Author Archives: Susan Figliulo

Although he never invites them inside, Baki Dazdarevic enjoys the steady stream of visitors who come to get a look at his front yard. They come day and night, he says, “sometimes 10, 11 o’clock in the evening. Two ladies, they visited from Arizona and wrote to ask me for pictures of the house. Another […]

Prowling motorists are nothing new to the Hyde Park area, which has been short of parking practically since the dawn of the automobile. One early solution appeared in 1929 at the busy corner of 55th Street and Lake Park Avenue, where architect M. Louis Kroman designed and built a splendid high-rise parking facility that he […]

At the corner where Lincoln and Marshfield meet School Street stands a triangular building with an identity crisis. On its Lincoln side, cracked letters spell out “Brundage Building” atop the main entryway. On its Marshfield side, the words “McKinley Building” are painted on a window in gold outlined with black. And at its street-corner point […]

A brass-plated post stands on the grassy parkway at the northeast corner of Ridge and Greenleaf in Rogers Park. Taller than a fire hydrant and topped with a 1983 commemoration from the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks, the stela marks a lovely white house with a mansard roof, a classical front porch, and […]

Look down practically any block in the city and you’ll see at least one example of the typical Chicago three-flat. A gray stone facade, modestly embellished, fronts a solid red-brick structure with no yard to speak of, though the owners may have squeezed in some landscaping. Outside the dignified old house at 4512 S. King […]