End of the End: Chicago's Cabrini Green

**wolverine** · January-25-10, 01:22 AM

Some of the final buildings of one of the nation's most notorious public housing communities is coming down. Since the late 90's demolition has removed almost 15,000 units concentrated in highrise towers around the neighborhood. Most of the buildings have been replaced by mixed income housing units consisting of rowhomes, walkups, and midrise buildings of similar character of what once used to exist on this site. Affluent neighborhoods of River North, Gold Cost, and Lincoln park have over the past decade swallowed up land once occupied by housing projects. Assuming [[hopefully) all the former residents were relocated to better housing as the program promised, the federally mandated destruction of Cabrini Green into a vibrant and safe neighborhood "the new Oldtown," has been an incredible success.

But one city block remained of highrise towers, that was a reminder of this areas troubled past. The 1st of the three remaining towers once part of a wall of 14 story towers known as "The White Walls" is coming down. Only 2 towers remain functioning......... just barely. Maintenance has been minimal only to satisfy the few residents that remain. For example you can see what hallways have residents just by what light bulbs have been replaced. Units that caught fire are simply boarded up from the inside leaving large scars on the exterior. Scaffolds are set up around the base of the building to protect residents from falling concrete.

I've gotten a few pictures over the past few years. A couple of them I also took today.

1 / 18 / 2008 "Reds" await demolition

A shot of "Headquarters," one of the reds being demolished

Front view of headquarters

From poverty to prosperity. That elevated track in the distance could be the gates to hell or heaven depending on what direction you are heading. The skyscrapers in the distance are John Hancock Tower and 900 N. Michigan, which contains one of the city's most posh shopping centers.

**wolverine** · January-25-10, 01:27 AM

The building known as "The Boulevard" bids farewell after a hard life

Front facade

Taken sometime in 2005. This was the boulevard in a complete state. You can see the Montgomery wards warehouse converted into luxury lofts and condos in the background. Gentrification was converging on the neighborhood from all directions.

Zoomed in view of the front facade of the Boulevard

**wolverine** · January-25-10, 01:31 AM

And then came the "Red" replacements. A mix of subsidized and market rate housing

**wolverine** · January-25-10, 01:37 AM

Now, we jump to the present:

1 / 24 / 2010 Demolition of the remaining 3 "white walls" The building shown below was referred to as "Tha Big O"

Concrete Falls. These buildings were made to last. It took 10 direct hits to knock out a steel door frame.

This building known as "The Himalaya" is still in operation.

The parkside view of the Himalaya. All of the buildings surrounded a park, like a fortress, which is where they got the name "The White Walls." At the very center of the park is a school.

**janesback** · January-25-10, 08:08 AM

If memory serves me right, they used the Cabrini Greens as a back drop for the show Good Times, from the 1970s with the Evans family. Kid Dynomite, James, Florida , Thelma , JJ, Michael and Wilona all lived in the Cabrinin Greens

I knew a girl from work who moved from Chicago to Houston in the 1990s who grew up in the Cabrinin Greens........she said it was rough, no police protection, gangs owned the buildings in regards to contolling them, and that it was a place from hell to raise kids.

Nice change and hope they use if for families of all economic backgrounds. I literally got lost and drove by there in 1985, and even then it was a little scary.

heres the opening of the show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM95AwDgask

Jane

**Danny** · January-25-10, 12:39 PM

Good riddance to Cabrini-Green Projects. There nothing but Gangsta Disciple, Satan Knight, Blood and Crip infested Drug emporiums where you get your weed from the 1st to 4 floors, crack on the 5 to 7th floors and heroine at the top floors. People were being killed left and right and Chicago Police didn nothing about it until the final day. Gun shots were heard day and night folks walking through crackheads and dead bodies just to take the broken-down elevators up or down to their floors. I was there in 1996 just a block away from my cousins apt. near the Gold Coast. I'm glad the corrupted Chicage Housing Authority and Daley Gang FINALLY get rid those doomed to failure sub-housing. Now they can put some real affordable housing for low to mixed income folks.

**Ray1936** · January-25-10, 12:47 PM

Danny, they may have torn down the buildings, but the gangsta's have just moved elsewhere. Tearing down a problem area does not tear down the problem people that inhabited it.

**CountrySquire** · January-25-10, 03:57 PM

They show some nice demolition sequences in
Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi. I think it's Cabrini Green buildings.

**wolverine** · January-26-10, 01:31 AM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

Danny, they may have torn down the buildings, but the gangsta's have just moved elsewhere. Tearing down a problem area does not tear down the problem people that inhabited it.

