Buildings We've Grown to Love: Harry Weese's River Cottages

From the west, they look a bit forbidding, the cottages architect Harry Weese designed in 1988 along the west bank of the Chicago river, just south of the Kinzie Bridge. A long, monolithic concrete wall gives off an almost bunker-like vibe, until you notice that the windows that occasionally puncture it are a bit eccentric - portholes, triangular sashes, bays that look more like something you'd find on a shack than an upscale townhouse.

When you get to the river, however, you're on a different planet, where the funkiness subverts a tight, organizing geometry to create one of the more engaging structures in the city. (Click on the photographs to see a larger view.)
Weese's nautical idioms came naturally, both from his wartime service in the Navy, and his love of sailing. On her very fine blog, BLUEPRINT: Chicago, Caroline Nye writes that Weese's "inspiration for the cottages came from a trip he took down the Danube River in Hungary thirty years prior to their completion in 1988. There he had seen a collection of unique cottages where people were able to build whatever they wanted with minimal government interference."

And, indeed, Weese's sly take seems to be an homage to what squatters might have put up if they only had the money - and imagination. The six levels of the four townhouses stack atop each other like cabins on a hillside, with a external stair that winds like a corkscrew up to a steep, ladder like series of steps leading to a glass, coffin-shaped door at the back of a terrace. A birdhouse serves as a filial to the tall pole anchoring the stairway.





















The sharply-angled roof, expressed in a grid of rectangles and triangles, alternates between solid and glass for the skylights, and solid and voids for the terraces. Jut-angled brackets pop out of the facade. Pipe chimneys punctuate the roofline. This is probably one of the few buildings where satellite dishes seem perfectly at home in the overall design.
The central courtyard seems less willed than improvised. To paraphrase FLW, the cottages look like they were built not on the riverbank, but of it.
I keep thinking that the cottages would be right at home in Sweethaven, the huge set Wolf Kroeger constructed for Robert Altman's 1980 film Popeye, which remains a major tourist attraction on the island of Malta down to this very day.
The cottages, similarly, are a one-of-a-kind, unsanitized delight, an anti-Miesian romp that rejects uniform repetition for a playful mosaic that, like a master juggler, keeps a boatload of variations in the air all at the same time. Yesterday, even this goose seemed to find serenity in contemplating Weese's cottages from his perch in the river.

Sunday Reading: Weiwei on Twitter; Schama on Rothko in Russia

“In Chinese [in 140 characters] you can seduce a girl or write a constitution. You can write a short novel or tell a beautiful story." So says Chinese artist, architect and activist Ai Weiwei about his love of Twitter in an extensive interview with David Pilling in this weekend's Financial Times. Weiwei talks about his clash with Chinese authorities, his work on Bird's Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing, and what his father learned from cleaning toilets during the Cultural Revolution.

Also in the FT's weekend edition is another excellent article by Simon Schama on the return of the work of painter Mark Rothko, who claimed that the scar on his nose came from a cossack whip, to larger Russia via a major new retrospective at Moscow's Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture.

Chicago Streetscene: The Wedding Kiss

(Click for larger view.)

John Cage, Water Walk, on I've Got a Secret, 1960

Via the New Republic's David Hajdu, here's John Cage with Gary Moore on I've Got a Secret, circa 1960, performing Water Walk, minus the sound of five radios due a union jurisdictional dispute.. Hajdu's take on the program, cultural attitudes, and Cage, himself, is worth reading, but what's perhaps most nostalgic is that this a full 9 minute, 23 second segment without commercial .interruptions.

John Ronan talks about his new design for the Poetry Foundation

"It may be easier," said architect John Ronan, when asked about the affinities between architecture and poetry, "to talk about what we didn't do, which is to read a poem and design a building."

