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historic facade stays, but soul of building will be forever lost when the wrecking ball swings

a permit was issued earlier this week to wreck and remove the terra cotta building at 3228 north clark street which until recently housed “the alley” and long ago held a nickelodeon and neighborhood gathering place called the "clermont". although some tout the current development vision as a great example of adaptive reuse, it is a bit more difficult for me to assimilate relief that some part of the building will be preserved, with the knowledge that the structure’s integrity will be utterly obliterated.

the preservation and “reincorporation” of parts of the building reads more as destruction of the building’s soul - held deeply within its walls, which essentially leaves us faced with a gut-wrenching facadectomy. the face of the building remains, at the expense of the entire body. here, a new 7-story structure will rise up to overshadow the 102-year old building and its rich (though not particularly well-documented) history as an early 20th century theater.

variously spelled "claremont" and "clermont,"  the theater at 3226-3228 n. clark street was opened in the early decades of the 20th century. it was originally dubbed the garibaldi theatre in 1909, but closed in 1911, to be reopened as the clermont. when the theater closed in 1945 it was converted to retail use.

though it is perhaps a sentimental viewpoint, it is easy to imagine buildings as living beings, accumulating history in the same way a human body would, and holding all the memory of life within those walls, in the form of repairs, damage, and marks of change. if a building could be said to have a soul, it certainly resides in the grit and dust of walls and foundations. a facadectomy goes against this dynamic understanding of architecture, with developers showing no sense of appreciation for how individual elements holistically give a building meaning.

the history that makes a structure appealing to inhabit is ingrained in its very walls—the very same which are to be annihilated through development. what’s more, the façade which is being saved is likely only kept as a concession that allows the demolition to happen in the first place. no doubt, the end result will be a distinctive terra cotta façade cowering under many stories of modern luxury housing for east lakeview’s rising middle class.  

the face will remain, pretty as it is, but from my perspective the demolition of the building far outweighs the preservation effort in its gravity. hollowing out the building but keeping the face becomes an artifice reminiscent of a movie set. as a city facing wave after wave of urban development, chicago’s architectural history has great stake in this metaphor, and it is certainly worth asking whether any of the buildings unseen by tourists on boats will be protected from the onslaught of demolitions which will surely continue.

 



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