In the last week, with the city and state flailing around in their twin oceans of debt and the future of our Paris on the Prairie looking particularly grim, two of Chicago’s most distinctive characters hosted sunny celebrations that were all about making things better through thoughtful redevelopment.
This is the second Evanston home Pritzker has turned into a luxury B&B; its sister property, Stone Porch, two doors down at 300 Church Street, won a city preservation award last year. But neither is the biggest Evanston project she envisioned. That would be the Harley Clarke mansion, longtime home of the Evanston Art Center—owned and neglected by the city, and standing empty since the art center was booted from it and moved last year.
She could be channeling artist and urban development phenom Theaster Gates, who wants to save, reuse, and creatively reinvent buildings too. Except, maybe, for the “fine mansions” part. And the neighborhood.
Newly retired Cultural Policy Center director Betty Farrell, reached by phone this week, said she is “very proud of the research the Cultural Policy Center produced over the past 16 years. It was intended to be work that strengthened arts organizations and the lives of artists.”
