Superior Street "Blow Up" Rolls 4-5

Cfa collection: Joe Winston Collection
Notes: The footage was shot on the morning of Saturday, December 12, 1998, as the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) demolished a collection of four 16-storey public housing high rise buildings known as the Lakefront Properties. These buildings were located in the North Kenwood / Oakland neighborhood of Chicago, IL on about 39th Street and the shores of Lake Michigan. This was the first time the CHA had demolished buildings in this way.; This demolition was part of a larger project, by 2000 called The Plan For Transformation, whereby the CHA, under Mayor Richard M. Daley, demolished many of Chicago’s notorious high-rise housing projects, which were constructed under the administration of his father, Richard J. Daley.; The demolition became a public spectacle. This film includes other scenes of the area, the crowd gathered to watch, and interviews with spectators. Members of the Coalition to Protect Public Housing express criticism of the CHA’s actions. A grandstand was erected, and interested members of the public as well as local politicians and celebrities attended, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson.; Once the buildings imploded, an enormous dust cloud rolled east towards Lake Michigan, exactly where the crowd was gathered. Most people quickly dispersed, but a few remained, including an intrepid TV news reporter from Channel 7, the Chicago ABC affiliate.
Subjects: Buildings; Construction and demolition debris; Public housing; Political Activists; Wrecking
Places: North America > United States > Illinois > Chicago > Oakland
Language: English
Film notes: Sound was recorded separately on a Nagra. The audio featured in this access file is from a Digital Betacam transfer.
Cfa elements: Negatives, 750 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/34707