#Illinois

[haveyoubeentothiscity]

Population: 52,736

#city poll #normal #illinois #united states #north america #submitted

[frenchcurious]

Bern Hill (1911–1977) "Main Line of Mid-America - Illinois Central" 1951. - source Urban Relics.

#bern hill #illinois #usa

[yearningforunity]

Tenement Dwellers, Chicago, 1950

Photo: Gordon Parks

#Family #Home #Chicago #Illinois #1950 #1950s

[federer7]

January 1943. "Nelson, Illinois. Chicago and North Western Railroad freight en route from Clinton, Iowa, to Chicago. Stopping for coal and water to give passenger trains the right of way."

Photo by Jack Delano - Office of War Information

View full size

#jack delano #january #1943 #Nelson #illinois

[luulapants]

people looooove to act like the ocean is so special and sexy. "ohhh it's so wide open you can see seven miles to the horizon!" yeah illinois is like that too. "you can see the curve of the earth!!" i've seen it over harvested cornfields in illinois. "but there's waves on the ocean!" corn has waves too. there's even eldrich creatures as yet unidentified by biologists living in the corn. you're not special, ocean. you're not special.

#illinois

[mcmansionhell]

mojo dojo casa house

Howdy folks! Sorry for the delay, I was, uhhhh covering the Tour de France. Anyway, I'm back in Chicago which means this blog has returned to the Chicago suburbs. I'm sure you've all seen Barbie at this point so this 2019 not-so-dream house will come as a pleasant (?) surprise.

Yeah. So this $2.4 million, 7 bed, 8.5+ bath house is over 15,000 square feet and let me be frank: that square footage is not allocated in any kind of efficient or rational manner. It's just kind of there, like a suburban Ramada Inn banquet hall. You think that by reading this you are prepared for this, but no, you are not.

Scale (especially the human one) is unfathomable to the people who built this house. They must have some kind of rare spatial reasoning problem where they perceive themselves to be the size of at least a sedan, maybe a small aircraft. Also as you can see they only know of the existence of a single color.

Ok, but if you were eating a single bowl of cereal alone where would you sit? Personally I am a head of the table type person but I understand that others might be more discreet.

It is undeniable that they put the "great" in great room. You could race bicycles in here. Do roller derby. If you gave this space to three anarchists you would have a functioning bookshop and small press in about a week.

The island bit is so funny. It's literally so far away it's hard to get them in the same image. It is the most functionally useless space ever. You need to walk half a mile to get from the island to the sink or stove.

Of course, every McMansion has a room just for television (if not more than one room) and yet this house fails even to execute that in a way that matters. Honestly impressive.

The rug placement here is physical comedy. Like, they know they messed up.

Bling had a weird second incarnation in the 2010s HomeGoods scene. Few talk about this.

Honestly I think they should have scrapped all of this and built a bowling alley or maybe a hockey rink. Basketball court. A space this grand is wasted on sports of the table variety.

You would also think that seeing the rear exterior of this house would help to rationalize how it's planned but:

Not really.

Anyways, thanks for coming along for another edition of McMansion Hell. I'll be back to regular posting schedule now that the summer is over so keep your eyes peeled for more of the greatest houses to ever exist. Be sure to check the Patreon for today's bonus posts.

Also P.S. - I'm the architecture critic for The Nation now, so check that out, too!

If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.

Not into recurring payments? Try the tip jar, because media work is especially recession-vulnerable.

#architecture #design #mcmansion #mcmansions #ugly houses #interior design #bad architecture #2010s #2019 #Illinois

[reasonsforhope]

It was a really, really good political news day today in the US (4/4/23)

For anyone who hasn't heard, not only did Trump get arrested, but also:

-We found out that the legal case against him in this prosecution (stormy daniels hush money case) is SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than people had speculated. Like, wow do they have receipts.

-In fact, the evidence was so entirely there that the new question on prime time news (well, at least on msnbc lol) is "Hey, why didn't the federal courts prosecute him for this already???)

