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Lynn Becker's writings on architecture have appeared in the Chicago Reader, the Harvard Design Magazine, Long Island Newsday, Metropolis Magazine, and on his daily blog. He has appeared on WTTW's Chicago Tonight, and on radio on Edward Lifson's Hello, Beautiful on WBEZ, and Milt Rosenberg's Extension 720 on WGN radio, and lectured at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Arts Club of Chicago. He is available, and often actually coherent, for talks, as well as tours of Chicago architecture: personal, group or corporate. Please inquire here. Tuesday, October 14th 12:15 - 1:00 P.M. - REGREEN–Residential Green Remodeling Guidelines - lecture by Laureen Blissard, at the Chicago Architecture Foundation 1:00 P.M. - Chicago Community Development Commission - monthly meeting 1:00 - 3:00 P.M. - Planning Successful Ownership and Leadership Transitions - program with Michael Strogoff at AIA/Chicago 5:30 P.M. - Employer-Assisted Housing - lecture by Robin Snyderman at APA/Chicago 5:30 - 7:30 P.M. - Shanghai Transforming - opening reception for new exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Foundation 6:00 P.M. - Garden Roofing–After You Waterproof - presentation with Dan Whitney at the Chicago Center for Green Technology Wednesday, October 15th 7:30 - 9:45 A.M.- Crains Real Estate Forum with architect Jeanne Gang - at the Chicago Club 8:00 A.M., registration, 8:30 program, 9:15 A.M., awards presentation - Playing the Game of Chess: Future Challenges for Real Estate Development - ULI/Chicago event at the Union League 12:15 P.M. - New Developments in Shanghai - CAF lunchtime lecture Dr. Xiao Chun Zhang and Dr. Xiang Ning Li, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University 6:00 - 9:00 P.M. - ARE Study Hall - at AIA Chicago 7:00 - 8:30 P.M. - Home Lifestyle Electronics - presentation by John Baumeister, at the Oak Park Public Library Thursday, October 16th 12:00 - 1:00 P.M. - Polycarbonate is All Around You - AIA/Chicago event at the Chicago Bar Association 12:15 - 1:00 P.M. - Enriching the Prairie Spirit: The design studio in Park Ridge Illinois of Alfonso Iannelli - Landmarks Illinois Preservation Snapshots lecture by Sam Guard, at the Chicago Cultural Center 1:00 P.M. - Chicago Plan Commission -monthly meeting 4:30 - 6:00 P.M. - Tour: Advocate Lutheran General Hospital Bed Tower -AIA Chicago event at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge 5:30 P.M., reception, 6:30 P.M., program - Shanghai Transforming: New Development Opportunities -Chicago ARchitecture Foundation and Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate event, at Roosevelt University 6:00 - 8:00 P.M., program - What Makes My Home Energy Efficient?s -presentation by Paul Knight at the Chicago Center for Green Technology Saturday, October 18th 11:00 - 11:30 A.M. - Curator Talk: BOOM TOWNS! Chicago Architects Design New Worlds - potentially coherent talk by Lynn Becker, at the Chicago Architecture Foundation
Panorama of Modern Brazilian Architecture Chicago's Carbide and Carbon Building: The Lost Blueprints Cecil Balmond: Solid Void Smart Home: Green + Wired |
Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Sobek, Baker, Beman, Florian, CNU, Iannelli and more - over 60 architectural events on October Calendar
I must be sick. It's not even Halloween, and we're already posting October's calendar of architectural events. We promise to try to get back into our usual sloppy routine next month.So what do you get in October? I have just one word for you: polycarbonate (it's all around you, you know.) Plus, there's Solon S. Beman and Christian Science, Werner Sobek and SOM's William Baker at IIT, Preston Scott Cohen and Paul Florian at UIC, CNU Illinois' 2008 conference, Frank Lloyd Wright at Florida Southern, Shanghai Transforming, a new exhibition at CAF, Alfonso Iannelli, a Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture office tour, and a review of recently designated or proposed Chicago landmark. There are over 60 architectural events on the October calendar. Check it all out here. Join me next Tuesday, September 23rd for Boom Towns! Well, it's Show Time! Boom Towns! Chicago Architects Design New Worlds, designed by Jason Pickleman, one of Chicago's hottest young talents, opens next Tuesday, September 23rd, with a reception at the CAF, 224 South Michigan, from 5:30 to 7:30 P.M. You're all invited, dear readers, and I'm pretty sure you'll have a good time. I long ago lost all objectivity about this project, but I think the concept Greg and I And so we have, for example, Solon Bemen's largely forgotten 1890 Grand Central Station, pictured to the left in the banner at the top of this article, paired with Murphy/Jahn's spectacular Suvarnabhumi William LeBaron Jenney's Home Insurance building, often cited as the world's first true skyscraper, is paired with SOM's Burj Dubai, now the world's tallest building, and Ross Wimer's twisting Infinity Tower in Dubai.
