Not one but two homeowners within dog-walking distance of my place in Northbrook have bought the lot next door and added a second, ancillary new home attached to their already ample present house.
A practice I’d never seen, or even imagined, before. Nor can I imagine now, really, and I’m watching it done. An intriguing mystery: Why? The thing to do would be to knock on the door of the owner and simply ask, though I’m worried the question would come out, “What’s wrong with you?”
So I wait.
Of course truly rich people buy and sell residences at the drop of a hat. Hedge fund multi-billionaire Ken Griffin owns $1 billion in high-end properties. He paid $58 million for a four-floor penthouse at No. 9 Walton, bought a $250 million condominium in New York City and assembled a “colossal” $450 million estate, with a quarter mile of beach, in Florida. The Versailles he’s building is a sprawling 44,000 square feet, the floor space of a dozen typical North Shore mansions.
Before he fled to Florida to be among his people, Griffin tossed a condo’s worth of cash — $125 million — at the Museum of Science and Industry, buying the promise to rename the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
To its credit, the MSI has been slow walking the change the past three years. I imagine its administrators, whenever the subject arises, slumping in their chairs and moaning, “Awwww, do we hafta?”
The change will sting. I remember older Jewish relatives who called the place “The Rosenwald,” a de facto honor to Julius Rosenwald, who fronted the $3 million in 1926 — $51 million today — to create the Museum of Science and Industry, modestly declining the chance to put his name on it, knowing that a man is remembered by his good works, not by ponying up bucks to plaster his name over things in a self-aggrandizing fashion.
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I don't believe that Wall Street Journal poll for one second! They probably polled only a bunch of wing nut Re Thug Licons.
ReplyDeleteWhat that rotten sociopathic lunatic has never understood, just how ugly the sign is & how it damages the look of the building, which is actually a nice looking building. Even Blair Kamin, the Trib's architecture critic liked the building until he plastered his rotten name on it. Standing at Lake & Wabash * looking north is one of the ugliest views of Chicago, there is.
If the New York lawsuit against his corrupt organization succeeds, he just might be forced to sell off the building & then the sign will go away & make being on Lake & Wabash not such a revolting experience!
In at least one of the locations in Northbrook, the "ancillary new home" you refer to is an auxiliary dwelling unit (ADU) intended to allow an adult family member with a disability to live in close proximity to their family while still maintaining as much independence as possible. ADUs are also well suited to multigenerational families, reducing social isolation for the older generation while still allowing independent living.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine has threatened to climb up on the building and remove the "T" in order to rename the building as the "RUMP Tower."
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, we had friends visiting from England. To show off the amazing architecture of this great city, we took the architectural boat tour. Of course, the first building you see is the Trump building. I was embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteI am a serious a mature photographer, so when I got home I did the only thing I could do. I removed the Trump sign from my photos—with Photoshop.
As Fitzgerald noted, the rich aren’t like the rest of us.
As Hemingway allegedly replied, "Yeah, they have more money."
DeleteI think of the trump sign as form of hate speech.
ReplyDeleteIt's an abomination. It needs to go. I love the fact that he never showed his orange face in Chicago again, after the riot in 2016. Underneath all the blustering and bloviating, Il Douche is a wimp and a wuss who thinks he's going to be Big Brother. He may somehow manage to weasel his way out of wearing that orange jumpsuit. But nobody cheats the Iceman. Hope he croaks sooner, rather than later.
ReplyDeletePeople will just call it "Museum of Science and Industry" like Hancock and Sears Tower etc. Take the money!
ReplyDelete