[SolarWind]

May 8, 2009

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7645/91824134.jpg

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/7733/114283burnham3big.jpg

[AdrianXSands]

this is temp. right?

[BVictor1]

this is temp. right?

they are, but they should be moved to a different location after there time in Mill. Park is over.

[the urban politician]

The latest plans for the Wicker Park Collection, 1372 N. Milwaukee, will replace the Walgreens and its parking lot for a 30,000 sf retail building with parking. The plans are in this pdf document below:

http://www.preferreddevelopment.com/docs/Chicago%201372%20Milwaukee%20Marketing%20Information.pdf

Looks like a huge improvement over the current sea of asphalt that occupies that space..

[Chicago Shawn]

The latest plans for the Wicker Park Collection, 1372 N. Milwaukee, will replace the Walgreens and its parking lot for a 30,000 sf retail building with parking. The plans are in this pdf document below:

http://www.preferreddevelopment.com/docs/Chicago%201372%20Milwaukee%20Marketing%20Information.pdf

Looks like a huge improvement over the current sea of asphalt that occupies that space..

Its an improvement for sure, but not nearly as good as the very modern 7 story mixed-use building that the NIMBYs killed about two years ago. Then again, given today's economy, it probably wouldn't have been built anyway.

[the urban politician]

^ I hear ya, but for once I'm going to just be happy about something and not reminisce about "what could have been if it weren't for NIMBY's". God knows NIMBY's dominate our discussion here enough as it is..

[SolarWind]

May 8, 2009

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6298/dsc0361r.jpg

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/8964/dsc0359c.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3149/dsc0368b.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6329/dsc0369r.jpg

[the urban politician]

^ Thanks, I've been curious about the bridgeway's status.

Does anybody else wonder about the wisdom of creating 2 separate entrances to the Art Institute?

[killaviews]

I'm really excited for the bridge, it looks pretty good.

What's wrong with 2 separate entrances?

I think one of the reasons for this entrances is so people can access the restaurant without paying admissions to the museum.

[Via Chicago]

I dont know if anyones been through Oak Park lately, but that whole block of classic storefronts east Harlem on Lake which formed a charming human-level walk-up streetscape are on their way down. And yet the TGI Fridays/ GAP strip malls still stand... Damn depressing state of affairs. Will this turn into a suburban Block 37? I expected better from a city like Oak Park, but I guess I shouldnt be surprised.

[Via Chicago]

What's wrong with 2 separate entrances?


Right now theres a lot of vibrancy on Michigan Ave due to that being the main entrance. I think the worry is that could be diminished.

As an aside, I think the development in Millenium/Grant Park is starting to get absurd. Theres the 2 pavillions (yes I realize temporary, but still), Modern Wing, the Nichols Bridge, Childrens Museum gunning for the north end, the Agora sculptures, and the whole cluster-F of other attractions. I think that area is dangerously close to reaching a point of diminishing returns, if it has not already passed it. How much shiny crap can you squeeze into one area and still maintain a semblance of a park?

[wrabbit]

^ Thanks, I've been curious about the bridgeway's status.

Does anybody else wonder about the wisdom of creating 2 separate entrances to the Art Institute?

Actually, this will be the third - there is already a second entrance on Columbus.

[woodrow]

Multiple entrances are great, especially if the museum is free. Alas, not the AIC. When the Nelson-Atkins built the PHENOMENAL Steven Holl addition, the museum increased the number of entrances from two (one really) to six. The museum, which has an amazing collection, is free, and the addition encourages people to wander in and out to the sculpture park.

Multiple entrances are expensive to staff, but the AIC should be able to manage. They had a $2500 per ticket gala tonight. 1600 people went.

[SolarWind]

I think that area is dangerously close to reaching a point of diminishing returns, if it has not already passed it. How much shiny crap can you squeeze into one area and still maintain a semblance of a park?
I agree. This looks like a giant shiny turd. And what's with the fixed leg pedestrian barriers? Couldn't they have come up with something better?

May 8, 2009
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9097/dsc0391s.jpg

[Taft]

Right now theres a lot of vibrancy on Michigan Ave due to that being the main entrance. I think the worry is that could be diminished.

As an aside, I think the development in Millenium/Grant Park is starting to get absurd. Theres the 2 pavillions (yes I realize temporary, but still), Modern Wing, the Nichols Bridge, Childrens Museum gunning for the north end, the Agora sculptures, and the whole cluster-F of other attractions. I think that area is dangerously close to reaching a point of diminishing returns, if it has not already passed it. How much shiny crap can you squeeze into one area and still maintain a semblance of a park?

Don't want to start a war over the latest installations' merits.

But I will say that no one should be surprised at all of the sculpture being installed at MP. That's the way the park was designed.

Take a look at the map of the park:

http://www.millenniumpark.org/documents/MPMap.pdf

Notice there are two long sections of park that were designed for exhibitions: Chase Promenade and Boeing Galleries. (Terrible commercial naming is another topic altogether.)

Trust me, I _love_ natural park landscaping. In fact, I wish Grant Park had more natural, secluded park space. But to expect that type of space from Millennium Park in particular is just unrealistic. The entire park was designed as a place of activity. From the gardens, to the sculptures, to the pavilion, every inch of the park visually (and sometimes sonically) engages the visitor. These "shiny objects" are exactly the type of sculpture that this park was designed for.

Don't like it? Cross the BP Bridge to the more formal french gardens in Grant Park proper...maybe not secluded, but well-landscaped and very lush this time of year. Or head to LSE, another more formal park that offers some seclusion and more of a neighborhood park feel. Or head up to Lincoln Park for a more naturally landscaped park. Lots of choices in parks in Chicago...gotta feel at least a bit lucky.

[BVictor1]

I agree. This looks like a giant shiny turd. And what's with the fixed leg pedestrian barriers? Couldn't they have come up with something better?

May 8, 2009
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9097/dsc0391s.jpg

Looks like someone put too much heat to the Spindle that used to be in Berwyn

[BWChicago]

The latest plans for the Wicker Park Collection, 1372 N. Milwaukee, will replace the Walgreens and its parking lot for a 30,000 sf retail building with parking. The plans are in this pdf document below:

http://www.preferreddevelopment.com/docs/Chicago%201372%20Milwaukee%20Marketing%20Information.pdf

Looks like a huge improvement over the current sea of asphalt that occupies that space..

Nice detailing. Any link to the old 7 story plans?

[spyguy]

I agree. This looks like a giant shiny turd.

Or scholars' rocks since this is contemporary Chinese art.

[Jibba]

Nice detailing. Any link to the old 7 story plans?

Courtesy of spyguy from over at SSC:

^Here's the rendering from the article
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5905/2947ayw3.jpg

[Via Chicago]

Don't want to start a war over the latest installations' merits.

But I will say that no one should be surprised at all of the sculpture being installed at MP. That's the way the park was designed.

Take a look at the map of the park:

http://www.millenniumpark.org/documents/MPMap.pdf

Notice there are two long sections of park that were designed for exhibitions: Chase Promenade and Boeing Galleries. (Terrible commercial naming is another topic altogether.)

