Lee Bey

3 weeks ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lee Bey

A significant, large-scale work by the late artist Sol LeWitt has vanished from the exterior of a federally-owned downtown building — and the government agency in charge of the piece refuses to say why. “Lines in Four Directions,” a 90-foot-by-72-foot artwork, had been mounted on the west facade of 10 W. Jackson Blvd., an office building owned by the U.S. General Services Administration. Has it been removed — or just covered up?

3 weeks ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lee Bey

Throughout its 35-year existence, the Prairie Avenue Bookshop was much more than an architectural book retailer. It was a meeting ground for architects and design devotees, where buyers could find rare works or the latest ones — then kick back in furniture designed or inspired by the likes of Mies van der Rohe, or Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Guiding the bookstore’s look and feel, and quietly presiding over it all was Marilyn Hasbrouck.

3 weeks ago | wbez.org | Lee Bey

The former On Leong Merchant Association Building has been a symbol of Chinatown for nearly a century, carrying with it a history as colorful as its architecture. And now the 97-year-old Chicago building’s design and backstory might earn it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. The program committee of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks is set to vote May 16 on whether to support a National Register listing for the On Leong building, now called the Pui Tak Center.

4 weeks ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lee Bey

The parish buildings of the former St. Mary of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church are still handsome, noble-looking religious structures, even as they sit vacant and very much in need of repair. Normally it takes a miracle to restore and reactivate a complex of religious buildings like this. Then it turned out last week that St. Mary’s — shuttered, half-forgotten and tucked away on the farthest reaches of the city’s South Side — is the new pope’s old childhood church.

4 weeks ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lee Bey

A $1.2 million grant to restore the aged 92-foot bell tower of Pullman’s historic Greenstone United Methodist Church was unanimously approved Thursday by the Commission of Chicago Landmarks. Made under the city’s Adopt-a-Landmark program, the grant — if approved by City Council — would cover a virtual rebuild of the 143-year-old church’s tower, reusing as much of the building’s distinctive original green Serpentine stone. Work could begin this year and carry into 2026.