Louis Sullivan's 1893 Stock Exchange Building matches up with Goettsch Partner's new stock 1890's legendary Mecca Flats, on a site now occupied by Mies van der Rohe's Crown Hall on the IIT campus, is contrasted with Studio/Gang's spectacular residential tower in Hyderabad, India. The company town of Pullman, on Chicago's far south side, finds its modern counterpart in a very different kind of company town, Abu Dhabi's Masdar City, where Smith+Gill Architects' hugely innovative Masdar Headquarters is a city-within-a-city that is designed to produce And Burnham and Root's 1892 Masonic Temple, at the time of its construction the world's tallest building and including what was perhaps the world's first vertical shopping mall, is compared to Xintiandi, Ben Wood's highly influential project that uses traditional Chinese architecture to create an innovative These are all the spectacular projects. If it turns out we sometimes fail to do themfull justice, blame me, because everyone at CAF, from curator Greg Dreicer, to Mike Hollander who assembled the images (a herculean task, believe me), editor Katherine Keleman, program directors Barbara Gordon and Whitney Moeller, CAF President Lynn Osmond and the entire staff and, of course, I'll be writing more about this project later, including a photo-essay on Pullman asit survives today, but it's now in your hands. Join me next Tuesday evening at CAF and you get to critique my work. But, as Deborah Kerr once said, "When you talk about this in the future, and you will talk about it, please be kind. . . " It's my first time. Boom Towns! Chicago Architects Design New Worlds opens Tuesday, September 23rd, 5:30 to 7:30 P.M., at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 South Michigan. The exhibition runs through November 21st. It's the 8th of the Month: Time for the September Calendar of Architectural Events!  Yeah, I know, we're late. Apologies to the folks at Pecha Kucha at not getting up the September calendar up in time to promote what was undoubtedly another fine outing. We still don't have absolutely everything in, but there are already over three dozen September events: Peter Eisenman at UIC, UIC's Robert Somol talking on Whatever at IIT, traditionalists massing at Navy Pier for a three day conference and exhibition, Landmarks Illinois's new President Jim Peters discussing the Chicagoland watch list, Thomas Corning on the construction of the 24 story addition rising above the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building, Rico Cedro and Gunny Harboe discussing the rehab of Mies van der Rohe's landmark 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Thomas Vietzke and Jens Borstelmann talking about Zaha Hadid's Nordpark, a panel on Communist Avant-Garde architecture at CAF, Jose Oubrerie and Sanford Kwinter in separate lectures at UIC, a gallery talk by yours truly on CAF's new exhibition Boom Towns! contrasting signature projects in 19th Century and 21st century Asia and the Middle East, , Rolf Achilles lecturing on 19th Century furniture at Glessner House, Preservation Chicago's big benefit at the Marmon Grand in the Motor Row Historic District, DLK's Diane Legge Kemp discussing planning in China's rust belt and much, much more. See all the events here. This is your underpass. Dead Mall Walking
A Chicago Glorious Fourth
Palmer House Facade Looking Good - interior, not so much
As a serial seducer lurks nearby, Renzo Piano's Nichols Bridgeway, which will join the Art Institute of Chicago to Millennium Park, crosses a major hurdle. See all the pictures here. As consideration of the Chicago Children's Museum move to Grant Park by the Chicago Plan Commission nears on Thursday, a summary exploration of why it's a bad idea. Read all about it here. Why Jack thinks it's a very good idea. Read all about it here. Every time the Chicago Children's Museum issues a new design intended to demonstrate how the project is responding to critics and getting better and better, the thing winds up only looking worse and worse. Read all about the current rampapalooza - and see the pictures - here.
