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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Thanks to @archpaper.com for asking me my thoughts on the Thompson Center renderings released last week! www.archpaper.com/2026/09/goog...

archpaper.com

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I'm looking forward to moderating a panel at Shaping Contemporary Realities: Architecture and Beyond this coming Friday, September 25th at Experimental Station! This symposium is FREE and full of awesome panelists and moderators. Register below: villa-albertine.org/va/events/sy...

villa-albertine.org

Shaping Contemporary Realities: Architecture and Beyond Symposium - Villa Albertine

Join us September 24–26 for a three-day public symposium in Chicago, organized by MAS Context and Villa Albertine Chicago, with leading support from Saint-Gobain, a global leader in light and sustaina...

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

New Thompson Center renderings were released today. I won't be reposting them but I have some thoughts to share. The renderings are easily found through your favorite search engine. 🧵:

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I can access Landmarks Designation Reports and even the CHRS maps with ease because I use them so frequently in my research, but its nice that Preservation Chicago has put these resources in one place!

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Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Fashionland Shawneetown, IL

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dmercer.bsky.social @dmercer.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The siding is falling off this relic at 5425 S. Ashland in Chicago and is providing a tantalizing glimpse of some signage. It reminds me of the sign that was revealed and saved on the north side a few years ago. I want to rip the rest of that siding off.

Pre-1895 2-story frame building with a gable roof and a false front featuring an arched pediment. The building appears abandoned and is in derelict condition. The wall on the left side of the photo is losing it's asphalt shingles, revealing wood siding underneath. Much of the same wall is cover in ivy.

Closer view of the wall losing it's orangish asphalt shingles. In places on the wood siding behind the shingles words and letters are visible, including the word "soda" abnd the letters "er." It's possible to see blue and red paint on the right side, perhaps remants of more advertising. In the foreground is a rusty chainlink fence and lots of discarded stuff.

Even closer view of the word "soda" and the "er." The letters are white on a faded black background. Some other colors of paint are visible including a yellow stripe above the "er" and some blue and red in the lower right.

Not my photo. Color photo of an amazing sign that was revealed during demolition of a building several years ago. It has a yellow background and is advertising Ward's Soft Bun Bread, with red and yellow lettering and a realistic depiction of a loaf of sliced bread on a green background. This sign was disassembled, sent to a sign museum, and reassembled there.

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Last year I visited the Archives of Michigan, home of the Yamasaki, Inc., Architectural Firm Records to look at how the archives expressed the World Trade Center's construction and destruction. Spoiler alert: this story includes the dramatic rescue of historic materials from a dumpster!

mascontext.com

From Design to Destruction: Archiving the World Trade Center

In her monthly column, Elizabeth Blasius visits the Archives of Michigan, the home of the Yamasaki, Inc., Architectural Firm Records, to consider what…

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Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

🚨 Special Urban Report 🚨 AmeriCandy Lisbon, Portugal

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Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Pizza Time Catlin, IL

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Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Big Bend Saw Service Dolores, CO

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

mascontext.com

From Design to Destruction: Archiving the World Trade Center

In her monthly column, Elizabeth Blasius visits the Archives of Michigan, the home of the Yamasaki, Inc., Architectural Firm Records, to consider what…

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Reposted by Elizabeth Blasius

Max Chavez @maxchavez.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

ART DECO WORLD is almost here! Here’s a sneak preview of the inside—have you pre-ordered your copy yet?

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Max Chavez @maxchavez.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

My new book Art Deco World was featured today in Elle Decor. Ranking this as one of the coolest/wildest moments of my life 🤯 www.elledecor.com/life-culture...

elledecor.com

10 Stunning Art Deco Landmarks Around the World You’ve Probably Never Seen

From Pueblo Deco to Streamline Moderne, the style took many surprising forms.

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

“The magazine proved that regional long-form architectural journalism, a typology that daily newspapers, regurgitated press releases, & artificial intelligence cannot ever provide with meaning, had value…” Brilliant on Inland Architect by @blaservations.bsky.social mascontext.com/observations...

mascontext.com

The Highs and Lows of “Inland Architect”

Published on and off from 1883 until 1999, Inland Architect chronicled the rise of Chicago and the Midwest as centers for architecture and provided a home…

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

My column in MAS Context returns with a deep dive on "Inland Architect," a publication with many dramatic iterations that published on and off from 1883 until 1999, chronicling the rise of Chicago and the Midwest as centers for architecture--and providing a home for journalism and criticism.

mascontext.com

The Highs and Lows of “Inland Architect”

Published on and off from 1883 until 1999, Inland Architect chronicled the rise of Chicago and the Midwest as centers for architecture and provided a home…

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Zach Mortice @zachmortice.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I ask you: Who but @blaservations.bsky.social @presfutures.bsky.social could write the history of Inland Architect?!?!?!? mascontext.com/observations...

