All I See is Green

Heading towards Kimball on the Brown line, I get off at Southport and make my way to Greenview, only a few blocks west. It was a nice crisp autumn day in October, the sun was out but to stay warm I wore my new jacket. I can see the street sign! I’m feeling very excited to walk down memory lane and have some flashbacks. I notice right before I turn, is that there is construction but as I looked down the corner the construction ended only a few cars in.

Literally as I turned onto Greenview the first thing that came to mind was how much green there was to see. Hints why I came up with the tittle. I looked around realizing how nice Fall can be in Chicago but tried not to think so much on the cold winter on it’s way.

Over walking down Greenview and back I lost track of all of the W flags for the Chicago Cubs and the neighborhood clearly showed which team they were a fan of.

I notice that the space in between the cars and the sidewalk that the owners and designers made sure to fill the space with nature, some might have flowers and bushes and others include a tree with a bird feeder or a tire that you see kids swing on.

The interesting part about the homes on Greenview in that at the beginning all of the homes or apartments were affordable to stable middle class families but going back to today many of these homes are multiple million and designed to fit that view. Walking down seeing one multimillion house after another you begin to notice the similarities in design or layout. In the photo below you can see the fence, brick, and colors come together but all are unique by their self. Others take it to the extreme where the house itself stands out from the block by a long shot.

Going back to what I said on the area having these older design that were kept nice did a really good job on preserving the past. Below you see this one house that almost looks unreal with how the paint colors, glass, and how much space it takes up. One would think they were in a suburb of Chicago. Another photo includes a house not as old as this one but gave the house a touch of character through adding stained glass.

I n the two photos above are good examples of how they try to put a good use to the space with the one having a huge lawn. On the corner of the the streets, the arrangement of the rocks and flowers made it different from most corners. As if the little details make a huge difference when walking the area. with that most of my time on Greenview I ran into many people walking their dogs and nannies with the children walking them home from the neighborhood school; James G. Blaine which I attended from preschool all the way to eight grade.

The apartments that you see above, use to be my home and as I described how my mom would take so long preparing me for the cold winter, I only had to take this alley and what you see directly ahead was the school. Now looking at that house I see more of the design and little garden in the middle that everyone shares and looks down at. The architect did a good job at balancing the space and nature.

This was my other home and so far my favorite as a child. The unit had three levels and the basement included a huge storage room that became my sister’s and I because the ceiling was only four feet high. The outside looks great with the sizing of bushes and trees. Fun Fact, Cubs old second baseman and short stop Mark Grudzielanek lived in the unit right above us for about two years.

A s a whole, even walking down my favorite street in the whole city of Chicago I’ve noticed how plain and average the street was to almost any other neighborhood street in the area and there is no landmarks to really make Greenview stand out. With going back to Jacobs’ Downtown is for People, he explains the importance of the placement with focal points how they should effect the street and downtown. He describes focal points as a place could range from anything as a fountain or a piece of art. In other words, a focal point is a landmark and what landmarks do exactly is bring life to the location. Causing life on the streets and with having streets fill with life leads to a healthy walkable city. With that he talks about the Loop in Chicago and how it lacks focus points where they need them the most, for example on the corner of street or even on the sidewalks.