909 West Elm Street
“Million-dollar homes in the U.S. are selling at double their historical average while middle-class property demand stumbles, showing that the housing recovery is mirroring America’s wealth divide.” So notes a recent Bloomberg News article. Exhibit A of this housing and income shift can be found in my neighborhood, where last week a structurally sound 1960s colonial was leveled to make way for a million-dollar custom home.
Fractured ticket booth
I started creating fractured images while taking a digital design class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Here’s a fracture I composed this week using a photograph of the ticket booth at the Wheaton Grand Theatre.
Rock ‘n’ Rubble High School
Though my high school experience was a mixed bag, I’m struck by a nostalgic sense of loss every time I pass by the demolition site seen below. Day by day, Wheaton Central High School — an institution that educated the likes of Edwin Hubble, Red Grange, Bob Woodward, John Belushi, and, much further down the list, me — is being pounded by a wrecking ball, a process slowed by the presence of asbestos that needs to be hosed down and carefully removed.
And what will take the place of the school? A gourmet grocery store, naturally.
Buy a house for a buck
Surrounded by posh abodes worth north of $500,000, the 117-year-old home at 8 Park Drive in the Chicago suburb of Glenview can be yours for a mere dollar. The catch? The buyer has to uproot the massive structure and move it to a new site.
The owner of the home, the Glenview New Church, wants to redevelop the property. If a buyer doesn’t come forward soon, the home likely will be torn down. The Queen Anne-style dwelling lacks a landmark designation even though it possesses significant historical value. It was designed and owned by Hugh Burnham, Glenview’s first village president and the nephew of the famed city planner of Chicago, Daniel Burnham.
According to Trulia, the annual property taxes on the uninhabited home are a steep $12,713, which may explain why the pastor of the New Church described the residence as a “money pit” in an interview with TribLocal.