designslinger: The Chicago 7

The Chicago 7

[Images: Wood window & Richard Nickel house, preservationchicago.org; Richard Nickel, self-portrait, 1950s,
Richard Nickel, Richard Nickel Committee via npr.org /Artwork: designslinger]

If you're of a certain age, the Chicago 7 brings back memories of the Vietnam War
and social upheaval. The 7 I'm talking about are Preservation Chicago's annual list of Most Endangered Buildings. I'm not singling out these two "at-risk treasures" because I found them more important than the other five, but because I found them particularly intriguing.

First, the "Old-fashioned" Wood Window. They are being replaced in the millions, and
as PC points out, it's very wasteful, not entirely energy efficient, and has fallen victim of the multi-million dollar replacement window lobby. If your old wood sash has deteriorated, or the frame needs replacing, just replace the old wood with new wood. And, a reglazed window, is an energy efficient window. I love it that they have put the old, double-hung wood sash window on the list. Preservation is not always about big, glamorous, architecturally significant buildings.

A building that made the PC list, is the home of preservation pioneer Richard Nickel, in
Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood. Richard Nickel started taking pictures of Chicago's older buildings in the 1950s, at a time when old meant not worthy of existence. As an architectural photographer, Nickel's work was not comprised of exclusively old buildings, but he was a big fan of Louis Sullivan and once he started taking pictures of Sullivan's work, he began documenting buildings that were considered out-of-date and disposable.

He captured some of the most remarkable buildings ever built on film. Many of them had
a date with the wrecking ball soon after he photographed them. When Louis Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange Building was undergoing demolition, Nickel documented the progression of destruction. On April 13, 1972, he was in the building when a staircase collapsed on him, and he was killed. Now Preservation Chicago is hoping that his home and studio don't meet with the same fate as the Stock Exchange. Below, we've included a panel of photographs Nickel took of Holabird and Roche's 1905 Republic Building, at the corner of State and Adams Street in downtown Chicago. The building was demolished in 1961.