City Hall, St. Charles, Illinois
Does St. Charles have the best city hall in Illinois? I think it might.
Wacker Drive Plaza, Chicago
The frumpy, functional modernism of the old Chicago Sun-Times Building came down for Trump Tower and glassy apartment buildings sprouted around the Tribune Tower, but the subtlest change here might be the most influential: the removal of the weird little plaza in the middle of Wacker Drive.
Public Library, Jackson, Michigan
Jackson’s Carnegie Library, a grandiose little Beaux Arts box, always seemed a bit too grandiose for a city of its size. It turns out there’s a unique reason for that, something almost out of a Hallmark movie.
Charles Bruning Co., 4700 W. Montrose, Chicago
The building that blueprints built, even more literally than usual–the Charles Bruning Co. manufactured blueprint paper. Designed by Victor L. Charn and nestled between two rail lines, this gorgeous Art Moderne factory opened in 1941.
Hotel Crane, San Francisco
After 75 years as a residential hotel, the Crane's owners tried to force out the tenants, was sued by the city, settled, and have left it vacant ever since—its 110+ units part of the 15,000 SRO units SF lost between 1970 and 2000.