“Stepping out of the elevator onto the 14th floor of the Richard J. Daley Center, Sheriee Woodland was greeted by a world-famous panorama of high-rise architecture.

The Chicago Temple Building, Holabird & Root’s 23 story, neo-Gothic masterpiece; Kohn Pederson Fox’s “Birthday Cake Building” at 311 S. Wacker; and The Legacy, Solomon Cordwell and Buenz’s 72-story condominium tower of ocean-blue glass, were a few of the many well-maintained buildings that looked back through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

But Woodland was at the Daley Center because of a different high-rise. She was on her way to eviction court.

In her early sixties, she walked into the courtroom with her son Bo to contest her eviction from 1230 N. Burling, the last crumbling high-rise at the Cabrini-Green housing development on the near north side of Chicago. Months before its emergency closing order from CHA, she and her son were accompanied by activists from RUSH (Residents United to Save Housing) and the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign for a more personal reason.”

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1230 N. Burling, Photograph by David Schalliol