A slap to history's face...

You all might remember these posts from a few months ago, about a Chicago-style bungalow being basically destroyed, for lack of a better term, and my struggles witnessing this every single day since it's on my way to work (and there's no way around it, really).

Well, work had ground to a halt for a while with the crappy early spring weather, but they had taken off the top (scalped the thing) and gutted out all the walls and floors and everything. They also tore out the back of the entire house.

Then, nicer weather arrived. To my horror, I watched (well, saw the results on my back and forth commutes) as they removed all the stained glass windows and completely removed the entire front porch, framing and walling it off. They then made the dining room windows the new entrance and began building a giant addition on top. All that was left of the original bungalow, for a short while, were the three brick walls. I thought, well, this should be interesting (in a bad way), as they build a second story and put a roof on, obviously all frame construction. I thought, boy, whatever they do up there isn't going to match the yellow face brick on the first floor.

Well, silly f-in' me. Just this week, the bricklayers appeared and began cover the entire face of the now 2-flat with the same boring-ass b.s. brownish-red face brick that every damned townhome and condo building up this way is built with. So, the yellow face brick will be behind this crappy brick.

I said it before, and I'll say it again: I don't know WHY this bothers me so much, but it just pisses me off to no end, and saddens me a bit as well, as to how this type of thing happens, especially in a city with a "bungalow initiative" like Chicago. Now, I know that not every bungalow is salvageable or worth saving, but this one, at least on the outside, was a great example to me of a Chicago-style bungalow, and with developers thinking this way, someday, they might not be any left. Furthermore, if I'm the neighbors, how do I not fight the fact that parking over there's probably already a pain, and now they're going to add more people by upgrading that building?

It's just ridiculous, and I wish there was something someone could have done. Unfortunately, too, this is Chicago, and unless you know somebody that knows somebody that knows somebody, forget it. That's probably why this happened -- it was just an election year. Somebody filled somebody's campaign coffers.

Anyway, the before pic is up above...when they finish, I'll try to find the time to snap an after, so you can all share in my disgust.

Phew! Kinda...

After some searching, I found their city permit...it's not a teardown, thankfully.

Here's the description: INTERIOR ALTERATIONS AND A SECOND FLOOR ADDITION ON EXISTING 1 1/2 STORY HOUSE PER PLANS, INCLUDING REPLACEMENT EXISTING GARAGE WITH NEW DECK ON THE GARAGE AND AN OPEN PORCH AS PER PLANS

So now I'll have something to look at on my commute every day, and say either it's beautiful or it's totally ugly. I'll have to check some online architects too and see if I can find the plans. (Isn't it interesting, to some extent, that this stuff is public record? Who knew?).

Update: Even worse possibility...

I drove by the bungalow this morning and got a better look, because traffic backs up right there, and I believe my absolute worst fears came to a head: I think this is actually a TEARDOWN. I didn't sit there long enough to see or confirm it for sure, but it looked suspiciously like the back of the house had been torn out already. Hard to tell, but man, this will be even worse if they put up a whole new building or condos or some crap. More later, after I pass by again on the way home.

I don't know why, but this has virtually ruined part of my day. What does that mean? Does that mean I should be doing something else with my life? Really, it shouldn't be my business, and I'm not looking to make it my business, but what does this total disappointment mean? I can't figure it out...I shouldn't be affected by this as much as I feel I am, especially since I have no PERSONAL connection to the house. It'd be a different situation if, say, this were my former residence or my grandparents' house or something like that, but it's not. It's not even close to where I grew up and not very close to where I live now. So what gives?

UPDATE 7 p.m. Tuesday: Well, I drove by the house on the way home, went around the block and approached the house from the back. If it's not a teardown, it's a complete and total gut job. As best as I can see, there is nothing left inside, really, except the brick walls, the floors and a few support posts. However, the back is semi-closed off, so maybe, just maybe, this is a complete gut job. I'd almost rather see that than a teardown, even if it means an ugly-ass addition to the top and/or back. More as events warrant.

A bungalow scalped...

My daily commute takes me from the Northwest Side into the northern suburbs, and from where I am, I'm too far away from expressways to make them worthwhile. Though the traffic does keep me away too. So I take surface streets.

In the past, I've noticed a really cool five-home set of Chicago-style bungalows on the corner of Nagle and Palatine. There's nothing particularly special about them -- if you know anything about Chicago-style bungalows, they're very pretty, and this sort of "repetition" and "similarity" happens a lot, particularly in the city's Bungalow Belt.

Anyway, if you go to Google Maps and use the Street View function, you can see them. Well, today, I noticed, surprised, on the way home, that the corner house had the entire second floor (attic space) completely removed. It was basically the house was scalped. Now, I've seen pictures of this type of thing happening before on architectural sites and whatnot. But, to see a bungalow that you actually thought was kinda pretty-looking (at least outside--who knows what's going on inside) get just scalped with your own eyes, it was a bit on the jarring side.

I'm hoping against hope that this home will retain its bungalow flavor, especially for the simple sake of the fact that the five homes pretty much went together. Just like Chicago-style bungalows, several of them were carbon-copies, with subtle variations (see the gable roofs on each, for example). Together, they completed a beautiful picture. Furthermore, this is the corner house -- the focal point when coming from the north.

I'm hoping that this person is an HCBA member and has a real love for the Chicago-style bungalow and an appreciation for what his/her home means to the others next door. But I just have this sinking feeling that it won't be that way and some monstrosity of a top floor or addition or whatever is going to spring up on top of this thing. And, yes, this homeowner is obviously free to do whatever he/she wants, and who am I to judge, right?

But anytime I see a siding-clad, pathetic attempt at a second-floor addition or dormer, it saddens me ever so slightly. I really should have been an architect or an architectural historian or something along those lines. I'm sure most of you, who read this blog and have blogs along these lines would agree. I'm going to try to take pictures of this place some time, but given it's high-traffic, low parking-space location, I can't promise anything. And I'll be sure to post those pics if I get them.

For now, pray that my assumptions are wrong and that this place will only improve with whatever addition they're building.