This is our beautifully restored Logan Theater, which celebrated its grand reopening yesterday after several months of excavation and rehab, not to mention coughing, discovery, and worry on the part of its reanimator -- a guy who's part real-estate mogul, part pain in the ass (we first met 10 years ago, after a very public fight over affordable housing), but still manages his charms. 
Along the way, he found old murals -- each one painstakingly restored and brought back to its original glory -- and the stunning Tiffany-style glasswork over the box office. You have to fall in love with a building to take that kind of care.
You also have to fall in love with a neighborhood, even one you consider too dicey to raise your own kids in. But you make your investments -- he's preserved hundreds of local rental units and even helped fund the prairie garden near the square -- and you help affect positive change.
As a theater two miles or so to the north faces its own demise -- a megachurch has set its sights on the building -- I'm grateful for the inner madness that would compel a developer to see importance in this building. Thanks to his investment (and make
no mistake, his equity was more than just sweat), we won't be a community that gets swindled out of that history. We'll be a community that hails its rescue.
2 comments:
Finally getting caught up on blog-reading after way too long. What a beautiful space! Will it be used for films, or plays, or other sorts of events? I wish them luck...as you probably know, even the stalwart Drexel had to declare bankruptcy and reorganize as a nonprofit. It's kept it alive, which is great, but not exactly encouraging about the prospects for new ventures like this. Hope it's a rousing success!
Finally getting caught up on blog-reading after way too long. What a beautiful space! Will it be used for films, or plays, or other sorts of events? I wish them luck...as you probably know, even the stalwart Drexel had to declare bankruptcy and reorganize as a nonprofit. It's kept it alive, which is great, but not exactly encouraging about the prospects for new ventures like this. Hope it's a rousing success!
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