The round Wexler Pavilion has had two of its windows removed, with Dumpsters placed beneath the openings. Large-scale debris is piled up in the lobby. Recessed light fixtures in the exterior overhangs have been ripped out, likely as part of abatement.
The main entry and glass lobby of the Laz Chapman Pavilion (handsomely captured by Lee Bay) has been sealed up tight with plasterboard.
Most alarming, the lovely twin lamps which have long graced the entry of the main building have disappeared. As you can see by the dates here, this is a very recent development, and I'd bet whatever you like that the removal wasn't legally sanctioned -- in other words, somebody stole the lamps.
March 22, 2009
May 2, 2009
5 comments:
Someone should comb the architectural salvage shops for the lost lamps -- bet they are on sale now.
Urban Remains Chicago was salvaging items from MRH (with permission, I'm sure) and had them displayed at their website. Some of the items were quite significant, like the 1905 cornerstone plaque from the main building (there is a picture of the plaque on my flickr page HERE). Then there was an article in the NY Times that was critical of the pre-demo and salvage work at MRH. After the article was published the MRH items were taken off the UR site. They are back up, but now, but it's just generic hospital stuff and furniture, nothing "significant". You can see the items HERE.
Interesting...
(note: my earlier comment, which I deleted, was the same as what I said above, but with more dumb typos. Which is why I deleted it. Sorry.)
The cornerstone plaque should join the archival collection, which is at Spertus Institute. What's happening is an absolute travesty.
I'm really saddened by the demo; I learned to swim here.
I also think that the buildings would make a terrific reuse project for residential units, perhaps an "almost ran Olympic village" type place.
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