Last Days for Inside Studio Gang and The Lost Vanguard

In case you haven't made it yet, this weekend brings your last chance to see two essential exhibitions.

The Lost Vanguard: Soviet Modernist Architecture, 1922-32 runs only through Friday and Saturday, the 22nd and 23rd at the Graham, 11 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days.  The exhibition documents “the work of modernist architects in the Soviet Union in the years following the 1917 revolution and the period of instability during the subsequent civil war.”  At Madlener House, 4 West Burton Place.

 Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects closes at the Art Institute on Sunday.  It's “the first exhibition in the world devoted to the Chicago-based group headed by MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang.”  It includes models, renderings, product samples, and lots of rope, creating five different and ingenious ‘rooms’ placed throughout the large gallery.  In the Modern Wing, 159 East Monroe.

And you know it's got to be  good because, to paraphrase something Elaine May used to say, “that woman is a doctor.’  On Friday, the School of the Art Institute announced that this years graduation ceremonies on May 18th at Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion will include awarding Jeanne Gang an honorary doctorate for a career “seemingly without limits.  In the process [she's made] great civic and cultural contributions that reflect on our interdisciplinary work an scholarship at SAIC.”  Also receiving doctorates will be artist Joe Zucker and actor, playwright and scholar Anna Deavere Smith, who will deliver the commencement address.

Arets, Gang, Gamper, Ghost Facades, Airports, Crosstowns and Engineers Running Amuck - it's the February Calendar!

Oh, yeah, grab your Valentine (hey! - not there) - it's the February Calendar of Chicago Architecture Events.

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February starts off with Wiel Arets talking about his book Autobiographical References at the Graham on Friday the 1st, while Saturday the 2nd, Clare Lyster leads the second Archi-Salon - System Synergy at the Art Institute in conjunction with the exhibition Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects, where curator Karen Kice offers the last gallery talk on Thursday, the 21st.

February 17-23 is National Engineers Week, and CAF recognizes the work of engineers with this month's Wednesday lunchtime lectures: Joshua Freedland of Wiss, Janney Elstner talks about Engineering of the Washington Monument  on the 6th, Joseph Burns of Thornton Tomasetti provides A Look Under Chicago's Block 37 on the 13th, Tom Jacobs of Krueck and Sexton talks about Glass Engineering in Architecture on the 20th, and Terry McDonnell discusses The Revitalization of the (Sears) Willis Tower Skydeck on the 27th 

Of course, every week is Engineers Week at The Structural Engineers Association of Illinois, but this month SEAOI looks at the Wells Street Bridge Construction, Tuesday the 5th at the Parthenon (the timeless landmark, not the building in Athens) and at the Design of Low-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings on Thursday the 14th at UBS Tower.  It all leads up to Dr. Shankar Nair's lecture Skyscrapers-Past, Present, Future, sponsored by SEAOI at CAF on Tuesday, the 26th.

Elsewhere, Gensler's Elva Rubio discusses Ghost Façade: 618 S. Michiganfor Landmarks Illinois at the Cultural Center on Thursday, the 21st in the afternoon, while that evening Susan King of Harley Ellis Devereaux talks about the Living Building Challengeat the Chicago Center for Green Technology

Over at Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute, the School of the Art Institute is sponsoring lectures by landscape architect Martha Schwartz on Tuesday the 5th, and Martino Gamper on Monday, the 18th, while the people from the indispensable website Forgotten Chicago mark their 10th anniversary with a lecture at the Cultural Center for Friends of Downtown on Thursday, the 7th.

Remember the Crosstown, the proposal to cut a new superhighway all long the west side?  David Spatz does, and he'll be talking about Crosstown Expressway Politics and the Limits of Urban Power in Metropolitan Chicago at the Chicago History Museum on the 7th, and if you can't afford a car, Christopher Ziemann will be discussing Bus Rapid Transit in Chicago atAPA Chicago on Tuesday, the 26th

The Urban Land Institute Chicago has seminars on Airports, Infrastructure Investment and the Built Environment at the Ridgemoor Country Club on the 8th, and the Chicago Hotel Market in 2013 and Beyond at the Union League on the 28th. Dr. Chris Luebkeman of Arup discusses Designing for the New Normal in the Next Decade on the 13th at AIA/Chicago, which is also sponsoring a February 28th panel with Dan Wheeler, Susan Conger-Austin, Odile Compagnon and others on Architects Balancing Practice and Academic Work.

Architect Stuart Cohen does double duty,  discussing Incremental Architecture, with Julie Hacker, at AIA/Chicago on the 7th, and on the 27th, lectures on The Architecture of Howard Van Doren Shaw for the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art at the Driehaus Museum (a/k/a Nickerson Mansion.)

And finally, early morning on the 29th at the Central Music Hall, Dr. Vladimir Fragile will discuss  This is NOT a Leap Year (You All Need to Go Home Now.)

I'm sure we'll be adding even more, but for now, check out the nearly 50 great items on the February Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Gill, Wimer, Johnson, Emanuel, Acconci, plus Gaudi for Christmas - it's the December Calendar!

