.,..

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, July 22nd 12:15 - 1:15.M. - - Greening the Office: Tips on How to Make a Workplace Eco-friendly - Chicago Architecture Foundation event 6:00 - 8:00 P.M. - - Ecological Design Colloquium - presentation by Bram Barth at the Chicago Center for Green Technology Wednesday, July 23rd 12:15 -1:00 P.M. - - The Restoration of the Blackstone Hotel - Lunchtime lecture by Lucien Lagrange, at CAF 6:00 - 9:00 P.M. - - ARE Study Hall -at AIA/Chicago Crombie Taylor, Aaron Siskind and the Adler and Sullivan project - through August 3, 2008, at Crown Hall, IIT Design in the Age of Darwin: From William Morris to Frank Lloyd Wright - through August 24, 2008, at the Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston Graphic Thought Facility: Resourceful Design - at the Art Institute, through August 17th XIX: 19th Century Design - at the ArchiTech Gallery, April 4th through August 30th. Smart Home: Green + Wired at the Museum of Science and Industry, through January 4th, 2009.

Web lynnbecker.com A Chicago Glorious Fourth A photoessay on a Chicago Glorious Fourth - a 2008 fourth, in point of fact - in flags and buildings and in the sky. See it all here. Pecha Kucha, Kerwin, Enquist, Gang, Sexton, Eifler, SEED, Prairie Avenue, Canstruction - 50 events on June Calendar Pecha Kucha celebrates its first birthday with volume 5 at Martyr's; Thomas Kerwin and Phillip Enquist talk on Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid Mark Sexton, John Eifler and Timothy Poell talk about glass and the Spertus, Trump Tower and Garfield Park Conservatory at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago's Green Permit program, Canstruction Chicago 2008 makes sculptures out of cans and feeds the hungry, Jeanne Gang talks about her new Columbia College Media Production Center, at CAF Bill Tyre discusses his book Historic Prairie Avenue at Glessner House on Friday and a Sunday, fundraiser offers tours of rarely seen mansions SEAOI's annual awards banquet The third SEED Conference with Carlos Segura, Jim Coudal, Edward Lifson and others, at Crown Hall at IIT a webinar explains NCARB-IDP a panel a the Spertus Institute, including Rico Cedro of Krueck and Sexton and Doug Farr of Farr Associates tackles The Future of Sustainable Architecture, the 2008 Rural Heritage conference, the German American Chamber of Commerce offers up a seminar on Renewables and Energy Efficiency These are just some of the highlights of the nearly 50 items on June's Calendar of Architectural Events. Check it all out here. Palmer House Facade Looking Good - interior, not so much A photoessay on upgrades, restorations and misfires at Chicago's classic 1920's hotel. Read and see it all here. Casting Piano's Nichols Across the Road 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. Six Reasons why the Chicago Children's Museum Doesn't Belong at Daley Bicentennial Plaza in Grant Park 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. An Alternative View: In Support of the Chicago Children's Museum in Grant Park Why Jack thinks it's a very good idea. Read all about it here. Chicago Children's Museum - Spaghetti Bowl East? 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 OK, there better not be any complaints now. 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 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, here. Jagged Icebergs and Open Pit - the Brutalist Design the Chicago Children's Museums seeks to force into Grant Park. Renderings the Chicago Children's Museum doesn't want you to see reveal the scarring intrusiveness of the structures it wants to build in Grant Park. See them, and read a critique of Krueck and Sexton's design, here. Skyline Brides So here's a little relief from the hot and heavy coverage on the Chicago Children's Museum's increasingly corrupt campaign to grab land in Grant Park. 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 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. 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 So is St. Patrick's Day really an obsession in Chicago, you ask. Is the Pope Irish? Well, what about the mayor, then? Once again, here's our annual anthropological exploration of Chicago's strange and wonderful St. Patrick's Day rituals, like dyeing its river a day-glo green, with lots of stunning pictures, including the larger version of the above thumbnail of Trump Tower's emerald carpet - here. Iannelli - and Wright - Out of the Storeroom 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 Ok, now this is getting out of hand. I never get everything in the first pass, but there's already over 50 events on the March calendar of Chicago Architectural events. There's lectures by Thomas Hoepf, Stanley Tigerman, and Jeanne Gang, a trailer for Judith Paine O'Brien's new documentary on Daniel Burnham, the 4th Pecha Kucha night, with Tim Samuelson and