Chicago Sucks at Historic Preservation

"Pave paradise, put up a parking lot."

Ald. Joe Moore up in the 49th ward had a real opportunity to find a reuse and revitalization project for the North Shore School, formerly the Birchwood Country Club, up in Rogers Park. Instead, the owner tore down this beautiful old building and is going to put up a parking lot of all things. I just can't believe there was not a single viable reuse project that would make for a better alternative; a private parking lot at this site, right on the lake front, is a poor use of land.

Craig at The Broken Heart of Rogers Park links to some of the issues and Jocelyn at Rogers Park Neighbor nicely sums up my outrage. Here's an excerpt of the announcement from Joe's office:

Fortunately, however, the existing greenspace surrounding the building will be preserved. The parking lot will cover only the footprint of the existing building. Ms. Triem also intends to use permeable pavement for the parking lot, which will prevent water run-off and is a much more environmentally friendly material than traditional asphalt.

It sounds kinda lame to say, "Well, a bit of history is gone, folks, but at least the parking lot will use green technology."

Portrait of Miss Florence Chandler, wearing a costume and holding a tambourine at the Birchwood Country Club, located at Chase Avenue and Lake Michigan
in the Rogers Park community area of Chicago, Illinois, 1916.
DN-0066108, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

Granada Theatre, Sheridan at the Loyola Stop, 1990

If you've hung around this blog a while, you'll know I'm a strong supporter of restoring the Uptown Theatre. I would hate to see it go the way of the Granada, which was nearly as big and just as magnificent--and probably in better condition than the Uptown when it was torn down.

Here's a photo I found on Flickr by user Genial23:

The photographer describes the demolition as: "one of the more heinous acts of vandalism committed by local real estate developers in the last 20 years."