Les piscines de Parc Rogers

Yes, the pools of Rogers Park, as seen on tours during Open House Chicago. I was able to visit three pools in the gems of Rogers Park. Casa Bonita, Park Castle and Park Gables (three of my favorite big courtyard buildings). Casa Bonita's pool (below) is lovely, but plainer than the other two, though the access to it is rather grander and features an observers balcony (now a corridor).


Park Gables has a much grander pool, but the "entry" spaces to it are just "regular nicer than average Chicago basement" (it should be said that Park Gables appears to be well maintained).


Park Gables really resembles a 1920's film set, with ornate tile work, terra cotta columns and "tented" or awning ceiling. However, the most impressive of the group, the piece de resistance if you will, is Park Castle, which resembles San Simeon.



It sports an L shaped pool, elaborate mosiacs and a lit fountain! Note the potted plants, forming a ceramic topiary border around the pool.

The Courtyard Building, Part V - Courtyards de Luxe

This post is dedicated to the ultra large courtyard building, which I am giving the terminology of Courtyard de Luxe (or perhaps a taxonomy of Courtyard Giganticus) of which there are several well known and lesser known examples throughout Chicago.


The first of these is the legendary or near notorious Tudorbethan Park Gables of Indian Boundary Park, which is one of the very finest examples of both the style and of a large courtyard, in this case a double-courtyard in fact. In many cases, unusually, the exterior decor here carries into the interior, carrying the theme of gothicism inside with vaulted ceilings and beamed rooms.
And I'm not even mentioning it's neighbor, the Park Tudor, which has more of a castellated, gothick feel than Park Gables.


The next example in this post is The Sterling Apartments, probably less well known, in fact, as much as unknown I would say. This one is of the single-courtyard type, but with multiple entries along the front and sides, as well as off of the side courtyard and it runs from side street to side street, for an entire block front. As you can see from only half of the floor plan it is a large building with a variety of accomodation types, from studios to two-bedroomed suites.



Some other examples of these large types can be found in Kenwood, South Shore, Beverly and other areas (such as Uptown-Buena Park, in the Pattington) which were upper middle class.