Courtesy of America: Now and Here

The truck parked outside of the Smart Museum yesterday was not there to make a delivery – at least, not the kind of delivery one would expect.

“LOOK FOR THE MOMENT WHEN PRIDE BECOMES CONTEMPT,” and a quote attributed to H.G. Wells, “HUMAN HISTORY BECOMES MORE AND MORE A RACE BETWEEN EDUCATION AND CATASTROPHE,” read some of the statements printed along the length of the truck. The large, capitalized block letters boldly demanded the attention of the passerby.

The tractor-trailer is part of the touring art installation “America: Now and Here,” led by artist Eric Fischl. The culmination of this project is planned for fall 2012, when a convoy of six 18-wheelers will journey cross-country. The trucks will stop in eight yet-to-be-determined regions, linking together in each location to serve as a gallery and event space. Along with this mobile museum of art, the installation will include programs to involve the public in a mission of creating dialogue about America.

The current Chicago installment, featuring the tractor-trailer whose exterior was designed by artist Barbara Kruger, is a precursor to the 2012 road trip. The truck has been traveling through the city since November 4^th, and is spending its last day here today at the Hyde Park Art Center, on view from 8am till 9 pm.

The unadorned design of the text on the Kruger truck lets the statements themselves be the viewer’s focus. The back of the truck reads, “PLEASE KEEP YOUR DISTANCE;” while reminiscent of the standard safety warning on the back of trucks, it clearly invited further implications and interpretations. True to the installment’s mission, these statements provoke the viewer to think critically about what they mean in the context of America’s current state.

The truck delivers not commercial goods, but an innovative artistic vision coupled with a challenge to engage in discussions about the world in which we live.

For more information on America: Now and Here, visit www.americanowandhere.org

Elysia Liang

On the corner of 25th and Christina Avenue in Little Village stands a small, two-story building with a pointed tower. Behind its plain exterior is a room with goldenrod walls and decorations featuring crosses, saints, and depictions of the Virgin Mary. A few people sat in small chairs and someone stood behind the counter, looking busy. From a room in the back, the music from a child’s birthday party floated through when its guests wandered into the cafe. A few framed photos sit on a small table next to a flight of stairs. Cafe Catedral had all the makings of a coffee shop, but with two noticeable exceptions: no drinks or food items could be found, and a homemade sign announced that the building was for sale in bold Times New Roman.

The cafe has a history that is as unique as its decorations. Abraham Dueñas and his wife, Alma, opened this cafe in 2005 after noticing that there was something missing in the neighborhood. When Mr. Dueñas, who grew up in a college town in Mexico, moved to Chicago, he noticed that the coffee shops that were so ubiquitous in his childhood were missing in his new home. After traveling in Europe with his wife, Dueñas wanted to bring a little piece of the Continent to Little Village. “We had tapas from France, crepes from France, and paninis from Italy,” he said about his menu.

Elysia Liang

Sitting in at a table near the entrance, Dueñas sat in a white polo after giving tours of the building to interested passerby also discussed the cafe’s decorating scheme. “The building used to be a flower shop, and we thought it looked like a cathedral.” The various portraits, carvings, and statues of religious figures and symbols came from friends, yard sales, regular customers, and even archeological excavations. In one corner, there is a small figurine of Saint Anthony who “can help you find your better half,” noted Dueñas as he surveyed his collection in search of notable finds.

The cafe’s claim to fame extends beyond its fascinating inception. The coffee shop was featured in Stranger Than Fiction as the setting for the 2006 release, featuring Will Ferrell. It has seen patronage of famous faces such as Rahm Emmanual. Perhaps most importantly, it has been a place to foster a sense of community. Various organizations used the cafe’s space to host and plan events. Dueñas himself is vice president of a local newspaper and a group that runs internet radio shows, both of which are based in the second floor of the space. “We created an impact,” he noted.

Due to recent economic conditions, Dueñas has been forced to shut down his business. However, he hopes to sell or rent the space “to someone who will continue to do what we do.” For the time being though, the cafe still stands, opening its doors briefly to groups that had asked to used the space before the decision to close had been made. Even after its official closing, it still has deep roots in the neighborhood in which it resides and the people who live there.

Last spring, former CW editor Sam Feldman chronicled the fate of the Michael Reese Hospital campus as a result of the failed Olympic bid for Newcity. The city has always intended to tear down the Bronzeville hospital complex, be it originally for the proposed Olympic village or now for the land to be sold off to developers.  But this came to the chagrin of many preservationists and architecture buffs, who shuddered at the thought of loosing the campus co-designed by Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus movement. As a compromise Mayor Daley had promised that the hospital’s main building, an unusual Prairie Style high-rise, would be saved from the wrecking ball.

