Lee Bey

Chicago

Architecture Critic at Chicago Sun-Times

Sun-Times/ABC7 architecture critic. Arch prof @ IIT. Author, Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago’s South Side, @ https://t.co/c4s6AyCtfk

Articles

120-year-old Jackson Park pavilion remains a Chicago Park District ruin

1 week ago | wbez.org | Lee Bey

As warm weather eases its way into the city, the Burnham Building, a 120-year-old pavilion in Jackson Park, ought to be a perfect little spot to visit. Located on Marquette Drive just north of 67th Street, the one-story, open-air structure sits on a slight elevation, allowing the building’s patrons to better catch Lake Michigan views and breezes. The view from the rear of the building is no slouch, either.
Bernie Mac's high school, a Frank Lloyd Wright home are among the state's 'most endangered' buildings

1 week ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lee Bey

Chicago Vocational High School was built to educate 4,000 students when its sprawling, 22-acre WPA Modern campus opened on the city’s Southeast Side in 1941. But today, between 700 to 800 attend the school, now called Chicago Vocational Career Academy. Large portions of the building have gone unused for years, prompting fears from architecture devotees and alumni that vacant sections of the architecturally significant complex might be someday demolished.
A casualty of a car crash and Father Time, a long-neglected Jackson Park pavilion needs help

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

As warm weather eases its way into the city, the Burnham Building, a 120-year-old pavilion in Jackson Park, ought to be a perfect little spot to visit. Located on Marquette Drive just north of 67th Street, the one-story, open-air structure sits on a slight elevation, allowing the building’s patrons to better catch Lake Michigan views and breezes. The view from the rear of the building is no slouch either.
Long-awaited DuSable Park takes a big step forward

2 weeks ago | wbez.org | Lee Bey

At just 3.4 acres, the long-awaited $15 million Jean-Baptiste Point DuSable Park won’t be the city’s largest public green space, but it has the potential to be one of the best. As it should be. The park is planned for an absolutely prime spot east of DuSable Lake Shore Drive that is bounded by the Chicago River, the Ogden Slip and the lake. Chicagoans have waited 38 years for this park honoring DuSable, watching previous plans come and go. But the wait now appears to be ending.
Long-awaited DuSable Park takes a big step forward

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

At just 3.4 acres, the long-awaited $15 million Jean-Baptiste Point DuSable Park won’t be the city’s largest public green space, but it has the potential to be one of the best. As it should be. The park is planned for an absolutely prime spot east of DuSable Lake Shore Drive that is bounded by the Chicago River, the Ogden Slip and the lake. Chicagoans have waited 38 years for this park honoring DuSable, watching previous plans come and go. But the wait now appears to be ending.
St. Thomas no More? Archdiocese to end services at Ashburn church next month

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

The faithful have celebrated Easter Mass at St. Thomas More Catholic Church ever since the first crop of single-family homes pushed back the prairie, creating the spanking new Eisenhower era neighborhood of Ashburn. That tradition will end this Easter Sunday. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago told the congregation last week — on Palm Sunday, no less — that the 67-year-old edifice will hold its last liturgy on May 25 and will no longer function as a church after that.
North Lawndale's historic sunken garden closer to start of restoration project

3 weeks ago | wbez.org | Lee Bey

The long-awaited rebirth of a 120-year-old North Lawndale garden could begin this summer with the restoration of the park’s 100-foot long Mediterranean Revival pergola, according to the project’s advocates. Construction drawings are being finalized that will guide the rehabilitation of the historic wooden pergola — a structure that is the key visual feature of the nearly 2-acre sunken garden, built in 1907 by Sears, Roebuck and Company.
North Lawndale's historic Sears sunken garden closer to start of restoration project

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

The long-awaited rebirth of a 120-year-old North Lawndale garden could begin this summer with the restoration of the park’s 100-foot long Mediterranean Revival pergola, according to the project’s advocates.
Downtown’s Big Red gets new flavor

1 month ago | wbez.org | Lee Bey

You’d think a big, red skyscraper couldn’t go relatively unheralded, let alone one that’s stood downtown for more than 50 years. But that’s the case for 333 S. Wabash Ave., originally CNA Center. The 44-story tower is the only downtown skyscraper with that distinctive color, and it’s a fairly good-looking modernist building with its grid of slitlike windows. The building would be standout in any other city.
Conservation group seeks better protection for city's iconic lakefront

1 month ago | chicago.suntimes.com | Lee Bey

When the Chicago Bears revealed plans last April to build a big domed stadium just south of Soldier Field, the most ridiculous thing about the announcement wasn’t its hyped, pep rally-like unveiling, or even the $1.5 billion in public infrastructure funds the team had the effrontery to request. It’s that the project was proposed for the lakefront at all. And that the city’s lakefront protection laws are likely elastic enough to allow it to happen.