It's National Engineers Week! Full day of events for kids at CAF this Sunday

It's almost here: National Engineers Week, February 17-23, the annual event that bring engineers into the spotlight often hogged by their architect partners, reminding us that no matter how beautiful a building might be, it's a whole better when an engineer is on board to make sure it doesn't fall down.

This Sunday, February 17, the Chicago Architecture Foundation kicks it all off with a Studio for kids, ages 5-18, Engineering the 21st Century City, a free event from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at CAF at 224 South Michigan.

at CAF, Bob Johnson (at microphone, left), Thorton Tomasetti's Joe Burns, far right

Our indefatigable correspondent and engineering ambassador extraordinare Bob Johnson provides a preview . . .

For all of you who have kids and grandkids, there's going to be all kind of presentations geared to showing kids how skyscrapers - and bridges - stand up and fall down.  Architectural student Rocco Buttliere is going to bring a whole collection of his Lego skyscrapers.  You name it, he's got it: the World Trade Center, the old one and the new one, Freedom Tower, Sears (Willis) Tower, Burj Khalifa. And then engineer Larry Novak, formerly of SOM and now of the Portland Cement Association, will be giving a presentation on the Burj Khalifa.  Believe it or not, we'll have kids designing bridges on a computer.

Sounds like a fantastic event.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation is actually devoted the entire month to engineers, including its Wednesday lunchtime lectures.  I attended a great lecture this week by Thornton Tomasetti's Joe Burns on what's below Block 37.  This coming Wednesday, the 20th, Krueck and Sexton's Tom Jacobs talks about Glass Engineering in Architecture, and on the 27th, Terry McDonnell of US Services discusses the engineering and design considerations behind the Willis Tower Ledge.  On Tuesday, the 26th, Dr. Shankar Nair discusses Skyscrapers - Past, Present, Future, including the surge in super-talls.  On Saturday, the 23rd, there'll be a Building and Testing Studio for teens, down at Crown Hall at ITT.  More information on all these events here.

Also on the 23rd, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. the annual DuPage Engineers Week Expo will take place at the IIT's Rice Campus in Wheaton, with more family-focused events, including the ZOOM into Engineering and Design Squad, Lego Robotics, Mr. Freeze Cryogenics, and 4,500 Years of Structural Engineering Program.

On March 8th in West Chicago, Siemens will be holding its 9th annual edition of its Introduce  a Girl to Engineering  event, offered to 100 girls in grades 5 through 12 and hosted by women engineers.  Contact Jayne Beck via email to register and for more details.

And we couldn't leave you without this photo of the winners of this year's Chicagoland Future City competition, which brings together area students to put their visions of the future into built form.  This team of students from St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge go on to the finals in Washington, D.C., where the winner gets a trip to Space Camp.

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.

click images for larger view

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.