Lexington Revisited
Red 'A' in center of this Google satellite photo (See Larger Version) indicates 4331 Lexington Street where my grandparents Nora and Dan Heffernan raised their large family. Previously, Google satellite photo showed an empty lot to the right (east) of their home. New photo shows construction there. So, I took myself to the West Side to investigate.
What in the world kind of building is this being constructed? Multi-family? Office building? Is that a penthouse suite on the top floor?
Detached mult-car garage.
The tenement building which previously occupied the site on the left of this photo was built smack dab up to the property line, leaving barely an inch between it and the Heffernan home. Grandpa Dan was heartbroken by this turn of events. (See backyard photos of the tenement.)
What's with this evergreen tree? If you're going to denude most of the tree, why not just uproot it?
How many times did numerous Heffernan kids pass through this 'gangway' to the back yard and rear entrance?
The new building leaves some breathing space between itself and the old Heffernan home.
Rear view of the old Heffernan home and new construction.
Photo taken shortly after Nora and Dan moved to Lexington in the 1920s - before the tenement was erected.
Rear view of the unattached garage of the new building.
New construction risen from rubble seems like an alien creature in this neighborhood of old single family homes and apartment buildings.
6 comments:
Ick!
Isn't the internet great! I ask for an architectural judgment and get immediate response from a SanFrancisco architect. Thanks, Alison.
And such constructive criticism too!
Not only does it not go with what's already there, it also appears to be abandonded construction.
Ben, I don't know why that didn't occur to me. And it may have been abandoned quite a while ago since I saw signs of possible construction well over two years ago. There's no two years of work apparent here. There's a large active Chicago public school at the other end of the vacant lot, which led me to consider that the construction might be the beginning of a complex of office/classrooms serving the school. If so, perhaps funding was diverted to aldermen's pet (I mean 'worthier') projects.
Update (June 2010): I was driving home from work last week and realized I was in the old neighborhood, so I drove 'round the block for a quick look. Now there's a For Sale sign on the abandoned construction.
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