-Trump FAILED UTTERLY in his attempts to rally mass protests and demands for "death and destruction" if he was arrested. There was no violence at the arrest at all, and as for Trump supporters? They failed to show up in any kind of numbers--reportedly only about a hundred people were protesting the arrest

-We (aka Judge Janet Protasiewicz) WON what is widely considered to be the most consequential election of 2023, a Wisconsin state supreme court election that handed control of the state supreme court to the left

-Because of that election win, it is now extremely likely that abortion will be legal in Wisconsin, and that Wisconsin won't be able to throw out electors in the 2024 presidential election

-ALSO bc of this, Wisconsin, the most gerrymandered state in the country, will probably get nonpartisan, accurate maps, which COULD FLIP THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES in 2024

-In Chicago, Brandon Johnson, union organizer and former teacher, won the election for mayor, in a decisive win progressives, esp for meaningful criminal justice reform and investment in mental health (whereas the other guy was campaigning on hiring hundreds of new cops and being super tough on crime)

#united states #us politics #wisconsin #supreme court #criminal justice reform #progressive politics #democrats #VOTING MATTERS #brandon johnson #janet protasiewicz #state supreme court #elections #gerrymandering #chicago #illinois #mayor #donald trump #trump indictment #trump arrest #alvin bragg #grand jury #manhattan #stormy daniels #good news #hope

[yodaprod]

Motörhead, Chicago (1983)

#motorhead #lemmy kilmister #phil taylor #brian robertson #chicago #illinois #mc donalds #music #1980s #80s #80's #1983

[weirdhoneyy333]

#mine #photography #abandoned #church #abandoned church #illinois

[livesunique]

Weinhardt Mansion, Chicago, Illinois, United States,

Photo By: @nathanielintransit

#art #design #architecture #history #luxury lifestyle #style #luxury house #luxury home #mansion #chicago #united states #weinhardt mansion #nathanielintransit #luxury homes #illinois

[catfindr]

#petfinder #catfinder #cat #kitten #kitty #dan from accounting #il #illinois #1k

[queergraffiti]

"have more gay sex!"

Chicago, Illinois, USA

#submission #have more gay sex #gay #graffiti #lgbt #lgbtq #queer #Chicago #Illinois #USA

[frenchcurious]

Statue Art déco à trois étages de la déesse Cérès au sommet du Chicago Board of Trade Building, 1929 Chicago, Illinois par l'architecte Holabird & Root. - source Luciana Cicera.

#cérès #holabird & root #chicago #illinois #usa

[chase-prairie]

Spring Woodland Flowers of Illinois poster by Robert F. Eschenfeldt (1930-2005)

I'm slowly collecting these gorgeous posters from the 70s/80s that the Department of Natural Resources put out. I've had luck with nature centers digging in their back closets

#wildflowers #illinois

[saywhat-politics]

The pledge, a vestige of the McCarthy Red Scare era, is not mandatory, but has been signed by candidates for decades, including by Trump in 2020 and 2016.

#donald trump #illinois #pledge

[mcmansionhell]

ode to a faux grecian urn

Howdy everyone,

Today's house, built in 2001, comes to you from, you guessed it, the Chicago suburbs. The house is a testimony to traditional craftsmanship and traditional values (having lots of money.) The cost of painting this house greige is approximately the GDP of Slovenia so the owners have decided to keep it period perfect (beige.) Anyway.

This 5 bedroom, 7.5 bathroom house clocks in at a completely reasonable 12,700 square feet. If you like hulking masses and all-tile interiors, it could be all yours for the reasonable price of $2.65 million.

The problem with having a house that is 12,700 square feet is that they have to go somewhere. At least 500 of them were devoted to this foyer. Despite the size, I consider this a rather cold and lackluster welcome. Cold feet anyone?

The theme of this house is, vaguely, "old stuff." Kind of like if Chuck E Cheese did the sets for Spartacus. Why the dining room is on a platform is a good question. The answer: the American mind desires clearly demarcated space, which, sadly, is verboten in our culture.

The other problem with a 12,700 square foot house is that even huge furniture looks tiny in it.

Entering cheat codes in "Kitchen Building Sim 2000" because I spent my entire $70,000 budget on the island.

Of course, a second sitting room (without television) is warranted. Personally, speaking, I'm team Prince.

I wonder why rich people do this. Surely they must know it's tacky right? That it's giving Liberace? (Ask your parents, kids.) That it's giving Art.com 75% off sale if you enter the code ROMANEMPIRE.

Something about the bathroom really just says "You know what, I give up. Who cares?" But this is not even the worst part of the bathroom...

Not gonna lie, this activates my flight or fight response.

If you remember Raggedy Ann you should probably schedule your first colonoscopy.

Anyways, that does it for the interior. Let's take a nice peek at what's out back.

I love mowing in a line. I love monomaniacal tasks that are lethal to gophers.

Alright, that does it for this edition of McMansion Hell. Back to the book mines for me. Bonus posts up on Patreon soon.

If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.

Not into recurring payments? Try the tip jar! Student loans just started back up!

#architecture #design #mcmansion #mcmansions #ugly houses #interior design #bad architecture #mcmansion hell #illinois #2000s