Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶
In today’s newsletter, we’re focusing on Preservation Chicago’s list of the city’s most endangered buildings — structures that represent different parts of our history that could be lost.
Plus, we’ve got reporting on this year’s Chicago Blues Fest lineup, a restaurant born from a mother’s recipes and more community news you need to know this afternoon. 👇
⏱️: A 7-minute read
— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter (@MattKenMoore)
TODAY’S TOP STORY
State Street skyscrapers, Chicago Vocational School make list of most endangered buildings
Reporting by David Roeder
Endangered skyscrapers: Two early 20th century skyscrapers on State Street lead off an advocacy group’s 2024 list of notable properties that could face demolition. The buildings continue Preservation Chicago’s fight with the federal government, which wants to demolish the towers it owns at 202 and 220 S. State. The terra cotta-clad buildings from another era have made the organization’s list in four prior years.
The ‘Chicago 7': The rest of the group’s annual “Chicago 7" list of buildings it deems most endangered is devoted to newcomers as preservation priorities, sites that testify to different parts of the city’s history.
Baking plant faces demolition: Among the buildings listed is the Schulze Co. Baking Plant, 40 E. Garfield Blvd. The former home of a baking firm used its five-story layout, built for heavy equipment, to produce 150,000 loaves of bread each day. The 1914 building is on the National Register of Historic Places but has no local landmark designation and could be demolished.
Renovation needed: Another building in danger is the Chicago Vocational School, 2100 E. 87th St. One of the most architecturally distinguished Chicago Public Schools, it was built from 1938 to 1941. Designed for about 6,000 high school students, it has only about 800 now. There are no plans to close or downsize the school, but Preservation Chicago has called for the building to be landmarked, which could generate city funds for its renovation.
Find the full list of buildings here, or click the button below.
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Chicago Blues Fest lineup announced: Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy will be making one of his final appearances in the city when he headlines the 2024 Chicago Blues Festival, organizers announced. Also headlining the June 6-9 fest — Shemekia Copeland, Mr. Sipp, Southern Avenue and more. Check out the full lineup here.
- CTA named in wrongful death suit: The family of Kevin Powell, a homeless man who died after he was allegedly beaten by a CTA worker, is suing the transit agency for wrongful death. The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 from the CTA and the former employee.
- Link escapes jail time: Former state Sen. Terry Link was sentenced to three years probation Wednesday for dodging $82,000 in taxes, escaping jail time after he cooperated for years with the FBI and helped prosecutors convict others for a bribery scheme.
- Field Museum’s new fossil: Alex Clark, a researcher at the museum, has named a groundbreaking new fossil after historian Sir David Attenborough. The 120 million-year-old bird fossil was found in northeastern China
OUR CITY IN COLOR 🎨
Up-close experiences with birds of prey inspire Justin Suarez’s Chicago murals
Reporting by Katie Anthony
New York muralist Justin Suarez’s birds of prey-centered murals have found a nest in Chicago.
His most recent piece, under the train tracks at Chicago Avenue and Lessing Street in River West, features a great horned owl set in front of a stormy backdrop. He completed the mural last summer.
The entire piece — from the bird’s detailed feathers to the strings of lightning over its head — was done in spray paint. Suarez got his start as an artist in graffiti.
The details of the giant flying creatures come from Suarez’s own up-close experiences. Over a decade ago, when Suarez made the leap into becoming a full-time muralist, he also started volunteering at a bird of prey sanctuary.
“Being able to work with birds of prey up close, having them sit on the leather glove, it really was huge educational point for me in an artistic sense,” Suarez says.
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Engineer shares passion for Indian vegetarian food with Art of Dosa at Revival Food Hall
Reporting by Dorothy Hernandez
Growing up in Munster, Indiana, Ravi Nagubadi would eat dosa as often as possible. There was always dosa batter in the fridge because his mom would make a batch every few days.
Today he’s bringing that love of dosa — a South Indian delicacy made from a sourdough rice and lentil batter and cooked to a golden crisp on a griddle — to the Chicago area with his food stall Art of Dosa at Revival Food Hall in the Loop.
While he ate a lot of dosa, he didn’t have a desire to cook it. That changed toward the end of his college years at Northwestern University in 1995, when he embarked on a spiritual journey, getting into meditation and switching to a vegetarian diet.
But it was hard to find good vegetarian food, and he didn’t know how to cook. So he turned to his mom, Aruna, who is “the best cook ever,” to learn how to make the dishes he grew up loving.
He started off learning curries, then moved on to dosa. After he learned how to cook from his mom, “a passion was born that I never knew was even there,” he said. A self-admitted perfectionist, he set out to perfect dosas over the following years, experimenting in his spare time and doing little parties here and there.
Fast forward to 2019, and Nagubadi opened Art of Dosa at Revival Food Hall. The eatery reopened in October 2021 after a pandemic hiatus, and Nagubadi said the restaurant lost a bit of momentum, but he’s optimistic about the future.
The recipes are based on his mom’s, with Nagubadi’s tweaks and engineering background.
“She’s been so supportive of getting [Art of Dosa] out there. And she’s really proud. And I’m proud of her because this is a representation of her to the world, our food, and I’m just a vehicle for it.”
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
When it comes to Chicago architecture, what’s a building that you think deserves more hype? Tell us why.
Email us (please include your first and last name). To see the answers to this question, check our Morning Edition newsletter. Not subscribed to Morning Edition? Sign up here so you won’t miss a thing!
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Editor: Satchel Price
Newsletter reporter: Matt Moore
Copy editor: Angie Myers
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