When Jim Gorski was growing up on Chicago’s Southeast Side, he admired the beautiful homes that lined Longwood Drive in Beverly. 
Now, as a Chicago architect and Beverly resident, Gorski has helped pull together an exhibit that celebrates what he calls “arguably, the most significant architectural neighborhood in the city of Chicago.” 
Beverly’s diverse and distinct building designs, as well as its history and plans for the future, will be celebrated during “Elevation: The Rise of Beverly/Morgan Park,” an exhibition that opens Sunday and continues through December at the Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St.
The exhibit aims to tell the story of how the impressive elevation of the highest hill in Chicago came to be, and how it continues to inspire the architecture and culture of
the community.
It is the BAC’s contribution to the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, a citywide exploration of how the past, present and future converge to create Chicago’s neighborhoods. The Chicago Cultural Center is the central location for the biennial, but the BAC, Hyde Park Art Center, DuSable Museum and National Museum of Mexican Art will represent the South Side as exhibition anchors. 
The BAC will showcase Beverly, a neighborhood that boasts three Chicago landmark districts as well as the Ridge Historic District, one of the largest urban districts on the National Register of Historic Places, Gorski said. 
While he hopes “Elevation” draws national and international attendees of the downtown exhibit, Gorski said, “For the local people, I see this more as a celebration of the neighborhood, something that will make people proud of where they live. We have this architectural jewel box on the South Side.
“Beverly is unique in that it is a city neighborhood but its inception is based on the last Ice Age and the glacier that came through and formed Lake Michigan,” he said. 
Some 15,000 years ago, Beverly and Morgan Park made up an island in glacial Lake Michigan. The east edge of the island was what is today Longwood Drive. Today, the west side of that street rises as a ridge, while the east side is much low-er. 
“When the first settlers came here they immediately recognized the beauty of the topography and landscape,” he said. 
With the help of the Ridge Historical Society, Gorski said, he was able to make the first section of “Elevation” about the geologic formation and early real estate development of the area, he said. It includes a 4-foot-by-24-foot topographic model of the island that was once the neighborhood.
The middle section is more artistic in nature, featuring the photography of Rebecca Healy. 
Healy, who teaches at Homewood-Flossmoor High School and formerly taught at the BAC, said, “We wanted to showcase the diversity. Beverly has such a diverse collection of buildings by different architects that reflect different styles.”
Not only are the residences along the ridge beautiful and stately, she said, “there are a lot of noteworthy contributions in terms of architecture. There were several Frank Lloyd Wright buildings that we included in the show, one in particular is on the west side of Longwood.” 
“Elevation” opens at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Simmerling Gallery at the BAC. Biennial exhibits in other BAC gallery spaces will feature watercolors of neighborhood institutions by artist Judie Anderson and architectural photographs by Mati Maldre. 
Gorski said the exhibit is “a kind of call to arms. OK, we have this great place but what’s next? What are we going to do to bring it up to the next level?” 
dvickroy@tribpub.com