Looptopia, Great Chicago Places, Goldberger, Dongtan and Darwin - It's the May Calendar of Architectural Events
What with Friday's allnighter Looptopia scattering theatre, music, art and spectacle all throughout the Loop, and this year's Great Chicago Places and Spaces in mid-month, there are literally hundreds of architectural events to choose from this May. Paul Golberger. Lee Bey. Leon Depres. Anthony Alofsin (Saturday night at Unity Temple). David Bahlman. Pearl River Tower. Asymptote's Lise Anne Couture. Design in the Age of Darwinism. Archeworks annual gala. The History of 'L'. The history of the Parking Garage. Restoring the world's largest Tiffany Dome. Garfield Park Conservatory. Presentations for SEOIA's excellence in engineering award. Cher. You get the idea. And there's lot more. Check it all out here. Staggered Truss: Not as Painful as it Sounds
Skyline Brides How many couples have found Chicago's lake and architecture to be the perfect backdrop for celebrating the most important day of their life? Click on the link to see just a few we've stumbled across over the last few years. The link . . . here From Adjaye to Mau and Marshall to hotels for fish - Over 60 Events on April Architectural Calendar Resistant to the cult of personality? All right, there's planning in China, Emily Roth on Unity Temple going green at 100, Benjamin and Cohen on their new book covering 50 years of great Chicago houses, the latest Archeworks papers, a new 306090 all about models that doesn't once mention Heidi Klum, a sustainable 2016 Olympics, Lucien Lagrange on LaSalle Street, E.C. Botti on restoring the Cultural Center's Tiffany Dome, SEAOI's annual Bridge Symposium, a CAF panel of preservationist illuminati, fish hotels on Michigan avenue - trust me, there's a lot. If you can't find something that peaks your interest, frankly, our relationship may have come to a serious impasse.. Check it all out here. Chicago: World's Greenest City - at least on St. Patrick's Day An associate of mine where I work was cleaning out our storage rooms  when he came across the distinctive artwork you see here. Looking it over, we were struck by the name on the stylized signature, "Iannelli", with three dots over the "i", and I immediately thought of Alfonso Iannelli, the sculptor who collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright at Midway Gardens. Read all about the beautiful posters Iannelli created for the Los Angeles Orpheum between 1911 and 1915, and about his contentious collaboration with Frank Lloyd Wright on Midway Gardens here. And a bit of Sally Rand and a lot about sprites, too.
Hoepf, Gang, Tigerman, Burnham, Rock, stone (carving), Name That Landmark and more on March Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events The Surreal Thing 250,000 LEGO's Can't be Wrong: Really BIG Shew at the Graham
Get My Drift?
