PreservationNation

The Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago, a modernist, clover-shaped and spaceship-esque building, was one of our 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2011. Designed by Bertrand Goldberg – an architect better known for his similarly-shaped Marina City buildings – the building was vacated by the hospital in 2007 and its owner, Northwestern University, announced plans to raze the building to construct a research facility.

Yet, despite having no formal protection from demolition, the building still stands. This is where the preservation Valentines come in.

Categorize into “things I didn’t realize I had in me.” But yes, this is my official entry. Bring it on. (Photo: National Trust for Historic Preservation)

The Save Prentice Coalition – a collaboration between AIA Chicago, docomomo chicago midwest, Landmarks Illinois, Preservation Chicago, and the National Trust – announced a new, slightly nontraditional campaign (aren’t those the best kind?) to bring attention and, yes, love to Prentice. Presenting, the Show Prentice Some Love contest.

According to their rules, “You can make your Prentice “Valentine” in whatever medium you choose – photography, paintings, songs, short video (60 seconds or less), t‐shirt graphics, and construction paper valentine are just a few of the options.”

To enter, simply email a digital file of your Valentine to loveprentice@gmail.com by 5:00 pm CST on February 13th. Please limit file size to 10 MB or less. For each submission, please include:

• Name of the entrant(s)
• Age of the entrant (this only applies to the “Kids” category for entrants 13 and under)
• Email, phone number or preferred method of contact
• Title for the submission
• Brief (2‐3 sentence) description of the submission and why you love Prentice

Please reference the full contest rules and conditions if you’re planning to participate. We can’t wait to help showcase the winners.

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Apparently he also makes Valentines. And may or may not be setting up an Etsy shop.

Working with old and historic buildings is often a lesson in patience. So when I came across this time-lapse video of the old Opera House in Stewardson, Illinois, having its galvanized iron facade carefully removed, it was refreshing to imagine it all happening in a matter of seconds.

As background, the old opera house was slated for demolition by the Village of Stewardson – who agreed to allow its Mesker Brothers galvanized iron facade to be salvaged for reuse on a fire-damaged main street building in neighboring Arcola, Illinois. See the completed building below:

The restored and relocated facade in Arcola, Illinois. (Photo: Darius Bryjka)

Check out the Mesker Brothers blog for more about the building and the type of facade seen in the video.

David Garber is the blog editor at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

If there’s such a thing as a preservation superhero, I think we just found one.

Becky Anderson bought and restored her first old house in Burlington, Iowa, in 1994. Then, in 1998, she bought and restored the house next door. In 2000, she tried to buy another house, but lost it in a bidding war. In 2001, she saw a for-sale sign at a ramshackle hilltop Italianate, crawled through a broken bay window to check it out, and proceeded to buy, completely renovate and restore it, and move in.

City Councilmember and developer Becky Anderson in her element (left); and looking over the city of Burlington from her restored Italianate home (right). (Photos: Steve Frevert and Becky Anderson)

Recognize her story? I know I do. Preservation can be an addicting hobby. Fix up one place and pretty soon you want to fix up another. For Becky Anderson, the hobby didn’t stop with houses. In 2008, her daughter, a local real estate agent, told her about the Hedge Building, a Victorian Gothic main street commercial building built in the 1880s that was on the market. Anderson remembers, “The amount of original woodwork and detail in the building was amazing. I was thinking, ‘could I take this on?’”

With the help of Federal and State Historic Preservation Tax Credits, and a tenant (her own financial services company) ready and willing to take office space on the first floor, pieces started to fall in place. “We moved into our new offices in February 2009, with the front of the building still not completed. The building had been a men’s clothing store and the storefront had been drastically altered in the 1940s. It took another eight months to recreate a limestone storefront similar to the original.”

Installing the recreated limestone storefront at the Hedge Building. (Photos: Steve Frevert)

Remember: preservation superhero. Always moving, always saving. Since 2005, Becky Anderson has also been president of the Capitol Theater Foundation, a group formed to save and rehab the 1937 Art Deco jewel in downtown Burlington. In 2010 the group was awarded at $1 million grant from I-JOBS, an Iowa state initiative to fund local infrastructure projects. But Anderson is quick to take a back seat: “I have just been one of many who have worked on this project.” The Capitol Theater is expected to open in May.

Meanwhile, she was elected to the Burlington City Council last fall and is currently working on another historic building restoration downtown. After hearing about the projects she’s worked on, I knew I needed to raise the bat signal and talk to her in person. (more…)