Because the World’s Truthful loomed on Chicago’s horizon, architects Willoughby J. Edbrooke and Franklin Pierce Burnham constructed a 98-unit lodge to accommodate guests. After the exposition was completed, the Romanesque Revival constructing with a big central courtyard was transformed into residences and have become often known as Mecca Flats.
Chicago adhered to strict segregation codes within the nineteenth century, and Mecca Flats, situated within the Bronzeville neighborhood at 3360 S. State Road, wasn’t immune. The complicated initially solely allowed white residents, earlier than permitting Black residents in 1911. Shortly, the constructing turned a web site for creatives well-known within the Black Renaissance. Gwendolyn Brooks famously titled a guide after the tenement, and luminaries Muddy Waters and Katherine Dunham known as Mecca Flats dwelling.
Though a historic beacon of Black creativity, the Illinois Institute of Know-how razed the constructing in 1952. It was changed by the Mies van der Rohe-designed S.R. Crown Corridor.
Whereas Mecca Flats are lengthy gone, its reminiscence lives on all through Chicago, and because of the collective often known as Floating Museum, a brand new paintings revives the cultural hub. “for Mecca” is a large-scale inflatable construction recreating the once-thriving complicated in grayscale polyester. Scaled down, this iteration stretches 41 ft lengthy, with a U-shaped passageway for viewers to stroll by means of.
Floating Museum is co-directed by avery r. younger, Andrew Schachman, Faheem Majeed, and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, who share that the venture presents a “tangible artifact” of Chicago’s misplaced historical past. They are saying:
“for Mecca” represents our collective curiosity in Bronzeville’s complicated historical past. We are able to not view nostalgic photos of Mies van der Rohe—having fun with a cigar within the vacancy of S.R. Crown Corridor—with out additionally imagining Mecca Flats, collapsed below his ft, and recalling the gradual strategic displacement of the African American group signified by the presence of its absence.
The venture additionally contains a number of nods to former South Aspect establishments, together with the jazz dancehall Savoy Ballroom and the Regal Theatre, a well-liked evening membership and efficiency venue.
Debuting this previous weekend on the unique web site, the venture will journey across the metropolis’s parks by means of the summer time of 2026. “for Mecca” is the newest venture within the collective’s Floating Monuments sequence, which seeks to uncover important cultural and historic legacies inside Chicago by means of public installations.
Discover extra from Floating Museum on its web site.