As it turns out, the city is now planning to tear down that main hospital building by the end of the year, citing the poor condition of the building and the costs involved in restoring it. Lee Bay has posted a nice synopsis of the situation on his blog for WBEZ.  As a consolation the Singer Pavilion, designed by Gropius, has been assured to remain standing. However, the Chicago Tribune’s architecture writer Blair Kamin has called into question the honesty of this promise and brought attention to the questionable decision-making process behind these series of moves.

It has been more than a year after the city’s Olympic bid failed, and the community is still struggling with the fallout.  As Sam pointed out in his article, many of the communities that were highlighted by the Olympic bid have fallen back into the periphery of the city’s collective vision; much of the urban plight that was promised to be tackled by the bid still remains unaddressed. But if anything positive can be gleaned from the story of the hospital, at least Chicago politics is working as well as ever.

On October 28th, forty three days after parents at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen began a sit-in to prevent the destruction of the school’s fieldhouse, CPS delivered a letter signed by CEO Ron Huberman that formalized agreements made eight days earlier. The field-house will be leased to the Parent Committee for $1 a year as soon as the group officially incorporates as a nonprofit, and a library will be built for Whittier students. The Whittier Parent Committee officially ended the sit-in that same day, but some questions remain. The parents’ group issued the following statements qualifying their victory:

1) The location of the library has NOT been determined or agreed upon by the Whittier Parent Committee. The parents DID NOT agree to the library being built inside of the Whittier school as the letter from CPS states.

3) We want to make it clear that we are ONLY ending the sit-in portion of the struggle. The Whittier Parent Committee remains in control of the fieldhouse and the programming that is currently taking place in the fieldhouse. We ARE NOT abandoning the fieldhouse nor are we ending our fight for the library. The negotiations will continue!

In the meantime, Huberman has announced that he will be stepping down as head of CPS on November 29th, his resignation apparently hurried along by Mayor Daley, the Sun-Times reports. The Sun-Times’ sources suggest that Huberman’s replacement will likely be Terry Mazany, a former public school administrator and current CEO of the Chicago Community Trust with a much stronger background in public education.

ALSO:a slight correction. In the original text of this article I wrote that proving all of the Parent Committee’s allegations “would require a thorough investigation into TIF funding records, something no major media outlet has attempted.” While it’s true that thorough database reporting is lacking, there have been some important stories on the issue. Ben Joravsky’s pieces for the Chicago Reader are worth reading.

Read the original CW feature on the Whittier occupation here.

Our former Editor-in-Chief Sam Feldman has written an excellent feature for this week’s Newcity on the aftermath of Chicago’s failed 2016 bid, some six months after losing to Rio de Janeiro. The remants of Chicago’s plans, plans it hoped would “stir the blood of men,” in the (alleged) words of Daniel Burnham, can especially be seen near the Michael Reese Hospital campus in Bronzeville, site of the proposed Olympic Village, and Washington Park, the site of the proposed 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium. Sam discovers what community developers, students, government officials, preservationists, and others have planned for these places now.

(Dan Forbush)

According to an article in yesterday’s Tribune, the Shoreland’s developer has hired an architect for the former hotel and dormitory’s renovation. Antheus Capital has hired Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, designer of the award-winning Aqua residential tower downtown, to redesign the Shoreland’s interior for 350 rental units. Proposals include turning one of the ballrooms into a restaurant or event space and adding ammenities like a small bank and gym, but Antheus and Gang still have to convince the community to get on board. U of C students don’t come off too well in the article:

The Shoreland was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, an honor that meant little to undergrads. One student’s fond Shoreland memory, posted on a blog, was of hurling cans of Schlitz over the fire escape to the street below while taking in the downtown skyline.

At least they were having fun. (via Gapersblock)

Bizarre sign at the eastbound #55 bus stop at the Red Line:

6,900 DOOMS DAY C.T.A STRIKE !

Free copy of our latest issue to anyone with a plausible guess for what this means.

(Grahm M. Balkany / Gropius in Chicago Coalition)

The City of Chicago finished demolition on its first building designed by renowned architect and founder of the Bauhaus movement Walter Gropius on the Michael Reese Hospital campus, the Gropius in Chicago Coalition is reporting. The Friend Convalescent Home, one of eight buildings on the Michael Reese campus designed in part by Gropius, was bulldozed this week in spite of the outcry from Gropius fans and preservationists. Architecture critic Lynn Becker, for one, is furious. The site was originally selected for the Olympic Village, but of course, the IOC had other plans. Now, after a quashed proposal for a casino, there are rumors of some sort of housing complex being built on the site, but no actual plan or developer. So why tear everything down? Becker has an idea: Read the rest of this entry »