The State of Chicago Architecture.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ I've only been in LA for a week or two and I've already accumulated probably 20 new buildings I admire. There is no way I'll ever be able to get a comprehensive list like that without living here for a long while. Maybe its just the crowd I am running with, but every building I see or go into is super modern and minimalist.

Originally Posted by Taft

Wait...loft conversions? I get the argument for highrises and institutional developments, but lofts? We're swimming in them here. You been in the South or West loop recently?

Yes I have been, and almost none of the conversions I've been in compare to the ones I've seen here. The ones in Chicago are nice and somewhat modern, but the ones I've been in here are radically modern with sweet things like curved walls (vertically and horizontally) and ball bearing curtains. Its just that everything I've been in here has been super crisp and modern...

[M II A II R II K]

Chicago's temples of the big shoulders


August 22, 2010

By Hilary Krieger

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...d=sec-religion

Granted, the holiest shrine for many Chicagoans is Wrigley Field. But for those Cubs fans whose faith has wavered after more than a century without a World Series win - or who want a more traditional space in which to pray for the long-awaited baseball salvation - the Windy City hosts beautiful structures for adherents of many different religions. Chicago's religious diversity and the striking houses of worship it has given rise to go back, as so many things here do, to two seminal events of the late 19th century: the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. The former created a tabula rasa for new architectural structures - and an urgent need for their construction - and the latter showcased Chicago's openness and inclusiveness.

- The Bahai faith was one of the religions that made the most of its welcome during the multi-faith dialogue held alongside the World's Fair. It was the first time the religion - begun in 19th-century Iran - was mentioned on this continent, and from the interest it sparked grew America's initial Bahai community. When ground was broken on North America's Bahai temple in 1912, it was in an open field far from commercial activity.

- The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Unity Temple in Oak Park takes the opposite tack in its attempt to welcome all those who enter. Instead of a panoply of religious symbols, the Unitarian church lacks so much as a cross. In place of awe and splendor, it emphasizes modesty and hominess. But the result is still a compelling, harmonious refuge well worth the trip to the neighborhood the architect made famous.

- The journey 400 feet up to the Sky Chapel at the Methodist Chicago Temple, which was completed in 1924, also heightens the effect of reaching the destination. Although you can sneak a glance at the soaring skyline through a cranked window in the cozy carpeted chapel, the best panorama is available from the pastor's quarters just above, where the Gothic patio is framed by the Willis (originally Sears) Tower and the John Hancock Center.

The Bahai Temple dazzles with its intricate stonework and quartz-enhanced concrete. The skyscraping Methodist Chicago Temple gets parishioners close to heaven.

[M II A II R II K]

Pecha Kucha Chicago "builds" on social media with iPad app for architecture


09.08.10

Read More: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/medi...cture-app.html

Chicago Architecture App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chica...353017712?mt=8

- When you think of Chicago, what is one of the big things that stand out and come to mind? The architecture of course, and since there's an app for everything else these days, why not an app for Chicago Architecture? It makes sense, so that's exactly what Edward Keegan has done. Ed Keegan shared his experience with the crowd. He is an award-winning architecture observer in Chicago for a quarter century who's contributed to Chicago Architect and Architectural Record. He offered excellent commentary on the slides he presented, showing off many iconic views of architecture throughout the city.

- In one of the slides, seen in the first photo in the slideshow below, Ed Keegan revealed that he now offers his commentary in the digital realm with the release of his app for iPhone and iPad.

- "Chicago Architecture: A Critical Guide by Edward Keegan", made in partnership with Sutro Media, offers directions, maps, and commentary by Keegan himself about the different buildings and architecture around the city. The app costs $2.99 which seems like a good price for a in-depth guide to Chicago's architecture from an award-winning local contributer.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ I've been working with a friend of mine to create a guide to Chicago for the Layar app. Its going to include architecture, but its also going to include everything from the best places to eat in every neighborhood to benign observations about little urban details. Its going to have things like "Wood Block Alley" and "sidewalk vault here" and just thousands of little things I know about the city that are completely obscure to the average person but could become fascinating if you use Layar to view the city through a camera phone.

Essentially the idea I have is to eventually build up everything I know about the city into an app so that when you look through the viewfinder you see the city as I see it. You see all the little details. You notice the Municipal Device on the Division Street Bridge, you notice that block of stone in the garden is actually a piece of the cornice from the Chicago Stock Exchange, etc... I've been taking dozens of pages of notes whenever I am out and about and recording all of the little things I notice.

[M II A II R II K]

Recognizing Chicago architecture's high points: A complete listing of the 2010 Design Excellence Awards


http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....e-awards-.html

WINNERS LISTED BY CATEGORY - Awards are given in four categories for 2010: Distinguished Building, Interior Architecture, Divine Detail and Unbuilt Design Award

DISTINGUISHED BUILDING

HONOR AWARD

- Aqua Tower – Chicago – Studio Gang Architects

- Chicago Main Branch Riverwalk – Chicago – Ross Barney Architects

- DuSable Harbor Building – Chicago – David Woodhouse Architects LLC

- Field Chapel - Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany - Students of the College of Architecture, IIT

- House of Sweden – Washington, DC - Wingardh Arkitektkontor, design architects; VOA Associates Incorporated, architects of record;

