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Reposted by Elizabeth Blasius

McKie's Disc Jockey Show Lounge @mckiesdjlounge.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Imagine a Woodlawn with such a packed and bustling commercial district that a firehouse had to be built on a side street

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Personal note: While I was writing this column, my wife was in the beginning stages of recovering from a traumatic injury that has required her to relearn how to walk. When I wrote the first line "Disability touches us all," I was experiencing it through the lens of a caretaker.

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

A sledding accident at age 11 resulted in a traumatic brain injury that required Harrison to relearn how to walk and speak. That experience radicalized him--but also brought him in to the world of industrial design, where he focused on creating things for every user, and every body.

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The ILZRO House is the work of industrial designer and educator Marc Harrison (1936-1998) who is known for designing the Cuisinart DLC-X. You probably have an iteration of this food processor in your own kitchen. Like the ILZRO House, Harrison designed the DLC-X for people of all ages and abilities!

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

My monthly column in MAS Context returns on the ILZRO House, a 1973 experimental steel home in the woods of Rhode Island that holds within its design a watershed moment in universal design. Thanks, as always for reading!

mascontext.com

Preserving the Origins of Universal Design at the ILZRO House

In 1972 industrial designer and educator Marc Harrison, with the help of his students from the Rhode Island School of Design, created and built the ILZRO…

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Reposted by Elizabeth Blasius

Katherine the Sixth @luigithirty.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

that’s not AI it’s just a really shitty hot dog

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I will brave the dayslong journey from South Shore to Uptown for this.

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McKie's Disc Jockey Show Lounge @mckiesdjlounge.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The line to get in the Uptown will look like this once again (context for readers who don't know - the Uptown is a massive movie palace, closed in 1982 and not toured by too many since then)

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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It's fascinating to me the contemporary use of 'save' is less often a call to preserve a cultural or historical resource, but more often utilized to express a NIMBY point of view, whether it is 'Save Oak Park' or 'Save Edgewater.'

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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

When the JRTC opens to the public (whatever that means) I will be excited to write a full review. In the meantime--I know where the DuBuffet is.

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

Can you see the difference? I'll be damned if I let a multinational technology corporation tell this discipline what preservation is--or isn't.

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

Preservation cannot allow a multinational technology corporation to broaden the definition of preservation when: -this project rejected preservation outright technically and in spirit -we have already allowed preservation to run rampant as a tool with which to make and preserve capital

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

When Google & friends lead with preservation-oriented language “Historic/a landmark/a careful and thoughtful restoration plan/preserve the building’s architectural integrity/A masterpiece of preservation” (all things said about this project) they are allowing capitalism to dictate that defination.

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

This broadening returns preservation back to the grassroots efforts from which it originated. We are giving communities the power to tell us as practitioners where our deficiencies are.

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

The definition of what preservation is has been broadened recently by communities, stewards and organizations who want the discipline to tell more inclusive histories. This broadening empowers preservation to help serve more people with the resources and recognition of the discipline.

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

As a culture we should be doing everything we can to discourage building waste by adaptively reusing everything we can, whenever we can. But there is a clear distinction at the JRTC between adaptive reuse and preservation. Don't be fooled. "bear with me for a second let me put y'all on game..."

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

But shouldn't this new spatial arrangement give us pause? what does this say about the influence and power of multinational corporations over government? Our civic realm?

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

Renderings are a distraction until the public gets an opportunity to see the building for itself. But how much of the Thompson Center will be accessible to the public? The civic sector was adamant that offloading the JRTC would be for the public good i.e adding to the tax rolls, workers downtown...

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

Writing the National Register nomination for the James R. Thompson Center (rejected by Google once the building was out of public hands) was a foundational project for Preservation Futures.

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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

So now that the data is democratized and the public can see the deficiencies in both the Landmarks program and the CHRS, organizations and agencies with the power to ensure that preservation in Chicago works better for its people are going to use that power to make improvements...right? Right?

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

There is a Chatham-Greater Grand Crossing Commercial Historic District. Perhaps that's noted as only being in Grand Crossing, when it should be noted as in both neighborhoods?

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Reposted by Elizabeth Blasius

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 · 08/09/2026

This false consensus occurs more often than not when journalists cover preservation, when the reality is--like every other topic or discipline--there is a spectrum of opinions. Imagine replacing 'preservationists' with literally any other moniker and you see how absurdly it is generalized.

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

This topic and approach was one I've thought about for years. Yamasaki was a name that even my auto mechanic father/secretary mother knew, as the WTC commission allowed him to build an office in Troy, Michigan. The destruction of the WTC solidified my interest in the symbology of architecture.

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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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Reposted by Elizabeth Blasius

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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Elizabeth Blasius @blaservations.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Anthony Rubano is awesome and this title is on brand with his personality. He is incredibly knowledgeable about midcentury modernism and postmodernism and still works for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency! If I have a question about a MCM building in Illinois he's always got the answer!

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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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