The Chicago Spire: You loved the building, now buy the soundtrack
What do the Song of the Dwarves and Santiago Calatrava's 2,000-foot-high tower have in common? Read all about it, and how you can now be among the elect group of people (1,200 in all) owning a home in the world's tallest residential building - and see lots more pictures - here. Endgame for one of Chicago's Great Public Places? The Chicago Daily News Building, Holabird and Root's elegant Art Deco skyscraper from 1929, was the first building constructed over railroad air rights. With its broad graceful plaza, it was the first project not to turn its back on the Chicago River, but to embrace it. Now the Daily News Building is threatened with being cast in the shadows, and its great plaza destroyed, by a new office tower reportedly being considered by billionaire developer Sam Zell. Read all about the building's history, endangered present, and future potential, here. Marina City Curdles; Landmarks Commission Piddles Nothing says Marina City better than rows of garage doors and bricked up facades. No? Well, that's exactly what LaSalle Hotel Properties had in mind for its newest Marina City tenant, Dick's Last Resort. Read about the trashing of architect Bertrand Goldberg's masterpiece, the exchange of letters between the condo association and the developer, and the silence of a Chicago Landmarks Commission that seems more comfortable making lists of nice neighborhood firehouses than protecting the iconic buildings that have made Chicago architecture known and admired throughout the world here. New Archeworks leaders, SEED of Segura, Coudal and Lifson, Lee Bey's Unbuilt Chicago plus 30 more events on January Architectural Calendar
Christmas in Chicago, 2007 edition Pedro E. Guerrero's American Century It's a Gaudiful Life - December Architectural Events George ran the back of his hand across his mouth, as he was prone to do in times of great stress. "I just don't understand, Clarence, I just don't . . . wait a second, 1926. That's when I was working for Mr. Gower! I stopped him from writing that bum prescription that would have poisoned that kid. Goshdarnit, you showed me that yourself, Clarence - why, I was just a kid, myself. And a kid in Bedford Falls, don't forget. My folks wouldn't even let me go to Cleveland. Now how exactly was I supposed to be in Barcelona, Spain, halfway around the world, Clarence, just at the right moment to grab that guy's arm and say, Mr., Señor -however the heck you say it; I don't even speak Spanish, for the love of Pete - Mr. Gaudi, there's a big old streetcar coming, and you need to get out of the way before it slices you up like a salami. I'm getting a little tired, Clarence, listening to you just - - by golly, don't you think I've been responsible for enough horrible things happening in this town just by my crime of not being born? Do I have to take on the whole gothic hyperboloid weight of Sagrida Familia on my shoulders, too?" "Well, when you put it that way, George . . . never mind." [December 3, 2007] Devout Catholic though he may have been, I've never really equated the great Catalan architect with Father Christmas, but over the last few years he's become a holiday staple on the December calendar as the Gene Siskel Film Center, for the third year, is showing Woman of the Dunes director Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1985 documentary, Antonio Gaudi, the week before Christmas. The rest of month is shaping up as a mini book festival, with talks and signings at the Prairie Avenue Bookshop, for a new monograph on Carol Ross Barney's work, Doug Farr's new book on Sustainable Urbanism, and the issue of a reprint of Edward R. Garczynski's 1890 book on Adler & Sullivan's Auditorium Building, Over at CAF, there are lunchtime book signings for Greg Borzo's book The Chicago "L", Eric Bronsky and Neal Samors photobook, Chicago in Transition, David Stone's Classical Chicago Architecture, and Peter Exley's Design for Kids. Elsewhere, new director Sarah Herda is restarting public programs at the Graham Foundation with a lecture by Bjarke Inges at opening of its new exhibition, The Big CPH Experiment, Seven Architectural Species from the Danish Welfare State, while Randall Mattheis of Valeri Dewalt Train will discussing the firm's striking design for Garmin's Michigan Avenue store at a Friends of Downtown lecture, and Jim Peters of Landmarks Illinois will talk about a new survey of architecturally significant buildings on the North Shore covering 1935 to 1975. Glessner House holds its annual Prairie Avenue holiday festival this coming weekend, and there are parties and benefits galore. Check all of the events on the December calendar