“Its pages well-thumbed and portions underlined in ink, the book ‘Lost Chicago’ sits on bookshelves across Chicago and continues to amaze and inspire.
“It is a poetic photographic essay about our bygone public buildings and private residences. It is harshly critical of the city’s once cavalier attitude toward architecture, filled with 200-some photos and prints, written in elegant, passionate prose.
“I picked up my copy again after hearing the news that its author, David Garrard Lowe, had died in New York City on Sept. 21. He had been in hospice care. He was 91 but remains alive in this book. And so I read, ‘Perhaps, by showing the splendor which has been lost, I might, in some small way, help to preserve that splendor not yet departed.’
“He had not lived in Chicago for decades but he and his book have had a profound impact on the city. Blair Kamin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former architecture critic for this newspaper told me, ‘(David’s) book was — and still is — required reading.’ Mine is thoroughly marked up. It’s timeless but very much a product of its time.
“Published in 1975, three years after the senseless demolition of Adler and Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange Building, ‘Lost Chicago’ crystallized the idea that the city’s past should be — no, must be — part of its future. The book’s power is grounded in the fact that it’s deeply personal. Lowe wasn’t looking at architecture in isolation; he saw it as part of life, starting with his own life.’
“Edward Keegan, an architect and biweekly architecture columnist for the Tribune, tells me, ‘This book is a cautionary tale that Chicago continues to overlook as we continue to squander our architectural legacy on a regular basis.’
“Chicago was in his blood and he traveled here often, increasingly troubled by the wrecking ball that was destroying so many of the fond sites of his youth, such structures as the Chicago Stock Exchange, North Western Railway Station, the Mecca, Palmer ‘castle’ and Diana Court.
“Kamin points out a paragraph from the ‘Lost Chicago’ preface that perfectly captures his feelings: ‘They were an incomparable heritage mindlessly squandered, pieces of gold minted by the fathers and thrown away by the sons. I could not save them in their concrete form, but I was determined that somehow I would preserve their spirit. I would do it in the one way I could, by writing a book that would reveal them and their architectural predecessors in all their glory. Perhaps, by showing the splendor which has been lost, I might, in some small way, help to preserve that splendor not yet departed.’
“Lowe had begun writing seriously about architecture in the 1960s for magazines and those stories eventually led to the publication of ‘Lost Chicago.’ There were low expectations for the book, with New York-based Houghton Mifflin printing fewer than 1,000 copies. But one of those found its way into the hands of the Tribune’s Paul Gapp, the paper’s then-new architecture critic. In a full-page review, he wrote in part that the book was ‘one of the best (and in some respects unexcelled) pictorial essays on the city ever produced.’ (Kogan, Chicago Tribune, 10/24/24)
David Lowe was long-standing personal friend of Ward Miller, Preservation Chicago, and many within the Chicago preservation community. Jason Selch and Ward Miller spoke at David’s funeral reception along with others to honor and celebrate his life and legacy. He was the recipient of a Preservation Chicago Honor Award which he was fond of mentioning. Lost Chicago has never been out of print. David was a great preservationist, a great person, and will be greatly missed!
Read the full obituary at The Chicago Tribune
- In memoriam: Celebrating the life of ‘Lost Chicago’ author David Garrard Lowe and his love affair with Chicago, Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune, 10/23/24
- David Garrard Lowe, Defender of Historic Architecture, Dies at 91; For over 50 years, as a historian, lecturer and author, he fought to protect Beaux-Arts buildings in New York and Chicago from falling to the developer’s wrecking ball. For over 50 years, as a historian, lecturer and author, he fought to protect Beaux-Arts buildings in New York and Chicago from falling to the developer’s wrecking ball, Clay Risen, The New York Times, 10/12/24
- Remembering David Garrard Lowe, whose book ‘Lost Chicago’ helped the city find itself; Lowe’s 1975 book became a battle hymnal of the city’s nascent preservation movement, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 10/15/24
- The Memory Collector: Lost Chicago, Geoffrey Johnson, Chicago Magazine, 1/18/13
- The David Garrard Lowe Interview, Claire Zulkey, Zulkey A Website, 12/9/2005