Urban Decay, Exploration

By Margaret Lyons in Miscellaneous on Dec 13, 2007 11:17PM

Carey Primeau posted these photos to Flickr last week, and we can't stop looking at them. Primeau tells us that the building was the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, 135 S. Sangamon.

According to Preservation Chicago,

The building is executed in a highly unusual Mayan style, perhaps the only of its kind in Chicago. The basic form of the building can be described as Art Deco, with low relief ornament, upward thrust, pronounced piers that diminish in prominence as the building rises, and subtle detailing. However, the details themselves are of a Mayan sensibility, likely inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s California work in the 1920s. Fascinating lintels rise above flat windows, while reentrant corners and Mayan-inspired banding trace roofline parapets.

Here's hoping the Parks District decides to keep it as a field house instead of knocking it down.