My great-grandfather was chairman of this old-fashioned but still thriving (unfortunately) Chicago charity, the Pacific Garden Mission, 100 years ago--it's fascinating to see some major--and green--architecture attached to this and the new Near North SRO as well. The new Pacific Garden Mission building (image left) is by Stanley Tigerman.

The Times reported on these two buildings on Sunday--they've been reported on locally much more as they've gone. As usual, I was struck by the wild contradictions and undercurrent in these kinds of things. It's so great we're building forward-thinking green architecture, and it makes me insanely proud to read about housing initiatives and attaching important architectural work to the lives of the homeless, but...what about all the SROs torn down to make Presidential Towers? What about the condos taking over every affordable neighborhood? What about all the significant architecture torn down and thugged despite preservationists' best efforts? What about the people putting up tall luxury buildings in my neighborhood like they're in a race with the devil despite low occupancy rates? What about the (packed, constantly used, popular, featured in films) YMCA on the near north side that is closing because of insane real estate costs? What about the psychotic property taxes? Who can afford to live here?

Chicago breaks my heart constantly as an architecture fan and a citizen. But the small solace you find, you have to find, is that if you have to characterize an entire city you know we are tigers. Sometimes it does feel like it hasn't stopped since the fire. Build build build. Tear down tear down build start over. People here always care, and something is always happening to care about. We are not like other cities that worry and talk but in the end nothing happens, good or bad--like or not, something's always about to change. Chicago doesn't feel particularly like it's moldering unattended--at its core--even if it feels like you spend your life grieving for old buildings and brutal change. I don't know...will the new SROs be better? Did this have to happen? Is this about necessary urban growth and change?

What would all of those teetotalling, civic-minded Chicagoans like my great-grandfather thought of the new architecture? Would they have thought it "too nice" in their paternalistic, Victorian way, for those it seeks to help? Or would it have been the fulfillment of unknown dreams to see such big gestures come to fruition? Would they have been shocked at the fact that social ills are still all around us or accepting in a Christian way?

I do know--it suddenly occurs to me--that I will be sad to see the landmark of the Pacific Garden neon sign disappear from its current location. I look for it every time I'm on the El, every time I'm around there. The buildings in that part of the South Loop aren't quite as thick as some places, so sometimes you can see a stretch of State Street and, usually, the men lined up in front of the Mission. It's one of the first landmarks I learned in the city, one I came to feel threaded me to my past a bit. At least they are keeping the sign.