Update: See the stylistically similar Fremont School from October of 2019. Converted into apartments, the Mount Pleasant School stands out as a building of high style among the low rise housing of the Dutchtown neighborhood. Influenced by Renaissance art, the front door and the flanking windows show the influence of Michelangelo. I love architecture like…
Month: June 2014
Collapsed Warehouse, Fox Park
It’s strange to see such a large building collapse in a pile of rubble on the South Side. But that’s what happened a couple of weeks ago in the Fox Park neighborhood. What a shame.
Fox Park, Revisited
Fox Park is in transition; it has many beautiful streets, many troubled ones, but one thing remains: it has amazing housing stock, much of it older than nearby Tower Grove East to the west or even McKinley Heights to the east, deeper into the city. Some of its houses, such as the one above, are…
McKinley High School
Update: See new pictures of the high school from October of 2020 and June of 2024. McKinley High School, now a Classical Junior Academy (which apparently means it focuses on Latin) was the first pendent of two high schools built in the first decade of the Twentieth Century, the other being the former Yeatman/Central, now…
Dutchtown Right Along the Interstate
I’m continually intrigued by the houses and buildings that lean right up against I-55 in the Dutchtown area. There are houses that nowadays would never be allowed to stand so close to the right-of-way; in fact, some houses literally do not have front yards any more. Above is a street mere feet from the interstate….
Peter A. Beachy House, Oak Park
Actually a remodel of a Gothic Revival cottage, Frank Lloyd Wright’s plans for the house completely redefines the original house. Wright’s trip to Japan and its influence on him shows up in the elements of this house, such as in the window treatments and the contrasting dark brown beams with yellow walls.
Laura Gale House, Oak Park
Wright wasn’t supposed to be designing houses on the side, but he did anyway. This is one of them, a great example of a small Wright composition sitting on a quiet dead-end street in the middle of the street grid.
Unity Temple, Oak Park
Revolutionizing the field of architecture, the Unity Temple in Oak Park is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important commissions. Rejecting historical revival styles, Wright creates one of the first modernist buildings in the world.
Arthur Heurtley House
One of the earliest examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School, the Heurtley House has a hulking, low presence on a broad, treeless yard.
Nathan G. Moore House, Oak Park
A fascinating mix of Tudor Revival and Wright’s distinctive style, this house has had two iterations: the first, more pure Tudor Revival house, and the second, more distinctively Wright decorative redesign after a fire. It’s interesting in that Wright chafed under the original design he created, and obviously saw some vindication when he was allowed…