It Took A Village
[Carl Sandburg Village (1963) Lewis Solomon & John Cordwell Associates, architects /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
In the late 1950s several blocks of real estate on Chicago's near north side had fallen into
disrepair and were deemed a slum. Built primarily in the 1880s, the area had once provided its working class German community with decent housing in hundreds of 2 and 3-flat apartment buildings. Seventy years later, many of those buildings had been converted into smaller-sized, rooming house units packing way to many people into too small a space.
[Sandburg Village townhouses /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
This was a period of time in our country's history when "slums" in cities around the
country were demolished and replaced with high rise towers meant to clean up the neighborhood and provide decent housing for those on the lower end of the economic ladder. Many of these government owned and operated developments came to be known as "The Projects," a term that defined the failure of many of these large scale housing developments and all that was wrong with a certain philosophical approach to urban planning.
[Sandburg Village; Germania Place (1888) /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Although the city tore down over 150 buildings in the blocks between Division, Clark,
La Salle and North Avenue a few remained like Germania Place which stands in the shadow of Sandburg's towers. Demolition began in 1960 and displaced over 4,000 people, primarly poor, non-English speaking immigrants from Puerto Rico. Unlike the nearby Cabrini-Green housing project which replaced dilapidated slum housing with new, modern, public housing for the poor, Sandburg was a public/private development meant for the middle class.
The first towers were ready for occupancy in an astonishing 11 months after construction
began in 1962. The basic framework of concrete columns and slab floors was used in the construction of the Cabrini-Green towers as well, the huge differences were in the upgrades that filled in the concrete frames. Over the years this 33 acre project would grow to include over 2,600 units of housing for 8,000 people in a $100 million development. The Village completely altered the economic make-up of the area, so much so that Sandburg's neighboring step-sister Cabrini-Green, became an island of poverty surrounded by a sea of wealth. Ironically Cabrini almost no longer exists, most the of buildings have been demolished and new market rate housing is beginning to fill in the empty spaces.
Sandburg was a political hot potato back in the late 50s and continued to be the subject of
controversy into the later part of the 20th century. It is still a hot topic in the rich vs. poor debate and the displacement of one economic group for the benefit of another. Today the development sits at the center of an economical transformed community, and it took the Village to make it happen, for better or for worse.
See a related post: Deutschen im Chicago.
Posted by designslinger at 7/20/2010 2:06 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Urbanism, Urban Planning, History
Tags: urban renewal Lewis Solomon and John Cordwell Associates Carl Sandburg Village housing developments
Categories: Architecture, Urbanism, Urban Planning, History
Tags: urban renewal Lewis Solomon and John Cordwell Associates Carl Sandburg Village housing developments
Your post is really devoted more to urban renewal than to architecture, although many times the two topics are inseparable. You make an interesting contrast between the cases of Carl Sandburg Village and Cabrini Green and reasons why one succeeded while the other failed. Of course, everyone is familiar with the story of Cabrini Green, most people living outside of Chicago, like myself, were unaware of the success of Sandburg Village.
Inseparable indeed. It's really interesting that the buildings built in both developments, and constructed around the same time, were essentially the same structurally. But those nearly identical structural frames were filled in with different finishes, ie. brick work, kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, even the elevators. Design choices which made the Village more marketable to its target audience, plus the Village offered air conditioning! BTW, thanks for your comments. We enjoy the dialogue.
My pleasure. Yes, I can appreciate the availability of air conditioning -- especially at this time of the year.
For sure! We moved to Chicago from LA last June and enjoyed an incredibly, pleasantly cool and reasonably humidless summer. Not so much this year. It's been hot and humid and very un-LA-like and have been running the AC more than we ever did in Los Angeles. Can't wait for this month's electric bill!