Now you can easily see if a building in Chicago is “orange” or “red” rated by looking at our map of the city’s Historic Resources Survey. The survey, completed in 1995, ranked 17,371 buildings on their architectural and historical significance. Orange and red-rated buildings are mildly affected by a delay rule that prevents their demolition for 90 days after an application for a demolition permit is applied and provisionally granted.
There are two ways to find out:
- Look up an address and then click the “Load historic resources” button
- View the full map of Chicago, where you can filter by Place and rating
Buildings are “mildly affected” because many of them end up being demolished before the 90-day period is complete. The rule was enacted in 2003 so the owner, residents, and other property developers can potentially find an alternative solution to demolition.
One thing we don’t know right now is how many hundreds of the 9,269 orange and red-rated buildings on the map have since been demolished. We have a pretty good data set on our Demolitions Tracker (which goes back to 2006) to start marking many of them, but we may need our readers’ help.
St. Boniface, on the other hand, is being restored.