Farewell to DePaul's neo-Gothic athletic building
Who among us hasn't shaken their head and/or shed a tear at the demolition of DePaul University's Hayes-Healy Athletic Building in the last week or so?
The CTA bought it for a song (just under $4 million) in a jury's decision. (DePaul wanted $10 million; the CTA offered $7 million. Under eminent-domain rules, it went to a jury and that's what they came up with!) Now it's almost gone to make room for a few extra feet of track so the CTA can expand the Fullerton platform to make it ADA-compliant, among other added amenities.
A Tribune story explains that "the CTA needs a small portion of the building's footprint for its plans to rehabilitate the Fullerton Station, making it handicapped accessible and lengthening the platforms so it can accommodate longer trains."
The Chicago Reader this week has a story (pdf required) on how the demolition was fast-tracked and didn't follow city rules for demolishing semi-historic buildings such as this.
A vocal opponent of the demolition has been former alderman Marty Oberman.
From Inside Publications in October 2001: "Martin Oberman, a former alderman who lives near the proposed station, urged the CTA to accept his proposal, which would use slimmer platforms of 18 feet and would save Hayes-Healy, but would require shaving off its back end, as well as the back of the Deitzgen Building on the northeast corner of Fullerton and Sheffield streets.
"Oberman accused the CTA of using “misleading” calculations to arrive at its conclusion that 20- and 22-foot platforms would be necessary to accommodate growth and disabled commuters. He said 18 feet would be just fine, allowing each commuter plenty of space “if you just use the right arithmetic.” But, he said CTA officials had “put on blinders” and refused to compromise any further.
"However, CTA officials seemed to have little patience left for compromise. “There is not physically enough space for the new station and the Hayes-Healy building to coexist in a matter that meets operation, ADA, capacity and planning criteria,” said Kevin Thompson, the CTA’s general manager for government and community relations."
It's done now. Farewell, Hayes-Healy Athletic Building.
UPDATE: As Brian noted in his comment, DePaul had a link to the wrong building on its Web site, and originally I posted a photo of Cortelyou Commons. The correct photo of the correct building is now posted above. Thank you Brian.
Sometimes it feels like we take 7 steps backwards after moving forward just one.
Chicago is just a shell of itself from an architecture perspective and so much has been demolished in the last 5 years alone.
By 2020 most cities will mirror one another and individuality will be passé.
Posted by: deepkid | December 17, 2005 at 01:11 PM
isn't there a parking lot across the street from there they could have used up instead? Maybe the CTA just likes knocking down buildings
Posted by: kaitlin | December 18, 2005 at 02:40 AM
There's no reason for the CTA to *have* to rebuild the Fullerton stop with the platforms directly across from one another, which is their plan. If they'd gone with the configeration they have now they wouldn't have had to tear down the gym. So I'm guessing they just wanted it torn down.
Posted by: Cheryl | December 18, 2005 at 11:13 AM
That's an image of Cortelyou Commons. Whoever did the website got the two buildings mixed up, the Hayes-Healy image is under the Cortelyou listing
Posted by: Brian Wolf | December 18, 2005 at 04:28 PM
Thanks to Brian who noticed that I perpetuated the mistake that DePaul has on its Web site. I just posted the CORRECT photo of the Hayes-Healy building.
Posted by: Kevin | December 18, 2005 at 04:55 PM
Hey, if they used the parking lot they would have had to take down the equally historic lightpole-mounted barrel sculpture
Posted by: tuffy | December 20, 2005 at 12:15 PM