Last January, Robert Bank and his neighbors on the far northwest side were worried that a handsome two-story terra-cotta building on Lawrence near Milwaukee might be demolished, so they asked the city what they could do to get it protected. “They told us to fill out an application to have the building turned into a historical landmark and then wait for a hearing,” says Bank, a member of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association. “So we filled out the form and waited for our hearing. And we waited and waited and waited, until they finally gave us our hearing–five months after the building had been torn down! That’s some system, huh?”
The color rankings are based on the Chicago Historic Resources Survey, a survey of buildings conducted over the course of a dozen years in the 1980s and ’90s by a group of idealistic young preservationists, some of whom worked without pay. “They had no real budget to work with–a lot of them got to where they had to go by public transportation,” says Fine. “I’m not putting down the survey. The fact that it was published at all is amazing. The fact that it contains so much good stuff is also amazing. But we have to recognize that there are many valuable buildings not on that list.” City officials frequently turn down preservation requests on the grounds that a building isn’t listed in the survey–even though the same officials admit the list is incomplete. “It’s a curious catch-22, isn’t it?” says Bank.
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Over the next few months the city’s position slowly changed. “The mayor and his political people are really very cautious–they want to eliminate any reason for criticism,” says one City Hall insider. “The last thing they want is more protests or stories in the newspapers about valuable old buildings getting knocked down. They don’t want to look like they’re weak on preservation, especially with a mayoral election right around the corner.”
In January a tenant told Bank the landlord was preparing to demolish the building. “I don’t know what he planned to put there–he still hasn’t said,” says Bank. “He told the tenants that the building was in lousy shape and it wasn’t worth fixing up.”
As far as the city was concerned, the demolition made the matter moot. But Bank wouldn’t drop it, showing up for the December 5 landmarks commission meeting. “Back in February I filled out a request to seek landmark status for the 5306 W. Lawrence building… designed by noted architect Abraham Himmelblau, who is noted in the landmark commission’s own Chicago Historic Resources Survey, as are 11 buildings that he designed,” Bank told the commission. “Thus you can imagine my shock when Brian Goeken was quoted in the Northwest Press as saying that the building has ‘no individual architectural or historical significance.’ I have one thing to say to Brian Goeken–read your commission’s own book. It only makes it sadder that the 5306 building no longer stands. The building was torn down before we could gather enough evidence to meet the landmark commission’s ever-changing criteria.”
