When Adel Tarakdjian bought a teardown in Glencoe, Illinois, a prestigious suburb of Chicago, he probably had no idea he was buying a big headache. Neighbors rallied to try to save their neighborhood, but politics and money got in the way, as usual. The house is gone already, and a huge house now towers above all around, completely altering the streetscape and neighborhood feeling.

All across America, post-World War II modern subdivisions are being ruined by the teardown craze. If it was an isolated case or two, I can see how this might go unnoticed, but the situation is getting out of control. Rancho Mirage lost a Neutra house this way. Raleigh lost the Eduardo Catalano house. Chances are, your own community has lost significant houses.

In the early 1950s, architects William and George Fred Keck built this subdivision of small modernist houses, twenty six houses in all, side by side. The houses are on Terrace Court and Carol Lane; well twenty five are, because 1190 Terrace Court was demolished. Although small, the pocket of Keck houses was a true community with a sense of place. With house values skyrocketing in this prestigious north suburb of Chicago, the teardown craze contintues to threaten the rest of the community. When Adel Tarakdjian recently agreed to buy one of the houses for $465,000, he reportedly had in mind a plan to tear it down to build a bigger new house. Neighbors were upset, and rightfully vocal.

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Will the community survive? Many neighbors certainly hoped so, but they unsuccessfully battled to have their neighborhood designated as a historic district. Buyers insensitive of the importance of community often come into unique areas like this and alter them with one quick blow. Apart from stylistic and historical reasons for preservation, they wanted to preserve the landscape for a more practical reason also: the open sunshine provided to the passive solar designed houses, which surely would be blocked by larger, towering structures built in place of existing houses.

For more information, please contact Glencoe's Historic Preservation Commission. Please let them know in writing that this is far more than just a local issue. The precedents set here, and the preservation issues learned, may well prove beneficial in your own community someday.

Eddis Goodale, Chairman
Glencoe Historic Preservation Commission

The following photos of this subdivision in Glencoe were taken by Joe Kunkel in April 2000, long before this controversy began:

For a related story in the Chicago Tribune, Neighbors rally to save homes , by Lisa Black, Tribune staff reporter, published July 6, 2003, CLICK HERE.