Arcade Building
Riverside
Built under the supervision of William LeBaron Jenney in 1871, Riverside’s Arcade Building located at 1 Riverside Road is a mixed-use retail, residential and office building. It was a pioneering structure at the time of its construction: it was one of the first “shopping arcades” in the country. The Village of Riverside conferred local landmark status in 1993, but despite the property’s clear historic value, a series of owners who were unable or unwilling to sympathetically maintain the Arcade Building left it in disrepair by 2009, when it faced federal seizure and was listed on Landmarks Illinois’ Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois.
In 2010, the owner Giuseppe Zappani purchased the Arcade Building and worked quickly to restore it to its former glory using the Class L tax incentive program. A 1970s cement parge coat was removed to reveal the Cream City brick underneath, and damaged areas were infilled as needed with historic bricks. Several windows were returned to their original dimensions, including a prominent third-floor Gothic window. Perhaps the most significant restorative efforts took place on the roof, where asphalt shingles were replaced with slate, all chimneys were rebuilt and a central ornamental cupola was completely refabricated in copper.