Building Pressure
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Five properties in the suburbs and ten in Chicago made the cut. None of the buildings cited last year repeat–“People get tired of hearing the same names over and over again,” says Bahlman–though many, like Cook County Hospital, are still teardown candidates. This year’s lineup includes five modernist tollbooths as a single entry. Among them is the Lake Forest oasis: “originally a beautiful, simple bridge with a Miesian box on top of it–barely recognizable now, after being subjected to a Wendy’s mansard roof” and other abominations. There’s also the entire diagonal grid of Old Bridgeport (bounded by Halsted, 31st Street, and the Chicago River), where aluminum siding and awnings sit like so many fake mustaches and beards on structures built mostly between the 1840s and 1860s. Some of the buildings on the list were rated “orange” in Chicago’s 1996 historic research survey, but none have any protective landmark designation. Here is LPCI’s list, in no particular order (locations are in Chicago unless otherwise noted):
730 N. Rush
Michael Reese Hospital, 2929 S. Ellis
Palm Tavern, 446 E. 47th St.
South Side Masonic Temple, 6400 S. Green
“As we increase ad revenue, we’ll lower the price to theaters,” Halperin says. Theaters now pay 75 percent of printing costs; the league picks up everything else, including editorial and design, which are handled by freelancers on a project basis. (Editor Tom Valeo, who worked on a start-up contract, is gone; his replacement is Myrna Petlicki.) Halperin says the programs–with localized editorial content and covers that feature Chicago street scenes and skylines–are now Chicago theater’s “number one marketing tool.” Growth has been rapid: “We started with 14 shows and just under 50,000 copies. Now we’re serving 58 organizations and printing about 150,000 copies per month.”