Trust me, I _love_ natural park landscaping. In fact, I wish Grant Park had more natural, secluded park space. But to expect that type of space from Millennium Park in particular is just unrealistic. The entire park was designed as a place of activity. From the gardens, to the sculptures, to the pavilion, every inch of the park visually (and sometimes sonically) engages the visitor. These "shiny objects" are exactly the type of sculpture that this park was designed for.

Don't like it? Cross the BP Bridge to the more formal french gardens in Grant Park proper...maybe not secluded, but well-landscaped and very lush this time of year. Or head to LSE, another more formal park that offers some seclusion and more of a neighborhood park feel. Or head up to Lincoln Park for a more naturally landscaped park. Lots of choices in parks in Chicago...gotta feel at least a bit lucky.

I realize Millennium is a different type of park, and it cant really be held to the same standards as a "natural" landscape like Lincoln or Washington Park. However, it would still be nice to see some restraint and at least allow all the stuff they've thrown in in there some room to breath.

[Via Chicago]

Media Bistro has a tour and
some very nice photos of the interior of the Modern Wing. Looks outstanding, right down to the coffee bar:
http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/museums/a_tour_of_renzo_pianos_new_modern_wing_part_three_116014.asp

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/museums/a_tour_of_renzo_pianos_new_modern_wing_part_three_116014.asp

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/0508modern3cafe.jpg

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/0508modern3archsign.jpg

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/0508modern3library.jpg

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/0508modern3archwide.jpg

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/0508modern3back.jpg

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/0508modern3product.jpg

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/0508modern3shop.jpg

[Chicago Shawn]

Received this email, thought you guys may want to attend...


Uncovering Sullivan



Preservation Snapshots Lecture
Series






The Haskell, Barker and
Atwater Buildings are three post-Chicago Fire masonry buildings along
Wabash Avenue within the Sullivan Center (formerly Carson Pirie Scott
Department Store complex). Architect Douglas Gilbert, Harboe Architects,
will discuss restoring the three building facades and the Louis Sullivan
designs on the Barker and Haskell Buildings. Join us on
Thursday, May 21, 2009 at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia
Cassidy Theater.



Landmarks Illinois’ Preservation Snapshots series provides a
monthly review of preservation issues with experts presenting talks on a
specific subject. Question and answer sessions will follow each talk. The
series takes place at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St.,
Chicago, on the third Thursday of every month at 12:15 p.m.š The public
is invited to attend; you need not be a member to participate. Admission
is free.

[Via Chicago]

Also a reminder that the tour of Michael Reese is this coming Sunday (5/17) at 2:00

http://www.savemrh.com/news/2009/4/10/join-us-for-a-free-tour-of-michael-reese-hospital.html

[Chicago Shawn]

^I sadly, will not be able to attend that. I really want to know more on the history of those buildings. I plan on going down there soon to just explore the place on foot. I planned on doing it this week if the weather is good, but I have the flu. I will take plenty of pictures when I do go.

[i_am_hydrogen]

^ Thanks, I've been curious about the bridgeway's status.

Does anybody else wonder about the wisdom of creating 2 separate entrances to the Art Institute?

I think of the bridgeway, in part, as a clever a marketing strategy designed to siphon in people who are wandering around Millennium Park but who otherwise may not be aware of the Art Institute or plan on visiting.

[wrabbit]

I think of the bridgeway, in part, as a clever a marketing strategy designed to siphon in people who are wandering around Millennium Park but who otherwise may not be aware of the Art Institute or plan on visiting.

Bingo. From the visitor's perspective, the bridge makes AIC part of the whole MP experience, even though it isn't part of MP - great hook.

And the views of the Mich Ave cliff are gonna be killer :tup:

[the urban politician]

^ Pretty much explains why Daley and friends are so gung-ho about moving the Children's Museum to Bicentennial Plaza.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ That's the one thing I like about where they have decided to locate the Children's Museum. It will draw and integrate with MP and actually give the BP bridge a point. The BP is currently somewhat of a bridge to nowhere unless you live nearby or actually understand there are other parts of the park worth visiting other than MP. I see tons of tourists who walk from MP across the bridge, then see nothing but a few benches and trees and decide to turn around and go back into MP. Maybe if they see a crystal pit full of children then they might venture out into the area and discover that Chicago has miles of wonderful parks like this.

That reminds me of something I was going to ask everyone. What do you all think about the location (and design) of the Nature Museum or whatever it is on Fullerton right smack dab in the middle of Lincoln Park? Was there a huge ruckus about that too when it was built? I wasn't in Chicago at that point so I'm curious about its history and if there was a similar debate.

[Mr Downtown]

No, it's not in Grant Park. Grant Park between Randolph and 11th Place is the only area where buildings are forbidden.

[Nowhereman1280]

I thought some of the rulings applied to the whole lakefront?

[BWChicago]

http://arcchicago.blogspot.com/2009/05/old-colony-emerges-from-gloom.html
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OvonoKii_ds/SgkIQ5BMhfI/AAAAAAAAD0E/fRRil0jbnqc/s400/oldcolonywide.jpg

The Old Colony building is FINALLY getting cleaned!
Next on the list should be that building behind Federal Plaza.

[denizen467]

^ Holy cow, it wasn't black??

--------

Nothing to get excited about yet, since GM is probably interested in cutting costs and may be looking at the non-unionized South. On the other hand we've nabbed a couple of big ones in recent years, and big corporation professionals increasingly have more reasons to want to live in Chicago than in Detroit (or than in many other places).

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtUSInvestingNews/idUSTRE54A3KG20090511?sp=true

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp is open to considering moving its headquarters from Detroit, selling U.S. plants and renegotiating its restructuring plan with its major union as it heads toward probable bankruptcy, the automaker's chief executive said on Monday.

[AdrianXSands]

http://arcchicago.blogspot.com/2009/05/old-colony-emerges-from-gloom.html
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OvonoKii_ds/SgkIQ5BMhfI/AAAAAAAAD0E/fRRil0jbnqc/s400/oldcolonywide.jpg

The Old Colony building is FINALLY getting cleaned!
Next on the list should be that building behind Federal Plaza.

wtf??? it's white????? :koko: wow.

[Busy Bee]

Thats gonna take some getting used to. For YEARS I knew that building as dark and charismatic, this changes things.

[BWChicago]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NtgXlrcvXZA/R7CutljL3iI/AAAAAAAAKuQ/jvDSkKJe0Xk/s400/POSTCARD+-+CHICAGO+-+OLD+COLONY+BUILDING+-+NICE+-+1908.jpghttp://www.chiefengineer.org/images/news/0401feat2.gifhttp://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/chicago/buildings/colony.gif

The base is actually bluish Bedford Stone

[the urban politician]

^ Wow.

