“I think there’s a reasonable integration,” Historic Boulevard Services‘ William Lavicka says of the new construction that has gone up in Tri-Taylor. “What new stuff that’s been built within the neighborhood is fairly copacetic with the older stuff.” But the Near West Side resident says he’ll always prefer the neighborhood’s vintage architecture to the newer condo buildings.
“For me, you can’t beat an old building,” Lavicka says. “There’s nothing that’s going to surpass the five-foot-tall cornice of an old building. They’re not going to build that new. You probably could build it new, but people won’t pay for it, or people won’t design it. Or the craftsmen are dead.”
In some Chicago neighborhoods, no building – no matter how beautiful – can be spared the wrecking ball, but Lavicka says the historic homes in Tri-Taylor have been lucky.
“There hasn’t been a lot of teardowns,” he says. “Because it’s a national registered district, that slows it down a bit. Maybe the market just hasn’t reached the point where it pays for someone to buy for $500,000 or whatever and throw it down and build something for $1 million. Be they four condos or a bigger house. Maybe that’s coming. I don’t know.”