- Old Orchard Woods – Skokie, Ill. – David C. Hovey, FAIA

CITATION OF MERIT

- 235 Van Buren – Chicago – Perkins+Will

- Coffou Cottage – Michigan City, Ind. – Brininstool, Kerwin and Lynch LLC

- Columbia College Chicago Media Production Center – Chicago – Studio Gang Architects

- Warren E. Burger Federal Building and US Courthouse Renovation – St. Paul, Minn. – Teng Associates


INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE

HONOR AWARD

- Chapel of Saint Ignatius Loyola – Chicago – John Ronan Architects

- Hennepin House – Hennepin, Ill. – UrbanLab

- Herman Miller Los Angeles Showroom – Los Angeles, Cali. – tvsdesign

- Hyde Park Bank Investment Real Estate Loan Processing Center – Chicago – Florian Architects

- Panduit World Headquarters – Tinley Park, Ill. – Gensler

CITATION OF MERIT

- Camelview Village – Scottsdale, Ariz. – David C. Hovey, FAIA

- College of DuPage, Technology Education Center – Glen Ellyn, Ill. – DeStefano Partners / Avi Lothan Studio

- Columbia College Chicago – Chicago – Gensler

- L20 Restaurant – Chicago – Dirk Denison Architects

- Metropolis Investment Holdings Inc. – Chicago - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

- Terzo Piano Restaurant – Chicago – Dirk Denison Architects

- Tribeca Loft – New York, N.Y. – Gary Lee Partners

SPECIAL RECOGNITION

- Confidential Trading Firm – Location withheld – Gensler

- Gould & Ratner LLP – Chicago – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

- Poplar Creek Public Library – Streamwood, Ill. - Frye Gillan Molinaro Architects, Ltd.



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[wrab]

That's a fantastic picture of Aqua. Here's to more big commissions for S/G in the years to come.

[M II A II R II K]

Which city is the center of America's architectural universe? NY, LA, Chicago, or none of the above?


December 07, 2010

By Blair Kamin

Read More: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....ago-stand.html

Is New York the creative center of American architecture? Is Chicago a second city? And what of Frank Gehry's LA? I ask because, while riding the "El" into work today, I was perusing Robert A.M. Stern's illuminating collection of essays, "Architecture on the Edge of Postmodernism." In one of these essays, "New York, New York: Pluralism and Its Possibilities," first published in 1979, Stern writes of New York's place as a center of ideas--a nexus of distinguished architecture schools, journals, museums and newspaper criticism that no other American city could match

"One comes to New York to see architecture being made, and not so much to see it. How different from Chicago, where the products of Mies's talents and those of his followers are everywhere to be seen. Chicago is like Detroit or Hollywood--the product and the place are one; architecture is Chicago's dominant plastic art, just as film is Holywood's chief artistic product; they are company towns, urban villages grown up to produce and market one or two things. New York is a metropolis, a world capital; architecture is dreamed here, realized everywhere." Did Stern correctly characterize Chicago in 1979? And now, 31 years and a host of changes later, where is he right and where is he off base?

Here are some thoughts to get the debate going:

1) Stern correctly observed Chicago's preeminence in architectural production--a standing that is as true now as it was then, at least if one takes multiple generations of a city's buildings, and not simply contemporary work, into account. But while he acknowledged Mies, Stern left out the other heroes who made Chicago preeminent--William Le Baron Jenney, Adler and Sullivan, Burnham and Root, Holabird and Roche, Frank Lloyd Wright, Holabird and Root, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. A surprising lapse for a distinguished architectural historian, but maybe the literary stylist in Stern didn't want to get bogged down with a long list.

2) Even in 1979, Stern greatly oversimplified when he characterized Chicago as an urban village grown up to produce and market one or two things. The city has long been the metropolis of the Midwest, a maker of tools, a stacker of wheat, a player with railroads and all that other stuff Carl Sandburg mused about in his famous "Chicago" poem. Today, Chicago is a global metropolis, regularly named one of the world's top financial centers and the place that the Leader of the Free World calls home. More to the point, it's no provincial design 'burg. It exports its architectural talent around the world, just as it imports top design talent like Gehry, Koolhaas, and Piano.

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[M II A II R II K]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phil_ma...n/photostream/

[M II A II R II K]

The Wrigley Building: It's time to protect 'an architectural treasure'


Read More: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....-treasure.html

City officials always insisted that they didn't need to bestow landmark status on the Wrigley Building because the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. would never do its namesake skyscraper any harm. Then, last year, a clinical, refrigerator-style wall was slapped onto one of the facades facing the plaza between the skyscraper's north and south sides, a small but significant blemish that offered a reminder that the city's stance was far too trusting. On its face, then, there was good news in Monday's announcement about the building's new owners, a group of investors led by BDT Capital Partners.

Byron Trott, BDT's managing partner, called the Wrigley Building, which flaunts a dazzling white terra cotta facade, an "architectural treasure." There were hints that the postcard-ready, prominently located North Michigan Avenue tower would retain its original use as an office building and its historic name, unlike the dubious deal that turned Sears Tower into Willis Tower faster than you can say "sign on the dotted line." Perhaps most crucial, a news release stated that the owners group "has recently begun dialogue with the city of Chicago regarding landmark designation for the property and looks forward to working with the city regarding this designation."

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