This Thursday: Rare opportunity to view WPA murals at Lane Tech, plus Gunny Harboe on restoring the Rookery Tuesday - just added for June. Tonight: Bowling for Prentice. Tuesday: Bruce Mau on aging infrastructure, PechaKucha 18, much more

A quick reminder that Monday, June 6th, is the date for the Bowling for Prentice benefit to help save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital from being destroying by Northwestern for a vacant lot.  It's a 10 Pin at another should-be Goldberg landmark, Marina City, 300 North State from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.

We're still adding great events to the June 2011 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events  This week on Thursday, the 9th, Preservation Chicago and portuluz will be offering a rare tour of the WPA-era murals at Lane Tech High school.  On Tuesday, the 7th, Gunny Harboe will be talking about the restoration of the Rookery, 7:00 p.m. at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park.  Also on Thursday, the 9th, the Harry Chaddick Institute at DePaul will have  panel discussion on Strategies of Improve Historic Preservation in Suburban Communities.

Just this week, there's Peter Calthorpe at CAF on Monday. On Tuesday, Bruce Mau and Armin Linke discussing Global Designs for Aging Infrastructure, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in conjunction with their great new show, Public Works, as well as Eileen Mackevich at the Cultural Center for the National Public Housing Museum, and PechaKucha 18 at Martyr's. On Wednesday, Irene Murray talks about Palladio at CAF lunchtime, and Martin Hackl discusses John van Bergen and the Prairie School of Architecture at the Barrington Area Historical Society.  Saturday, the 2011 Structural Engineering Awards will be announced at the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois' annual banquet, at Newberry Library. while Marcus Schmickler performs at Madlener House at the Graham, and on Sunday, the Glessner House Museum offers its annual house tour of both interiors and exteriors of the mansions of Prairie Avenue and the Second Presbyterian Church.

There are more than 50 events still to come in June.  Check 'em all out on this month's calendar, here.

Halloween attacks Chicago architecture - Giant Spider on Rush, Poe at Glessner, PC at Cobb's dungeon

click images for larger views

No, your eyes were not deceiving you.  That was a giant, scabby spider you saw climbing up the side of the 1883, oh so stately and sober Nickerson Mansion on Rush.  If his huge rhinestone eyes are bulging with anger, it's because he just found out the Nickerson Driehaus Museum is closed on Monday's, and he's grown way too big to scamper through a crack in the window.

If you want to move inside, there a number of Halloween events coming up.

Tuesday, October 26th, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Preservation Chicago is offering up Paranormal Preservation at the Excalibur  nightclub on Dearborn.

Eat, Drink and Be Spooked! Join us at this haunted historic landmark for a Halloween celebration and be possessed by one of the scariest of places in Chicago, the Dome Room. Sean Parnell author of Historic Bars of Chicago will be giving a brief talk in the haunted history of the Dome Room and will be signing books.

The building that is now Excalibur, of course, was built in 1892 as the home of the Chicago Historical Society, done up in architect Henry Ives Cobb's best fortress dungeon style.  One little known fact about the structure is its basement crypt were Laeddis was kept shackled before he was shuffled off to Shutter Island

The $30.00 tariff for Preservation Chicago's event includes 2 drink tickets, appetizer buffer, a one year membership for new members to PC, and a real shock if you choose to investigate that last stall in the washroom with its door half open.  Information and reservations here.

Unfortunately, Unity Temple has already suffered a repugnant "trick"  when 58 of the 72 tarnished bronze letters spelling out "For the worship of God and the service of man" were stolen from the sides of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece. 

Fortunately, on Thursday the 28th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., there will be a more positive event, Wine, Chocolate & Architecture: A Haunting Halloween Trio that will take place in a candlelit Unity Temple. The event will also feature clothing, jewelry and accessories "in hues of wine and chocolate" (makes it so much easier when you spill some of it on yourself) from Oak Park's Takara boutique.  $30.00 in advance, $35.00 at the door, 50% tax deductible. Get information about the event and how to purchase tickets here.

Finally, the Glessner House Museum will be offering actors from Lifeline Theatre presenting staged readings of Edgar Allen Poe's "terrifying stories and poetry. A holiday tradition!" (nevermore,  schmevermore), Saturday, October 30 at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.  And, by the way, if you catch sight a huge ghostly figure, hooded in a monk's black cloak, remember it's bad manners, even on Halloween, to remind him that if he had just eaten more sensibly he would have had time to make a lot more buildings.  The event is $25.00, $20.00 for museum members, pre-paid reservations required.  On Saturday and Sunday, October 30 and 31, the Glesnner is also offering Haunted Tours of Prairie Avenue at 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., "Tales of strange sounds, unexplained sightings, and untimely endings as your explore Prairie Avenue after dark." $10.00 per person, $8.00 for members. Information about the events and how to order tickets here.

What?  You say we still haven't come up with anything that really scares you?

Ok.

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