- Credibility:
WICKER PARK — A 22-year-old woman was struck by falling debris from a Wicker Park building Wednesday evening, less than three weeks after the city ordered the property owner to make emergency repairs to its facade.
Large portions of the building’s facade at 1227 N. Milwaukee Ave. fell off around 6 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
The woman was hit in her head and taken to Stroger Hospital, police said. A department spokesperson had no updates on her condition Thursday.
The debris also hit a driver’s car going north along Milwaukee Avenue. The driver was uninjured, police said.
Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club ChicagoOn March 21, the Department of Buildings told the property owner to make repairs to the building following an anonymous 311 tip, a city spokesperson said.
The city instructed the building’s owner to install scaffolding above the sidewalk, hire an engineer to assess the building’s facade, and to “immediately engage a licensed masonry contractor to make emergency repairs,” according to a Buildings Department statement Thursday.
But as of Wednesday, the property owner had put up a “heavy-duty canopy” but had not made any of the required repairs, the city said.
“The Cook County Clerk’s records have Virgin Future Properties, LLC Series 5 as the owner of record for the property, and the Illinois Secretary of State’s records list Deborah M. Peterson as both the registered agent and manager of record for the LLC,” a city spokesperson said.
Peterson could not be immediately reached for comment.
The building owner has not responded to the city’s mandates to fix the structure. A court-appointed receiver has taken control of the building and was on site Thursday afternoon to begin repairs, a city spokesperson said.
The city will take additional enforcement actions against the owner, the spokesperson said, but did not specify what they would be.
Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club ChicagoA Wicker Park resident named Chris, who declined to give his last name, said Thursday he noticed scaffolding go up at the building a few weeks ago after a smaller amount of debris fell from the structure.
“Another chunk fell off about two weeks ago, which is why they put the scaffolding up. And then this happened yesterday,” he said.
Chris said he’s been avoiding the corner since, because he was afraid the rest of the facade could collapse too.
“It was just a couple of bricks laying on the ground. I walked past, I was like, ‘damn, it looks dangerous, and the rest of it looks like it could fall down as well,’” he said.
The building was formerly home to Value Pawn, but the storefront has sat vacant for several years.
Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club ChicagoSubscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods.
