Viewing all posts from the Lake View neighborhood
Chicago Patterns Staff
January 2, 2019
1501 W 18th St. Part of Preliminary Recommendation for Pilsen District [John Morris/Chicago Patterns]
In years past, our yearly retrospective of architectural preservation in Chicago consisted of mostly losses with a few small wins. In 2018, however, a few significant victories changed the tone of how the city’s historic resources are maintained and preserved.
Some of same trends from years past continued in 2018: the loss of late 19th century Italianate homes and flats in near-NW side neighborhoods and Victorian cottages in places like Lakeview and Lincoln Park. Some of these erasures are stories of displacement, as long-term residents in older buildings are pushed out as developers erect expensive single-family homes and 2/3 flats in the place of existing buildings.
But on the plus side, two themes emerged in 2018: new landmarks and community action.
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John Morris
September 23, 2018
1100 block W Belmont [John Morris/Chicago Patterns]
Easy to miss if you don’t look up: one-story commercial building with Sullivanesque terra cotta, 1100 block W. Belding. Charles Liska, architect, 1922.
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John Morris
April 4, 2017
Gingerbread Gothic home at 1944 N Sedgwick will likely be destroyed [John Morris/Chicago Patterns]
In Chicago, as it is nationwide, demand for housing is outstripping supply. Speculators and wealthy individuals are eagerly rushing in to meet the top-end demand, leaving a trail of destroyed historic housing stock in their wake. Meanwhile, the supply of low and mid-range housing stock remains largely unaddressed.
This is often evident in real estate listing descriptions that say “the value is in the land,” for properties that exceed a million dollars with the implicit understanding that the home will be razed and replaced. This is playing out heavily in North Side neighborhoods like Lake View and Lincoln Park, where blocks of mostly new construction mega-mansions dot the landscape.
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