I also thought that Old Colony was supposed to be black

[Via Chicago]

just goes to show how much gunk is floating around in the city air...happy thoughts

[woodrow]

See I find this very interesting. Old Colony has probably been that color for 100 years. Coal smoke. The architects of that time knew that would happen. Did they choose their material accordingly? I new that the Old Colony wasn't black, thought it was tan. Was that light, sand color chosen with the knowledge that it would darken this way? I knew The Newberry wasn't black, didn't know how rosy the stone really was.

Did architects in the era of HEAVY coal smoke pollution take into account the darkening effects, or did they not care? huh? huh?

[wrabbit]

I thought some of the rulings applied to the whole lakefront?

The "Free and Clear" charter applies to GP only.

-----

The Old Colony building is FINALLY getting cleaned! Next on the list should be that building behind Federal Plaza.

Wow - what a difference!

-----

.....Did architects in the era of HEAVY coal smoke pollution take into account the darkening effects, or did they not care? huh? huh?

I know that architects building in Pittsburgh back in the day sure did take this into account, as Pittsburgh was especially sooty - all of that dirty Appalachian coal, fueling its massive steel industry.

[BVictor1]

^ Wow.

I also thought that Old Colony was supposed to be black

A lot of people thought the same thing when the Carbide and Carbon Building (Hard Rock Hotel) facade was restored several years ago.

[Nowhereman1280]

just goes to show how much gunk is floating around in the city air...happy thoughts

I have a feeling most of that grime is not from today's city air as much as it is from the past when this was a few blocks away from several train stations that emitted clouds of coal and diesel smoke for decades. Supposedly the particulate count (the kind of pollution that can actually stain a building like soot and the partially burnt oil that gives diesel smoke its black color) is lower in the United States than at any point since 1850 or something...


Anyhow... WOW OLD COLONY ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE GREY-BLACK?!?! I've spent a lot of time reading about that cluster of buildings and looking at pictures of them old and new and had no idea that OC was a creamy white color! I'm looking forward to seeing it squeaky clean and brand new looking! I'm always curious to see how sterile all buildings look when they are brand new. Its amazing to me that buildings like Old Colony look almost as sterile and clean as a suburban office park when restored to their original state... Just takes a little deterioration and grime to give a building a little grit and toughness...

[Nowhereman1280]

Did architects in the era of HEAVY coal smoke pollution take into account the darkening effects, or did they not care? huh? huh?

I have a feeling that some of them figured their buildings would be torn down and replaced with a larger one in 20 or 30 years so it wouldn't matter anyhow. I mean remember these buildings were built when Chicago was a boomtown the likes of which the world had never seen. Buildings that were just 15 or 20 years old were regularly being torn down and replaced by buildings 2 or 3 times their size. Chicago operated at a completely difference pace back then.

[BVictor1]

See I find this very interesting. Old Colony has probably been that color for 100 years. Coal smoke. The architects of that time knew that would happen. Did they choose their material accordingly? I new that the Old Colony wasn't black, thought it was tan. Was that light, sand color chosen with the knowledge that it would darken this way? I knew The Newberry wasn't black, didn't know how rosy the stone really was.

Did architects in the era of HEAVY coal smoke pollution take into account the darkening effects, or did they not care? huh? huh?

Yes, some architects took into account the pollution, which is another reason why glazed terra cotta was used on buildings.

[headcase]

Yes, some architects took into account the pollution, which is another reason why glazed terra cotta was used on buildings.

Bingo, imagine if the terra cotta on the Santa Fe wasn't glazed?

SSDD

[BVictor1]

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34003

Children's Museum move opponents take fight back to court

By: Lorene Yue May 11, 2009


(Crain’s) — A Cook County Circuit Court Judge on Tuesday could rescind the Chicago Children’s Museum’s ability to build a new two-story home in Grant Park.

A judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by neighbors who challenged the approval the City Council and its Plan Commission gave to the controversial museum project. The museum, Chicago Park District, city of Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley as well as City Council and Plan Commission members have been named as defendants in the suit filed in September.

Jim Fabbrini, lawyer for the residents, said he felt “pretty confident” that the judge would rule in favor of the procedural suit, which he said would send the Children’s Museum “back to square one” in terms of seeking city approval.

Even if the residents are defeated, Mr. Fabbrini vowed they will continue to find ways to fight the project. “Keeping this issue in the public forefront is very important,” he said.

What is less certain is whether the judge will issue an immediate ruling or take the matter under advisement and issue a written ruling at a later date.

At issue is the residents’ claim that the city failed to follow proper procedures in vetting the Children’s Museum proposal. They claim the city failed to properly notify all residents living within 500 feet of the proposed site along Randolph Street, where the Daley Bicentennial Plaza field house now sits.

“They missed an entire building right across the street (from the museum site),” Mr. Fabbrini said.

A spokeswoman for Chicago’s Department of Law said that a ruling against the Plan Commission could play out in different ways, such as remanding it back to the 15 members.

The City Council and Plan Commission last May voted overwhelmingly to allow the Children’s Museum to build a 100,000-square-foot facility at the north end of Grant Park. The new museum is favored by Mr. Daley, who appoints members of the Plan Commission.

Museum officials say they have outgrown their Navy Pier home and that Grant Park is the only location that best suits their needs out of more than 30 possible sites around the city.

The project sparked an outcry from preservationists who claim that building the structure in Grant Park would violate covenants issued by the Illinois Supreme Court at the turn of the 19th century to keep lakefront land free of private development. Mr. Fabbrini said the opponents are “still considering” filing a lawsuit on those grounds.

[Mr Downtown]

Just a cautionary note: this procedural suit is a real longshot. The real lawsuit, based on the Montgomery Ward case's permanent injunction, will come later.

[denizen467]

^ Maybe this strategy, resulting in a very long delay in starting the CCM / Daley Bi project, will wear down the current plan's proponents, so that they will decide it's better to have a new CCM soon rather than stubbornly build their "dream" project in some distant future. Perhaps the recession's lessened construction costs will be good enough incentive for them to give up and build it soon, on another site.

It sure would enable them, especially Hizzoner, to wave the white flag while still saving face.

[Mr Downtown]

But think of the children! If delayed, an entire generation will grow up never knowing the dark catacombs of the East Monroe Parking Garage! Their suburban parents might never enrich LAZ Parking!

[the urban politician]

http://www.hpherald.com/pg6.html
http://www.hpherald.com/p6.jpg

[lawfin]

<iframe width="425" height="240" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/sv?cbp=12,12.77,,0,5&amp;cbll=41.807878,-87.606504&amp;v=1&amp;panoid=&amp;gl=&amp;hl=en"></iframe><br /><small><a id="cbembedlink" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?cbp=12,12.77,,0,5&cbll=41.807878,-87.606504&ll=41
.807878,-87.606504&layer=c" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>



Can we embed googlemaps ???? if so how?


ANyhow it does not look there is much there currently I hope they can redevelop it because right now it is blight

[ChiMack]

i agree i do hope they develop it but not into yuppieville though

[BVictor1]

Heliport Proposal Update

The public hearing on the Children's Memorial Hospital heliport proposal is scheduled to begin Wednesday, July 22nd at 6:00 pm. The hearing will continue the evenings of July 23rd and 24th, and the afternoon of Saturday July 25th as necessary. The location for the hearing has not yet been determined.

