Walking through parts of the Prairie Avenue Historic District, one can almost hear echoes of the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812, when Indians slaughtered nearly 150 people traveling with American forces. The battles raging today over architectural preservation in the district aren’t that fierce – at least, no tomahawks have been thrown yet. We snapped these photos to give you a sense of how the area’s modern and vintage buildings are coexisting.
The vintage/faux-vintange and modern buildings in this neighborhood give it a great character of the past along with excitement about the future. As long as the developers improve their quality from past projects, X/O and some of the other developments will keep the good times rolling in the Prairie District!
These photos show some of the better new construction from recent years. Unfortunately, there have also been some real dog townhouses built here. Recent projects, thankfully, have been much better.
Please, the better new construction? When your architectural feature is a painted red stripe concrete, how is that better new construction? This area would not be as nearly desirable were it not for the low density development that is the foundation for the resurgence.
Co-existing? Is that some kind of ironic joke? Bland, gulag-style high-rises dwarfing the older buildings designed by architects that possessed actual talent? Red, stripey-things tacked onto an unimaginative facade will never be revered by future generations. Let’s get serious about our urban environment and start a real dialog about these recent failures to connect in a positive way to their surroundings.