File:An egregious wreck (183075438).jpg

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An_egregious_wreck_(183075438).jpg(640 × 480 pixels, file size: 62 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

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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.
Date
Source An egregious wreck
Author Payton Chung from DCA, USA
Camera location41° 54′ 39.84″ N, 87° 40′ 29.7″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Payton Chung at https://flickr.com/photos/41813589@N00/183075438. It was reviewed on 1 January 2017 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.

1 January 2017

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current01:29, 1 January 2017Thumbnail for version as of 01:29, 1 January 2017640 × 480 (62 KB)Victorgrigas (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via Flickr2Commons

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