- Joliet’s growth spurt still tops in state Trib
- Raindrops keep seeping in the basement Chicagoist
- Vets museum goes to Park District Chicago Journal
- Battle of landmark proportions in Highland Park Trib
- Construction projects gear up Northwestern
- Benefits in community benefits agreements Reader
- Neighbors fight Bucktown garage Chicago Journal
- Weekly prime mortgage market survey Freddie Mac
- Damen Avenue booming with new business Chicago Journal
- Mokena services to get $30 million makeover The Star
- Landmark Prairie Bungalow in Beverly on Market Chicago Mag
- Reporting in a city of neighborhoods Gapers Block
- Evanston couple goes green with lakefront teardown Evanston Review
- Rolling Meadows rolls homes into TIF district Trib
I know all about the garrity house in Beverly. What a hatchet job they did on the remodel! This is by far the most significant Walter Burley Griffin Home in Chicago and these guys remove the original doors and install fiberglass, paint the exterior white and all the windows black?? C’mon! There is so many pictures of this house from 30 years ago when Paul Sprague audited it. Chicago Magazine calls this a “careful restorartion” In the word’s of Lee Elia… My Fucking Ass!
Here is a photo from ’71. Compare it to now…
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2102/1339/1600/garrity_2.jpg
.
I grew up in Joliet; left for good in late 1979 when the town was going downhill. Factories were closing and no good employment alternatives were available. Now, the city is “booming” and as far as I can tell the main reasons behind this are the medical facilities and casinos. Every time I go back there to visit family, there’s another health clinic being built, or another upcoming project made possible by revenues from the casinos.
BTW Joliet used to be known for a first-rate public school system; their high schools were renowned for a wide variety of programs ranging from college prep. to on-the-job vocational ed. Supposedly the river casinos are keeping the schools afloat (pun!); wonder what would happen if they moved downstream.
I doubt that it’s a casino and medical offices sparking the boom. It’s construction! Where there’s construction, there’s jobs, where there’s jobs there’s construction. And there’s construction because that’s where the land is. And that’s where the local governments aren’t chasing away the jobs.
Joliet is booming because of all the construction on the outskirts of the “city”.
It is booming due to land annexation. The older areas of Joliet still largely suck.
Even though the downtown area does have some great old buildings.
And the greatest of them all is the venerable Rialto Theatre, a smaller version of the Chicago and other great movie palaces, built by Rapp & Rapp in the 1920’s. Saved by community activists from possible demolition 30 years ago, it is now a thriving venue for concerts, meetings, weddings and proms.