Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Farwell Saga - Episode Four

Scaffolding has gone up around Michigan Avenue's Farwell Building, saved last month when the Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted down a proposal that would have stripped the Farwell's facades, demolished the building, and remounted the facades on a completely new building, all under the name of landmark protection.

Is the scaffolding a ploy in a PR campaign to reverse that vote by persuading the public the building is so unsafe that demolition is the only solution?

Read about what's at stake, and how its shaking down - including project architect Lucien Lagrange's candid discussion about the real reasons behind the developer's push to demolish the Farwell - in ten easy points, here.

1 comment:

JBP said...

Is the scaffolding a ploy in a PR campaign to reverse that vote by persuading the public the building is so unsafe that demolition is the only solution?

Yes. It is a common ploy. See the Civic Center in Evanston, which has been under scaffolding for years now, with now discernible work being performed.