Lynn Becker, Detlef Martins at IIT, Michael Rock and Albert Pope at UIC, stonecarver Walter S. Arnold at a CAF lunchtime lecture, making the Merchandise Mart green, Minne Sullivan discussing Howard van Doren Shaw's Ragdale for Landmarks Illinois, a Preservation Quiz Show pitting Deputy Commissioner for Landmarks Brian Goeken, David Bahlman, Jonathan Fine, Phyllis Ellin and Vince Michael against each other in a battle of wits in their knowledge of Chicago landmarks, and last but not least: You!, cordially invited to join Chicago Earth 2008 in turning off your lights from 8 to 9 P.M. on March 29th. But wait: there's much, much more! Book signings, workshops, seminars, plus local auditions for ABC's newest reality show, Engineer Swap. Check it all out and start filling up your dance card, here. The Surreal Thing Even as it celebrates the 40th anniversary of the city's landmarks ordinance, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks not only continues to leave many of Chicago's most essential buildings unprotected, it's upending the very definition of what a landmark building is. Read all about it, and see all the photo's, here. (originally published, in somewhat different and much better edited form, in the February 21, 2008 Chicago Reader, under the title, Losing our Landmarks.) The Unprotected Oops, they did it again. As the Commission on Chicago Landmarks lands the smaller fish, many of the city's most essential and historically important buildings remain unprotected. Will the 1886 Germania Club and 1929 Daily News Building and plaza become the latest victims of its neglect? Read all about it and see the pictures here. (originally published, in somewhat different and much better edited form, in the February 21, 2008 Chicago Reader, under the title, Losing our Landmarks.) What's Wrong/Right with this Picture? Steven Holl's Linked Hybrid in Beijing [February 20, 2008] - An accident of timing and light suggests a strange, unsettling mutation of modernism. Read all about it, and see the images and video, here. 250,000 LEGO's Can't be Wrong: Really BIG Shew at the Graham New Graham Foundation Director Sarah Herda's first exhibition, The BIG CPH Experiment, Seven New Architectural Species from the Danish Welfare State, is a winner. You only have until March 1st to see it, but you still shouldn't miss it. Read - and see - all about what makes it so special here. Bagli to Bates to Betsky to Maddox to Wilkinson and Woodhouse - the February Calendar of Architectural Events 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. And then there are the double-dippers. UrbanLab's Felsen and Dunn not only appear at a CAF lunchtime lecture, but at an open house at Archeworks, to which they've just been named co-directors, succeeding Stanley Tigerman and Eva Maddox, who has her own lecture at Archeworks on the 6th. It's like Six Degrees of Stanley, except that with Tigerman the game's over for pretty much everyone by the time they get to the second degree. Grant Uhlir talks about Block 37, the Grant Park Advocacy Council and Commission on Chicago Landmarks both consider the historic Michigan Avenue streetwall, and Friends of the Parks presents the Calumet Open Space Reserve, where Jeanne Gang's Ford Calumet Environmental Center looks at last to have passed its final hurdle to actually breaking crowd. And unless you want to wind up with a bunch of egrets, you'll check out the full roster of events - there's much, much more - on the February calendar here. Get My Drift? A photoessay on how a rare scrim of snow sedates the Chicago cityscape, plus a meditation on the nature and joys of slush. Read and see it all here. 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 This is the month Stanley Tigerman and Eva Maddox pass Archeworks on to a new generation of leaders. at a January 16th event that will also feature Lee Bey, Sarah Herda, Joe Rosa, Zoe Ryan, Hennie Reynders and Robert Somol (you know, that whole crowd, as Severn Darden used to say). Two days later, there'll be a SEED conference at IIT which will include Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, Jim Coudal and Edward Lifson. Lee Bey will talk, at a Friends of Downtown event, about visionary Chicago projects that never managed to see the light of day, Teng's R. Shankar Nair discusses engineering the new Waterview tower at a SEOAI dinner meeting, urban lofts, elevator innovations, I-Go car sharing, hospitals - Prentice and Children's Memorial, networking and the Center on Halsted. They're all among the 30+ events on the January architectural calendar, and I'm sure there'll be even more once people recover from the holiday sojourn. Get the details on all of January's events here. Christmas in Chicago, 2007 edition It's time for this year's photo essay on Chicago gussying itself up for the holidays. See all the pictures of old friends and new here. Warning: includes some arboreal nudity. Pedro E. Guerrero's American Century Looking for a great last-minute Christmas gift? Check out Pedro E. Guerrero's A Photographer's Journey, which combines his strikingly 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. It's a book that's continued to linger in my mind since I first read it this past spring. You can read about Guerrero's quietly epic story, and see a few of the photographs, here. It's a Gaudiful Life - December Architectural Events "But they built the cathedral, Clarence - I've seen pictures!" "No, George they never finished that cathedral. They haven't finished it to this day. Remember, you were never born. So there was no one to save him from getting run over by that tram." 