dayton is not in ohio

Faithful readers may remember my posts (1,2) on Cermak Plaza, the shopping center that has been a somewhat controversial home to many artworks. The Chicago Tribune reports that the “Car Kabob” is to be destroyed to make way for a new Walgreen’s.

Note to artists: If anyone ever invites you to create an artwork in a strip mall, and you’d rather not see that artwork destroyed, say no, regardless of how much money they give you.

The best example of this poaching at Cermak Plaza is James Wines’ “Floating McDonald’s.” This was a McDonald’s designed and built by his firm SITE (they’ve designed the single family skyscraper in India that has been in the news recently). I saw old pictures of the McDonald’s, and went to see it, only to discover that the feature that made it “float” had been bricked in - essentially destroyed.

(then)

(now)

I contacted Mr. Wines to find out why and when this had taken place, to which he replied that he was unaware it had happened. He added: “This is a particularly ironic moment for the “Floating McDonald’s” to have been destroyed, since the FRAC collection (part of Centre Pompidou in Paris) just bought all of the drawings of this project for the institution’s permanent collection.”