When I lived in Ann Arbor, Mich., 25 years ago, the university had recently built two new student athletic centers, both very popular. But the school did not remove my favorite gym, the Intramural building, already more than 50 years old. It must have been “functionally obsolete” by standards of the day, and it definitely smelled worse than the new gyms. But the dated architecture, the worn-down wood, and even the smell, connected us on campus back to those who, in a different college era, built and used this building.
It seems Oak Park could try harder to preserve its public buildings, even as they become “obsolete.” Ridgeland Commons is dated, like the main library was (and the library before that), but if we polished it up instead of replacing it, we could have a charming, peculiar relic of mid-20th century Oak Park. If we want and can afford to “transform” parks and recreation in Oak Park, as Wednesday Journal contemplates, are there other places to build? Can we do it without removing the legacy left to us by those who lived and played here in another era? Seventy five years on, the Intramural building is again serving the next generation on the Ann Arbor campus.
Pete Prokopowicz
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