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Huge House Coming Through! Crews Begin Move of Historic South Loop Home

By Lizzie Schiffman Tufano | October 1, 2014 5:31am | Updated on October 2, 2014 8:10am
Rees House Coach House Moves Up the Street
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DNAinfo/Lizzie Schiffman

SOUTH LOOP — The Harriet F. Rees House has stood at 2110 S. Prairie Ave. since 1888. But the landscape around it has changed dramatically, and is poised to evolve further with plans to build a new entertainment district around McCormick Place.

The 126-year-old house is in the middle of the action.

Rather than bulldoze the nationally recognized landmark building, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority will begin a two-month process to scootch the home and its coach house a block north Wednesday.

"It's rewarding to be given the opportunity to handle a once-in-a-lifetime project such as the Rees house," said Allan Bulley Jr., chairman and CEO of Bucktown-based Bulley & Andrews, the project's construction manager. "It was built just three years before my grandfather founded Bulley & Andrews, and it's a privilege to be a part of the same history of Chicago."

 The Rees coach house on wheels will be moved down Prairie Avenue Wednesday.
The Rees coach house on wheels will be moved down Prairie Avenue Wednesday.
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DNAinfo/Lizzie Schiffman

Lizzie Schiffman details some of the history of Rees House:

The house's destination at 2017 S. Prairie Ave., across the street on the block's east side, "is not a perfect area, but it definitely is one of the better choices for where it could have gone," according to Tina Feldstein, president and executive director of the Prairie District Neighborhood Association.

"Being close to the opposite side of the street, it loses its light," Feldstein said. "It was designed to be a house with southern exposure."

"But at this point, it's an acceptable solution for moving it. It stays within the context of the Prairie District, which is important," Feldstein said, calling the compromise "a win for the neighborhood, and for the house, and for the owners."

The 187-ton (364,000-pound) brick coach house will start the moving process Wednesday morning as crews guide it down Prairie Street on six automated dollies. The move is expected to take eight hours and is being coordinated by Bulley and Andrews, Thornton Tomasetti and Wolfe House and Building Movers, with Landmarks Illinois' blessing.

It took two weeks to prep the coach house for the move, according to Wolfe's midwest estimator Peter Brubaker, who said the cost of the whole project is "in the seven figures."

The process involved digging out some of the coach house's foundation and sliding in a lattice work of steel beams, then slipping hydraulic lifters under the beams to ratchet the house above ground level uniformly.

The house will move down the street at one to three miles per hour, though one Wolfe mover said that "on the turns, we'll be going so slow you won't be able to see the wheels moving."

The 400-foot move will be repeated with the main house during the week of Nov. 3, according to the latest schedule issued by Bulley and Andrews, which is subject to change.

 The Rees House enjoys its final days at 2110 S. Prairie Ave.
The Rees House enjoys its final days at 2110 S. Prairie Ave.
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DNAinfo/Lizzie Schiffman

Both moves will require street closures and limit parking around Prairie Avenue on and off through mid-November.

In addition to the "two years of construction hell" that Feldstein said will plague South Loop residents as the development comes together, the neighborhood group leader said the only other loss for the community was the removal of all the trees on Prairie Avenue to make way for the Rees House move, though they'll be replaced with new plantings when the project is complete.

"All the trees are coming out on Prairie Avenue basically between 21st and Cullerton," Feldstein said. "We're sad to lose those mature trees ... but we're looking at the kind of trees we're replacing them with from the Forestry Department."

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