He was speaking at a Wednesday lunchtime event at the Arts Club at which the Poetry Foundation was celebrating the groundbreaking for its first real home of its own, made possible by a $100,000,000 gift from the late heiress Ruth Lilly, which will soon liberate the organization from nearly a century of often hand-to-mouth existence in small rented rooms and cramped basements.
Construction is set to begin soon on the new $9,700,000, 26,000 square-foot-building at the southwest corner of Dearborn and Superior. Ronan's design creates an angle of repose in the midst of busy River North with a large garden inside a visually permeable screen wall made of a black zinc that turns solid over the other parts of the building.
I expect to be writing a lot more about this building, and about Studio/Gang's new Media Center for Columbia College, but for today, we'll let Ronan do the talking:

. . . there are aspects of the building that are very much like a poem, and try to be like a poem. It's not a building that's a one-liner. It's not something you see right away. You might have to go back to it two or three times. You might have to see it at different times of day or year to really get an understanding of it, just as you might come back to a poem time and time again and get something different out of it each time that you read it

. . . Poets don't invent words. They just arrange words in a way to uncover new meaning or make us think about something that was hiding in plain sight, that we didn't see. And that's what I try to do. I'm not inventing new materials. I'm not inventing forms. Just putting them together in such a way that you may have to rethink things and draw your attention to them in unexpected ways.

The two videos below capture Ronan's presentation on his design. I apologize for the visual quality, but you should be able to still get a decent view of the illustrations. The most comprehensive source for a selection of many of the same graphics used in the Arts Club presentation, in much better quality, can be found in the newly published Explorations: The Architecture of John Ronan, from Princeton Architectural Press, which provides a rich overview of the work of one of Chicago's best architects. You can also find slideshows of images on the websites of both the Poetry Foundation, and of John Ronan Architects.

(Click on the videos to view them in a larger size.)

Part One:

Part Two:

Cobbgate Scandal: U of C Biological Laboratories reluctantly puts failed experiments on permanent display

Some of the residents of the gate for the Hull Biological Laboratories, which Henry Ives Cobb donated to the University of Chicago shortly before he was dumped as campus architect. (click on the photos for a larger view)

The specimen depicted in the top photograph above shows the results of early attempts to use seaweed protoplasm to secure dental implants.

The middle photograph is a memento of a three-year program, initiated by students, to fully diagram molecular transmutations and the potential for replication arising out of French kissing, abruptly terminated by the administration after it was discovered that the instructor was not, as claimed, Dr. François P. McCarthy of the Sorbonne, but Fifi Dessay of the Trocadero Theater on south State Street.

The bottom photograph is a specimen from still another experiment studying the breakdown of complex organisms into prokaryotes through the cryogenic freezing of faculty members at the exact moment they learned they had been denied tenure.

And as for Henry Ives Cobb? In total dejection after his firing, the architect grew violent, and was discovered by police using a large kitchen knife to chop neighborhood chickens into little pieces. As his anger grew, his list of his victims expanded: pork bellies, tomatoes, eggs, avocado - several types of lettuce - until he inadvertently created the salad that would secure him a greater, more enduring fame than he would ever enjoy as an architect.

Should This Building be Saved?

Although the qualifications of an individual building may be fiercely debated, the the most classic definition of a landmark is clear: a structure of national or international significance in terms of unique quality of design of historical import.

There is, of course, a second level of landmark, far more abject, but a kind of landmark that still forms the bedrock of continuity, not by being a masterpiece, but by carrying into the present that sense of history without which a city, town or neighborhood becomes nothing more than an accident of geography.Logan Square activist Mark Heller is making a case for this building, an administrative structure from the 1920 or 30's that was retrofitted to serve as a mini-fieldhouse for Haas Park, on Fullerton, just east of California.

It's about to be replaced by a new, much-needed, expanded 10,000 square-foot facility, pictured below, designed by the firm of Johnson & Lee. According to the city's Public Building Commission it will "include a gymnasium, club rooms, and administrative support offices. Building construction will consist of pre-cast concrete wall panels and curtain wall systems. New landscaped areas will flank three sides of the building to provide a buffer zone from the surrounding vehicle traffic noises as well as site drainage support." The construction is part of an overall $10,000,000 project to expand and upgrade the park, which is in a part of the city that finishes next-to-last in park acreage per capita.