IDOT will hear testimony from the public and experts about the safety concerns surrounding the proposed heliport. Everyone will have the opportunity to be heard.

Please save these dates. In the coming weeks we will provide you with additional information on the structure of the hearing and ways in which you can participate.

[ardecila]

I went down to visit Michael Reese today. Despite the awful cold rain, it was fantastic. Certain parts are beautiful. If you can, I would recommend visiting soon while all the flowering trees are in bloom.

I've also come to the conclusion that the Olympic Village needs to preserve a far greater portion of the hospital than plans currently call for. While I don't advocate the blind preservation of every single building, there are several that are absolute Modernist gems - namely, the Kaplan Pavilion and the Baumgarten Pavilion. The Singer Building is also wonderful, and Meyer House needs to be saved if only to maintain the beautiful and appropriate bridge over 27th Street, which would make an amazing Olympic gateway if adorned properly.

However, saving other buildings - the Power Plant, the Laundry Building, the Linear Accelerator, the Wexler Pavilion - seems like a losing battle. Preservationists seems to be stuck in a Richard Nickel mindset, refuting any sort of compromise and framing the Michael Reese issue as a zero-sum game when they could accomplish more by working with the city and identifying WHICH buildings are the most significant, and the most adaptable to usage as Olympic dormitories, allowing the rest to be torn down and remain - well-documented - in memory.

[the urban politician]

Where's Honte been?

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

A glowing review of the Modern Wing by Nicolai Ourousoff in the New York Times.

May 14, 2009
Architecture Review
Renzo Piano Embraces Chicago
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOF

CHICAGO — America has been suffering from Renzo Piano fatigue.

For years Mr. Piano seemed to be snapping up all the best commissions: the renovation of the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan, a science center in San Francisco and museum additions in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Fort Worth. (He even designed The New York Times Building.)

Many of his peers gripe that this is because of the subdued nature of his designs — sophisticated but not too threatening or unfamiliar — which seem tailored to ease the insecurities of museum boards. Some envy his elegance, which makes him seem equally at home in corporate boardrooms and lofty cultural circles.

It’s hard to know how these qualities will play out amid the gloom and doom of the new economy. In some ways Mr. Piano’s refined, risk-averse architecture may be more appealing than ever. He is not out to start a revolution. His designs are about tranquillity, not conflict. The serenity of his best buildings can almost make you believe that we live in a civilized world.

The new $294 million Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, which opens on Saturday, is the closest Mr. Piano has come in at least a decade to achieving this near-classical ideal. Its delicate structural frame is a sparkling counterpart to the museum’s 1893 Beaux Arts building. The light-filled galleries show the Art Institute’s marvelous collections of postwar and contemporary art in their full glory, including many works that have been buried in storage for decades. Most of all, the addition manages to weave the various strands of Chicago’s rich architectural history into a cohesive vision, one that is made more beautiful by its remarkable fragility.

The 264,000-square-foot wing is the largest expansion in the museum’s 130-year history. The addition stands behind the original building, across a set of commuter railroad tracks. The two structures are joined by a small gallery building from 1916 that bridges the tracks. Millennium Park, its far end punctuated by the swirling steel forms of Frank Gehry’s band shell, extends to the north.

Seen from the park Mr. Piano’s structure immediately brings to mind the work of Mies van der Rohe, a pillar of modern architecture who moved to Chicago from Germany in the 1930s. The taut forms and refined details, the elevation of an industrial aesthetic to an art form — all are hallmarks of Mies’s work. Mr. Piano’s towering glass-and-steel facade, with its floating roof and excruciatingly slender columns, even evokes a lighter, more ethereal incarnation of Mies’s 1968 Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, a landmark of 20th-century design.

Mr. Piano carefully knits these forms into the surrounding fabric. The addition’s main entry hall is parallel to the tracks, so that their grittiness becomes part of the overall composition. A series of heavy walls that frame the entry are made of limestone to match the original building. A long, slender bridge, one of the design’s most whimsical features, connects the addition to the park across the street.

The play between Modern and classical themes continues inside. The entry hall, a long towering space enclosed beneath a glittering glass roof, could be a contemporary version of a cathedral, designed for the worship of art. Its elongated form is used to draw you into the building. From there people turn and look out at a grassy outdoor court before climbing a staircase to the main galleries. The staircase, suspended on slender rods, was inspired by Mies’s design for the Arts Club of Chicago.

Some will feel that the journey from the front door to the art is too drawn out, but it gives you the impression of having ascended to “a sacred space.” Occasionally Mr. Piano’s galleries can be too precious: the level of refinement gives them a cool, almost sterile feel. But these rank among his best. The rooms are beautifully proportioned. A thin steel border frames the plaster walls, giving them a clean industrial look.

Mr. Piano also seems to have created the right amount of intimacy between art and viewer, without completely shutting out the world. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the park and courtyard from some galleries. The windows are covered with white screens, lending the views a soft, ghostlike quality. This effect is reinforced by the layering of glass, which shuts out street noise and gives the sight of people walking below a particularly eerie, cinematic quality.

But it is the light that most people will notice. Mr. Piano has been slowly refining his lighting systems since the mid-1980s, when he completed his design for the Menil Collection building in Houston. Over the years these efforts have taken on a quasi-religious aura, with curators and museum directors analyzing the light in his galleries like priests dissecting holy texts.

At the Art Institute Mr. Piano has stripped the system down to its essence. The glass roof of the top-floor galleries is supported on delicate steel trusses. Rows of white blades rest on top of the trusses to filter out strong southern light; thin fabric panels soften the view from below.

The idea is to make you aware of the shifts in daylight — over the course of a visit, from one season to another — without distracting you from the artwork, and the effect is magical. On a clear afternoon you can catch faint glimpses through the structural frame of clouds drifting by overhead. But most of the time the art takes center stage, everything else fading quietly into the background.

It is this obsessive refinement that raises Mr. Piano’s best architecture to the level of art. In an age with few idealists, he exudes a touching faith in the value of slow, incremental progress. He has never fully abandoned the belief that machines can elevate as well as destroy.

The beauty of his designs stems from his stubborn insistence that the placement of a column or a window, when done with enough patience and care, brings us a step closer to a more enlightened society.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

...and the review of the art.

May 14, 2009
Art Review
A Grand and Intimate Modern Art Trove
By ROBERTA SMITH

CHICAGO — The Art Institute of Chicago is a great encyclopedic museum that is about to become greater. At least it is about to start to become greater. Renzo Piano’s elegant new Modern Wing is a rarity: a work of genuinely good architecture that is also kind to art. But as usual with new buildings there remains curatorial work to be done.

This wing adds 264,000 square feet of interior space to the institute’s floor plan, making it the second-largest museum in the country after the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This includes 60,000 square feet of new galleries that are dedicated to European painting and sculpture; art since 1945; photography; and 20th- and 21st-century architecture and design. And there is a good-sized temporary exhibition space being inaugurated by an exceptional show of recent paintings, sculpture and photographs by Cy Twombly, who is in top form at 81.