here. Nouvel Khan, Tatlin garnish Separated by four decades, the two towers offer up cogent and contrasting expressions of their respective era's. Read all about it, and see the pictures, here. The Age of Bilbao, Ten Years Out  photo: Worldy.infoArchitectureChicagoPlus correspondent, architect Iker Gil, reminds us that today is the ten year anniversary of one of the most pivotal dates in architectural history: the October 19th, 1997 opening of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. It was the day "The Bilbao Effect" drove the final spike through the heart of Post-Modernism, and the age of the Techno-Baroque was born. Read all about it - and see the photo-essay - here. A Forest Departs - Tree by Tree
Chicago's Children Museum "fundamentally misconceived" - Blair Kamin A Landmark Event: The Art Institute of Chicago Brings Marion Mahony Griffin's The Magic of America to the Web Read all about it - and see the pictures - here. Really Bad Photos of the Renderings the Chicago Children's Museum Doesn't Want You to See
A Portrait of Mayor Daley's "Nowhere"
That's what Mayor Richard M. Daley derisively calls Grant Park at Daley Bicentennial Plaza, at the east end of the Frank Gehry designed BP Bridge, in still another ploy in his increasingly desperate campaign to muscle a 100,000-square-foot building for the Chicago Children's Museum into that same park. See a photo-essay on the park Daley seeks to destroy here. Mayor Daley Rants and Rages; the Battle over Grant Park and the Chicago Children's Museum Explodes onto city's Front Pages and News Broadcasts Who knew? When I wrote my article that appeared in the Chicago Reader last week (and also below) about the clout-heavy, and increasingly under-handed campaign by the Chicago Children's Museum in support of its land grab in Grant Park, I didn't really expect the issue would only days later become one of the biggest battles this city has seen in years. On Monday, Mayor Richard M. Daley pre-empted 42nd ward alderman Brendan Reilly's announcement of his opposition to the museum's 100,000-square-foot building with an inflammatory rant villfying Reilly and charging opponents with being everything from child-haters to racists. From my blog, here's a blow-by-blow guide to the conflict, with links to articles by mainstream media within the stories. NEW TODAY [Saturday, September 22nd, 12:00 A.M.] The World Class Chicago's Children's Museum: We're Number 31! - "World Class Institution?" - Chicago Sun-Times and Parents Magazine beg to differ. [Friday, September 21st, 12:00 A.M.] Gigi Pritzker crawls into Richard M. Daley's gutter - if it's not really all about race, why can't the Chicago Children's Museum Board President stop talking about it? Tuesday, September 18th, 9:00 P.M.] Why is the Chicago Children's Museum Withholding Renderings of its New Building? - what is the CCM hiding? [Tuesday, September 18th, 6:00 P.M.] Daley the Demagogue [Tuesday, September 18th, 5:00 P.M.] Alderman Brendan Reilly's statement on the Chicago's Children Museum [Tuesday, September 18th, 11:00 A.M.] Reilly opposes Museum, risks ruin. Daley diverts discussion and grabs headlines with the Big Lie also, New Eastside Association of Neighbors' Richard F. Ward's web forum posting here. . . . and this is where we first came in: Forever Open Clear and Free (except when it comes to me) A Honest Critic's Credo - from a Surprising Source
Sixteen Short Pieces on A City Neighborhood It's Official - Calatrava's Chicago Spire Hole in the Ground The Road to Widgitdom
Toy Futures, plus Lego Sins of My Youth Theater Historian Joseph DuciBella Dies
Celebrating the anniversary of someone's death is something you'd think you'd wish only on an enemy, but we're always looking for any excuse for a good party. If a birthday So over the next few weeks, we're saying a big, "Here's to you, WLJ," with a series of events that commemorate the 100th anniversary of Jenney's passing, including a Saturday symposium at the Chicago History Museum, the dedication of a new Jenney monument at Graceland Cemetery, and a series of lectures at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Jenney's major claim to fame is as "The Father of the Skyscraper." Leroy Buffington may have been the first to patent the idea of a metal-frame building, but Jenney was the one who got it done, in the 1884 Home Insurance Building. Read all about Jenney - and see the pictures - here.Sao Paulo goes Martin Luther
Pope Benedict's current roadshow invocations against the Fleurs de Mal notwithstanding, it's hard to imagine Brazilians giving up sex, but perhaps even more difficult to imagine them giving up advertising - read all about it and see the pictures here.
