#chicagoartdeco

[timothyk68]

The fantastic Art Deco lobby of the Chicago Board Of Trade building. #artdeco #chicagoartdeco #chicagoartdecosociety #ohc2017 #chiarchitecture #chicago #chicago_insta #insta_chicago #artofchi #interiors #chicagointeriors #historicchicago #timkarasphotography #igerschicago (at Chicago Board of Trade Building)

[visualculturist]

Look up. More significantly, just look.

In the category of places you look at repeatedly but never really see: Dinkel's Bakery.

OK, maybe it's a "category" more specific to visualculturist personally, but he passes this building several times a week [all right, I also go into the store on occasion, usually when I want to reward myself for something. Dinkel's makes the best raspberry bismarcks I've ever had] but recently realized he never actually looks at it.

It is such a great facade - nice, intact terra cotta [love the rondels and the fluted panels], plus the rich marble base and brushed stainless trim - that I am sure would be landmarked if it were in Miami Beach or Hollywood.  Not so here in the Smelly Onion.

Dinkel's building has survived without help from legislation, primarily because it's remained a family business for 90 + years. Its promotional materials say it's been in operation since 1922. I think this was the original and only location, although I'm thinking this facade dates from closer to 1930.

[The similarly intact and handsome terra cotta facade on the Salvation Army store on Broadway near Montrose has also survived, even though - unlike Dinkel's, it's had many tenants in the last 90 years or so.

Other buildings contemporaneous to Dinkel's along Lincoln Avenue have fared variously. Several have been destroyed; others exist in some state of originality. And so, just as you've got to appreciate small victories in preservation, you have to recognize the unexpected surprises, like 3139 N Lincoln.

At street level, it's been more or less decimated, with most of it obscured by the typically gruesome dryvit facing you find way too much of on city storefronts.

but just looking at the carved limestone, bronze panels and medallions that decorate the unaltered second floor facade, you can imagine there had been a great ground level retail facade.

And unless the fortunes of the Lincoln/Belmont/Ashland neighborhood improve drastically as an upscale retail destination, it's unlikely there will be much motivation  for the building's owner to restore it any time soon. Still, there's an upside here. In a more aggressive real estate market, a two-story building would be a likely candidate for scraping and replacement with three or four stories of apartments.

Luckily, this one hasn't fallen victim. So even though the street level retail spaces have been changed beyond recognition, the second floor office spaces have survived pretty much intact: a rare example of a reasonably un-changed office interior of the 1920s. The cynic in me is thinking that it's survived in this condition because of benign neglect more than anything else. [Certainly more than some concerted preservation effort.]

I haven't done my research, but the camel motif in the decoration leads me to believe this building had some relation to the Hump Hair Pin company, whose headquarters building on Milwaukee near Diversey is now the Hairpin Arts Center - the terrazzo detail on the ground floor entry is in pretty good shape.

Clearly this was built as a fairly modest operation, but it's of a time when even a modest operation had stylish details. Who wouldn't like the marble surround at the elevator or the vertically striped glass tile wall treatment:

and marble stair treads

And when you get to the top of the stairs, the richness of the details continue with the central lobby area: a beautiful terrazzo floor complements the fluted, curved paneling -both are in excellent condition. In addition to the more obvious insertion of the glass partition to create an office space off the elevator lobby, the most glaring "modernizing" elements here are the dropped ceilings [I shot these pics four years ago, and I haven't been back, but I am guessing the blue tape on the floor moldings was temporary.]

The  simpler, but still great terrazzo floor in the hallway, with glass tile walls. 

This little gem can't be the only example of its kind. I'm determined to find more.