Berwyn Style (changes in bold and underlined)

• Remove your window bars, security doors, and glass block: nothing that you own is worth having a pitiful home.
• Gustav Stickley did not make kitchen hardware for your bungalow. (best one!)
• Keep interior walls dark: white walls are for bathrooms, do you want your dining room to look like a bathroom?
• Your roof should be red or green unless you have specific proof to the contrary.
• Most of the generic furniture and accessories we collect were made by teenagers: teach your kids to create and save a bundle.
• A house without a porch is like a woman without a nose, don’t brick in your bungalow porch!
• Anything over two cats yews is mental illness.
• If your house is too small, you have too much stuff.
• Almost every bungalow, when new, was decorated by someone who had not even heard of the Gamble House. Use places such as this as an inspiration to quality, not as a motif.
• If a tradesman says “it can’t be done” fire him for his lack of vision.
• Plant climbing roses and native prairie plants.
• Good restoration is a series of modest projects done well: more history was destroyed by spending too much money than by not enough.

For those of you not familiar with the original manifesto, a number of years back, Erik Hanson wrote a Bungalow Manifesto that quickly became very popular with bungalow owners. 

Erik Hanson’s Original Bungalow Manifesto, recovered from archive.org

• Remove your window bars and security doors: nothing that you own is worth having a pitiful home.
• Gustav Stickley did not make kitchen hardware for your bungalow.
• Keep interior walls dark: white walls are for bathrooms, do you want your dining room to look like a bathroom?
• Your roof should be red or green unless you have specific proof to the contrary.
• Most of the generic furniture and accessories we collect were made by teenagers: teach your kids to create and save a bundle.
• A house without a porch is like a woman without a nose.
• Anything over two cats is mental illness.
• If your house is too small, you have too much stuff.
• Almost every bungalow, when new, was decorated by someone who had not even heard of the Gamble House. Use places such as this as an inspiration to quality, not as a motif.
• If a tradesman says “it can’t be done” fire him for his lack of vision.
• Plant climbing roses.
• Good restoration is a series of modest projects done well: more history was destroyed by spending too much money than by not enough. 

FIRST WEEK OF MAY DECLARED BUNGALOW APPRECIATION WEEK IN ILLINOIS:

Berwyn, IL – It’s no secret that the bungalow has played a significant role in the City of Berwyn’s history with hundreds built in Berwyn between 1920 and 1930. For over a century, the bungalow has provided Berwyn residents with many benefits including home ownership, walkable neighborhoods and convenient access to Chicago.

The City of Berwyn continues to encourage its bungalow owners by providing resources to help with the restoration of their homes. Berwyn’s bungalows have been honored in several publications including American Bungalow Magazine and This Old House Magazine.

In order to celebrate the bungalow, a state senate resolution was read in the 97th General Assembly of the State of Illinois on March 8, 2012 proclaiming the first week in May as Bungalow Appreciation Week in the State of Illinois.

Berwyn resident and Chairman of the board of the City of Homes Organization (COHO) Nasri AbiMansour stated “The declaration of Bungalow Appreciation week serves to remind us how central this particular style of housing is to providing Berwyn with its character and sense of place. For almost 100 years, these houses have served us as spacious, efficient and affordable homes. We hope that this declaration will encourage and promote their use for the next 100 years.”

Berwyn City Councilman Cesar Santoy who helped advance the legislation stated, “I am grateful and appreciative to work with State Senator Martin Sandoval to advance the adoption of the proclamation. Berwyn’s stock of bungalow houses are an integral part of our community. This initiative furthers our effort to recognize, maintain, and preserve our quality housing stock.”

In case you have not heard, I-GO car sharing now has a location in Berwyn. 

You have until February 29 (yes that’s an extra day) to sign up for a joint Chicago Card Plus I-GO card for use on the CTA and in I-GO Car Sharing vehicles and you will receive $50 in transit credit and a heavily discounted I-GO membership.

The Chicago Card Plus I-GO card is the only one of its kind in the nation, allowing a seamless transfer between public transit and a car sharing vehicle.

Here are the Chicago Card Plus I-GO incentives at a glance:

• Ends February 29, 2012
• Applicants must be new I-GO members and pass a driving record check
• I-GO membership is $15 (a savings of $60)
• $50 in transit fare credit loaded to card within 10 days after application approval.

The Cook County Department of Environmental Control is administering the program in coordination with the Center of Neighborhood Technology. Funding for this initiative is made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to promote sustainable transportation options.

Click HERE to enroll in the program.

If you are already an I-GO member and you would like to switch to the new program, click HERE.

2011 has been a great year for the City of Homes Organization. What started as a grass roots effort to preserve and promote our bungalows quickly became a full-fledged 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting the preservation, redevelopment, adaptive reuse and continued viability of Berwyn’s historic housing stock.

So what have we done so far?

1. We spearheaded Berwyn’s first ever presence at the Historic Chicago Bungalow and Green Home Expo at the Merchandise Mart.
2. We supported the Why Berwyn outreach at Halsted Market Days
3. We promoted Berwyn bungalows to a group of local real estate professionals and the Chicago Association of Realtor
4. We received extensive media coverage (radio and print) of our efforts, including an article on the first page of the Chicago Tribune real estate section
5. We received a Healthy People 2020 community innovations grant
6. We presented three Bungalows on Tap seminars at Fitzgerald’s Nightclub
7. We presented at a ward meeting, city council meetings, and an All Berwyn Committee meeting.
8. We partnered with the Berwyn Historical Society at Oktoberfest
9. We mapped all Berwyn blocks that are predominantly bungalow blocks
10. We worked with the Berwyn Historic Preservation Commission to make it easier for homeowners to nominate their properties as local historic landmark, which in turn will allow them to take advantage of the Historic Property Tax Assessment Freeze.  
11. We developed bungalow design guidelines with the assistance of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency

All of this would not have been possible without the support of our Board of Directors, our volunteers, and the businesses and organizations that support us. We would particularly like to thank the Berwyn Development Corporation, Fitzgerald’s Nightclub, Autre Monde Café and Spirits, Tamale Hut Café, the Community Bank of Oak Park and River Forest, Jack’s Rental and the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency, as well as our great volunteers for all their support.

Healthy People 2020

While the primary focus of CoHo is supporting and promoting adaptive reuse and preservation of historic homes, we recognize that this provides us a unique opportunity to be a driver of environmental justice and health equity initiatives as it relates to housing. As we promote historical preservation and restoration, we are concerned that do-it-yourself inclined residents are faced with the dilemma of either exposing themselves to lead, or removing important historical elements of their house, such as windows.  We proposed a program to support health equity for Berwyn residents and the HP2020 goals of lead poisoning elimination and reduction of lead-based paint hazards.  We were awarded a grant to develop an outreach program for residents working on historical properties that include lead safe practices education as well as the availability, at heavily subsidized rental rates, of HEPA negative air machines and HEPA vacuums.  The program will begin in early 2012, so follow us on Facebook or make sure to sign up for our newsletter on www.cityofhomes.org for updates.