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Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Your periodic reminder, via an 1988 issue of Inland Architect, that the Bears are as much about shaking down governments as sports. If Helmut Jahn and SOM had had their way, today's boom town of Fulton Market would have been pre-empted by stadiums for the Bears and Sox.

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Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill weren't the first architects to propose a world's tallest building to Donald Trump. Inland Architect reported on Helmut Jahn gaving it an unsuccessful shot in the 1980's. Smith+Gill were set to to make their proposal on 9/11. Smith+Gill reduced the height and got the gig.

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Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The original incarnation of Inland Architect had news, illustrations, and opinion from leading architects such as John Wellborn Root, Dankmar Adler and William LeBaron Jenney. In 1985, it even got its own- and editor Robert Craig MacLean's - biography www.abebooks.com/servlet/Book...

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Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Being foolishly cheap even back then, I never subscribed to Inland Architect, but picked it up whenever I noticed it on the racks, including from a fantastic newsstand/store on the first floor of the building, demolished for SOM's 33 West Monroe, where ArchiCenter was upstairs..

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Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

All this digging up old screen grabs was prompted by MAS Context's Elizabeth Blasius's fantastic history of the Inland Architect, the publication which began in 1883, and found revival and a second life under Harry Weese in the second half the 20th century. mascontext.com/observations...

mascontext.com

The Highs and Lows of “Inland Architect”

Published on and off from 1883 until 1999, Inland Architect chronicled the rise of Chicago and the Midwest as centers for architecture and provided a home…

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Zach Mortice @zachmortice.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I’m writing for print about this and didn’t want my take blurred by other critics’ howls, so I’m just now catching up on the commentariot parade. But lemme say you really can’t beat having a Southsider like @blaservations.bsky.social write about the South Side mascontext.com/observations...

mascontext.com

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…

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

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...

newrepublic.com

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.

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Chicago Collections @chicollections.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

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...

change.org

Sign the Petition

Stop the Closure of the National Archives at Chicago!

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McKie's Disc Jockey Show Lounge @mckiesdjlounge.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

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

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McKie's Disc Jockey Show Lounge @mckiesdjlounge.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

In a different world, this is how people would be getting to the Obama Center

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

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.

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Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Toadally Tina’s Maplesville, AL

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Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Horney's (on Main) Clinton, IN

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

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.

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Zach Mortice @zachmortice.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Humbly submitted: The weirdest thing I’ve ever written is maybe a the best????? www.wrong-house.com/p/hanging-ou...

wrong-house.com

Hanging Out in the Graham Foundation Bathroom

Come find me. There is a bathtub here.

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

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

Color photo looking straight up at the vaulted entryway to a building. It is decorated with several lines of large, evenly spaced octagonal coffers with turquoise centers. Smaller diamond recesses stud the spaces between them. A large expanse of glass making up a huge, multilight arched window can be seen towards the bottom of the image.

Color photo of the lower portion of the monumental entrance to the building. Centered is a regular door that is flanked on either side by revolving doors. Surrounding each is a masterpiece of Rookwood Pottery; vividly colored foliate designs on a white background, accented by black.

Color detail of a portion of a highly detailed frieze of Rookwood Pottery tiles featuring vibrantly colored stylized foliate motifs, all set off brilliantly by bronze metalwork in a multilight grid of windows with highly reflective glass.

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Eric Allix Rogers @ericallixrogers.com · 24/06/2026

Some very exciting news!

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

"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.

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

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...

mascontext.com

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…

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

That this is happening as of right is a policy failure.

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Susannah Ribstein @susannahribs.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

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)

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Lady Topham Catt @ladytophamcatt.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Hello from the endangered modernist masterpiece that is Pride Cleaners Architect: Gerald Siegwart, 1959

Color photo of the signs in front of Pride Cleaners. The most noticeable is a very midcentury design featuring 5 leaf shaped panels in different colors on tall black posts, each individual panel bearing one letter from the word "pride."

Color photo of the distinctly midcentury entrance to Pride Cleaners emphasizing its bonkers angles. Above us, the roof comes to a dramatic triangular point, offering both style and shelter. The two glass walls of the entrance also meet in yet another triangle underneath it.

Color photo of a sign in one of the windows surrounding the entrance to the cleaners. "Pride" is written in a lowercase font and on angle three times in blue, red and blue again. A strip of LED lights runs underneath.

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Susannah Ribstein @susannahribs.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

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.

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Susannah Ribstein @susannahribs.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

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!

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

🧵: The Chicago Heritage Inventory, or CHI, created by Preservation Futures, is an initiative to survey Chicago's historic places & spaces.

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

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!)

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Leor Galil @imleor.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

anyway support your local indie press to learn about cool shit 15 months before it goes viral / becomes a hidden gem or whatever

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