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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 14h

Bears!

Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 17h

Oh, the Wildcat Growl thing? Yeah, I was surprised more people didn’t know that. I might have heard that info from @revdjesq.bsky.social, actually.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 17h

I’ve been buried in work all day, I’ll have to squeal in joy ASAP.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

There’s a really nice promenade garden level with a fountain and stuff, but it’s in absolutely shit condition, and restoring it is going to be incredibly expensive for less ROI than hardscaping it and putting a playground in. Which would be functional for the residents. So what’s the right move?

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

I spent all day documenting a mid-century tower that was residences and then got chopped and screwed into a hotel. So, it’s basically a curtain wall (yay!) and some structural curiosities (yay?) that’s going to go back to being housing again. (Ideally.)

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

@charliegio.bsky.social That was probably more of a rambling non-answer than you bargained for, but it’s the essential paradox of preservation in a nutshell. It’s a legitimately good building, examined in a vacuum. I genuinely don’t know how to do it right, a lot.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

Indeed!

Robin Bradford @tuphlos.bsky.social · 20h

SIR!!!

Thank you.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

Maybe Grant Achatz wants to do a really weird, borderline impossible concept.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

I’m nostalgic for a (certainly fictional) time when travel wasn’t a battle of who can provide less. Best case, I’d like it to be recorded well before it hits the landfill. Unless there’s some way to make it some kind of pre-9/11 enclave and get people to take a ride to O’Hare for dinner.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

I hate to try to preserve a thing in amber as a museum piece, it feels inauthentic and wasteful. It’d be nice to reset the materials used to better reflect its design intention, (e.g. put the skylight back in) but that feels like a cop out. I guess I don’t know.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

For another, going to the airport is now a social process that requires all of the minutes one is willing to be in an airport. One rarely finds themselves with enough time for a leisurely Chicken Kiev before flouncing off to Spokane or whatever. So “as intended” is kind of out.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 18h

That’s a good question. I was kind of coming at it from a “do you believe this shit?” angle, without a Plan.

Reactivating it is fantasy baby nonsense. As originally intended, it requires the airport to be a place that it isn’t anymore; it is, of necessity, on the wrong side of TSA, for one thing.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

Same… Düde?

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

That was a long walk, but you gotta get your steps in, I guess.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

I’m so sorry. Be well, take care of yourself. Much love.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

On the Mezzanine level, there used to be a real sit-down high-end dining restaurant where you could plane-watch. Now it’s full of crummy offices just plonked in there, but you can still sit by the windows. If you know they’re there.

Tall windows with some furniture in front of them and a cubicle-looking demising wall in the background right. The ceiling is some acoustical, drywall, or other mystery-panel thing, with some square patterns to, like, gesture in the general direction of the original mid-century vibe, maybe, if we’re being generous.

The mezzanine restaurant in ‘61-ish, tablecloths, art on the walls, greenery, swoopy chairs, and the concrete ribs of the ceiling. The windows have curtains drawn, but you get the idea.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

1961, Designed by Gertrude Kerbis, could be talked about like Saarinen’s Dulles (1958) and TWA (1962) terminals or the LAX Theme Building (1961), but nope!

Hist. Images and more info @
www.preservationchicago.org/seven-contin... - where there’s also (better) @ericallixrogers.com present-day photos.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

I can amend this when I land.

Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

Real “look at how they massacred my boy” energy in the Seven Continents Building.

Seven Continents Building, ORD Terminal 3, present-day. A rotunda with stairs and a terrazzo floor with arrow mosaics and a concrete ceiling

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

Nothing like the ol’ flight that departs before 7AM

Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

I must say, my version of this exact shirt is beginning to look a little (ok, a lot) weathered.

Sickos Committee @sickoscommittee.org · 1d

Hey Northwestern fans! Why not get yourself something nice to celebrate a big win?

Use offer code YESHAHAHAYES for 15% off your first order with @homefield.bsky.social

www.homefieldapparel.com?rfsn=7440576...

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Reposted by Tom McGrath

Sickos Committee @sickoscommittee.org · 1d

Hey Northwestern fans! Why not get yourself something nice to celebrate a big win?

Use offer code YESHAHAHAYES for 15% off your first order with @homefield.bsky.social

www.homefieldapparel.com?rfsn=7440576...

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

That’s extremely inside baseball even for me.

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Tom McGrath @tcmcg.bsky.social · 1d

Just so you know the type of person who’s been making James Franklin jokes all day, it’s the guy in two different shoes:

White Chuck, left shoe. Grey Adidas, right shoe.

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