A post-fire building by Chicago’s first recognized architect, the first national bowling tournament, big band jazz in the 1930s, prime rib and spinning salad restaurant, gutted in a facadectomy that left the shell as a liner for the parking podium of a condo tower.

Once a community anchor where tens of thousands of people learned to swim, stayed healthy, and found flexible short-term housing. Now, it’s 80% parking lot and 20% fast food drive through—there’s my beef.

Immigrant flows, urban renewal, white flight, religious transition, jazz, schisms, CHA failures, demolition by neglect, dithering billionaires, sportswashing, promises made and promises broken.

If you’ve ever thought the intersection of Grand and Paulina felt a little off…it’s because there’s a whole church missing.

Once the crown jewel of the Chicago YMCA system, a landmark of gay life in the city, and an SRO that provided flexible housing for decades, today the Lawson House is an encouraging story of architectural and (more importantly) affordable housing preservation.