{"id":1017,"date":"2025-08-12T12:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T12:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2025-08-12T16:29:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:29:26","slug":"an-inflatable-building-recreates-the-iconic-mecca-flats-at-the-heart-of-chicagos-black-renaissance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/an-inflatable-building-recreates-the-iconic-mecca-flats-at-the-heart-of-chicagos-black-renaissance\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inflatable Building Recreates the Iconic Mecca Flats at the Heart of Chicago\u2019s Black Renaissance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

As the World\u2019s Fair loomed on Chicago\u2019s horizon, architects Willoughby J. Edbrooke and Franklin Pierce Burnham built a 98-unit hotel to house visitors. After the exposition was finished, the Romanesque Revival building with a large central courtyard was converted into apartments and became known as Mecca Flats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chicago adhered to strict segregation codes in the 19th century, and Mecca Flats, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood at 3360 S. State Street, wasn\u2019t immune. The complex originally only allowed white residents, before allowing Black residents in 1911. Quickly, the building became a site for creatives well-known in the Black Renaissance. Gwendolyn Brooks famously titled a book<\/a> after the tenement, and luminaries Muddy Waters and Katherine Dunham called Mecca Flats home.<\/p>\n

\"a
View of the indoor atrium at the Mecca Flats, East 34th and South State Street, Chicago, Illinois.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although a historical beacon of Black creativity, the Illinois Institute of Technology razed the building in 1952. It was replaced by the Mies van der Rohe-designed S.R. Crown Hall. <\/p>\n

While Mecca Flats are long gone, its memory lives on throughout Chicago, and thanks to the collective known as Floating Museum<\/a>, a new artwork revives the cultural hub. \u201cfor Mecca\u201d is a large-scale inflatable structure recreating the once-thriving complex in grayscale polyester. Scaled down, this iteration stretches 41 feet long, with a U-shaped passageway for viewers to walk through. <\/p>\n

Floating Museum is co-directed by avery r. young, Andrew Schachman, Faheem Majeed, and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, who share that the project offers a \u201ctangible artifact\u201d of Chicago\u2019s lost history. They say: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cfor Mecca\u201d represents our collective interest in Bronzeville\u2019s complex history. We can no longer view nostalgic images of Mies van der Rohe\u2014enjoying a cigar in the emptiness of S.R. Crown Hall\u2014without also imagining Mecca Flats, collapsed under his feet, and recalling the slow strategic displacement of the African American community signified by the presence of its absence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The project also includes several nods to former South Side institutions, including the jazz dancehall Savoy Ballroom and the Regal Theatre, a popular night club and performance venue. <\/p>\n

\"people<\/figure>\n

Debuting this past weekend at the original site, the project will travel around the city\u2019s parks through the summer of 2026. \u201cfor Mecca\u201d is the latest project in the collective\u2019s Floating Monuments<\/em> series, which seeks to uncover critical cultural and historical legacies within Chicago through public installations.<\/p>\n

Find more from Floating Museum on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a
The Stroll, Regal Theater, and the Savoy Ballroom, Chicago, 1941. Photo by Russell Lee. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration\/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a<\/figure>\n
Savoy Ballroom, 47th Street and South Parkway, Chicago, 1929. Curt Teich Postcard Archives Digital Collection, Newberry Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"people<\/figure>\n
\"people<\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article An Inflatable Building Recreates the Iconic Mecca Flats at the Heart of Chicago\u2019s Black Renaissance<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the World\u2019s Fair loomed on Chicago\u2019s horizon, architects Willoughby J. Edbrooke and Franklin Pierce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beatlesfansunite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}