it would have cost if I broke a “modern” replacement window. I even had an installation in the “Department Store” with Felicity Rich this past fall featuring old wood windows surrounded by the barrage of advertising that has made replacement windows a force to be reckoned with in the last decade. The bottom line? People replace their windows because of the advertising, not because of any value in the new windows – or any failure of the old.