[Warning: this praxis may be boring to people who aren't total nerds about apartment buildings, Chicago neighborhoods, gentrification patterns, bricks, and other fascinating things of that nature.]

I explored three neighborhoods in Chicago: Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, and Pilsen. Wicker Park (northwest of downton Chicago) was chosen because it is my neighborhood, so I'm attached to it and experience it daily. It currently is undergoing gentrification at a rapid rate, and I wanted to compare it to neighborhoods in other stages of gentrification. Both Humboldt Park (located directly west of, and bordering, Wicker Park) and Pilsen (southwest of downtown Chicago) are frequently cited as places the artists and hipsters are heading now that Wicker Park is filled with yuppies and boutiques. Both are also frequently (though less and less often) cited as more dangerous/sketchy than Wicker Park.


(Wicker Park is unlabeled at this distance, but is represented by the green pin)

I walked through several residential blocks in each neighborhood, making notes on printouts of Google satellite maps, of which buildings were old architecture and which were new. Specifically, I focused on a type of apartment building found in many neighborhoods in Chicago, and one that is extremely common in all three neighborhoods: narrow two- or three-flat brick or graystone apartment buildings. In Wicker Park, these old buildings are being frequently knocked down and replaced with rapidly constructed new versions. In Humboldt Park and Pilsen, this is also happening, but the process is quite a bit further behind. There are several main differences between the old and new versions of these buildings. Examples:



Older architecture (from Wicker Park)


Newer architecture (also from Wicker Park)

Characteristic features of the older buildings:
-Decorative brick and stonework
-"Back brick" (grayish brown, imperfect-looking bricks) everywhere but front outside wall
-"Front brick" is evenly colored, very rectangular, red or brown brick, or graystone
-Indoors feature small bedrooms, large common areas, generally only one bathroom


Example of "back brick" on an old building in Wicker Park (i have no idea what this is really called among people with actual architecture knowledge)

Characteristic features of the newer buildings:
-Less decorative architecture
-Instead of actual bricks, everywhere but the front outside wall is usually made of large gray cinderblocks
-"Front brick" is similar to old buildings' front brick
-Indoors feature larger bedrooms, smaller common areas, and multiple bathrooms


Example of cinderblocks on a new building (in Humboldt Park)

Back at home, I transcribed my notes onto the google satellite maps, to make the Time Maps. On each Time Map, the old buildings have blue dots, the new ones have red dots, and unknown (not that specific type of brick architecture) have yellow. In some cases, the new buildings were so new that they weren't even on the map. I put the colored dot there regardless.


Wicker Park Time Map - note the many red dots


Humboldt Park Time Map - fewer red dots, but they are definitely starting to encroach, from east to west


Pilsen Time Map - hardly any red dots

Then I was a total dork and made a graph.



The photo section contains many other photos not used in the main proof body, so please have a look at them if you are interested in more detailed views and comments on the three neighborhoods' similarities and differences as revealed by their old and new brick apartment buildings. Also contains bonus pictures of urban fishing, as well as the ugliest building in Wicker Park.