ORDINANCE
Holden Block 1027 West Madison Street
WHEREAS, pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Municipal Code of Chicago (the "Municipal Code"), Sections 2-120-630 through -690, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (the "Commission") has determined that the Holden Block, located at 1027 West Madison Street, as more precisely described in Exhibit A attached hereto and incorporated herein (the "Building"), meets three criteria for landmark designation as set forth in Section 2-120-620 (1), (3), and (4) of the Municipal Code; and
WHEREAS, the Building is the best-surviving "commercial block," or commercial loft building, built in the 1870s on Chicago's Near West Side, and one of the best remaining in the city as a whole from this period. The building exemplifies the importance of this once-ubiquitous property type, which lined miles of commercial streets in Chicago in the late nineteenth century, but has since largely been destroyed due to demolition and redevelopment; and
WHEREAS, the Building is a finely-detailed example of a commercial block designed in the Italianate architectural style. The Italianate style was loosely based on Italian country villas that were built over a number of centuries and utilized Classically-inspired ornament in a picturesque manner. The style was extremely popular in the United States in general, and Chicago in particular, between roughly 1860 and 1885. The style, with its visually-lively decoration that could be easily applied to varied property types, was especially important in Chicago for free-standing single-family residences, row houses and commercial blocks, such as the Building; and
WHEREAS, the Building's pale-yellow stone facade, built of Buena Vista sandstone quarried in Ohio, is unusual in the context of surviving Chicago buildings from the 1870s, the heyday of the stone's use in Chicago as a building material; and
WHEREAS, the Building displays great design skill and craftsmanship in the ornamental quality of its stone ...
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