There is an effort to save the Spindle, an 18-year old stack of spiked cars in a Berwyn shopping mall known for odd art. This is a tough effort because the opposition is the Great Devourer, Walgreen’s and even the artist is not helping because of copyright concerns. Which makes you wonder how the State of Illinois featured it in their recent tourism blitz. The thing needs a rehab anyway – c. 1980 automobiles like pigeon poop even less than bronze Civil War generals.
A horizontal row of automobile buildings made the weekend real estate section as the hot, affordable new neighborhood: Motor Row on South Michigan east of McCormick Place. Our students had a hand in both of these efforts 8 years ago when our Preservation PLanning class took on both Automobile Row – convincing the Commission on Chicago Landmarks that it should be a Chicago Landmark; and Berwyn, which our class surveyed in 1999. They liked the spindle, too….
Meanwhile, Heneghan Wrecking tore down the sublime Ed Dart church in Pilsen – it was a feature in Father George Lane’s 1980 Chicago Churches and Synagogues book. Dart had an incredible sense of form and an even better sense of light and this little gem was architecture incarnate and I will bet you nothing approaching architecture replaces it. It is a shame because Dart built things a bit better than many mid-century Modern architects.
I noticed an American flag flying at full mast today – it seemed like there were so many tragedies and wars and shootings that they were always at half-mast and I wondered why one was flying at full mast. Then I remembered that Karl Rove resigned.
Celebrity architecture: Brad Pitt has been hanging out at the Farnsworth House while in Chicago with Angelina – talk about someone who is used to living in a glass house….
Time Tells 
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