Publications by Preservation Futures
A Dark Age for the Renaissance Center
Architect John Portman’s Renaissance Center is both a Detroit icon and a monument to the city’s response to urban renewal. As the building nears its fiftieth birthday, a publicly funded development plan is poised to substantially alter the complicated—but valuable—landmark.
Bruce Goff’s Fabulous (and Bedazzled) Material Worlds
The first major exhibit showcasing architect Bruce Goff’s work in thirty years, Bruce Goff: Material Worlds invites a new look at Goff’s work of architecture through his paintings, music, and the realia of his everyday life.
What Happened to Gerri's Palm Tavern
Gerri Oliver stewarded Chicago’s Palm Tavern, a storied Bronzeville venue rooted in the Jim Crow era, for nearly seventy years until a convergence of civic misfires, power grabs, and agency failures locked the doors of the Palm Tavern forever in 2001. By 2006, it was an empty lot.
Learning from the Damen Silos
Chicago’s iconic Damen Silos have been whittled down to one structure and cranes are poised to destroy the last silo—the unfortunate result of a series of failures by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago.
Virgil Abloh, Edith Farnsworth, and Midcentury Modernism
Elizabeth Blasius reviews two new books threaded together by Midcentury Modernism: Make it Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh (Crown, 2025) by Robin Givhan and Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth (University of Illinois Press, 2025) by Nora Wendl.
Crowdsourcing Black History Along the Chesapeake Bay
Preservation Futures details the firm’s work documenting African American history in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Stonewall: Movement, Monument, Myth
Elizabeth Blasius visits the Stonewall National Monument and revisits the LGBTQ Theme Study during a critical moment in United States history.
Florence Scala: The Joan of Arc of Chicago’s Near West Side
In an era when superhighways, urban renewal, and public and private universities were dramatically changing the nature of Chicago’s neighborhoods, Florence Scala (1918–2007), a Chicago-born “Italian Fishwife,” was brave enough—and angry enough—to fight the systems in power looking to destroy her neighborhood.
The 1900 Galveston Storm: United States’ First Modern Natural Disaster
The 1900 Galveston Storm, unprecedented in intensity and damage, was the first US natural disaster of the twentieth century. The event created a prospective framework for modern natural disaster recovery
A History of Preservation in Chicago
Elizabeth Blasius shares a history of preservation in Chicago, beginning with its origins in the stewardship of historic buildings by Black Chicagoans during the Great Migration, and looking to the future through the lens of a parking garage designed by Stanley Tigerman.
The Century and Consumers Buildings: Their Complicated Saga and the Precedent They Might Set
As the federally mandated review processes evaluating the demolition of Chicago’s Century and Consumers Buildings reach a conclusion, Elizabeth Blasius provides an overview of the buildings’ complicated saga and examines what is at stake if they are razed.
From Resources to Rubble: Evaluating Chicago’s Demolition Delay Ordinance in its Twentieth Year
As the 2003 Demolition Delay Ordinance turns twenty, Elizabeth Blasius writes in her monthly column about the successes and failures of this ordinance as well as the need to think about Chicago’s demolition problem holistically.