For two years, Heller has been urging the Chicago Park District to look at re-use options, to little result. "It's just way easier," he says, "to demolish a classic small neighborhood park brick building than to 'think outside the box' and explore preservation." He's proposing moving the current building - at a cost he estimates at $250-300,000 - to a new location where it could be adaptively reused, such as Humboldt Park, or the new Bloomingdale Trail.

This Saturday, April 24th, between 1 and 3:00 p.m., there will be a "farewell" party for the 80-year-old structure, with food, refreshments, music, and an absence of sentimentality.

The Haas park building is rated "orange" on the Chicago Landmarks Commission Historic Resources Survey of potentially landmarkable buildings, but the listing cites no architect, construction date, or style.

In a large urban center, it seems always to be about building bigger. Is there still room for modest structures of humble character, who did their jobs well, and with grace?

Visionary or Fraud? David Fisher lectures at IIT Monday

Just added to the April calendar of Chicago architectural events:

Community Interface Committee, Wednesday, Visiting Schools. April 21, 6:00 p.m., AIA Chicago. Jennifer Masengarb, education specialist from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, will discuss her pathbreaking publications, Schoolyards to Skylines: Teaching with Chicago’s Amazing Architecture and The Architecture Handbook: A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings

David Fisher: The Creator of Dynamic Architecture, Monday, April 19th, 12:30 p.m. at Crown Hall, IIT: In June 2008, at New York's Plaza Hotel, a man identified as Dr. David Fisher, "futurist architect" unveiled plans for a spectacular $700 million, 80-story, wind-powered, pre-fab Dubai skyscraper in which each floor would physically rotate a full 360 degrees. And he was going to put up another one in Moscow. The idea was so striking it was listed 16th on Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2008. In November of that year, the "Renowned Italian architect" was named global Architect of the Year by the Developer & Builders Alliance.

Like Jay Gatsby, however, things soon revealed themselves to be not quite as they first appeared. Fisher's bio claimed he had received his honorary doctorate from the "The Prodeo Institute at Columbia University in York." When WCBS reported no such institution exists, and Columbia denied ever awarding Fisher a degree, Fisher's publicists responded that he actually had been awarded the degree by "the Catholic University of Rome" at a 1994 ceremony at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, which, while opening its doors to all faiths, is actually the center of the Episcopal Church in New York. The reference was soon removed.

Fisher's bio on his own Dynamic Architecture website proclaims:

He cannot be considered an architect in the traditional sense. Dr. Fisher has a 360 degree experience in the world of construction – from project development to construction management, from teaching to designing.

There is no record of Mr. Fisher building anything, but he is apparently the owner of the Leonardo da Vinci Smart Bathroom Company, and has extensive work experience in innovative bathroom design. In an interview with The National, he admitted to never having heard of Buckminster Fuller. The Developers and Builders Alliance (or "DBA", which is a completely appropriate acronym on more than one level) is reported to be the former Florida Builders Association. It's heavy on "Honorary Members" such as Donald Trump and Evangeline Gouletas. Its on-line brochure lists the Advantages of membership as including the "robust backing" of Visual Media Productions Group and AC Graphics of Hialeah, "the first triple-certified Green printer in Florida."

Master promoter? Definitely. Master architect? Form your own judgement on Monday when Fisher lectures at Crown Hall.

Also on Monday:

Jesse Reiser + Nanako Umemoto, 6:00 p.m. Gallery 1100, Art & Architecture Building, 845 W. Harrison, University of Illinois at Chicago. Lecture by Jesse Reiser + Nanako Umemoto, Principals, Reiser + Umemoto, New York, which, in collaboration with ARUP, has just won the Taipei Pop Music Center Competition.
There are over a dozen and a half great events on the calendar just this week, including the SEAOI Bridge Symposium, the Society of Architectural Historians national conference, David Swan on Irving K. Pond's autobiography. and more. Check them all out here.

Chicago Streetscene: Push for Customer Assistant

(Click on image for larger view.)