[April 26, 2007] Photos (lots) and quotes from a press preview of Krueck and Sexton's spectacular new Spertus Institute, which brings Chicago's Michigan Avenue historic district into the 21st Century. Read and see all about it here. 1924 Lake Shore Athletic Club Being Railroaded to Extinction?
[April 12, 2007] Chicago's preservation bureaucracy appears well on the way to greasing the skids for the demolition of the elegant 1924 Lake Shore Athletic Club, designed by architect Jarvis Hunt. Its classically inspired facade fronts a richly ornamented interior, including a handsome marble staircase, two-story foyer, and carved marble fireplace. See more pictures, and read about the building and the 11th-hour efforts to save it, here. Myron Goldsmith, Quiet Poet of American Architecture
[April 9, 2007] You have only five more days to see an exhibition at the Arts Club of Chicago of the often astonishing work of master architect Myron Goldsmith. Read all about it and see the pictures here. The Architecture of Dreams and Waking
Uptown built as if it were going to conquer Chicago, but spent most of the following century battling a hangover. Today, it remains the place where florid ambition and cold reality collide. Read all about it, and see the pictures here. Santiago Explains it all for you There'll be a much more to come after we finish transcribing, including a full account of the proposals, prospects and designs for the long-unrealized DuSable Park, just east of the Spire, but for now, read our account on how Calatrava sat down next to an overhead projector, picked up a brush, and began creating watercolors to explain his concepts. ""Just working as I work in my office," Calatrava said, "bringing you into my office, and sitting you across from me and showing you how I would approach a thing like that, such an important thing, (through) a balance of very simple gestures." Read all about it, and see a sampling of the images to come, here. AIA Illinois Finally gets that whole"Best of" list thing right With 150 Great Places in Illinois, they've finally come up with a compilation that comes off neither as a joke nor as something a PR intern tossed off between assignments. It's a great combination of usual suspects and unexpected discoveries, and it's all available on an addictive, informative and superbly designed website. Read all about it and see some of the photos here. Studio/Gang's Aqua Begins to Flow
[March 19, 2007] It's actually happening. Aqua, the rippling 82-story tower designed by Studio/Gang's Jeanne Gang and Mark Schendel is beginning to rise on its site at Columbus and Lake in Magellan Development's massive Lakeshore East complex. You usually don't see all the things that go into a skyscraper laid out before you like a jigsaw puzzle ready to be assembled, but that was the case this weekend, as crews from McHugh Construction, the contractor of record for the project, were preparing for the sinking of the cassions that will support the tower. See the pictures here. Green River Redux I'm sure I'll be taking a lot more pictures, but to help get you in the mood, here's last year's photo essay on Chicago's annual rolling out of an emerald carpet for the city's architecture. (Recycling - what a concept!) Mies van der Rohe devoured by Giant Dinosaur Astounding and Shocking Details Here o mention them all here, but you can check it all out here. Endgame: Is the Fix in for the Farwell Building? In January, to general astonishment, the Commission on Chicago Well, we can't have that, can we? A special session has been set for 9:00 A.M. on Thursday, March 8th to reverse the January vote. Read all about how power works in this city, including the developers and architects who are cutting the big checks to the local alderman promoting the Farwell's demolition here. Young? Chicago? Listomania To mark its 150th anniversary, the American Institute of Architects has proclaimed 150 structures as America's Favorite Architecture. Laughter and ridicule ensue. Feel free to join the fun. I do my part here. Urbanlab Wins City of the Future
