Save the Berwyn Car-ka-bob!
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As a longtime aficionado of roadside kitsch and a longtime (and now former) resident of Chicago, it is with great sadness that I read that the Spindle, a sculpture consisting of cars stacked on top of each other like a shish-ka-bob, will be torn down, to be replaced by a Walgreens.
A Walgreens? Anyone who’s been to Chicago knows that you can’t spit without hitting a Walgreens. They make Starbucks seem scarce and far-between… and that’s an accomplishment.
The 1989 sculpture was perhaps most prominently featured in the movie “Wayne’s World.” It’s in a shopping center at the corner of Cermak Road and Harlem Ave. in the suburb of Berwyn, if you’re keeping score or want to pay your final respects. It’s a shopping center that incidentally is chock full of late 1980s art. It’s an odd place in its own right. But the Spindle really makes the mall special. (As special as a strip mall can ever be.)
The fact that the sculpture, which features at least three models of car that my family owned at one point or another, will be removed, and likely destroyed, is bad enough. That it will be replaced with a Walgreens is unconscionable.
Save the Berwyn Spindle!
(image: Matthew Kulcsar, via Google Earth)
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July 12th, 2007 at 5:58 pm |
NOOOooooo…! I used to live in Berwyn and found that sculpture to be the only redeeming factor to the place. It’s something that’s actually interesting and unique. A Walgreens is clearly neither.
So sad.
July 15th, 2007 at 7:27 am |
Has a fund been set up to save the sculpture.Would be a shame to lose this piece espically for another drugstore.
July 16th, 2007 at 8:57 pm |
[…] last week’s post on the Chicago suburb of Berwyn, Illinois, that was planning to tear down this amazing piece of parking lot art, to replace it with yet another Walgreens? I’m pleased […]
July 16th, 2007 at 8:57 pm |
You may be in luck! http://savethespindle.com/ has been set up. More here:
http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2007/07/16/update-join-the-movement-to-save-the-spindle/
Incidentally, Gord Gow, I see your site is mustangII.net… My mom had a 1976 Mustang II, which she drove (and regularly repaired) until 1987. I still remember picking it up (used) with my parents from the dealer, when I was a kid. It broke down on the way home. Good times!
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:39 pm |
[…] Story with one of our photos […]
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:44 am |
It’s gone. Torn down in the middle of the night, Mayor Daley style.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-spindlemay03,0,7042335.story