Sorry but not sorry. I just don’t like architects named Frank, except Furness of course. He was great.

2014 photo of Frank Gehry's response to a journalist's question about his architectural style – raising his middle finger and saying the "98 per cent of what gets built today is pure shit. There's no sense of design, no respect for humanity or for anything else. They are damn buildings and that's it.”

Oh, Frank Gehry died? Does that mean we can start tearing down his awful buildings now?

I believe he once said almost everything built nowadays is “pure shit” and has “no respect for humanity or for anything else.” Projection much, Frank?

Is this piece suggesting that cutting the bloated police budget by $4.5 million would result in one less day of cops leaning against random buildings on downtown corners playing games on their phones? OH NO! HOW WILL THE CITY SURVIVE?

I think so. I saw something similar on Wayfair lol.

A real estate of the renovated first floor, now open-concept and lack any kind of character, inside the brick two-flat located at 3107 West Flournoy Street in Chicago, built around 1914. (Redfin)

Why fear death when you can live in an empty box while you’re still alive?

Before photo of the brick two-flat located at 3107 West Flournoy Street in Chicago, built around 1914. (Redfin)

After photo of the brick two-flat located at 3107 West Flournoy Street in Chicago, built around 1914, now painted white with an annoying trendy fence. (Redfin)

Before and After: 3107 West Flournoy, the two-flat sold in April for $180,000 and it is now listed for almost $600,000.

Levon Helm and the RCO All-Stars in 1977 in a baseball card display: Levon Helm, Paul Butterfield, Fred Carter Jr., Donald “Duck” Dunn, Alan Rubin, Lou Marini, Tom Malone, Howard Johnson, Eddie Offord, Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, Mac Rebennack aka Dr. John

John Belushi attended a show on New Year’s Eve in 1977 with Levon Helm & the RCO All-Stars and the rest is history. Five members of that group - Steve Cropper, Donald “Duck” Dunn, “Blue” Lou Marini, Tom “Bones” Malone, & Alan Rubin - went on to be part of the Blues Brothers band. RIP to the Colonel.

Lol Eric. 😜

a black and white photo of a woman with the words shut up i 'm rich ALT: a black and white photo of a woman with the words shut up i 'm rich

Anyone who is questioning the high HOAs. Remember I’m Norma Desmond. Who cares? “SHUT UP. I’M RICH.”

That’s usually what happens with these vintage buildings that require a lot of maintenance. At least the HOA covers a lot of services like water, heat, and taxes. But yeah…

That’s usually what happens with these vintage buildings that require a lot of maintenance. At least the HOA covers taxes.

Real estate photo of a vintage kitchen with maple countertops and tile painted by artist Jane Dickerson from the 1950s located in a condo in Chicago’s Powhatan designed by Robert De Golyer and Charles L. Morgan in 1929.

Real estate photo of a vintage bathroom with green tile and elaborate red wall paper located in a condo in Chicago’s Powhatan designed by Robert De Golyer and Charles L. Morgan in 1929.

Real estate photo of a vintage bathroom with black and blue-ish tile located in a condo in Chicago’s Powhatan designed by Robert De Golyer and Charles L. Morgan in 1929.

Real estate photo of a vintage bathroom with pink tile located in a condo in Chicago’s Powhatan designed by Robert De Golyer and Charles L. Morgan in 1929.

Don’t mind me. I’ll just be living in the past like Norma Desmond, after I buy this condo in the Powhatan that was just listed for sale.

But seriously, whoever ends up buying this property: DO NOT GUT THOSE BATHROOMS! I WILL FIND YOU!

www.zillow.com/homedetails/...

Black and white photo of my stepdad’s sister ice-skating next to Audubon School in Roscoe Village in December 1963. There are other children and homes along Hamilton Avenue in the background.

Color photo of my mom and friends during the "Blizzard of '67" in Norwood Park with cars covered in snow and bungalows in the background.

My stepdad’s sister ice-skating next to Audubon Elementary School in Roscoe Village in December 1963.

My mom and friends during the "Blizzard of '67" in Norwood Park. She remembers them all sledding down Milwaukee Avenue because why not?

Agree to disagree. It is small when you compare it to a large underused space like Grant Park, close to where tourists are staying at hotels.

Besides a Grant Park location (why is this space so underused?), I agree with @starlinechicago.bsky.social:

“You could siphon off a *lot* of the suburbanites by putting a 2nd Christkindlmarket on Riverside Plaza from Jackson to Washington, get them right as they come out of Ogilvie & Union”

Christmas markets are held in large pedestrianized areas or public parks across Europe. Yet for some reason Chicago’s Christkindlmarkt is still held in teeny tiny Daley Plaza. Why not just freakin move it!? We allow Lollapalooza to destroy Grant Park every year but we can’t do the same at Christmas?

A photo of my mother wearing overalls posing next to a table with a lamp and a closed door taken in the mid-1970s.

