An egregious wreck : 無料・フリー素材/写真
An egregious wreck / Payton Chung
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-継承 2.1 |
|---|---|
| 説明 | This solid timber loft building at 1609 N. Wolcott puts up a fight against the wrecking ball. It's a victim of a developer with zero creativity, who intends to replace it with elephantine, lookalike McMansions even over the strident objections of the neighbors and neighborhood groups. Even more stupidly, the existing building could have very easily been converted to condos under the existing zoning, but wealth inequality in this country has gotten to such outlandish proportions that play-palaces for plutocrats pay far more than crash pads for the merely prosperous.Okay, so the McMansions will be Modern and Minimal and worthy of spreads in Dwell; I don't freaking care. This guy ranks up there with all those nameless, crappy developers in the league of idiot architectural homogenizers who are profiting off our city's beauty by destroying it. Mies himself found his inspiration for "universal space" from admiring the wide-open factory floors of Chicago lofts, and this is how a so-called admirer repays the favor? Besides, this building went to three of the lot lines; surely something this bulky isn't profitable to scrape and replace with smaller buildings.Incidentally, this building was the destination the first time I explicitly went to Bucktown/Wicker Park (and probably the first time I went to a gallery opening); the 13 Feb 1999 Critical Mass [Anti] Auto Show was held in a gallery on the second floor. I remember carefully plotting out the trip, being new to Critical Mass, to winter cycling, and to what was still somewhat of a fringe neighborhood. I still have the brilliant little postcard announcing the show hanging above my desk, and I still remember being awed by the clanging of my shoes on the wide metal staircase. I haven't even lived here ten years, and already my history is disappearing. |
| 撮影日 | 2006-07-05 21:36:12 |
| 撮影者 | Payton Chung , DCA, USA |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | Chicago, Illinois, United States 地図 |