Chicago Streetscenes: Frosted Arbor; Golden Tower

via our indefatigable correspondent Bob Johnson(click on images for larger view)

Herbert Dreiseitl lecture: Urban Waterscapes - IIT tonight

Another last minute addition to the April calendar.

Tonight at 7:00 p.m., in Siegel Hall Auditorium at IIT, 3301 S. Dearborn, there will be a lecture by landscape architect and water hydrologist Herbert Dreisteitl of Atelier Dreiseitl, whose work includes the green roof atop Chicago's City Hall, and an installation for the Neu-Ulm train station, pictured to the right. You can read an interview with Dreisteitl here.

Also tonight, at 6:00 p.m., Brett Steele will lecture at UIC, and at CAF's lunchtime lecture at 12:15, Joe Dolinar, Partner, Goettsch Partners; Lou Rosetti, Senior Project Manager, Walsh Construction, and Jim D’Amico, Vice President, The John Buck Company, will discuss the vertical expansion of 300 East Randolph.

Check all the great events still to come on the April calendar here.

Forget that wuss Rudolph: Chicago Santa guarded by Griffins

Winter can be tough for the rest of us, but spring and summer are the rough seasons for Santa and his reindeer, exposed by the lack of snow and darkness. But at the deliriously appointed house at Washtenaw and Logan Boulevard, Santa's position is secured by two, cat-like griffin sentries, part of an incredibly eclectic array of embellishments on what is one of our favorite houses. Read our original story on it, complete with pictures, here.

St. Boniface: Saved?

On Tuesday, the Chicago Community Development Commission will agree to sublease the former Byrd School at Orleans and Hill Street, near St. Joseph Church, to the Archdiocese of Chicago, the first step in a deal where the second part, to close later, would see the city purchase St. Boniface Church in the East Village neighborhood, designed by architect Henry J. Schlacks in 1902, and hand it over to a developer.

Since the church was closed in 1989, preservationists and neighborhood activists have been battled the Archdiocese's plans to demolished the structure, as it did the adjoining school. In 2003, the Archdiocese mounted a competition for proposals for the church's reuse, including reuse of the original interiors, that resulted in entries from such top-notch firms as Studio/Gang, Booth Hansen, and A. Epstein, with the winning proposal, from Brininstool & Lynch, floating a glass-enclosed day care center in the church's sanctuary.

Nothing came of any of these ideas, and today the plan is from IPM Amicus, which would demolish everything but the Chestnut Street facade and the larger portion of that on Noble , and insert a new 75 bed Retirement Community building, designed by Vasilko Architects and Associates, behind them.

Here's what the original building looks like, from a photo on the website of the St. Boniface activists. And here's my photo of the church's current east facade. Here's the elevations from the IPM Amicus website, to the east, a fairly straightforward building, with tall, arched windows on the first floor, topped by another five stories, above which the two western bell towers remainly clearly visible. The western elevation: According to IPM-Amicus spokesman Ken McHugh, "based on comments from the community we have made the changes that we believe improve the look."

The design has now become much busier, with, on the east side, setbacks on the third and top floors marked by chicken-bone-like buttresses, and two floors added, pretty much obliterating the view to the western bell towers. What was once a flat roof on the western side is now marked by a succession of attics.

It's Architecture Week! Thomas Gordon Smith, Lee Bey and Warren Berger on Thursday, Sam Guard on Saturday, plus a seven day Photo Party in Oak Park

Yes, April 12 to the 18th is national Architecture Week, so what better time to add a few more great events to the April calendar.

Seating is limited to 60 people, so it might already be sold out, but Notre Dame professor and architect Thomas Gordon Smith will be lecturing on Vocabulary, Proportion and Invention in Contemporary Classical Architecture for the Chicago-Midwest chapter of ICA-CA at the Richard Driehaus Museum this Thursday, April 15th, at
6:00 p.m., the same evening that Lee Bey will be talking about How Mayor Washington Changed the Face of the City at the Harold L. Washington Library, also at 6:00 p.m. As if that's not enough, at 5:30 the same day, there's a lecture and book-signing by Warren Berger, author of Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life, Your Business, and Maybe Even the World, at Siegel Hall at IIT, co-sponsored by the Harrington College of Design.