Thursday, February 8th: It was announced this morning that Chicago firm Urbanlab has won the $10,000 first prize in the History Channel's The City of the Future Competition, for their vision of the Chicago of 2106. The winner was selected by the public via the City of the Future website. The award was announced by architect Daniel Libeskind, who served as "national competition juror." "UrbanLab is thrilled to have been named the National Winner of the City of the Future competition," said the firm's Martin Felsen, "especially considering the high caliber of ideas and proposals generated by the competition participants. We'd like to thank The History Channel for providing such an important forum, at a pivotal time, for an open discussion of future design directions of our cities. Read my take on the competition, and see the pictures here. To Catch a Thief - Do You Know This Man? Is there anything lower - and more pathetic - than a dour young man who lifts what he thinks is a valuable newel post from one of Chicago's greatest landmark buildings and walks away with it stuffed into his backpack? Below is pictured just such a man: 2007 Chicago Prize, Seattle Olympic Sculpture Garden's Marion Weiss at Art Institute Tonight Beginning at 5:30 P.M. tonight, Thursday, January 25th, over 80 entries to the Chicago Architectural Club's 2007 Chicago Prize Kamin unveils latest design for Calatrava's Chicago Spire Less than a week after it was withheld from a packed public meeting, Santiago Calatrava's latest design for the 2,000-foot-high Chicago Spire is unveiled by Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin. Read all about it - and see the pictures - here. Calatrava Spire Enshrouded in Irish Fog Donald Trump step aside. Garrett Kelleher may be the most Extreme Makeover, North Lawndale Style Tonight's (Sunday, January 14th, 7 P.M.) installment of ABC's
In a vote that appeared to shock both city planners and preservationists, a proposal to strip the facade from the landmark Farwell building, store, repair and reassemble it on a new building, was today defeated in a close vote by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. Read the update post here or read the original article on the controversy here. Future of Landmarking in Chicago to be Decided Today? The Commission on Chicago Landmarks will be meeting today, Thursday, January 4th beginning at 12:45 P.M. in a session open to Is landmarks preservation in Chicago going the way of the dinosaur? We may only be starting to get a handle on 2007, but already the Commission on Chicago Landmarks is scheduled to take a Thursday vote that stands to reverse the results of decades of struggle, and leave all but a handful of Chicago's finest buildings open to demolition. Do I exaggerate? I wish that I were. Please read on.
The 2006 top ten in Chicago architecture (illuminated) Universally, Christmas is a celebration of darkness over light. We may just have a more bulbs than most. See all the pictures here. Frank Lloyd Wright's Pacific Overture Frank's Home, a new play by Richard Nelson at Chicago's Goodman Theatre
by It's Not Bombed-Out Berlin - It's Our Legacy!
Massive Change and it's accompanying exhibition, Sustainable Architecture in Chicago: Works in Progress, showcasing green projects from seven top Chicago architects, are in their final weeks at the Museum of Contemporary Art. (Massive closes December 31st, Sustainable January 7th) What's the disconnect between the wonders on display and their actual impact on our world? Is Mau's grandiose vision a roadmap to paradise or a triumph of public relations? Read all about it - including Mau's commentary as he toured his exhibition - with lots of pictures and links, for both shows - here. Calatrava's Latest Twist from Spire to Licorice Stick
At a session that begins at 11:00 A.M. this Thursday morning , One of the most important complex of buildings in Chicago's history, Marina City, known for its twin, 578-feet high "corncob" towers each that have become an icon of the city throughout the world. It has no official landmark protection, and the base of the pioneering mixed used development's hotel has recently undergone a unfortunate repainting. Read all about the battle to protect Chicago's rich modernist legacy here. |
Underpasses stink. And I'm not sure I really want to know what that smell is. Is there a more destructive - and more ignored -bit of urban infrastructure?