The expanded space could allow the museum to redefine its relationship to the recent past, the present and the future. It instantly places it well ahead of the Met in terms of contemporary art. And its spacious architecture and design galleries, which lead off with a cache of rare architectural drawings, outrank the Museum of Modern Art.

But a newly completed museum wing of this scope is by definition the beginning of a longer, more subtle work in progress. It is now the curators’ turn to explore its strengths and limitations.

The main strengths here are two suites of galleries on the second and third floors that are at once grand and intimate. The biggest problem, stated simply, is that the Modern Wing accommodates only the classic, European version of modernism. American art from 1900 to 1945 has its own, quite generous galleries in the Art Institute’s 1988 expansion, the Rice Wing.

But nothing is perfect, least of all in a museum. While this separation may reinforce a version of modernism that seems outmoded, there are signs of change being fomented from within.

The building’s kindness to art is especially palpable on the third floor, thanks to plentiful skylights. Straight ahead in the first gallery hangs a Matisse 1909-17 masterpiece, the serene yet implacable “Bathers by a River,” suffused in natural light. Around the corner you’ll find treasures like Juan Gris’s 1912 Cubist “Portrait of Pablo Picasso,” a figurative ziggurat built mostly from blocks of Pointillist blue, and Joan Miró’s 1918 “Portrait of Juanita Obrador,” a tightly wound woman in a black-and-white striped dress, an image that is as solid as Gris’s Picasso is not.

Throughout there are deviations from modernism-as-usual: “Composition With Red Arrow,” a small Popish abstraction from 1918 by the Romanian Dadaist Marcel Janco; a 1936-37 painting of (I think) brightly wrapped packages by Maria Elena Vieira da Silva that equivocates between magic realism and abstraction; and a wonderful little tropical fantasy by Leonora Carrington. This last work is part of the museum’s extraordinary Bergman Collection of mostly Surrealist art, which forms a kind of cabinet of curiosities at the heart of the third-floor galleries.

The Bergman trove includes a phalanx of 30 boxes by Joseph Cornell, an American. That collection contains the only artists on this floor who developed outside Europe, primarily Arshile Gorky, Matta and Wifredo Lam. (The exception is the Parisian ex-patriot Man Ray, who is in the Bergman collection and elsewhere in these galleries.)

There are also recent acquisitions and promised gifts to admire: a sulfurous early farmscape by Mondrian; a shimmering Bonnard still life from 1926; a blocky, abstract sculpture in cast plaster by Georges Vantongerloo, also from 1926; and Magritte’s enigmatic “White Race,” from 1937, which dissects a female bather, evoking both Picasso’s monstrous paintings of Olga and his pneumatic treatments of Marie-Thérèse Walter.

In the final gallery Picasso’s mountainous “Nude Under a Pine Tree,” from 1959, locks eyes — and a grandiose sense of scale — with a demonic 1945 portrait by Jean Dubuffet. Its wide slashing strokes amaze. Franz Kline must be just around the corner.

And of course he is, downstairs on the second floor. Unfortunately Kline’s classic black-and-white “Painting” from 1952, along with other works from 1945 to 1960, are sequestered in a shallow, constricted 3,000-square-foot space. It is also separate from the big, glorious suites of galleries, and feels sidelined.

Here you will encounter Willem de Kooning’s great jangling 1950 “Excavation,” one of Abstract Expressionism’s finest moments, along with “The Key,” an obstreperous predrip painting from 1946 by Jackson Pollock that the museum acquired in 1987.

Its neighbor is in some ways even better because it is rarer: a truly great painting by Robert Motherwell, acquired only in 1997. “Wall Painting With Stripes,” from 1944, is a field of broad verticals of cream and yellowish brown interrupted by black and gray intimations of a tree, and ovals suggesting suns and moons. It is a glowering, unstoppable canvas, something left behind by Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, taking cues from Miró, on a broad, back-alley fence from a Walker Evans photograph. After works by Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell, Barnett Newman and William Baziotes, the passing of Abstract Expressionism is signaled by a small, beautiful Robert Rauschenberg and larger works (all loans) by Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein and Jasper Johns.

In other words, two of the greatest turning points in mid-century art are cramped into this space. It can feel like a reverential chapel or an isolated cul-de-sac, depending on your point of view.

The big suite of galleries on the second floor, which is dedicated to art since 1960, swings between moments of daring new thought and late- and postmodernism-as-usual. Pop Art is expanded with works by Alex Katz, David Hockney, Sylvia Plimack Mangold and Ed Paschke. There is a small gallery devoted to six works by Jim Nutt, an outstanding but underappreciated painter, native to Chicago, whose perverse portraits and strung-out figures reflect the influence of local Surrealist collections like the Bergman.

Other surprises include a small gallery dedicated to Mel Bochner’s early painted wood wall pieces; a little-known low-lying sculpture by Bruce Nauman that can be walked on (like a Carl Andre) but is actually more interesting to read; and “It’s a New Age,” one of Sue Williams’s searingly caustic, body-oriented early paintings. Less surprising but still impressive is a gallery overly full with paintings and drawings by Gerhard Richter; two galleries devoted to the enigmatic objects (and wallpaper) of Robert Gober; and Charles Ray’s “Hinoki,” a to-scale copy of a large, dead oak tree that Mr. Ray had hand carved, in cypress, in Japan. Mr. Ray’s sculpture is a big-budget production that may become rare in the years ahead, but looking at it and gradually realizing that none of its delicate, desiccated textures are natural is a semihallucinatory experience.

Too often the post-1960 presentation is dry and correct on several levels, including politics, art theory and marketability.

Except for some of the Richters, four late Philip Gustons and single works by Lari Pittman and Marlene Dumas, European and American painting from the 1980s has gone missing. Perhaps in keeping with the Minimal-Conceptual stranglehold that has so dominated views of the art of the late ’60s and ’70s, the ’80s are now to be seen only in terms of the strictly photo-based appropriation of the Pictures Generation. I hope not.

It is dismaying to see modernism’s linear thinking — falsely narrow to begin with — persist. We depend on museums like the Art Institute, now capable of telling a much fuller, more mixed-up story, to do just that.

[wrabbit]

^ Thanks a lot for posting those, Ch.G, Ch.G. A friend and I had just been griping about Ourousoff's Chicago coverage - and then he goes and pens a love letter LOL.

[Via Chicago]

They've got a great photo-slideshow as well
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/13/arts/20090513_INSTITUTE_SLIDESHOW_index.html

[BWChicago]

I went down to visit Michael Reese today. Despite the awful cold rain, it was fantastic. Certain parts are beautiful. If you can, I would recommend visiting soon while all the flowering trees are in bloom.

I've also come to the conclusion that the Olympic Village needs to preserve a far greater portion of the hospital than plans currently call for. While I don't advocate the blind preservation of every single building, there are several that are absolute Modernist gems - namely, the Kaplan Pavilion and the Baumgarten Pavilion. The Singer Building is also wonderful, and Meyer House needs to be saved if only to maintain the beautiful and appropriate bridge over 27th Street, which would make an amazing Olympic gateway if adorned properly.

