Preview: the changing CMD and the potential of McKinley Park

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 Two photos from the story we're working on now.

More: 

Outtakes from the Central Manufacturing District
Aftermath: Some Say the World Will End in Ice . . . 

Aftermath: Some Say the World Will End in Ice . . .

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It was if a black-and-white photograph had somehow been inserted into the normal color cityscape.

Last night, the century-old warehouse in Chicago's Central Manufacturing District was destroyed in a 5-alarm blaze that had 170 firefighters - a third of the city's entire on-duty contingent - battling in near-zero degree temperatures.

With the return of daylight, the brick and terra cotta facades had been abstracted inside a desaturating, icy cocoon of ice, fire hose streams freeze-sculpted as they sprayed down the building . . .

The strange object revealed by morning looks like an ice sculpture so brittle a few firm taps could shatter it into a million shards.

More probably, the building at 3737 South Ashland will soon be visited by a small army of professionals, manning bulldozers, cranes and wrecking balls.

In a few weeks, the macabre carcass will vanish.  An anchoring presence for over a hundred years, smashed into easily transportable piles of anonymous atoms of debris, it will be as if it never existed.

early 20th century Central Manufacturing District Warehouse consumed by fire.

This week, the biggest fire Chicago has had in years left a massive warehouse in Chicago's old Central Manufacturing District a gutted shell, its facades encased in ice.  The building is currently in the process of being demolished, even as smaller fires keep rekindling in the ruins.
[See: Aftermath - Some Say the World Will End in Ice.]

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Chicago's Central Manufacturing District has a claim on being the world's first real industrial park.  Until about ten years ago, it was home to the William Wrigley factories.  Constructed in the early years of the 20th century, the factories were gradually abandoned by their original owners.

The massive warehouse at 37th and Ashland was originally home of the Pullman Couch Company, still another piece of the far-flung industrial empire spawned by George Pullman's Sleeping Car Company empire. 

The original building, south of the now central entrance, was constructed in 1911 by district architect R.S. Lindstrom.  In 1913, another floor was added.

Photograph: University of Minnesota, Media Archive

According to a comment by BW/Broan on Lee Bey's post on the fire, the warehouse's final appearance comes from 1919, when district architect S. Scott Joy doubled the building to the north, and added a bay to the west with a few Ashland Avenue facade that united both buildings visually, with distinctive ornamentation from the American Terra Company. (Thanks to the great Lee Bey for a tip that led us to the above photo.)

Over the years, almost all the buildings CMD went through a succession of tenants.  Some, like the warehouse at 38th and Ashland, were largely abandoned.

Reports indicated that the fire also jumped over to the 1912 building at 3801 South Ashland, but that the fire there was quickly extinguished.

Including the later and massive cold storage warehouses along Pershing, this is an area waiting for its rebirth.

(if it doesn't burn down first.)

Chicago Fire Department photograph

Chicago Fire Department photograph

From 1915,“. . . we consider that the District is made up very largely of Plants of a most modern type of construction, excellent general arrangement, and most adequate fire protection . . . it is very evident that you have made every endeavor to have these structures . . . conform to the highest standards advised by Insurance Companies . . .”

Outtakes from the Central Manufacturing District

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So I've just sent off the images for my presentation at this Thursday's Pecha Kucha at Charnley-Persky House on the Central Manufacturing District in Chicago's New City neighborhood, often considered to be the most modern industrial park..  I could only use 20, so these are some that were left over.

 

 

 

Becker to unearth CMD's at Pecha Kucha #0 July 19th

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Barring the organizers coming to their senses or my running off to Brazil,  I'm now scheduled to appear at the fittingly numbered Pecha Kucha #0 When Less is More, on July 19th, the first ever at the Louis Sullivan/Frank Lloyd Wright designed Charnley-Perksy House.  Pecha Kucha is the international phenomenon in which you tell your story using just 20 images, shown for 20 seconds each.  So the good news is that I can cause no more than seven minutes of damage in what will otherwise be a fascinating evening.

Unless someone stops me, I'm thinking I'll be talking about Chicago's Central Manufacturing District. First opened in 1905 on a half-mile square tract north of the old Union Stockyards, it's often referred to as the first planned manufacturing district in the United States.  Largely designed by architect S. Scott Joy, by 1915 it was home to over a hundred companies, now mostly forgotten, but also including Wrigley Gum, whose factory complex we wrote about earlier this year, in Four Buildings and a Funeral - Wrigley:  The Architecture that Remains after a Great Company Dies.

If nothing else, my talk will provide a perfect opportunity to pop out for a washroom break, a smoke, or some quality time playing Style Me Girl on your iPhone,  while waiting for more grounded lecturers to take the stage.  Tickets for the July 19th event, co-sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians, are $15.00, and will include refreshments and the chance to inhabit one of Chicago's architectural masterworks.  Doors open at 6:00 p.m.; presentations begin at 6:30.  The full roster of presenters will be revealed soon, here.  Tickets go one sale July 5th, at the SAH website here.