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 As a Chicagoan born and bred, it's impossible to look at Jean Nouvel's stunning new 53 West 53rd, a 75-story hotel/condo tower to be erected next to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, without thinking of its early precedents: the diagonal-braced tube skyscrapers of the great engineer Fazlur Khan, most especially the iconic John Hancock Building on North Michigan avenue, designed at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in collaboration with architect Bruce Graham. 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.info ArchitectureChicagoPlus 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 At a deconstructing park, Big John scoops 'em up and sends them on their way. See the photo-essay and read all about it here. [POSTSCRIPT - read Harold Henderson's report on the trees journey and replantation in Humboldt park, from the Chicago Reader here.] Chicago's Children Museum "fundamentally misconceived" - Blair Kamin The Chicago Tribune's architecture critic analyzes why forcing a new home for the Chicago Children's museum into Grant Park is a really bad idea. Read all about it, plus check out - and perhaps join - a spirited reader exchange on the topic here. A Landmark Event: The Art Institute of Chicago Brings Marion Mahony Griffin's The Magic of America to the Web Nearing the end of her long life, Marion Mahony (1871-1961) finished her magnum opus The Magic of America as a loving tribute to the life and work of her late husband, architect Walter Burley Griffin. What emerges from its pages, however, is nothing less than a vivid portrait of an era, spread across two continents, America and Australia, a highly personal account of the birth both of modern American architecture and urban planning, and - by reflection and inference as much as directly - of Mahony Griffin herself, one of the most remarkable and enigmatic figures in American architecture. Read all about it - and see the pictures - here. Calatrava's Chicago Spire Looking for Persons of Interest Look, but you can't buy - at least not yet, but you can see the ad on a finer bus shelter near you. Santiago Calatrava's design for the Chicago Spire continues to evolve. Read all about it and see the pictures here. Plus - a bonus pop quiz. What do Marina City and the Chicago Spire have in common? (Hint: think giant phallus hats) The answer revealed here. Really Bad Photos of the Renderings the Chicago Children's Museum Doesn't Want You to See Why is the CCM so intent on hiding its proposed building? See the photos here. A Portrait of Mayor Daley's "Nowhere" Here is a photograph of "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) [September 17, 2007] The Chicago Children's Museum wants to build a new 100,000-square-foot home in the same Grant Park where, a century ago, A. Montgomery Ward fought a long, bruising, and ultimately successful battle to enforce a 1836 mandate that Chicago’s lakefront public ground be kept “a common to remain forever open, clear and free of any buildings, or other obstruction whatever.” They're flexing their clout and reviving the playbook of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley's vaunted political machine to make sure nothing gets in their way, but community groups and open space activists aren't co-operating. Read a blow-by-blow account of the battle over the new building, complete with renderings and photos, here. A Honest Critic's Credo - from a Surprising Source Who would perpetrate such a thing? We unmask the mystery culprit - and reveal his picture - here. Sixteen Short Pieces on A City Neighborhood A walk through the pleasures and pains that form the texture of Chicago's Logan Square. Read all about it, and see all the photos, here. [originally published, in much better-edited form, and with far more professional photographs, in the Chicago Reader, August 10, 2007, under the title, Between the Boulevards.] It's Official - Calatrava's Chicago Spire Hole in the Ground So far, he's been true to his word. Garrett Kelleher, the Gatsby-like developer behind the $2 billion Chicago Spire, a project he's launching without a single pre-sale, had said