However, saving other buildings - the Power Plant, the Laundry Building, the Linear Accelerator, the Wexler Pavilion - seems like a losing battle. Preservationists seems to be stuck in a Richard Nickel mindset, refuting any sort of compromise and framing the Michael Reese issue as a zero-sum game when they could accomplish more by working with the city and identifying WHICH buildings are the most significant, and the most adaptable to usage as Olympic dormitories, allowing the rest to be torn down and remain - well-documented - in memory.

Nickel did not refute compromise. What are you talking about?

[BVictor1]

Nickel did not refute compromise. What are you talking about?

Yes, and he got himself killed.

[ardecila]

With due respect to the memory of Mr. Nickel, it seems like preservationists are still locked into a 1960s mindset of "us vs. them" when it seems, in fact, that most people today recognize the value of preservation and are willing to support it. The us vs. them mentality, born out of the despair of mid-century as masterpiece after masterpiece came down into rubble, seems to be a fundamentally incorrect way to approach the issue of preservation today - at least in Chicago.

The only idea pitched on the "Gropius in Chicago Coalition" website is to preserve all Gropius buildings at Michael Reese in a kind of vast, city-scale memorial to the architect, completely disregarding the feasibility or efficiency of re-use. IIT is used as an example, but IIT survived because it was a good design for a campus that has accommodated the changing needs of the Institute for 50 years, and gracefully accommodated new buildings in vastly different styles.

If IIT were to fold, would it be easy to re-use for something other than a university? Probably not. Gropius in Chicago wants to equate Michael Reese with IIT, disregarding the fact that one has a strong and optimistic future while the other was designed for something that is no longer needed in Chicago. Michael Reese needs to be dramatically re-imagined in order to become a contributing part of the city again, and the first step is an honest and unbiased review of WHICH buildings deserve to be saved and which buildings can no longer effectively serve a purpose when not in the service of a hospital.

[Loopy]

Nowhere on the Gropius in Chicago Coalition website are there any ideas "pitched" for a reuse scenario beyond the simple proposition that the Gropius buildings should not be discounted as possible Olympic Village Housing.

Our purpose is twofold:

First, to publicize new, exciting research concerning Gropius’s remarkably forgotten Chicago work.

Second, to advocate for the preservation of this important legacy.
http://www.savemrh.com/about/

The objective is simply to forestall demolition until an official discussion of the architectural and historic merits of the campus can be had.

Where on the website do you detect any unreasonableness or an "us vs. them" attitude?

[george]

5-14-09

AIC Modern Wing & MP Bridge.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8397/modwing1.jpg

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2086/modwing3.jpg

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7638/modwing2.jpg

[SolarWind]

May 14, 2009

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9344/dsc0186.jpg

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2664/dsc0200.jpg

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4643/dsc0185.jpg

[denizen467]

Where's Honte been?
Is honte, like, old & retired? Or young, vivacious, and currently teaching/practicing? Or in between?

[BWChicago]

If Gropius in Chicago were pitching reuse, it would be too early - to determine feasible reuse possibilities you need to have formal studies done, which would be too early to do. You need to not have the buildings demolished to do that. The city has by all appearances not looked at reuse, and this campaign is seeking to expose that and argue for why they should hold off and study. I also haven't seen anything on the Gropius page that says the campus should be preserved as a whole without reuse. Just look - not that far away - at Cook County Hospital. Landmarks Illinois did a reuse study for that, which took time and a grant to do. I think the obvious concept is that they would at least be temporarily refitted as Olympic Village housing.

I think it's ridiculous to paint all preservationists with a broad stroke. That's like saying "city planners have this mindset" or "architects have that". There's no unified school of thought. And in the 1960s preservation was only getting started, legally speaking. You could just as easily say that "modern architects seem to be stuck in the Le Corbusier and Miesian mindset that buildings need to be in steel and glass and maybe concrete". It's a statement that makes a little sense on the face of it but ignores all the nuance.

As for Nickel, he certainly did not have an "us vs. them" mentality. And indeed, BVictor, he did get himself killed - thanks for the helpful reminder, but what does that have to do with refuting compromise? Obviously there is always some conflict in preservation. How would you seek to effectively campaign for the reuse of buildings like this without arguing with the parties seeking to demolish? Go read the books. There were a number of buildings he liked that he did not fight for, like the Meyer warehouse. In fact the ONLY major fights he was involved in were the Stock Exchange and the Garrick. At the Garrick, he did not immediately fight it. He spent weeks photographing it and only then began to lobby for it, where he was open to any kind of reuse idea that would alter the office interiors. And as soon as the fight was lost he turned to salvaging the ornament, which you also wouldn't see today. He also didn't head either of the fights. At the Stock Exchange he was again open to reuse - at one point they were close to allowing the building to be the lobby/plaza to an adjacent air-rights skyscraper. And lets not forget that he ultimately was for the dismantling of the Trading Room - sticking that somewhere else sure sounds like a compromise to me. Nickel was a photographer, a writer, and a salvager. He got involved with preservation, and worked to preserve some buildings, but he disagreed with the precursor to the CAF (which, of course, is scarcely a preservation org anymore) and generally declined to work with preservation groups.

[wrabbit]

The river-walk portion of 300 N LaSalle. This is a head-scratcher. Almost total stylistic disconnect with both the tower and the riverfront. The precast is Magellan-like. But the view is sweet and the amenity generous.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/3534097498_88d2587d66_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3548/3534097918_3730427a95_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2356/3534096764_071e0d709e_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/3533281603_9a80d77080_b.jpg

[Busy Bee]

Yeah it is bazaar.

I kind of wish that the city years ago would have mandated that any new rivers edge development include a riverwalk in the exact Beaux Arts style of the original 1920's sections. That way we could have avoided this and that half assed section between Equitable and Columbus, not to mention the Wacker Drive east extension nightmare.

[george]

5-14-09

MP Bridge terminus.

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9803/modwing4b.jpg

[Jibba]

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9329/dsc09810.jpghttp://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9554/dsc09812.jpg

[Mr Downtown]

Yeah it is bazaar.

I kind of wish that the city years ago would have mandated that any new rivers edge development include a riverwalk in the exact Beaux Arts style of the original 1920's sections.

But how would that work? Chicago is already pushing things a bit, legally, by requiring the 30-foot setback and dedication without compensation.

I often lead tour groups of Chinese mayors, and it's really funny watching them try to understand our Chicago riverwalk system, where the city tells a developer what he has to build and maintain on his private property.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ Its sad when a socially communist, politically repressive, and human rights lacking country has stronger rights of ownership than a Western Democracy.

Yeah it is bazaar.

I kind of wish that the city years ago would have mandated that any new rivers edge development include a riverwalk in the exact Beaux Arts style of the original 1920's sections. That way we could have avoided this and that half assed section between Equitable and Columbus, not to mention the Wacker Drive east extension nightmare.