On Saturday, the 17th at the Manning Public Library, Mario Machnicki will lead a free workshop, The Care and Maintenance of Your Historic Masonry Home. And on Sunday, the 18th, Jack Spicer and Sam Guard will present An Architectural Walking Tour of Woodlawn Avenue, including the work of Pond and Pond and others.

The 12th through the 18th is also Architecture in Oak Park Week, with "three major architectural scavenger hunts." No, you won't be looking for Sam Zell, but you'll have your choice of a self-guided "Visitor Edition" that starts and ends at the Oak Park Visitors Center and will extend all week, and a "Seasoned Local Edition" on Saturday, the 17th. You'll be given photographs and clues and sent on your way to try to find the addresses of the buildings whose details are captured in the pics.

A third interactive event is being organized by Oak Park Education Foundation’s Architecture Adventure, geared towards families with school aged children. This event will showcase the work and projects of OPEF’s visiting architects program in District 97 schools.

There are still 42 events to come on the April architectural calendar - nearly 20 this week alone, including lectures by Edward Windhorst, Brett Steele, and Juhani Pallasmaa. Check it all out here.

Classic Car Rainy Day at Marina City

They must belong to whoever's renting us all that ugly scaffolding.

Chicago Streetscene: Stairway in a Box

Trumptastic Riverwalk now open down all three levels

At the moment, still almost eerily quiet. Needs some tables and chairs along the terraces where a flâneur can sit basking in the the sun, sip an overpriced coffee and peer bemusedly over the top of his or her sunglasses at the world passing by.

If you're a dog, however . . . . . . you may already have pretty much everything you need.

John Buck gets his new Park - do we get to name it?

Your tax dollars at work. Above is a photo of the progress of the new pocket park you're bankrolling to the tune of $7 million in TIF money to give the spectacular arcade of Goettsch Partners handsome new 155 North Wacker a more congenial endpoint than a shear wall of alley brick with a faded block letter advertisement for window shades.

According to information in the newsletter of 42nd ward alderman Brendan Reilly, the park "will contain 9,245 square feet of grassy area, low-rise plantings, 23 trees, bicycle parking and seating." 155 North Wacker developer John Buck, reports Reilly . . .

anticipates completion of the park and its landscaping by July 2010.

The Buck Company will construct and maintain the park in perpetuity, however there is a Development and Maintenance agreement in place to return ownership back to the city upon completion. That agreement designates the park land as public open space in perpetuity.

Let's hope "perpetuity" lasts longer than the beautiful park next to Buck's AMA building, which was leveled, after the city failed to take Buck up on his offer to sell it to them, for the just-opened Palomar Hotel.At the moment, the park remains nameless. Should we begin a campaign to convince Reilly and Buck that it should named after Harry Heftman? Harry was the guy who, for over half a century, sold hot dogs at his 300 W. Randolph restaurant where, about a year ago, Mayor Daley and other luminaries stopped by to help Harry celebrate his 100th birthday, just before the city came in and smacked the building down to the ground to make way for the new park?It's not just the big money, but the small gestures that give the streets their woof and weave. No less than with the Crowns or the Pritzkers, the spirit of Chicago is the product of legends like Harry Heftman, who create the micro institutions that give the city character all the way down to the countertops of a cozy corner restaurant, polishing the bedrock of the everyday with a genial smile.

The Revolution Comes (in an Airstream) - to Millennium Park

Via our intrepid correspondent Odile Compagnon comes word that the The Design Revolution Road Show is in Chicago today and tomorrow,10 am. to 4:00 p.m., with the involvement of the School of the Art Institute.

It's designed as "a traveling exhibition and lecture series bringing 'product design that empowers' to 35 high schools and university design programs across the nation in the Spring of 2010 . . . 40 humanitarian design solutions that have been showcased in the book Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People. The programming will bring the evidence of and tools for design for social impact to the doorsteps of students, with the ultimate goal of enabling and empowering the next generation of creative problem-solvers to apply their skills to the world’s most pressing problems and improve life on a global scale."

