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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. Monday, November 17th 6:00 P.M. - Cecil Balmond: Solid Void - Exhibition walkthrough with Eric Elligensen and Sarah Herda - at the Graham Foundation Tuesday, November 18th 12:15 - 10:00 P.M. - Chicago Community Development Commission - monthly meeting 5:30 - 8:30 P.M. - P8 Portfolio Review - AIA Chicago event at Lightology/font>
6:00 - 8:00 P.M. - Sustainability and Interior Design: Basic Strategies for Improving
Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Waste - presentation by Rene King, at the Chicago Center for Green Technology
Wednesday, November 19th
8:30 - 10:00 A.M. - Risky Business IV: Keys to a Successful A/E Practicee - Aia Chicago event
12:15 - 1:00 P.M. - Preservation in Chicago: Massive Challenges - lunchtime lecture by Vincent Michael, at the Chicago Architecture Foundation
6:00 P.M. - Taryn Christoff and Martin Finio: No Ideas but in Things lecture at Crown Hall, IIT
6:30 P.M. - Daniel Burnham's and Edward Bennett's Plan of Chicago and Grant Park: 100 years late Grant Park Advisory Council panel, at the Spertus Museum
Thursday, November 20th
12:00 - 1:00 P.M. - New Developments in Permeable Pavers
- AIa Chicago event, at CBA
12:15 - 1:00 P.M. - The First Gold Coast - From Riches to Rags and Back Again - Landmarks Illinois Preservation Snapshots lecture by William Tyre, at the Chicago Cultural Center
6:00 -7:00 P.M. - Design Exposed: Ross Barney Architects - AIA Chicago event
6:00 - 10:00 P.M. - CTBUH 2008 7th Annual Awards Dinner - at crown Hall
6:00 P.M., welcome reception - 7:30 P.M., get aquainted dinner - Urban Waterfronts 26th Annual Conference 2008 - opening evening of three-day conference
Friday, November 21st
7:30 A.M. - 7:30 P.M. - Urban Waterfronts 26th Annual Conference 2008 - second day of three-day conference
Saturday, November 22nd
1:00 - 3:00 P.M. - Building a Solar Home from the Ground Up - presentation at the Chicago Center for Green Technology
8:00 A.M. - 12:30 P.M. - Urban Waterfronts 26th Annual Conference 2008 - closing day of three-day conference
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. 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 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.
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. Pedro E. Guerrero's American Century [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.
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 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.
Sao Paulo goes Martin Luther Imagine there's no neon 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. 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) \ 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 - Postscript: UrbanLabs wins $10,000 first prize.
How fires, demolitions, scaffoldings, and arson investigations
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
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.
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