Elizabeth Blasius
@blaservations.bsky.social
Architectural historian, writer and critic. Co-founder @presfutures. Old, new and future can coexist. She/her
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which went from being an independent federal agency to a tool of this fascist administration is now calling to cut Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act to shreds. newrepublic.com/article/2132...
Trump’s Latest Plan to Sell Your History Out From Under You
The administration has given a regulatory green light to miners, oil drillers, and Trump himself.
newrepublic.com
Thrilled to see that the Stop the Closure of the National Archives at Chicago petition is at 1000+ signatures! Please sign AND take the actions outlined in the petition. Let your reps and those in power know how important this issue is. www.change.org/p/stop-the-c...
Sign the Petition
Stop the Closure of the National Archives at Chicago!
change.org
Check out the link below to see an interior preview of my new book and be sure to pre-order at the link in my bio! www.ribabooks.com/Art-Deco-Wor...
Art Deco World: The International Legacy of the Architecture and Design Movement
Buy Art Deco World: The International Legacy of the Architecture and Design Movement by Chavez, Max from the RIBA online Bookshop. ISBN 9781915722904
ribabooks.com
Max Chavez@maxchavez.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo excited to announce the release of my book ART DECO WORLD! A global survey of the beloved style’s past 100 years from inception to rebirth (to rebirth again!), it will be released September 1. U.S. and int’l readers can register for a pre-order link here: www.routledge.com/Art-Deco-Wor...
I got some of the last-to-be-made Schlitz yesterday (can) and A/B with some that I got the day it was announced that production would cease (bottle). In short, the can stuff (1948 formula) is better than the bottle (60s form.) & hopefully it will get resurrected on a smaller scale
In a different world, this is how people would be getting to the Obama Center
SK@sk-76.bsky.social · 3w agoJackson Park Elevated over 63rd St., Chicago (date unknown) WayOutWardell on Flickr
This 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map was created during a time when Prairie Avenue was lined with opulent mansions. Demolition and redevelopment was shown via the application of a paper correction slip. This map was corrected in 1949 and shows the silhouettes of those lost buildings under the slips.
Our access to historical records is directly affected by this closure. Thanks @chicagoarchivists.bsky.social for their attention to this. blockclubchicago.org/2026/07/06/c...
Chicago National Archives Closure Will Be Loss For Historians, Researchers — Even Deep-Sea Divers
The closure of the South Side center will take place “over the next few years.” The records and documents will be relocated, but it’s unclear where and how many employees are affected.
blockclubchicago.org
An MPD for Chicago's Courtyard Apartment Buildings will encourage the acquisition of existing courtyard apartments to increase affordable housing supply, making it easer for orgs like POAH to rehabilitate using federal/state historic preservation tax credits with Low Income Housing Tax Credits.
Lee Bey@leebey1.bsky.social · last mo.My architecture column today (what a busy week on the beat.) A state advisory council will vote today on a measure to make all of the city's courtyard-style residential buildings -- there are thousands of them -- eligible for National Register consideration.
Humbly submitted: The weirdest thing I’ve ever written is maybe a the best????? www.wrong-house.com/p/hanging-ou...
Hanging Out in the Graham Foundation Bathroom
Come find me. There is a bathtub here.
wrong-house.com
1/2 More Rookwood outside of the former Dixie Terminal, gorgeously restored & adapted for use as office space in 2017. Architects: Garber & Woodward, 1921 Cincinnati, Ohio
Lady Topham Catt@ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · last mo.1/3 This incredible Rookwood Pottery was commissioned in 1907 to spruce up an older building & impress JM Giddings shoppers looking for what newspapers described as "correct styles and high grade wearing apparel for women." Nearly 120 years later, this thing still goes hard AF. Cincinnati, Ohio
Some very exciting news!
Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy@savewrightflwbc.bsky.social · last mo.The Walser House has a new owner! Local nonprofit Austin Coming Together will restore this 1903 Wright design on Chicago’s West Side as a community asset. After more than two years of active advocacy, we're thrilled it has a new steward with a vision for its future. buff.ly/9skoLeT
"Preservation" or "preservationists" are not monoliths of thought. For example, I don't think that as-is landmark districts, which have only nominally changed since the codification of the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance in 1968, are an effective tool for the complex challenges of 2026.
Block Club Chicago@blockclubchi.bsky.social · 2mo agoPlans for a nearly 100-unit apartment building on Bryn Mawr Avenue in Edgewater could be halted by the city’s attempts to landmark the street’s historic business corridor blockclubchi.co/4ew64LX
My column in MAS Context returns with a review of the Obama Presidential Center as it opens to the public to wrestle with the current political age and its position--culturally, geographically, economically, architecturally--within the city that it has made home. mascontext.com/observations...