he expected to get architect Santiago Calatrava's twisting, 150-story tower into the ground quickly, and if its not quite the spring launch he predicted before the Chicago Plan Commission last April, it's close. See a photo essay on the early stirrings on the site here. The Road to Widgitdom How can it be an alternative newspaper if every city's looks pretty much the same? Here's more on the sale of The Reader, the Chicago alternative weekly that gave me my writing career. If the Village Voice can be run out of Phoenix, why can't the Chicago Reader be run out of Tampa? Read all about it here. Toy Futures, plus Lego Sins of My Youth Are Lego's mightier than the bulldozer? ArtAsiaPacific magazine and the People's Architecture Foundation have handed each of a selected group of Asia's leading architects a white-bricks-only Lego set (who selected the pieces - Richard Meier?) with which to create models intended to be "exhibited and auctioned to raise awareness about architectural preservation in Asia . . . The project engages concepts of creativity through play and issues of urbanism, new design and heritage awareness that affect architects in a region undergoing dramatic change and development. " See some of the models and read all about it, here. And while your at it, you can check out my own Lego juvenilia here, and leave your caustic and derisive comments here. I can take it . . . I think. Theater Historian Joseph DuciBella Dies [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, here. When Too Much is Just Right [June 19, 2007] A colorful interloper knocks the top hats off the stuffed shirts of Logan Boulevard. Read all about it, and see the photos here. Major Jenney Garners a Salute [June 6, 2007] On June 15th, 1907, William Le Baron Jenney suffered twin indignities. The first, he found himself in Los Angeles, the second, he died. He has remained dead now, give or take a week or so, for one hundred years. 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 isn't available in a large round number, a death can be made to make do. 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 on Signage's Ass [May 16, 2007] Imagine there's no neon It's easy if you try . . . 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. The New Spertus Lightens Up (Genesis 1-3) [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 Chicago is now officially in the throes of Spire-mania. Over 500 people packed two separate meetings on Tuesday to see and hear developer Garrett Kelleher and architect Santiago Calatrava present what may 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. 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 After a silly season of "best of" lists that's ranged from the American Institute of Architect's lazy and inane America's Favorite Architecture to the Illinois Bureau of Tourism's beauty contest quest for the Seven Wonders of Illinois, AIA Illinois has finally gotten it 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 Coloring Easter eggs? That may be how you celebrate Spring in your wimpy burg, but this is Chicago. Stock up the speedboat with bags of Tang colored vegetable dye, dump it in the river, churn it up with the propeller and - voila (or its Gaelic equivalant) - instant St. Patrick's Day. This year, March 17th is special, because it's a Saturday, so the parade, dye-fest and over-served merriment will take place on the actual holiday. 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 Landmarks flashed a bit of backbone and voted down a Planning Department proposal to demolish the landmarked Farwell Building on north Michigan Avenue. 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? What does it mean to be a Chicago architect or designer? Are there affinities and synergies that they share, or could they just as well be working in anywhere U.S.A.? A new exhibition at Chicago's Art Institute puts the work of a sweet sixteen of architects, industrial, fashion and graphics designers on display, and the museum's new curator of Architecture and Design, Joseph Rosa, tries to make sense of the mix. Read all about it, and see the pictures, here. 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 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. 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: Do you know who he is? And if do, could you let us know? On the afternoon of January 12th, this guy was caught on surveillance cameras walking into the 1890's Monadnock Building and nonchalantly stealing the newel post from the staircase. See all of the surveillance pictures and read the rest of the story here. 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 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- here. 