This glorious collection of apartment houses stands along State Street, just south of 81st, and overlooking the combined 90/94 Interstate highways's ten roaring lanes of traffic. They're in plain view for tens of thousands of motorists every day; that's where I first saw them last week, and I nearly had a heart attack when I did.
The builder really went nuts on this block, slathering each building with unique designs -- perhaps they anticipated the high visibility of the buildings.
Like the Froebel Gifts, the designer took a few simple elements and patterns -- the colored blocks, a few kinds of brick, limestone borders -- and created a unique series of artworks from them.
The blocks themselves are actually glass block, with a solid color of some kind applied to them at the factory, possibly a baked-on paint. They're found on multi-unit apartment buildings like these, and on small 1960s ranch/bungalow houses, where they typically are placed in stacked or offset trios. Occasionally, clear versions can be seen; colored translucent versions are more common.
The joy and delight they impart to this otherwise ordinary 1960s row is infectious.
More can be seen at my Flickr space.
5 comments:
Awesome! I just noticed those same buildings about a month ago, and thats after a lifetime of driving on the Ryan. It just demonstrates how I used to subconsciously ignore anything of 50s or 60s vintage .
This is so totally typical of 50s-now Chicago vernacular residential design - they are still building in a similar vein/style as this on the south side and far south burbs...
I love the funky colors!
I was talking with a glass block guy today and he said that a lot of dealers are making a killing on...salvaged vintage glass bricks like these. In fact, more than on new products.
Wow, where are they being torn down? I have entertained fantasies of snagging a couple from a demolition site, to add to my modest collection of fragments, but I can't imagine any of these houses coming down -- they're not that old, and by and large they're not in gentrifying areas.
Also, I didn't even realize till this weekend that they are glass block -- I figured they were some kind of glazed solid brick.
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