Exley discusses architectureisfun at AIA Chicago tonight - still more for August

Remember when we told you we were adding the last new event to the August Calendar of Chicago

Architectural Events?  We lied.  Tonight Peter Exley discusses the work of his firm, architectureisfun, at AIA Chicago, and we'll be adding more events tomorrow.

Oh, uh, Just One More Thing: Arup's Mahadev Raman discusses The Design of Carbon Neutral Buildings at AIA Chicago August 21

No, it's not a Columbo gotcha, but what will (probably) be our last addition to the August Calendar

of Chicago Architectural Events (still nearly two dozen items to come).  It's a free lecture by Arup America Chairman Mahadev Ramen, at AIA/Chicago the morning of August 21.  Free light breakfast, check it out here.

Last Chance to see Modernism's Messengers: Alfonso and Margaret Iannelli (complete with curator tour) , plus new Alfonso Iannelli monograph

Update [Tuesday, August 6, 5:05 p.m.):  It appears there has been a leak at the Block Museum.   All art work is being moved to a safe location.  Designing the Future has closed prematurely, and Saturday's event with David Van Zanten has had to be cancelled.


Still adding great stuff to the August Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

click images for larger view

Two essential exhibitions are entering their final days, and AIA Chicago is marking their imminent closing with two rare curator tours.  This Thursday, August 8th, Tim Samuelson will be leading a curator's tour of Modernism's Messengers: The Art of Alfonso and Margaret Iannelli, which closes Saturday, August 17th.  As we've written before, it's a don't miss overview on the often troubled lives and far-too-little known - until now - work of two important Chicago artists.

2013 is becoming the year of the Iannellis' rediscovery.  Late on Thursday the 8th, at the Cliff

Dwellers, there will be a book signing of the just published Alfonso Iannelli: Modern by Design, by David Jameson with an introduction by Tim Samuelson.  We hope to be writing soon about this marvelous, lavishly illustrated (350+ color plates), but Snap upyour copy now - I'm hearing the first printing is selling briskly.

There's an even shorter window to see another great show, at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum on Northwestern University's Evanston campus.  Drawing the Future: Chicago Architecture on the International Stage, 1900-1925, runs only through this Sunday, August 11th.

It's an arresting overview of the work of Marion Mahony, Tony Garnier and others. (Including one of those illustrations by Jules Guerin that launched Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago into the public imagination, where it has endured ever since.  Seen a rare opportunity to see it at its original scale, which gives a much bolder impression than the version folded into the book.)


This Saturday the 10th, AIA Chicago has also arranged for Drawing the Future curator David Van Zanten to give a gallery talk of his show, which is a great way to wrap up the run.

And while we don't cover architectural tours - there's just too many of them - on Sunday the 18th, the is mounting a South Side Jewish Chicago tour with Herb Eiseman and architect/preservationist Carey Wintergreen, starting in 1847's State Street, site of the Midwest's first synagogue, and heading down to Hyde Park and South Shore.  $40.00 for members, $45.00 non-members. Information here.
Chicago Jewish Historical Society

Even in the middle of summer, this next week is jammed-pack, with a screening of The Pruitt-Igoe Myth at the Graham on Wednesday the 7th, and the Japanese film Termae Romae at the Cultural Center Thursday and again on Saturday the 10th, the same day there's a panel discussion of Design Education at the Institute of Design at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, and Ilianna Kwaske talking about Behind Closed Doors: The Psychology of Our Domestic Spaces at MCA.

Also on Thursday the 8th, David Bagnall will talk about From Artistic to the Prairie Home: Domestic Interiors of Chicago's Gilded Age, at Fourth Presbyterian's Gratz Center.

We've also added a number of events tied in with the Cultural Center's show Spontaneous Interviews.  Add it all up and there's now nearly three dozen great items still to check out on the August Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

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Wim de Wit, Ilianna Kwaske, Placemaking, Emotions and Planning, Pop-ups, Pruitt-Igoe, and an Ancient Roman architect in a modern Japanese bathhouse - it's the August calendar!

It takes more than those 60-degree dog days of summer to shut down Chicago.  We've got nearly thirty great items for you this month on the August Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

The month starts fast and furious on Thursday, August 1st with a Gallery Tour of the Architecture of the Art Institute, the opening reception of the Pop-Up Gallery show of AIA Chicago's 2013 Small Project Awards, an AIA Chicago tour of the Chicago Family Health Center in Pullman, and a session on Placemaking: Reimagining the Urban Environment at the Chicago Center for Green Technology.

You say you like the movies?  We've got your mini-film festival right here, with a showing on July 31 and another in August of the Korean romance hit, Architecture 101 at the Cultural Center, which will also host two showings of Thermae Romae, in Japanese (and Latin!) about Lucius, an architect in imperial Rome, who suddenly finds himself in a present-day Japanese public bath, where he learns things about the spa culture that he takes back to him when he returns to ancient Rome.  Complications and hilarity reportedly ensue. 

Should your tastes be less light-hearted, you can turn to tragedy when the Graham offers a screening of the documentary, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History.

Other highlights this month include Dr. Ilianna Kwaske talking about Behind Closed Doors: The Psychology of our Domestic Spaces at the Museum of Contemporary Art, while the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art offers a panel discussion, Design Education at the Institute of Design with alumni from the institution founded by Moholy-Nagy in 1946.

There'll be not just one, but two Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust lectures, with Wim de Wit at the Pritzker Auditorium at Holabird and Roche's Monroe Building talking about An Architectural Love Affair: Dutch Modernists and The Work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and David Bagnall discussing From Artistic to the Prairie Home: Domestic Interiors of Chicago's Gilded Age at Fourth Presbyterians Gratz Center, site of CAF's  Behind-the-Scenes: Divine Design with Gensler Architects, Fourth Presbyterian Church.

Later this month, the German American Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring a Smart City Business Conference at a yet to be disclosed location, while at APA Chicago, the UIC's Charles Hoch will discuss Emotions and Planning.  Bring your own blue blanket to calm yourself down.

Bargaining, Anxiety, Anger, Acceptance and Anticipation - you'll experience all five stages as you maneuver your way through the delights of the August Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.