Friday, September 19, 2008

Beautiful Inside And Out




(click each picture for a larger version)

A reader writes: "Here are several pictures I took this afternoon at the Uptown Broadway Building. This is the foyer inside the main entrance. The gentleman I spoke with this afternoon was pleasantly chatty and seemed happy to show the building. I thought you all might enjoy seeing some of the inside. It is truly beautiful. We should all be enormously grateful to the National Register of Historic Places, on which this building was placed, as it is why the renovation of this treasure was so painstaking and expensive."

We knew the outside has been beautifully restored, but we're thrilled to see that the interior looks like it'll be equally amazing.

9 comments:

  1. Compare and contrast:

    48th Ward TIF Funds: this beautiful building

    46th Ward TIF Funds: Large mudhole in the middle of Wilson Yard

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  2. The National Register is largely honorary. It would not force any particular painstaking effort or correctness; if the work totally disfigured the building, the worst that could happen is that it would be taken off, like soldier field was. It may have allowed some grants, but I don't believe any were actually utilized here. All we have to thank is an owner who chose to do it right.

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  3. Upon moving to Uptown ten years ago, I began frequenting the Uptown Snack Shop, and always sat in a booth facing east so I could admire this beautiful building over breakfast. Afterward, I'd cross the street just to gaze in at this magnificent foyer for a few minutes before walking home. Always with the same wish, that someday, someone would buy the building and restore it with respect and care to its former glory.

    My wish was only one of many of the same wish in Uptown, isn't it fantastic they came true!

    Thanks UU for posting this, and to whomever took time to photograph the foyer to share with those who may have never seen it before.

    My new wish is that the building attracts some really cool first-floor retailers (and a sandwich shop/snack shop!)

    ****ommmmmmmmm****

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  4. kenny, those thoughts are nearly identical to the ones i have when passing the uptown theatre. now, let's just hope that wishes will come true for her as well!

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  5. I was lucky enough to attend a benefit at the Uptown Theater along time ago (I was young!)
    It is such an amazing place.....very palatial and grand!

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  6. You know what would be great to have in one of those retail spots? An ice cream store. Something mom-and-pop would be amazing, but I'd even settle for a Coldstone.

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  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  8. Billyjoe, you've posted this same comment three times and each time it's been deleted.

    Hint train?

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  9. Certainly a lot of work has been done for the facade and the long, drawn out gut rehab. Unfortunately, a lot of wreckless elimination was done too. We lost the charming mezzanines of the storefronts. We lost the intact and complete storefronts. And we lost the hallways and fantastic solid wood doors with opaque glass -- think of the offices of a private eye or the Bloom Beacon. Also, the lobby you are commenting on here was always fantastically intact and unmolested. It has not yet been restored, conserved or remuddled. So far, it has escaped.

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