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| Before: The derelict Dempster St. station in Skokie is ready for the wrecking ball. |
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| After: Cartoonist/animator J.J. Sedelmaier’s input helped to beautifully restore the 1924. |
While growing up in Evanston, the North Shore and Skokie Swift trains were an everyday part of the landscape to J.J. Sedelmaier. When those lines ended, the Dempster St. station in Skokie was ready for demolition.
When Sedelmaier, the famous New York-based animator and cartoonist (son of legendary director Joe Sedelmaier), heard about the CTA’s plan to demolish the station, he volunteered to help in the station’s preservation and renovation.
When he learned the developers hired the architectural firm of Anutnovich & Associates, which had transformed the old Reliance Building into the Burnham Hotel, “I called them up and introduced myself,” Sedelmaier says.
He ultimately sent them three bulging boxes of reference materials, including graphics and poster art he been collecting since trains caught his interest as a kid. He had also researched and written about North Shore art posters commissioned by the line’s founder prior to World War II.
Sedelmeier’s materials proved invaluable to the architects. “They didn’t know, for instance, that the roof had been green Spanish tile.” When the meticulous restoration was completed last month, he notes, “the station looked like it did in 1924.”
Headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., Sedelmaier created a package of 15 interstitial branding cartoons for Oxygen Network, and a Quilted Northern “quilters” spot for DDB/New York. He regularly draws a topical comic strip for Texas Monthly magazine.
Liz Laine reps Sedelmaier in the Midwest, 312/337-7766; visit www.jjsedelmaier.com.
