Category: Architecture
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Other Coach Houses in Oak Park
Once, in a fit to buy an inexpensive though highly presentable company car for my practice, I came across a restored 1965 Chrysler Crown Imperial convertible. Trouble is, we live on that side of Oak Park where garages are accessible off of alleys; our alley surveys at sixteen feet (about 5.2) metres across. I thought…
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The Vancouver “Laneway” House
Within the last year, the City of Vancouver (British Columbia) recently amended the City’s zoning ordinance to permit coach, or “laneway” houses to be built along back alleys (rear lanes) in certain areas. In a nutshell; in specific single family zoned areas, on lots 33’ (about 10.8 metres) or wider that have a back alley…
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The Running of the Lions in Chicago
Ernest Hemmingway came from Oak Park; he wrote about the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. I’m wondering about the running of the lions in Chicago…. Here, we have the Lion of the Art Institute of Chicago, guarding the main entrance on Michigan Avenue, Facing Adams Street… And here, we have a lion crafted…
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… and even more “almost Frank” kind of houses
As follow up to a previous post about William Street in River Forest, the street with an entire block of houses that might – or might not – be designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; the three Flori Blondeel Houses in Oak Park look very Frank Lloyd Wright – especially in the way they relate to each…
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A curious street in River Forest
While some like to think that history has uncovered everything that it will, some still keep finding secrets to be told. Are they, or aren’t they…? The houses of the 700 block of William Street in River Forest seem different from their large, revivalist neighbours. The two dozen or so small, simple houses are… Prairie…
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Saturday, in the Park…
Years ago, the Chicago-born rock group “Chicago” had a sit single “Saturday, in the Park”. It described what was seemingly an idyllic weekend day in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. These kinds of days happen all the time in Chicago, witness this last weekend. Cloud Gate, otherwise known as ‘The Bean” Friends from Toronto called the night…
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More Walls Talking – Vacant Storefronts
The current economic doldrums have brought out all sorts of vacant storefronts – not just a tell tale of the economy, but a fascinating take on urban anthropology. At first glance, they would indicate that the economy is down, that the activity that previously existed at that location fell victim to a recession. Any retail…
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If walls could talk…
In stripping wallpaper off of the walls in the study, what did we find but this inscription written on the plaster: “March 16, 1937 16% above zero” 1937 is when Albert Speh Jr. graduated by Fenwick High School. March 16 would be the day before St. Patrick’s Day – a very big deal in Chicago,…
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The Idea That Came Around
A freshman design studio professor warned us many times that whatever in-depth design synthesis we went through to invent something original, that we could always find that someone had already come up with it before. Pullman, a neighbourhood on the far south side of Chicago is touted as one of the first ‘planned communities’. It was…
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Roadside Oddities in Central Illinois
There is a certain stretch of Interstate 55 leading out of Chicago that is simply a nasty stretch of road, everyone drives like madmen. Before the television show made the term famous. And there’s lots of them. A peaceful way to avoid this is to take Old Route 66, this stretch being identified as Illinois…