This is my mom shortly after she survived breast & lung cancer at 20 yrs old. She never dropped out of college, even when she fell asleep in class due to chemo & radiation and had a mastectomy & lobectomy. She’s truly superhuman, especially because she survived cancer 2 more times. Happy Birthday!

In September someone who lives across the street told me about the potential demolition. It will be a side yard for the brand-new home next door. The irony is that 2219 was owned by Ray Capitanini (who died in April), a longtime supporter of Preservation Chicago. His parents started Italian Village.

google street view image of a vacant lot at the northwest corner of Franklin Street and Washington Street

tax bill of this vacant lot in downtown Chicago

2023: $292,593.15
2024: $70,386.00

change: $222,207.15 decrease is a 76% drop

the property owner lost every recent appeal at the Board of Review (the last one was 2020) so this is likely because property values have dropped a lot

Why is Demolition Always the Answer? “Well, there’s a logic to it.

I wrote about this building and other unnecessary demolitions around Chicago in this piece last year. Sometimes you just need to rant. 😊

chicagolandarchitecture.substack.com/p/why-is-dem...

Yes, I just went by the bandstand the other day - it’s looking good!

My photo of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange/Butter and Egg Building once located on the NW corner of Washington & Franklin. It was an Alfred Alschuler design from 1927 and my pic was taken before it was torn down in 2002-03. Its demolition led to 90-day demo delay for Orange-rated buildings listed in the Chicago Historic Resources Survey. The same site over 20 years later is still a vacant lot, in the heart of the Loop. (Google Maps)

Right across the street once stood the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, an Alfred Alschuler design from 1927 that was torn down in 2003. It had a 97% occupancy rate (rare for a downtown commercial building) but the powerful Crown family wanted it gone. My photo in 2002 & the same site over 20 yrs later.

Black and white vintage photo of architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee’s Chicago Telephone Company (1888) located at the NE corner of Washington & Franklin, it was torn down in 1967.

Google screenshot of the parking garage located at the NE corner of Washington & Franklin in Chicago’s Loop.

Joseph L. Silsbee, born on this day in 1848, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright & other Chicago architects. Here’s his design, with assistance by George W. Maher, for the Chicago Telephone Company (1888) located at the NE corner of Washington & Franklin. Demolished in 1967 it’s now a parking garage.

My photo of the sunset next to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport taken on November 22nd, 2025.

Another sunset photo taken on November 22nd, 2025.

Yesterday’s sunset was pretty (darn cool). And yes, the left photo was taken while driving on the road next to O’Hare.

A photo of me holding the book Chicago on Foot by Ira J. Bach, 1973. The yellow cover depicts an upside down show with buildings and attractions coming out of it.

Foreign vessels docked at the original Navy Pier before it became an annoying tourist attraction.

The old Sears Roebuck store located in the Leiter II building designed by architect William Le Baron Jenney in 1891.

Lindheimer Observatory at Northwestern University on the shores of Lake Michigan, built in 1966 and torn down in 1995.

My favorite book cover with my favorite outdated information: Chicago on Foot by Ira J. Bach, 1973.

Why not take a walk and see the foreign vessels docked at Navy Pier, go shopping at Sears, and conduct some astronomical research at Lindheimer Observatory?

The Stahl House: A Modest Home’s Visionary Modernism Designed by Pierre Koenig for a middle-class couple and completed in 1960, the house in the Hollywood Hills is an elegant, structurally daring building that quickly became iconic.

Just found out that the Stahl House is for sale for the first time ever? Of course it won’t be torn down, but it’s sad that the home might end up in private hands and no longer be open for public tours.

www.wsj.com/style/design...

Well, I was directly impacted by Reagan’s policies, specifically not being able to collect my dead father’s social security. But oh yeah I think Newt is when it truly all became dysfunctional and scorched earth.

Reddit post screenshot: “November 20, 1975. Ronald Reagan enters the presidential race, challenging President Ford.” Black and white image of Nancy and Ronald Reagan

A reminder when it all started to go wrong in this country, setting the stage for where we are now. Seriously fuck this guy.

My Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a certified therapy dog, lays on a blanket in a school library waiting for students to read books to her.

My certified therapy dog is doing her part in promoting literacy by having school kids read to her this morning.

My photo of 809 Chestnut Court, adjacent to the Winnetka Village Hall, where Rock Hudson lived as a child from 1936-1939 in Winnetka, IL. It’s a Tudor Revival design from the 1920s.

My photo of Chestnut Court, adjacent to the Winnetka Village Hall, which creates an open axis in the downtown area for pedestrians to gather. This space was briefly seen in the 1990 film Home Alone. It’s a Tudor Revival design from the 1920s.

I missed that yesterday was the 100th birthday of Winnetka’s native son Roy Fitzgerald aka Rock Hudson who lived at various addresses in town w/his mom & stepdad (most have been torn down). In the mid-1930s they resided in an apartment at 809 Chestnut Court located just behind Winnetka Village Hall.