Monday, July 12, 2010

Lawn ornament extreme

The urge to decorate is, I suspect, fundamental to the human psyche. People like stuff. They like to personalize and elaborate and accumulate. Guys like Mies and Gropius were, truth be told, fighting a losing battle.

IMG_0836

IMG_8714

IMG_7389


IMG_4497


Some folks, however, take their decorating more seriously than others. Some lawn decoration is just that, bits of stuff scattered and arranged here and there about the back yard or front lawn. Sometimes, however, it becomes part of the building, as with this whimsically decorated house on Asbury in Evanston.

P4233455a

IMG_7778

IMG_0011

IMG_7780a


And sometimes, the decoration can overtake the house entirely, redefining it, as with this building in Ukraine Village.

DSCF4764

DSCF4765

That's the House of Crosses, alternately know as the "It's what I do" house. Sadly, most of this 20-year accumulation of art was removed in 2007.


For my money, though, nothing quite tops this custom-sculpted facade reworking at 6011 S. Ashland. The building and lot belong to a towing company. How they wound up with such a wonderfully decorated building is a mystery.

IMG_5513a

3 comments:

lifeshighway said...

These are all enviable finds for scoring. Any of the yards presented would send us into spasms of glee. Thanks for sharing. I must get someone up to Chicago.

Lynn said...

I can tell that I must send you some photos of my yard art.

dubai rental property said...

Those are really nice pictures. Specially first two. Third one looks little messy, may be because it was taken from front view. But I really learned something from it.