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 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 - here Extreme Makeover, North Lawndale Style Tonight's (Sunday, January 14th, 7 P.M.) installment of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition goes back to the city to rehab a home in Chicago's historic North Lawndale neighborhood. Read all about it - and see the pictures here. Proposal to demolish landmark Farwell Building suffers surprise defeat. 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 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 here, and a spirited discussion of the issue here. Or read the original story described below here. 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. Crawling Into the Bunker 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 here. The 2006 top ten in Chicago architecture (illuminated) What's with this sick compulsion to create year-end top ten lists? Can I resist? Obviously not. Read about the buildings, people and events that made the cut, and see all the pictures here. Christmas in Chicago 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 Richard Nelson starring Peter Weller and Harris Yulin captures Frank Lloyd Wright at the point between despair and resurrection. Read all about it here. It's Not Bombed-Out Berlin - It's Our Legacy! A photoessay on Chicago's latest and most spectacular facadectomy. Read and see it here. Massive Sideshow? The brilliant graphics designer Bruce Mau says his exhibition Massive Change is "not about the world of design; it's about the design of the world." The world may have other plans. 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 Architect Santiago Calatrava's towering lady is packing on some pounds. Both Crain's Chicago Business and Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin have filed reports on this week's announcement of changes to The Chicago (formerly Fordham and AKA Calatrava) Spire, the megaproject taken over earlier this year by Dublin's Shelbourne Development Corporation. Read about all the changes and the challenges to getting the project built, and see the pictures here. Bertrand Goldberg's Marina City to be proposed for Landmark Designation today, Thursday, December 7th At a session that begins at 11:00 A.M. this Thursday morning , 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. 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. Last Things A half century after its design and four decades after the architect's death, Le Corbusier's Eglise Saint-Pierre à Firminy is finally completed, while legendary Chicago writer Richard Stern offers up his alternative translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's final poem. Read about them both here. (photograph: Der Spiegel) \ Phantoms Richard Nickel's Chicago creates an moving portrait of the city and its people at mid-century, of wonders lost, and of the photographer who gave his life trying to save them. Richard Nickel photographed ghosts. His subjects were the remains of the “City of the Century,” whose wild growth -- from 30,000 people to over a million and a half in under 50 years -- fueled the building boom that created Chicago’s early skyscrapers, its great houses, and the fantasy world of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. But by the time Nickel began taking pictures of Chicago in the 1950s, the inner city neighborhoods that had been the city’s pride had been panic-peddled s into slums, and by the late 60's rage piled on neglect and set the streets ablaze, while in the besieged Loop, a rich architectural heritage that was admired worldwide was decimated and discarded as if it were yesterday’s garbage. Read the rest of the poignant story - and see some of the photos - here. The Short, Brutal Life of a Parade Balloon Robocop channels Frank Lloyd Wright Peter Weller, the actor whose film work ranges from Robocop to David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, will play Frank Lloyd Wright in the Goodman Theatre production of Frank's Home, which begins previews on November 25th, with a run from December 5th through the 23rd. The play is written by Richard Nelson, whose musical adaptation of James Joyce's short story, The Dead, was an intimate Broadway triumph in 1999, and it's being directed by the legendary Robert Falls, fresh from his recent staging of King Lear with Stacy Keach. Read about it here. ph? Friday, June 2nd - TIF's - Robin Hoods in Reverse? Step right up, step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and guess - THE CITY OF THE FUTURE! "What will Chicago look like 100 years from now?" That's the question a competition sponsored by The History Channel is posing to eight of Chicago's top design firms, participants in the marathon, all-day event taking place this Friday, November 17th. It's at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, in the beautiful atrium of Daniel Burnham's Railway Exchange Building on Michigan Avenue, and it's open to the public. Read all about what could be a great show- and learn what architecture will really be like a century from today - here. Postscript: UrbanLabs wins $10,000 first prize. Aftermath How fires, demolitions, scaffoldings, and arson investigations have hijacked the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Louis Sullivan's birth. Read all about it here.   