Media

Hardly celebrated as great architecture, the Tribune’s printing plant earned admiration for the trains that supply it. By  Neil Steinberg (Source)   Dec 8, 2022, 11:44am CST   Horace Nowell, 26, is a railfan, someone who enjoys watching and photographing trains. His passion led him to spend five years, off and on, building a model of Freedom Center, the printing plant that might soon be replaced by its new owner, Bally’s casino. Provided Honestly? I do not like anything about Freedom Center, the Chicago Tribune’s printing plant along the Chicago River. I do not like its expanse of blank brown brick walls. Nor its little lines of arched windows. I don’t even like its name, “Freedom Center,” dripping with the sham patriotism that the Tribune’s long-ago editor and publisher, Col. Robert McCormick, slathered over his particular brand of cornfed xenophobia. But then, I am not Horace Nowell. “I wish it could be saved,” said the 26-year-old. Don’t bet on that, though you might be able to place bets there someday. Last month, casino owner Bally’s bought the building and its 30-acre site near Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street, for $200 million, with plans to build a $1.7 billion casino complex there. Bally’s…