The Tribune reported today that residents near the Prairie Avenue historic district are complaining about plans for a development that will include two new high-rises adjacent to the historic Glessner and Clarke House museums which they say violates the principles of the South Community Plan.
Drawings for the buildings, by Lucien LaGrange Architects, don’t appear in the online version of the story, but you can see some at the firm’s Web site.
LaGrange is extremely popular among certain developers, but it’s hard to understand why. The work it’s done for the Fordham Company typifies its output: apartment towers in various historicized drag that for whatever reason seem to appeal to a high-end clientele.
To be fair, a couple of the office’s projects — Erie on the Park and Kingsbury on the Park — have shown some genuine flair. It has been reported that one of the firm’s associate principals, rather than LaGrange himself, served as design principal on these projects, and the pics on the Web site indicate he’s behind this design, too. It’s hard to tell from the elevations they show, but it sure looks like what they’re proposing is a lot more interesting — and will detract a lot less from the historic buildings — than one of Mr LaGrange’s kitsch-ified concoctions [which, irrespective of the inspiration, seem always to have a mansard roof] would.
The Tribune story reports that the Glessner House museum is totally in favor of the development, although it takes pains to point out this has nothing to do with the aspect of the developer’s plan which includes a $600,000 cash payment to the museum.