At the New Obama Presidential Center, a Proposed Utopia of Hope and…
As the much anticipated—and controversial—Obama Presidential Center opens in Chicago’s Jackson Park, Elizabeth Blasius casts a critical eye on its…
mascontext.com
Great article by @blaservations.bsky.social that delves into many of the issues surrounding the Obama Center that others don't. mascontext.com/observations...
At the New Obama Presidential Center, a Proposed Utopia of Hope and…
As the much anticipated—and controversial—Obama Presidential Center opens in Chicago’s Jackson Park, Elizabeth Blasius casts a critical eye on its…
mascontext.com
That this is happening as of right is a policy failure.
dmercer.bsky.social@dmercer.bsky.social · 2mo agoI drove by 168 N. Clinton the other day and noticed construction fencing around it. It is, in fact, being demolished, with no plan for what's going to replace it. 😡🤯 It was built in 1892 and is such a beauty. chicagoyimby.com/2026/05/a-wa...
This was not an elective outcome from an unselfish appreciator of the arts. Preservation advocates & SAIC faculty alums who spoke up last fall orchestrated this result by making it clear to the School that selling this house without landmarking would compound their reputational damage. (con't)
Chicago Sun-Times@chicago.suntimes.com · 2mo agoThe developer who bought the Roger Brown Home and Studio, which now has city landmark status, says he's going forward with a plan to renovate and sell the building: “This is going to be a really cool project, and I want to be a part of it."
Hello from the endangered modernist masterpiece that is Pride Cleaners Architect: Gerald Siegwart, 1959
Any excuse to remind everyone that the type of "nice sit-down restaurant" demanded by every single South Shore community planning survey for at least the last ~15 years is still illegal here, & our alders could change that if they wanted to.
Steven Lucy@slucy.bsky.social · 3mo agoYeah the patchwork of the 19 different ways you can prohibit liquor is hard to navigate, but luckily Hyde Park is mostly free of the moratorium issue. (Woodlawn and South Shore are like 100% moratoriums.) We did have our community meeting and also had to get rezoned at city council.
A fantastic plan with so many civic benefits, fully articulated by people who know what they're doing. From @presfutures.bsky.social mouths to City Hall's ears, please!
Elizabeth Blasius@blaservations.bsky.social · 3mo ago🧵: The Chicago Heritage Inventory, or CHI, created by Preservation Futures, is an initiative to survey Chicago's historic places & spaces.
🧵: The Chicago Heritage Inventory, or CHI, created by Preservation Futures, is an initiative to survey Chicago's historic places & spaces.
Grateful to have had the opportunity to leave Chicago over the weekend to serve as juror for the final review of Graduate Thesis Studio at the University of Miami School of Architecture (and to have an opportunity to check out some great Art Deco on Miami Beach during my downtime!)
anyway support your local indie press to learn about cool shit 15 months before it goes viral / becomes a hidden gem or whatever
Pretty frustrating that the New York Times is crediting AP with uncovering the existence of Aadam’s archive when I reported on it 15 months prior. chicagoreader.com/music/gossip...
A private collection of 10,000 Chicago show tapes finds a public home - Chicago Reader
The Internet Archive begins posting the Aadam Jacobs Collection. Plus: Four locals heat up the dead of winter with new music.
chicagoreader.com
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 4mo agoFrom the mid-1980s until just a few years ago, Aadam Jacobs recorded thousands of club shows, including an early Nirvana performance. Volunteers are adding them to an online archive, presenting an extraordinary snapshot of how the Chicago music scene has evolved over four decades.
For MAS Context, I wrote about the Stock Exchange Trading Room at the Art Institute of Chicago. The project was a unique framework of partnerships between government, cultural institutions, and the private sector unlikely to happen again. The room is threatened as the AIC plans a campus expansion.
The Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room and the Economies of Ornament
A celebrated interior of the First Chicago School of Architecture, the Stock Exchange Trading Room was reconstructed within the Art Institute of Chicago…
mascontext.com
in 1958, Chicago's Holy Guardian Angel Church and School (717 West Arthington St) was demolished for the Dan Ryan Expressway. The school was rebuilt at Blue Island Avenue and West Cabrini Street. Five years later, the building was demolished for the University of Illinois Chicago Campus.
Grateful to have an op-ed on Pride Cleaners published in today's @chicagotribune.com! www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/18/o...
Elizabeth Blasius: Chicago must act to protect the South Side’s midcentury modern Pride Cleaners
Despite its presence in Chicago pop culture, as an icon of South Side architecture, Pride Cleaners is not a Chicago landmark.
chicagotribune.com
