Mies van der Rohe Devoured by Giant Dinosaur

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Master architect still beats the crap out of Dick Tracy

 -by Lynn Becker

[March 10, 2007] - Via correspondent Joan Pomeranc, we've been tipped off to still another of those public's favorite architecture surveys, this time a PR effort by the endlessly named
Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, to find the Seven Wonders of Illinois. Visitors to this website are being asked to cast their vote in each of the seven regions into which the state is divided.

Elsewhere, classic movie palaces are regular choices, but in Chicago, the hallucinatory Oriental doesn't even make the list of nominees. Buckingham Fountain, the DuSable Museum, Da Bean and the Fields -Soldier and Wrigley - do, along with seven others. It's the Museum of Science and Industry, however, that's running away with this one, with 29% of the votes cast, almost double that of the totals for the next most popular choice, the Pullman District.

It's all, of course, absolutely meaningless, but in the way it introduces you to attractions you might not have been aware of, it's makes for a sharp marketing campaign. They got me to write about it, didn't they? And you can bet that the press releases with the final winners will be picked up by every media outlet in state, and quite a few outside of it.

So take a look, and vote for your favorites. A one vote a day limit aside, in the best traditions of Illinois politics, ballot stuffing is A-OK

In the Northern region, Mies van der Rohe's Plano, Illinois masterpiece, Farnsworth House, is pitted against everything from a windmill in Fulton, to Starved Rock State

Park, to the Coronado Theatre in Rockford. Currently, the Farnsworth is being trampled not only by Jane, the giant dinosaur fossil at Rockford's Burpee Museum of Natural History, currently claiming 21% of the vote, but by the main street in Galena, at 24%, and, claiming top position, the Illinois Railroad Museum in Union, pulling down a commanding 33%. At 1%, the Farnsworth is barely clinging to the radar, but it's still trumping the Dick Tracy Museum in Woodstock, currently running away with 0% of the vote. Somewhere in heaven, Mies and Chester Gould are sitting at a bar, consoling each other over a stiff martini, while Flattop and Bill Hartman conspire in a nearby booth.

[March 14, 2007] Postscript: Joan informs us that neither Farnsworth nor Dick Tracy made it into the second round of voting, in which choo-choo's are proving more durable than dinosaurs - the Illinois Railway Museum is running away with it, with 50% of the vote. In Chicago, MSI remains in the lead with 31%, with Millennium Park far behind at 5%.

The Dick Tracy Bobblehead Doll is available from the museum for $10.95, plus shipping and handling. We regret we have been unable to locate a source for a Mies van der Rohe bobblehead. If you are the manufacturer of such an item, please contact us so that we may help bring this singular honor to the attention of the public.

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lynnbecker@lynnbecker.com

© Copyright 2007 Lynn Becker All rights reserved.