gfsays.....
lakefrontlibby-
thanx for responding. i share your frustration with the new wave of "look at me i'm rich, i'll create my limestone laden castle bigger and better than my neighbor" monstrosities that have ruined entire square blocks in once stately neighborhoods downtown. i love limestone detailing in older, truly historic and sensitively considered buildings. now, limestone is the new instant, exclusive status symbol, replacing granite counter tops on that list of "gotta have's".
yesterday's aesthetic discusssion not withstanding, there was almost overwhelming approval at the loyala meeting for the "bold design statement" the architects were proposing for 7015 sheridan. the disagreement in the room to the overall project, the half baked business plan and the probe of the lpo and many of the impact issues that would result, split the opinions in the room to a conservative 70% "against" to 30% "for" ratio. the alderman has been quoted as saying the opinion in the room was split 50%-50%. propaganda.
that night, my neighbors proved to me that they are quite capable of appreciating genuine attempts by design teams to make statement buildings that go beyond the "faux historic" mediocrity you have frustration with. and honestly, i think it surprised the development team too. i think they might have purposely floated that modern concept to try and divert attention from the real purpose at hand, which was a probe of the lpo, imho.
i liked the direction, whether diversionary or not, that the design team was headed in. i would like to see a fully developed, smaller version of that building and the detailing that would determine if the juxtoposition of a modern/ historic contrast would actually work.
if anything gets built there, it should be a genuine architectural statement regardless of the style. after all, it's chicago, it's the lakefront and it's sheridan road and how often do building sites come on the market with all these issues at stake. the lakefront deserves this consideration and so does rogers park.
# posted by gf :
lakefrontlibby-
thanx for responding. i share your frustration with the new wave of "look at me i'm rich, i'll create my limestone laden castle bigger and better than my neighbor" monstrosities that have ruined entire square blocks in once stately neighborhoods downtown. i love limestone detailing in older, truly historic and sensitively considered buildings. now, limestone is the new instant, exclusive status symbol, replacing granite counter tops on that list of "gotta have's".
yesterday's aesthetic discusssion not withstanding, there was almost overwhelming approval at the loyala meeting for the "bold design statement" the architects were proposing for 7015 sheridan. the disagreement in the room to the overall project, the half baked business plan and the probe of the lpo and many of the impact issues that would result, split the opinions in the room to a conservative 70% "against" to 30% "for" ratio. the alderman has been quoted as saying the opinion in the room was split 50%-50%. propaganda.
that night, my neighbors proved to me that they are quite capable of appreciating genuine attempts by design teams to make statement buildings that go beyond the "faux historic" mediocrity you have frustration with. and honestly, i think it surprised the development team too. i think they might have purposely floated that modern concept to try and divert attention from the real purpose at hand, which was a probe of the lpo, imho.
i liked the direction, whether diversionary or not, that the design team was headed in. i would like to see a fully developed, smaller version of that building and the detailing that would determine if the juxtoposition of a modern/ historic contrast would actually work.
if anything gets built there, it should be a genuine architectural statement regardless of the style. after all, it's chicago, it's the lakefront and it's sheridan road and how often do building sites come on the market with all these issues at stake. the lakefront deserves this consideration and so does rogers park.
# posted by gf :
4 Comments:
Following up on Gary's post, I would like to second his thought here. I know some of us may have to agree to disagree here, but I think there is a place for contemporary architecture in neighorhoods like Rogers Park. I do not agree that historical revisionism, not matter how well done, is the only legitimate path to go down when evaluating whether a proposed new building is "contextually appropriate". And, as we have seen, most revisionism is not that well done; it is simply kitsch.
I think that part of the problem is that we, as a culture, don't often rub up against truly good contemporary design. That's problem number one, and it's a big one. So, we haven't had much experience on the ground to help us think through how these juxtopositions of style might actually work well together. Because of this, I think that some people retreat to "historical revisionism" as a comfortable fall back, not because it is what they really, truly want.
I will be traveling outside the US during much of April and during my travels I am going to see if I can find some good examples of blending old and new. I will send them as I find them for your consideration. If any of you readers also have examples, please send them to us at rogersparkreview@hotmail.com and I will be happy to post them.
Paradise - I wholeheartedly agree with everything you have just said.
I have no idea how that building on Wellington got built. I used to live a couple of blocks from that site, and I remember the building that was there before. It was nothing special, but it was not terrible. I think the new building is really terrible, and all I can imagine is that the toilets and taps must be gold plated to persuade anyone to buy into that hideous thing. Not my idea of good contemporary design at all - totally insensitive in every way. I'm not surprised the residents of Lakeview are aghast.
Paradise - I agree with you that scale is something that has gotten all out of whack during the last 10-15 years...from Hummers, to the beds they sell at places like "Restoration Hardware" that look like Hummers parked in people's bedrooms, this whole "oversized" thing has gotten totally out of control...
...I think there is starting to be a bit of a backlash now, thank god. For the first time I can remember in a long time, I have spotted a few chairs in shops whose footprint might not take every square inch of space in my living room...
paradise-
i know the new building and the one it replaced. i lived on wellington and sheridan for 6 years before it became as fahionable and as expensive as it is now. i realy loved that neighborhood then. although i had a car, i rarely used it since you could walk to everything you needed.
there have been a lot of teardowns in that neighborhood but none worse than this imho. i'm glad you like mr. arkiblekture. there are many people who are tired of getting bulldozed this way
the entire city is so different since i moved here 20 years ago.there will be a point, when this rush to tear down, rush to build cheaply will begin to erode real estate values. it happens in all market bubbles eventually.
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