The National Trust for Historic Preservation Helps Tell the Stories of Black Churches

Metropolis Magazine Ι Feb. 29, 2024 Throughout all of American history, the patch of city at 6th and Lombard in Philadelphia is the property that’s been continuously owned by Black people the longest. Not at all coincidentally, at that spot is a church—Mother Bethel AME—which has been there since 1794. This rare historical linage is… Continue reading The National Trust for Historic Preservation Helps Tell the Stories of Black Churches

Landmarking the Black Panther Party

Bloomberg CityLab Ι February 24, 2024 The walls of the Church of the Epiphany in Chicago are two feet thick, made of red-brown sandstone from the upper peninsula of Michigan. Designed by Francis Whitehouse and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it’s a preeminent example of the Richardson Romanesque architectural style. The ornate… Continue reading Landmarking the Black Panther Party

Preservation Chicago names The Warehouse, the birthplace of house music, as one of the most endangered buildings in Chicago

Architects’ Newspaper Ι March 21, 2023 Drawn in by the propulsive four-on-the-floor bass that could be heard blocks away through the then-derelict streets of Chicago’s West Loop, in the late 1970s and early ’80s young club-goers gathered at a modest but stylish three-story former industrial warehouse where the party raged from midnight until 8:00 a.m.… Continue reading Preservation Chicago names The Warehouse, the birthplace of house music, as one of the most endangered buildings in Chicago

An HBCU’s Historic Preservation Program Starts with Its Own Campus

Metropolis Magazine Ι Dec. 1, 2022 Tuskegee University was the first Historically Black College or University to offer an architecture degree, starting back in 1893, and today, it’s the only HBCU to offer a degree in historic preservation; one that is uniquely focused on the institution’s own storied history. This spring, the program’s first cohort… Continue reading An HBCU’s Historic Preservation Program Starts with Its Own Campus

Chicago’s Bungalows Are Where the City Comes Together

February 9, 2022 Ι Bloomberg CityLab In Chicago, there are plenty of reasons for South Side residents to keep Northsiders at arm’s length. This includes the North Side’s nonsensical lack of numbered streets, opposed baseball fandoms, and the outsized power of the city’s wealthier half — an imbalance that has created one of the most… Continue reading Chicago’s Bungalows Are Where the City Comes Together

Is this library politics?

April 28, 2021 Ι The Chicago Reader  Drive south on the Bishop Ford Expressway to Altgeld Gardens and you’ll pass plenty of reminders you’re in a landscape not meant for inquisitive visitors. There are looming grain silos next to a parked shipping freighter, a village-scaled water reclamation plant, and plenty of anonymous warehouses. But once you… Continue reading Is this library politics?

Whose History?

March 1, 2021 Ι Architect’s Newspaper  Built in 1939, Willert Park Courts in Buffalo, New York, was among the first public housing projects in the country. These ten two- and three-story rectilinear buildings are arranged north to south on parallel tracks around a central courtyard. They were an American echo of German Zeilenbau modernist planning,… Continue reading Whose History?

How a Plan to Save Buildings Fell Apart

April 7, 2021 Ι Bloomberg’s CityLab (with Elizabeth Blasius) In 2018, Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development felt that they had a progressive plan to preserve one of the city’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. Pilsen, on the city’s southwest side, was home to Eastern European immigrants in the 19th century; in the 20th century, it drew… Continue reading How a Plan to Save Buildings Fell Apart

A Lot You Got to Holler EP 14: When Does the Present Become the Past? Talking Preservation with Landmarks Illinois

EP 14: When Does the Present Become the Past? Talking Preservation with Landmarks Illinois It’s a pretty wild time to be a historic preservationist, what with burgeoning preservation movements centered on building styles that few folks are sure they really like. (We’re talking PoMo here.) As such, Lisa DiChiera takes us on a tour of all… Continue reading A Lot You Got to Holler EP 14: When Does the Present Become the Past? Talking Preservation with Landmarks Illinois