Ultra Local Geography

May 4, 2011 7:45 AM

Ultra Local Geography documents the everyday architecture of Chicago with detailed drawings and neighborhood historical research.

Topics include:

• Typology of Courtyard Apartments in Rogers Park
• Monumental Lighting: 1, 2, 3
• Teardowns in a North Shore Suburb
• Pilsen streets: 1,2
• Ornament detail: Carson Pirie Scott building, Monadnock Building

posted by enn (12 comments total)

I suspect this is a little too special-interest to rack up a ton of comments and favorites, but as a geographer and Chicago resident I would like to say "thank you so much" and also "how the hell did I not know about this."
posted by theodolite at 7:59 AM on May 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

I've totally wanted to do more of this for my town; it's so time-consuming, but so awesome. I did do something similar for the building I used to work in, but nothing post-construction yet.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:07 AM on May 4, 2011

Thanks, enn!

Another fine blog in this category is A Chicago Sojourn. It's mainly concerned with the finer points of mid-century modern architecture, but the author has also covered daycare murals, the charming route of the Skokie Swift, and a mysterious cottage in Lincoln Square.
posted by Iridic at 8:14 AM on May 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I would like to say what thoedolite said. Other than the geographer part. Otherwise, yes, that.
posted by eriko at 8:15 AM on May 4, 2011

This is good, but it's missing "Survey of west side cinder block condos with shitty brick facing."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:17 AM on May 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

As a former resident of (East) Rogers Park for several years, this is fantastic stuff. More often than I can count, I would look at buildings in Chicago, and really want to know some history on it. These articles only make me want more architecture history minutiae. MORE!!!!
posted by chambers at 8:33 AM on May 4, 2011

Somewhere, presumably in the city, Geoffrey Baer is smiling.
posted by hijinx at 8:40 AM on May 4, 2011

Awesome awesome awesome. I live in Uptown, not far from Rogers Park, and I know a few of these buildings. I love this stuff, and the architecture is what I'll miss when I leave Chicago (that and the bacon).
posted by LMGM at 9:24 AM on May 4, 2011

Yes! As someone who briefly lived in Chicago and is an architecture enthusiast, I thank you.
posted by safetyfork at 9:51 AM on May 4, 2011

Loving this, too. I just learned that the street I live on, Bell Avenue, was once known as Pingree Street.
posted by me3dia at 10:29 AM on May 4, 2011

This is good, but it's missing "Survey of west side cinder block condos with shitty brick facing."

I don't know how many of these, exactly, were built during the boom after tearing down various brownstones and courtyard apartments like those in the blog, but the number is somewhere north of obscene. Whole blocks of variegated interesting architecture became bland suburbanized tracts at a stroke.
posted by dhartung at 10:39 AM on May 4, 2011

Super cool! I used to live in West Rogers Park, and know some of these places.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:48 PM on May 4, 2011