The Holiday Season is upon us.  Some organizations are skipping December, others are having parties, but we still have a full slate for the December Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Cyril Marsolier and Wallo Villacorta, First Prize, Future Prentice competition

Make sure you check out this coming week, because events are heavily front-loaded.  On Tuesday, December 4th, CAF has a panel discussion on Shelter - Design for Social Change, with Roberta Feldman, John Car, Bryan Bell, Sunny Fisher, Patrick Tighe, and Theresa Hwang, the same day Archeworks has its mid-year Design Review and SEAOI has Practicing Green: A Guide to the Structural Engineer as the topic of their monthly dinner meeting, and Glessner House has its 125th Anniversary Dedication Dinner.  Over at Martyr's, there's edition #24 of Pecha Kucha Chicago, with Jordan Mozer, Tess Landon, and Future Prentice design competition winners Cyril Marsollier and Wallo Villacorta among  the presenters.

Wednesday the 4th, lunchtime at CAF, Brian Lee and Ross Wimer of SOM, discuss their Infinity Tower in Dubai and Nozul Lusail Marina in Doha.  Thursday the 6th, all day at the UIC Forum, there's a major symposium:  Metropolitan Resilience in a Time of Economic Turmoil, whose participants include Rahm Emanuel, Pat Quinn, Toni Preckwinkle, the mayors of Columbus, Las Vegas and Pittsburgh, and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. 

That evening, ULI Chicago presents its 2012 lifetime achievement award to Eugene Golub.  On Friday, Karen Kice offers another curator's tour of the Art Institute's Building: Inside Studio Gang, while AIA/Chicago's Holiday Party and Annual Meeting at Revolution Brewery honors Farr Associates, Matt Dumich, Paul Knight, Vincent Paglione and Lynn Becker.

Wednesday the 12th finds Gordon Gill at CAF lunchtime to talk about AS+GG's next world's tallest building, Kingdom Tower, while in the evening Vito Acconci lectures at the Art Institute, with dining packages available at Terzo Piano.

On Wednesday the 19th, CAF lunchtime closes out its month of heavyweights with Ralph Johnson of Perkins+Will talking about their Universidade Agustinho Neto in Luanda and Women and Children's Wellness Centre in Nairobi.

And starting Friday, the 21st, the year closes out with the Gene Siskel Film Center's holiday tradition of booking Hiroshi Teshigahara's hypnotic documentary Antonio Gaudi.  (and for something completely different, that same week at the Siskel you also get another to check out Leos Carax's audacious Holy Motors.)

There's also Julia Bachrach on The City in a Garden at Garfield Park Conservatory, and Larry Okrent on Chicago from the Sky at both AIA/Chicago and at the Cultural Center for Friends of the Parks. And much more.

Check out the nearly three dozen great items and exhibitions on the December 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Update: Inside Studio Gang Archi-Salon to feature Gang, Gil, Jacobs, more

Not longer after we published our post below updating the November Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events, we received more information about the Archi-Salon being held this Saturday in conjunction with the Art Institute's exhibition: Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects.

The salon, Inside Out: Uncovering Possibilities from within the Discipline will look "into the new possibilities generated by approaching and exploring aspects of the architectural discipline from new and uncompromised perspectives [and] uncovering possibilities related to issues of context, materiality, space, and program in architecture."

The moderator will be Iker Gil, director, MAS studio, and editor in chief, MAS Context.  Panelists are scheduled to include Jeanne Gang, principal, Studio Gang Architects; Matthias Hollwich, co-founder, Hollwich Kushner (HWKN); and Michel Rojkind, founder, Rojkind Arquitectos. Respondents will include Kelly Bair, principal, Central Standard Office of Design; assistant professor, UIC; Julie Flohr, founder, Oisse Architects; clinical assistant professor, UIC; Grant Gibson, principal, CAMES/gibson; clinical assistant professor, UIC; Thomas Jacobs, principal, Krueck + Sexton; adjunct associate professor, IIT and Mary Pat Mattson, studio assistant professor, IIT.

The event will take place this Saturday, November 17th, in the Modern Wing architecture space, Galleries 283-285, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., and is free with museum admission.  More information here.

Rescheduled: Saturday's Archi-Salon at Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects

We received a note from Art Institute Assistant Curator Karen Kice that, due to scheduling conflicts, the "Archi-Salon" led by Clare Lyster this Saturday inside the space of the Art Institute's new exhibition Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects, has been rescheduled to February 2, 2013.

Reimagining Urban Eden: Studio/Gang and the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo

 On September 24th, the Art Institute of Chicago will be opening its new exhibition Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects. As a run-up to the opening, this is first in a series of new and newly revised versions of pieces on Jeanne Gang and Studio/Gang Architects.. 