It's difficult to say.... many of those people did in fact, just disappear from the city. The idea is that the past generation of residents in these buildings will have either moved on to a better life in improved housing or left the city. The problems no longer could compound

**313WX** · January-26-10, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by janesback

If memory serves me right, they used the Cabrini Greens as a back drop for the show Good Times, from the 1970s with the Evans family. Kid Dynomite, James, Florida , Thelma , JJ, Michael and Wilona all lived in the Cabrinin Greens

In fact, that last picture in the OP was seen in the intro.

**Danny** · January-26-10, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

Danny, they may have torn down the buildings, but the gangsta's have just moved elsewhere. Tearing down a problem area does not tear down the problem people that inhabited it.

You all just wait 20 years the rest of Chicago's Gold Coast Area will totally gentrified. There be no low-income folks and gangsta living there will security increases.

**wolverine** · March-06-10, 11:17 PM

Took this shot today. Thought it was an interesting juxtaposition. Tha Big O is now completely demolished. Renovation of the 1940's cabrini rowhomes should begin soon

**Hermod** · March-07-10, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

Good riddance to Cabrini-Green Projects. There nothing but Gangsta Disciple, Satan Knight, Blood and Crip infested Drug emporiums where you get your weed from the 1st to 4 floors, crack on the 5 to 7th floors and heroine at the top floors. People were being killed left and right and Chicago Police didn nothing about it until the final day. Gun shots were heard day and night folks walking through crackheads and dead bodies just to take the broken-down elevators up or down to their floors. I was there in 1996 just a block away from my cousins apt. near the Gold Coast. I'm glad the corrupted Chicage Housing Authority and Daley Gang FINALLY get rid those doomed to failure sub-housing. Now they can put some real affordable housing for low to mixed income folks.

Cabrini-Green [[like Pruitt-Igoe in St Louis and Brewster) were part of one of the great dream of the FDR era that if you took the ghetto out of run down slum housing and put it in a shiny new government apartment complex, all of the problems would magically disappear.

**Whitehouse** · March-07-10, 08:44 AM

Just like Pruitt-Igoe, Cabrini Green also has a Wiki. Nice aireal shot.

I didn't know the movie Candyman also took place at that project. Some claim to fame, or infame.

**wolverine** · September-05-11, 09:52 PM

The End of Cabrini Green Forever

As the pieces were slowly chipped away from this once massive community of towers and lowrise buildings, the final phase of demolition is set to begin.

The Non-Rehabbed rowhomes will go.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,1189088.story

As with the rest of Cabrini Green, it will likely be replaced with market rate housing and some subsidized housing. Currently a Target Store is set to break ground where three towers once stood. They will offer jobs to CHA residents.

Rehabbed rowhomes that will remain

Midrise condo building that replaced towers

Finally, the section that will be entirely wiped out
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Chicag...,63.84,,0,1.67

The Cabrini Rows were originally built in the 1940s to house Italian immigrants

**canuck** · September-09-11, 05:16 PM

Not enamoured of the red replacements but I appreciate the nod to Chicago's walk-up architectural style of stairways. I really like the rehabbed rowhomes and their smart landscaping. There are interesting details in the smaller volumes around the midrise condos that give more character and intimacy which is what I find lacking in condo projects generally. What is the commercial offer in the new neighborhood?

**canuck** · September-09-11, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by Hermod

Cabrini-Green [[like Pruitt-Igoe in St Louis and Brewster) were part of one of the great dream of the FDR era that if you took the ghetto out of run down slum housing and put it in a shiny new government apartment complex, all of the problems would magically disappear.

Maybe the dream, for those who dreamed it, was to make the slum go away, and the folks in the slums disappear, without much thought about the conditions of slumming. I think that if you take a look at the projects wherever they sprang up, Nobody in charge ever thought of elevating people's conditions by careful detailing in architecture and landscaping. The big mistake in planning was that there was nothing symbolic or inspirational anywhere to behold. Oddly enough in places like the lower east side of NYC, despite the infamous conditions of overcrowding, the architectural setting had a certain grandeur.

**Whitehouse** · September-09-11, 10:22 PM

This must be a pretty recent picture. Last of the Green flats.
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**Detroitej72** · September-10-11, 12:54 PM

Project-style housing in Detroit that was built under FDR was originally meant for war time workers. Take a look at old pictures from Parkside, Charles Terrace, and Sojourner Truth housing complexes. Detroit had a shortage of housing for the workers coming from the south to build the plans and tanks that made us the Arsenal of Democracy.