UPDATE: According to neighbors and preservationists, the threatened building at 159 W. Burton Place was sold last week to a buyer who intends to preserve it. The announcement, posted August 15 at the neighbors’ website, Save Our Story, Save Our Street, is here.
West Burton Place is an odd little street between LaSalle and Wells, just south of North Avenue. Stumble onto it, as you might during an Old Town stroll, and you’re in for a surprise—it’s as if you’d turned a corner and stepped into a slightly weirder world.
That got the residents’ attention. They don’t want to lose a structure that tells the story of how the block was transformed, and they say what they’ve seen of the builder’s plan—for a modern condo building like so many others going up around the city—would be jarringly out of place there. They’re also seriously concerned about vibration and other potential damage from the demolition.
And if not, is there a 21st-century Edgar Miller around? v
