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Beloved 'Windy City' Sculpture on Central Avenue Dismantled [PHOTOS]

By Ed Komenda | December 1, 2015 6:26am

GARFIELD RIDGE — Just after 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Mike Kuper asked his shop foreman a question he hadn't been looking forward to: "You ready to go outside?"

That meant it was time to take down his beloved "Windy City" sculpture, a South Side fixture that spent almost two decades on a stretch of Central Avenue between Midway Airport and the Stevenson Expressway before Kuper got the news from his landlord his building would be knocked down to make room for a FedEx terminal.

Kuper, the sculpture's 62-year-old creator and boss of K-3 Welding at 4840 S. Central Ave., had stayed positive, knowing he has a place to go at the company's new location: 814 W. 120th St. The sculpture will go, too. It eventually be put back outside for all to see, although Kuper can't say when.

But as he stepped into the frigid cold Saturday morning, loosening the bolts anchoring his beloved "Windy City" to the ground, emotions consumed him.

"It got me," Kuper said. "It got me."

The Sculpture's Origin

Sometime in 1996, Kuper visited a scrap yard in Manitowoc, Wis., where he spotted what looked like an airplane propeller. It turned out to be an impeller — a rotating set of blades you'll find inside a jet engine.

Kuper planned to fashion the titanium piece into a table.

Until inspiration for "Windy City" struck him and the art was created.

How did the sculpture get a face in the first place? 

The welders Kuper ordered to construct the sculpture had one request: "Can we put a face on it?" His answer: Why not?

See the dismantling of the sculpture in the photos below:

When Kuper designed "Windy City," he made sure to build slots for forklift blades — just in case he had to move the swirly hunk of metal somewhere else.

A K-3 Welding shop foreman had to loosen the bolts keeping the sculpture's head on straight.

Kuper kept a close watch on the forklift as it backed toward the garage with the top half of the sculpture.

"It's sacrilegious," Kuper said, watching the top half of Windy City roll away. "It's like it's headless now."

Kuper designed a rounded piece of metal shaped to fit snugly under the sculpture's bottom for an easy lift.

It took some wiggling, but the forklift eventually drove the hook into place.

"It's like watching your dreams come true," Kuper said. "That's how I dreamed it would work."

Kuper stands in front the shop and the aluminum sign that once hung above the front door of his office, where he spent 34 years in business.

All Photos by DNAinfo/Ed Komenda

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