MMMM yeah, because IBM, Marina City, Trump, and Garuntee would look so great with Beaux Arts trim...

[BWChicago]

But how would that work? Chicago is already pushing things a bit, legally, by requiring the 30-foot setback and dedication without compensation.

I often lead tour groups of Chinese mayors, and it's really funny watching them try to understand our Chicago riverwalk system, where the city tells a developer what he has to build and maintain on his private property.

What makes you say that's pushing it legally?

[Mr Downtown]

Because of the requirement of a public easement across private property. Under Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419 (1982), physical invasion is the test of when a regulation becomes a taking that violates the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause. It's one thing to have a setback line, beyond which your house cannot extend. It's another thing altogether to require you to let the neighbors grow tomatoes there.

Chicago, of course, generally avoids this by having the property owner cheerfully agree to the riverwalk easement and to private maintenance, in order to get the PD approved. But if a property owner ever challenged the requirement, I think he'd have a pretty good case.

[ardecila]

By and large, I think developers share in the civic vision. Including part of the riverwalk makes their property more attractive, because it will exist as part of a larger civic amenity. Even developers who do not want to spend money on building a riverwalk segment are usually convinced to part with the land in the PD application process and are rewarded with TIF funds for the construction of the riverwalk on that land. Take River Pointe, for example - Hines knew that in this tight economy they would not have enough money for an expensive riverfront plaza, much less one over railroad tracks, so they convinced the city to provide TIF funds.

Wielding the PD process for such results is actually one of the few good things about the process. It also allows for a greater degree of control over design versus an as-of-right system. Chicago knows full well that in much of the Central Area, what can be built as-of-right is not profitable relative to the land value. This forces any developers seeking to build in the Central Area into the PD process in order to build something taller that WILL be profitable.

This, of course, comes at a price - the PD process is time-consuming, expensive, and unpredictable - three serious disincentives for any developers wishing to build anything dense in the city.

I'm understanding this correctly, right? Would a simple up-zoning of the Central Area reduce bureaucratic red tape and stimulate development by allowing developers to build as-of-right buildings that are profitable?

[Mr Downtown]

No, Chicago's central area zoning is already about the most generous on the planet. When the Miglin-Beitler Skyneedle was proposed, to the limit of federal airspace, it was as-of-right (they needed a minor loading dock variation). There are probably only a dozen buildings in the entire city that couldn't be built under straight DX-12 with a few easy bonuses.

But the last downtown zoning revision substantially lowered the threshold under which PD review is required, so any building over a certain height now has to be a PD. Properties along the river are also required to go through the PD process. But a landowner along the river could easily cite Dolan and Nollan to resist being forced to dedicate a riverwalk—much less to build one in a certain style.

[wrabbit]

.....Chicago, of course, generally avoids this by having the property owner cheerfully agree to the riverwalk easement and to private maintenance, in order to get the PD approved.....

Bingo.

[Chicago103]

Seen from the park Mr. Piano’s structure immediately brings to mind the work of Mies van der Rohe, a pillar of modern architecture who moved to Chicago from Germany in the 1930s. The taut forms and refined details, the elevation of an industrial aesthetic to an art form — all are hallmarks of Mies’s work. Mr. Piano’s towering glass-and-steel facade, with its floating roof and excruciatingly slender columns, even evokes a lighter, more ethereal incarnation of Mies’s 1968 Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, a landmark of 20th-century design.

I am going to vomit now!! GAG Me!! I'll never step foot in the new addition. Put a tarp over the damn thing before it destroys our chances of getting the Olympics.

[Chicago103]

^ Thanks a lot for posting those, Ch.G, Ch.G. A friend and I had just been griping about Ourousoff's Chicago coverage - and then he goes and pens a love letter LOL.

You guys are sick! That's a hate letter.

[ChiMack]

great

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/1575370,CST-NWS-maxwell15.article

[BVictor1]

Seen from the park Mr. Piano’s structure immediately brings to mind the work of Mies van der Rohe, a pillar of modern architecture who moved to Chicago from Germany in the 1930s. The taut forms and refined details, the elevation of an industrial aesthetic to an art form — all are hallmarks of Mies’s work. Mr. Piano’s towering glass-and-steel facade, with its floating roof and excruciatingly slender columns, even evokes a lighter, more ethereal incarnation of Mies’s 1968 Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, a landmark of 20th-century design.

I am going to vomit now!! GAG Me!! I'll never step foot in the new addition. Put a tarp over the damn thing before it destroys our chances of getting the Olympics.

Spahireblueeyes, you need to stop posting under other peoples identity.

It's dishonest.

[ChicagoChicago]

Heliport Proposal Update

The public hearing on the Children's Memorial Hospital heliport proposal is scheduled to begin Wednesday, July 22nd at 6:00 pm. The hearing will continue the evenings of July 23rd and 24th, and the afternoon of Saturday July 25th as necessary. The location for the hearing has not yet been determined.

IDOT will hear testimony from the public and experts about the safety concerns surrounding the proposed heliport. Everyone will have the opportunity to be heard.

Please save these dates. In the coming weeks we will provide you with additional information on the structure of the hearing and ways in which you can participate.
People suck. Having a heliport on the rooftop on Children's will make it that much more accessible and save more lives. The alderman's proposal is to have them land at Navy Pier.

[Chicago103]

ah, Victor, this is Nick, not Mike. I am even convinced that the building is a early 1960's airport terminal. Mike's =[sapphireblueeyes] been right all along. The _ _ _ _ _ _ is hideous. Some of what he believes about architecture is how I feel as well.

Spahireblueeyes, you need to stop posting under other peoples identity.

It's dishonest.

[Chicago Shawn]

People suck. Having a heliport on the rooftop on Children's will make it that much more accessible and save more lives. The alderman's proposal is to have them land at Navy Pier.

These hearings are held by IDOT's Department of Aeronautics, as is required by state law with any hospital heliport anywhere, and was stated as such in the community meetings before the hospital was approved. IDOT is sole arbiter over determining whether or not a heliport is safe, not the alderman or city council. State law requires that the hospital project must first having zoning approval before such hearings and tests can begin. If its determined the helipad location is safe, then the helipad will be built on the rooftop as planned, whether or not the neighbors continue to bitch.

[AdrianXSands]

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9803/modwing4b.jpg

wow.

[AdrianXSands]

ah, Victor, this is Nick, not Mike. I am even convinced that the building is a early 1960's airport terminal. Mike's =[sapphireblueeyes] been right all along. The _ _ _ _ _ _ is hideous. Some of what he believes about architecture is how I feel as well.

people who say these things about modern architecture, mies, and so on, have no business offering their worthless opinions. it's annoying and ignorant.

mies was one of the most important figures in architectural history.
and the piano museum addition is one of the most significant buildings in our city's recent history.

find a new hobby.

[viewguysf]

people who say these things about modern architecture, mies, and so on, have no business offering their worthless opinions. it's annoying and ignorant.

mies was one of the most important figures in architectural history.
and the piano museum addition is one of the most significant buildings in our city's recent history.

find a new hobby.