The neat part is that it's all packed up in an Airstream trailer. The website gives its location as "between Randolph, Monroe, Columbus, and Michigan downtown Chicago," which is a lot of ground to cover, but my bet is that an object glittering in the sun in Millennium Park will be pretty easy to spot. (Just don't try to climb inside of The Bean; it'll be the other shiny object.)

Frank Gehry, Reiser + Umemoto, MOS, Pallasmaa, Lee Bey, Doug Farr, SAH and Chicago in the 70's, Archeworks WPA 2:0 - the April Architectural Calendar

Chicago's April calendar of Architectural events really gets rolling this week with Peter Hales at UIC on Monday, Archeworks Spring Open House showing the entries to WPA 2.0: Working Public Architecture on Tuesday, up against SEAOI's Beyond Failure program, Sample and Meredith of MOS at the Art Institute, and no less than Frank Gehry, in conversation with Thomas Pritzker at the Harold Washington Library.

This coming the Friday, April 9th, UIC has a closing night panel for their A Few Zines exhibition that includes representatives of several of the leading Architectural zines, and also has talks by Brett Steele on the 14th, and Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto on the 19th.

At IIT, there's Harry Mallgrave this Wednesday, Edward Windhorst on the 12th, and Juhani Pallasmaa on the 16th. Doug Farr talks about Walkable Urbanism for Friends of the Parks at the Cultural Center on the 8th, Urban Habitat Chicago considers Lessons from Guatemala on the 7th.

CAF has David Bagnall taking about restoring the Nickerson Mansion this Wednesday, stretching up 300 East Randolph on the 14th, David Swan talking about The Autobiography of Irving Pond on the 21st, and Liam T.A. Ford talking about Soldier Field and the Hopes of Chicago on the 28th.

Beginning on the 21st, the Society of Architectural Historians kick off their 2010 Annual Meeting in Chicago with an enormous range of papers, tours and symposia open to the public, topped off by a big benefit on the 24th honoring the architects and benefactors of Chicago's Cutting Edge 70's.

On the 25th, the Boullée Society will release the Kraken from the Art's Club subterranean cistern, after which he will lecture in the main dining room on his recent book, The Creative Destruction of Derivative Architecture.

On the 20th, the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest brings together a delegation from German companies and local speakers like John Durbrow for their Green Building Innovation Delegation Conference. On the 22nd, SEAOI holds its annual Midwest Bridge Symposium, and on the 29th, Ellen E. Roberts discusses Japanism and the Arts and Crafts Movement at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum. Earlier the same day, Benet Haller discusses the Chicago Central Area Plan at APA Chicago.

Lunchtime on the 15th Landmarks Illinois has a program on Mid-Century Houses of Worship, and in the evening Lee Bey talks about Harold's Chicago: How Mayor Washington Changed the Face of the City at the Harold Washington Library.

And if you think that pretty much covers it, guess again. There's over 60 events already (I always wind up adding some I've missed) on the April calendar. Check out all the great stuff here.

Renewal rises up from the soil of wintry Washington Park

Happy Easter and Passover

(click on photo for larger view)

Wacker Drive and Marc Fones tonight, Nader Tehrani tomorrow - the April calendar

The April calendar of Chicago architectural events is now complete. April Fool! Actually it's about 90% done, but we wanted to remind you:
Thursday April 1:
12:15 p.m., at the Cultural Center, Ozzie Chavez and Michelle Woods of CDOT lecture on the Wacker Drive Project that will be making you miserable for the next few years for the Friends of Downtown
12:45: Commission on Chicago Landmarks monthly meeting
6:00 p.m.: Architect and designer Marc Fones of THEVERYMANY discusses his latest work BiAxiOiDs, on display at Archeworks, where he's also give his talk.
Friday April 2: 6:00 p.m. Nader Tehrani of Office dA, Boston, lectures at the SofA at UIC
Check out these and the almost 40 events up so far for April here.