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CAMPAIGN

Preserve / Adaptively Reuse Significant Historic Resources

Chicago, IL
Preserve / Adaptively Reuse Significant Historic Resources
Description:

Idea posted on behalf of an Outreach Meeting 2 Attendee:
25-35% of the buildings within the PMD must be reused / adapted. Preservation of the Cortland Bridge, the railroad swing bridge, as well as the Finkl signage should be considered as well.

Related topics:
Ward Miller Chicago, IL

We should be collectively looking at preservation and reuse of historic buildings along this riverfront corridor. Such structures could become the cornerstone of new developments in this vicinity, providing much needed jobs and perhaps even an incubator for new ideas and businesses in the manufacturing sector. The demolition of A. Finkl & Sons represents a missed opportunity to look at creative ideas for the site.

A one time, we had suggested this complex as a possibility for year-round Green City Market, or a grouping of Farmers Markets. Many envisioned reusing the steel structures, inserting new glazing or glass, along with the remediation of brown-fields that would need to be cleaned-up anyway. This could have been a plan for both growing and selling organic food products, and bring together several communities from West Lincoln Park, Bucktown, Logan Square and others at a beautiful riverfront site, which could be landscaped and connected to the new "606"/Bloomingdale Trail and a riverwalk connecting to Downtown Chicago. Such an idea could also include a bike path as well, creating a safe way to commute to the Loop, without automobiles in close range.

Looking to the future, we should encourage historic preservation as a planning tool and good-positive-sensitive-development for this riverfront and others, both those adjoining the A. Finkl & Sons buildings, and those elsewhere along our waterways. Such an idea may also embrace our 2014 Chicago 7 buildings, like a reuse of the Fisk and Crawford Power Plants.

Sincerely,
Ward Miller, Executive Director
Preservation Chicago

Finkl & Sons was also one of our "Chicago 7 Most Endangered Properties" in 2015 and we are still hopeful that some of the structures may be reused along this river way.