Well stated! Your new Modern Wing looks fabulous--another major jewel in Chicago's stellar crown. I can't wait to see it in person this summer! Piano designed our new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park--it's been a huge hit and is extremely popular.

[BVictor1]

people who say these things about modern architecture, mies, and so on, have no business offering their worthless opinions. it's annoying and ignorant.

mies was one of the most important figures in architectural history.
and the piano museum addition is one of the most significant buildings in our city's recent history.

find a new hobby.

I agree with you to a point.

The first thing that came to mind when i read your statement was that's totally the pot calling the kettle black.

Irony also comes to mind.

[BVictor1]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-daley-lakefront-parking-feesmay17,0,6528741.story

Mayor Richard Daley defends plan to charge for parking along lakefront

By Lauren R. Harrison | Tribune reporter
May 17, 2009

Mayor Richard Daley on Saturday defended his park board's decision to start charging $1 an hour to park at more than 4,400 spots along the lake that are now free.

The mayor said the new lakefront parking fees are about "revenue and things like that." Chicago Park District officials told the Tribune on Friday the fees are expected to bring in about $700,000 the first year and perhaps as much as $1.5 million in subsequent years after start-up costs are finished.

Retailers were excited about the new parking charge because it will prevent drivers from parking by the lakefront long-term, Daley said after appearing at a restaurant trade show at McCormick Place.

"You turn over cars," he said. "A lot of people park there and they go to work."

By early fall, drivers along the lakefront will feed "pay and display" devices with a credit card or cash and get a receipt they can leave on their windshield.

Responding to reporters' questions, Daley also said the nation's "financial crisis is much more severe than people think it is" and again turned thumbs-down on Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's veto last week of an attempt to cut the sales tax by 1 percentage point.

"You cannot ask the taxpayer [to pay] more out of their pocket," Daley said. "People are getting laid off."

But when asked about the financial impact of starting to charge families seeking free fun for lakefront parking, Daley did not directly answer. He talked again about the need to more quickly turn over cars at metered spots.

lharrison2@tribune.com

[the urban politician]

^ There have been hundreds of the usual cacophony of pissed off rants in the comments section.

I for one was surprised that lakefront parking was free for so long to begin with. If people really give 2 shits about the lakefront, how about we get rid of the parking lots altogether in order to expand the lakefront green space for everyone!

Another idea: use revenue from the parking fees to build subterranean parking along the lakefront with park space above it.

[sapphireblueeyes]

ah, yeah, what Piano designed for California's Golden Gate Park is FABULOUS. I'd love to see it in person. But for $294 million all we get here in Chicago is a 60's airport terminus. It's =[explicative] hideous. It's a stellar embarrassment to the City of Chicago, like the Picasso sculpture and that pile of junk in the Federal building, oops, maybe I meant that pile of junk called the Federal Building.

Well stated! Your new Modern Wing looks fabulous--another major jewel in Chicago's stellar crown. I can't wait to see it in person this summer! Piano designed our new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park--it's been a huge hit and is extremely popular.

[viewguysf]

ah, yeah, what Piano designed for California's Golden Gate Park is FABULOUS. I'd love to see it in person. But for $294 million all we get here in Chicago is a 60's airport terminus. It's =[explicative] hideous. It's a stellar embarrassment to the City of Chicago, like the Picasso sculpture and that pile of junk in the Federal building, oops, maybe I meant that pile of junk called the Federal Building.

Have you ever researched and looked at pics of what the Federal Building replaced? That's really depressing!

[sapphireblueeyes]

I appreciate Victors' statement.
Adrian, take a chill pill. I have every right to voice my opinion, state it in writing, or however I choose to do so, and by God, I will do so.
This is a Forum of Architectural admirers and critics of the various styles/forms. People bark about height, they pray to the parking god, sit silently by while previously land marked buildings are Daley'd in the middle of the night. Yes, I created a new word. Deal with it. We are all passionate about this city, but are passionate in different ways.
Who the [explicative] are you to tell anyone else that they don't have the right to hold certain forms/styles of architecture with endearment or not?:hell:


I agree with you to a point.

The first thing that came to mind when i read your statement was that's totally the pot calling the kettle black.

Irony also comes to mind.

[harryc]

Lighting ( May 8 )
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/ShBR8krUeXI/AAAAAAABMGw/LNpgTFPWjKE/s800/P1360699.JPG

Big flower pot ( May 14 )
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/ShBR97vavrI/AAAAAAABMG4/BnV2WXhoD88/s720/P1370133.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/ShBR_7UvcLI/AAAAAAABMHA/bU6ykouDYsg/s800/P1370137.JPG

[sapphireblueeyes]

The soot on the old Federal building could have been power washed. It could have been temporarily white washed and restored years later when the technology came into being. The sooty old Nickel Mansion and the Reliance building which is now the Hotel Burnham was just finished being cleaned, it took years, but look at those examples now!! Beautiful!! The Dome on the old Federal building was larger and more ornate than the Dome on the U.S. Capital building in Washington, D.C., and it was layered in gold. It now sits somewhere in Lake Michigan. SHAMEFUL!

Have you ever researched and looked at pics of what the Federal Building replaced? That's really depressing!

[the urban politician]

^ The problem is, Sapphire, if you don't like modernist architecture then you're in for a lifetime of pain.

The issue is, nobody is building the stuff you like any more. Don't take this the wrong way, but if I were you I'd be going insane right now. I could not imagine living in a world in which everything I treasured was disappearing and being replaced by crap. Luckily I don't feel that way--I LOVE modern buildings even while I appreciate the old stuff.

[harryc]

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y150/wjcordier/Skylinejpg.jpg

Fuller's Fly's Eye Dome: A striking, very groovy presence at the Merchandise Mart

April 15, 2009

I was just over at the Merchandise Mart on the way into work and came upon the just-finished installation of Buckminster Fuller's "Fly's Eye dome" for the upcoming Art Chicago art fair. I have two words to pass along about the dome, which complements the Museum of Contemporary Art's fine but flawed Fuller show: See it.

Oh yes--let me add two more words: It's free.....

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y150/wjcordier/6a00d834518cc969e201156f2a3fdb970c-.jpg

Continue reading at http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/

A few more views
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[harryc]

May 16
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/ShByerjvApI/AAAAAAABMK4/hNDXzJa1Zc4/s800/P1370365.JPG

[headcase]

The soot on the old Federal building could have been power washed. It could have been temporarily white washed and restored years later when the technology came into being.

Yeah, except if I remember correctly it wasn't an issue of the building being torn down because it was dirty, the building was terribly designed (and I'm not talking about the look of the building, but the structure) and had serious foundation issues. If you liked the look the the building, so be it I happen to disagree, but it was literally a P.O.S!

SSDD

[george]

5-17-09

Old Colony restoration

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/2962/oldcolony.jpg


Chase rehab

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/3206/exelon1.jpg

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/6393/exelon2.jpg

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7929/exelon3.jpg