In Chicago, it’s possible to buy an old, deteriorating building for one dollar, provided you promise to save it from the wrecking ball and spend your money renovating it instead. Not only do you avoid the need to demolish and start from scratch---wasting energy and resources in the process---but you can revive a venerable old structure and make it more sustainable as well. Two LEED-certified cases in point: the Optimo Hat Co. plant and corporate headquarters in a former south

This blog post is dedicated to artist Neil Trais, who died in 2021. Neil, who for several decades designed Chicago Filmmakers’ myriad posters and announcements, loved Godzilla films and was a devoted fan of all things reptilian. If you look hard enough in Chicago, you’ll spot one of the grand old firehouses whose doors are no longer bright red, where “hook and ladders” used to be parked inside, waiting for the next fire. These abandoned firehouses have been revived by a vari

The first thing that meets your eye when you enter Plant Chicago is an aquaponics tank and rows of kale, lettuce, and other vegetables sprouting in water. Look closer into the tank and you’ll see tilapia and perch swimming around. Among a myriad of other pursuits, the people at Plant Chicago are raising greens fertilized by, of all things, fish waste. In 2019 Plant Chicago took up residence in a two-story, south side building that operated as a firehouse from 1908 to 1978. T

Time is of the essence for firefighters. In old firehouses like the one at 1700 W. 95th St. on Chicago’s South Side, firemen would sleep upstairs and, at the alarm bell, zip down the fire pole, rev up the fire truck on the ground floor, and zoom out to extinguish the flames. Now that Optimo Hats , a manufacturer of luxury men’s hats, has moved their headquarters into the 1915 firehouse, things have slowed down a bit. The handful of hat craftsmen who work there can peek throu

Construction is underway at the 1928 two-story firehouse at 5720 N. Ridge in Chicago, called “the most ornate of the grand firehouses” by the Chicago Landmarks Commission. The brick-and-terra-cotta building will soon be reborn as the new home of Chicago Filmmakers . The independent film group plans to show offbeat movies on the main floor where fire trucks were once parked, and hold film-making classes upstairs where firefighters used to sleep. Preservation is the name of the

Some said it couldn’t be done, but…behold! In keeping with its mission of historic preservation, the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest [now known as the Oak Park River Forest Museum] is resuscitating the oldest municipal building in Oak Park, Illinois – a firehouse built at the turn of the last century. The firehouse, whose exterior and interior are being rehabbed to closely match their original appearance, operated there from 1898 until 1916. Subsequently, it

Old firehouses in Chicago and surrounding suburbs are doubling as art centers, museums, restaurants, and wedding venues. In Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood, for example, the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance transformed a 1901 fire station, abandoned since 1982, into a community gathering place with a host of green features. During the renovation of the two-story cultural center (completed in 2012), the building was insulated and a highly efficient HVAC system was installed. On th