The American Institute of Steel Construction brings an innovative new engineering technique to Chicago. Valerio Dewalt Train sexes it up. Read all about it, and see what the thing will look like when it's finished, plus other pictures, 
From David Adjaye (at both IIT and Chase auditorium for CAF) to Bruce Mau and Kerry James Marshall at the Art Institute and Neil Denari at UIC, there's over 60 great events on the April calendar. You want more? How about Ross Wimer talking about SOM's future, Bill Donnell talking about his 30 years as owner of the Monadnock Building, Sulan Kolatan, Rocio Romero, Brian Goeken, Sylvia Lavin, a Vince Michael trifecta, Robert Bruegmann, and Smith and Gill.
Bagli, Bates, Betsky, Dunn and Felsen, Eifler, Ingels, Jacob, Kipnis, Maddox, Mau, Ryan, Wilkinson, Woodhouse: have we said enough? They're all on the February calendar of Chicago architectural events which, with over 45 items, is densing up to the point of traffic jams such as Cincinnati Museum of Art Director Aaron Betsky and Sam Jacob of London's FAT {Fashion, Architecture and Taste] squaring off against each other, at different locales, 6:00 P.M. February 18th. Jacob's appearance is part of a crackjack list of lectures booked by the School of Architecture at UIC, which this month also includes Bjarke Ingels of Copenhagen's BIG, and Donald Bates of Melbourne's LAB Architecture Studio.
beautiful and often iconic pictures of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Alexander Calder and Louis Nevelson, among others, with a memoir that provides both the stories behind the shots and the poignant saga of the trials and triumphs of his Mexican-American immigrant family. 
[July 1, 2007] Restoration designer and architecture historian Joseph DuciBella, ASID, died last Friday, June 29th at the age of 62, after a prolonged battle with cancer. Read about his achievements, and see photos of some of his work, 
Los Angeles, the second, he died. He has remained dead now, give or take a week or so, for one hundred years.
isn't available in a large round number, a death can be made to make do.
actually be moving towards the final design for the Chicago Spire, their 2,000 foot high tower to be built on a derelict peninsula between the Chicago River, Ogden slip, and Lake Michigan.
Landmarks flashed a bit of backbone and voted down a Planning Department proposal to demolish the landmarked Farwell Building on north Michigan Avenue.
The firm had already won $10,000 for winning the Chicago leg of competition, and now wins the additional $10,000 for beating out entries from similar competitions in New York and Los Angeles.
competition, Crossing the Drive, will be on display in the Louis Sullivan Trading Room on the Columbus side of the Art Institute. Beginning around 6:30, Jury Chair Marion Weiss will announce the winners and deliver a keynote lecture that will, it is hoped, touch on her firm's Olympic Sculpture Park, which just opened in Seattle to international raves. Read more about it, check out the links, and see some pictures- 
confident developer on the face of the earth. Monday night - January 15th - the man behind the proposed Chicago Spire, the twisting 2,000-foot-high tower from superstar architect Santiago Calatrava - flew in from Ireland to present his project to a meeting sponsored by the Grant Park Advisory Council. But in patiently – mostly - taking on questions from an overwhelmingly enthusiastic crowd that braved snow, ice and cold to pack Daley Bicentennial Plaza fieldhouse just east of Millennium Park, he raised as many questions as he answered. Read all about it - and see the pictures - 
the pubic to be held in Cook County Commission Board Room on the 5th floor at 118 North Clark. In deciding the fate of The Farwell Building, an officially designated landmark, it will be setting a precedent that could open the door for a wave of demolitions of current landmarks. Read the update 
A new headquarters for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Washington, D.C. raises questions about the message of federal architecture in a time of the war against terror. Read all about it 
Richard Nelson starring Peter Weller and Harris Yulin captures Frank Lloyd Wright at the point between despair and resurrection. Read all about it 
The brilliant graphics designer Bruce Mau says his exhibition 
architect Lynette Stuhlmacher of Docomomo Midwest and Lisa DiChiera from Landmarks Illinois will recommend that Bertrand Goldberg's Marina City complex be designated an official city landmark.