So, here we are. Over a century-and-a-half after we supplanted a millennia-long ecosystem by dropping the first corpse into the ground of a new City Cemetery, we've come back to where we began.  The Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo bills itself as a "multi-sensory, interactive ecosystem . . . (a) newly naturalized oasis in the heart of the city." Its goal is no less than to make the South Pond's 14 acres of land and water, plants, amphibians, fish and fowl into the kind of complex natural habitat that Chicagoans had spent the last century wiping from the face of the city . . .

 

 Read the full story and see all the photographs:  Studio/Gang and the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Biggest Pecha Kucha Chicago ever, Thursday at the Art Institute, plus Graham Finishes Breaking Glass, boathouses, and today (Wednesday) ACE Mentor fundraiser at Vertigo Lounge

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This Thursday at 6:00 p.m. Pecha Kucha Chicago will be offering a special road edition in Griffin Court at the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago,

Chicago’s Volume at the Art Institute of Chicago features 6 minutes and 40 seconds each of creative and passionate minds from the world of architecture, journalism, design, art, education and preservation including musician Jon Langford, curator/architect team Karen Kice with Studio Gang, [offering a preview of the Art Institutes new show, Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects], opening September 24th, photographer Doug Fogelson, Mekon Sally Timms, attorney Troy Klyber, inventor and object designer Steven Haulenbeek, artist Jason Lazarus and visualizer Thorsten Bösch. Architect and PechaKucha Chicago originator Peter Exley will emcee.

With a capacity of 2,000 people, it could be the biggest Pecha Kucha Chicago ever.  The event is free with museum admission.  A cash bar is promised. Trinken und Reden und Zuhören. . . und Triken

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Also on Thursday, the 16th, noon at the Bridgehouse Museum, in the bridgehouse at the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and the river, Cathy Breitenbach will be offering up a presentation on the New Amenities:  Chicago River Boathouses, which are being designed by Studio/Gang and Chris Lee.

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Meanwhile, the Graham Foundation  at 6:00 p.m. Thursday the 16h program will mark the conclusion of its five week Breaking Glass seminar, whose focus was "to initiate collaborative discourse and production between fourteen selected students and practitioners of art, architecture and design."

• graphic designer Jörg Becker: if. iffer. the iffest.
• artist Irena Knezevic: World Without Art
• architect Jimenez Lai: Sensibility vs. Convention in Graphics

Information and RSVP here.

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And lastly, you can still get tickets for today's (Wednesday, August 15) Summer Fundraiser for the ACE Mentor Program, which "serves Chicago area high school youth who are exploring careers in Architecture, Construction or Engineering."  It's at the Vertigo Lounge at the Dana Hotel and Spa, 2 West Erie, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., $40.00 in advance, $50.00 at the door.  A raffle will include event tickets, restaurant gift certificates, furniture pieces and more.  Registration and info here. 

Jeanne Gang's Grounded Magic - Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects opens at Art Institute September 24th

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If last fall was the year of Bertrand Goldberg at the Art Institute, 2012 will be the year of Jeanne Gang.  On September 24th, the Art Institute will open a new exhibition, Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects, showcasing the work of . . .

. . . MacArthur Fellow Gang and her team of 40 architects, designers, and thinkers have produced some of the most inventive and award-winning architecture today. Featured not as a survey or retrospective, the projects of Studio Gang Architects (SGA) will be showcased in an engaging workshop-like environment that reveals the practice's creative processes as they seek to answer pressing contemporary issues through architecture.

The exhibition, designed by Studio/Gang, in collaboration with Art Institute curator's Zoë Ryan and Karen Kice of the Department of Architecture and Design . . .

consists of two interrelated parts. The first functions as a gallery with projects illustrated through a range of materials from sketchbooks and models to photographs, plans, and other drawings. This space will also feature a special series of installations, also designed by SGA, dedicated to the studio's material research and formal explorations.

The second section of the exhibition replicates a workshop, complete with a large worktable, pin-up boards, full-scale mock-ups, and material samples.

SOS Children's Village Lavezzorio Community Center

The second space will host two "Archi-Salons" intended to place Studio/Gang's work "within the larger field of architectural discourse."  The first will be October 6th, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., to be led by architect and UIC assistant professor Clare Lyster; the second, November 17th, also 2:00 to 4:00, to be led by MAS Studio's Iker Gil.

We were introduced to Jeanne Gang when we first began writing about architecture almost a decade ago, when she was flagged by Stanley Tigerman as an emerging star.  Since then, Gang, Mark Schendel and the other talented people at the firm have been extremely generous with their time as they've gone on to such hallmark projects as the Kam Liu Center,  the SOS Lavezzorio Community Center, the Starlight Theatre in Rockford, the Columbia College Media Center, and, of course, Aqua, which became an instant Chicago landmark even when it was under construction.

We've accumulated a lot of material on Studio/Gang that we've never published and, assuming my mind again begins to function, I hope to be posting a lot more text and photo's as the exhibition opening nears.  Some lines to the story so far . . .

Jeanne Gang: Before Aqua - an early portrait.

 Jeanne Gang's Cinematic space at Columbia College

 Designing Women: Five Architects, at exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.