Sunday, June 19, 2011

Destroying Lawrence House?



A reader writes in:

"The scaffolding went back up at the Lawrence House almost immediately after the Housing Court hearing, and workers have been tuck-pointing the exterior brick for the last several days. I was disappointed to see the beautiful decorative masonry being replaced by regular bricks. This work seems to be taking away the historic beauty of this building, one brick at a time. What a shame."

10 comments:

  1. The Lawrance House Pharmacy next door is an excellent pharmacy though. They don't allow the riff-raff and other vagrants to loiter & linger around. They need to stop selling the "malt" liquor with 12% alcohol at JJ Peppers that the locals seem to enjoy. Public inebriation is a big issue to this area.

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  2. The LH that some still have a soft spot for is a goner, deferred maintenance has sunk the ship and depressing consequences are coming to light.

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  3. I live next door, and the bricks are the least thing I'm disappointed in. That building sucks all around.

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  4. "I live next door, and the bricks are the least thing I'm disappointed in. That building sucks all around."

    I think people are bummed about the bricks because they are a now fading reminder that this was once a nice building from an bygone era of architecture where details mattered.

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  5. It's definitely sad, but I agree with another comment made. The building has fallen to such levels that we really have to be pleased with ANY progress on it. I wish court proceedings were swifter, simply to prevent these types of things. From what I hear, the inside is worse. At a CAPS meeting we were told that one of the elevator shafts is actually filled with water.

    Does the city not know that there are actual people living in this building? The number of troublemakers are definitely in the minority there. The residents deserve better.

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  6. Replacing the terra cotta façade is cost prohibitive for many building owners and I do not support using TIF dollars for façade decorating. For another example, simply look across the street on Northwest corner. You’ll notice the parapet crown on the condominium building is also long gone. If a condominium associations cannot justify spending for terra cotta, the SRO sure won’t.

    On the positive side, at least they’re using brick of “similar” color.

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  7. The water damage inside is extreme. I know from experience letting that go causes toxic mold problems that will be VERY expensive to fix.

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  8. You know you're getting old when you can remember when malt liquor was the "hip" new drink in the late 60s/early 70s and TV commercials aimed the product at the college/hipster crowd.

    How did it get so "downscale" - is it related somehow to the rise of PBR among that element?

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  9. The parapet on the nw corner was long gone before the building went condo! It had concrete parging (sp?) like most of the buildings that had their metal cornices removed years ago. The real crime was all of the terra cotta stripped from the Lorali just a few short years ago! These buildings are low income housing now. They will never generate the money needed to restore them.

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  10. The troublemakers ARE in the minority but they are very talented in troublemaking, they make life hell for EVERYBODY ELSE effortlessly.
    Sometimes I'd stop and try to observe exactly what the appeal of standing near the front door was, or riding around on freshly stolen bike up and down the sidewalk was, I just never got it.

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