Is landmarks preservation in Chicago going the way of the dinosaur?
(January 2nd, 2007) We may only be starting to get a handle on 2007, but already the Commission on Chicago Landmarks is scheduled to take a Thursday vote that stands to reverse the results of decades of struggle, and leave all but a handful of Chicago’s finest buildings open to demolition. Do I exaggerate? I wish that I were. Please read on. The proposal is so simply stated as to be almost innocuous: “Proposed dismantlement, demolition and facade reconstruction of the Farwell Building as part of a new 40-story, 86-unit residential condominium tower” Yet that sentence carries the seed of the mass destruction of much of Chicago’s most historic architecture. The Farwell Building is a designated landmark. Designed by architect Philip Maher, it is a beautiful, classically-styled, 1920’s high-rise, clad in Indiana limestone, and engagingly ornamented in a mixture of French Revival and Art Deco styles. It’s one of the last survivors of the time when Michigan Avenue earned the nickname “Boul M