Happy 150th Birthday Louis Sullivan - We've Burned Your Third Building This Year! In January, it was the K.A.M. Pilgrim Baptist Church. Little more than a week ago, it was the 1887 Wirt Dexter Building. Today, an early morning blaze has made the George M. Harvey House the third Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan landmark to be destroyed by fire just this year. Architectural preservation in the city of Chicago has hit another new low. Does anyone here know how to play this game? Read all about it and see the sad pictures here Slumming up Marina City New management steeps the House of Blues Hotel in ugly as a part of another renovation of the former office building in architect Bertrand Goldberg's world famous Marina City complex in Chicago.Read all about it - and see the photos - here. Massive Fire Claims Adler & Sullivan landmark A five-alarm fire Tuesday claimed the landmark Wirt Dexter building in Chicago's south Loop, one of the few surviving structures from the partnership of Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Coupled with the loss of the firm's K.A.M. Pilgrim Baptist Church, also to fire, early this past year, it raises questions about the city's commitment to protecting its architectural legacy. Read the full story and see all the pictures here. Chicago's Orchard Street - Urban Menace? Today's Chicago Tribune Sunday magazine is largely devoted to how the city's wealthy elite are creating mega-mansion mania on a several block stretch of Orchard Street in the city's Lincoln Park area. "There goes the neighborhood," is the Trib's Blair Kamin's take. Why? What's really going on? Is the Tribune Sunday Magazine, in the words of its editor, "indulging in real estate pornography?" Or should we all lighten up and just enjoy it? Read all about it - and see all the photos - here. Not the Usual Campus Suspects Chicago's college campuses have always been home to some of the city's best architecture.Here's a few gems that frequently get overlooked. (Originally published September 22, 2006, in a far-better edited form in the Chicago Reader under the title, It's All Around You.) Read all about it - and see the photos - here. End of the Road Last Friday saw the sudden announcement by its current owners that the century-old Carson Pirie Scott department store on State Street, one of architect Louis Sullivan's greatest masterpieces, will be shut down by March of next year. I'll be writing a lot more about this, and about the journey of Chicago's State Street from one of the world's greatest shopping venues to a a diminished collection of discounters and outlet stores, when Federated rebrands the venerable Marshall Fields store in Macy's colors as its local flagship in September, but for now here's a few initial thoughts - and more pictures - on what's going on and where we might be heading. Read and see it here. Happy 150 Louis Today, Sunday, September 3rd, is the 150th anniversary of the birth of architect Louis Sullivan. Read more about how its being celebrated here. The de Tocqueville effect - San Francisco's John King takes on Chicago The San Francisco Chronicle's architecture critic, John King, recently spent some time in Chicago, and the result is two finely observed, in-depth articles on the city and its architecture. Read his take on the state of the art in Chicago, what new buildings caught his eye, and how San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is looking to Richard M. Daley for inspiration here. Skyscrapers of the Sea Today, Wednesday, August 9th, is the last day to see Tall Ships Chicago 2006, 17 different sailing ships docked along the Chicago River and Navy Pier. In their own time, these ships were among the tallest man-made structures, scraping the heavens on water as the spires of churches and cathedrals did on land. Read about how they stack up next to Chicago's tall buildings - and see all the photos - here. . Form Based Codes - Reform or Legislated Mediocrity? The City of Evanston's Plan Commission is sponsoring a talk tonight, Tuesday, August 8th, by Paul Crawford, chairman of the Form Based Codes Institute, with the title Form Based Codes: An Alternative Approach to Regulating and Shaping Development. To quote from the commission's description, "Often associated with Smart Growth and the rise of “New Urbanist” planning concepts, form-based codes place primary emphasis upon the physical form of development, including building height, bulk, façade treatments, the relationship of the buildings to the street and to one another and the location of parking." Get more information, and read a few cautionary comments, here.