Great Chicago Places, Burnham(x∞), Baker, Rybczynski, Adrian Smith, new Modern, historic Wabash and more - over 60 events on May calendar

Doing anything this coming Thursday, May 7th? If not, could we possibly entice you into squeezing into your schedule the nine architecture-related events taking place just on that one day? (The first Thursday of each month always seems to exert a bug-zapper power over schedulers.) There's Witold Rybczynski, not once, but twice, Archeworks final student presentation for the semester, SOM's George J. Efstathious and William Baker discussing the engineering of the Burj Dubai at CAF, a presentation of the city's new streetscaping plan for Congress Parkway for Friends of Downtown at the Chicago Cultural Center, and this months meeting of the Landmarks Commission.

There's over 60 items on the May calendar, not counting the over 100 tours being offered on the 16th in this year's edition, cut back to one day, of Great Chicago Places and Spaces. There's the folks at Harboe Architects talking about their stunning restoration of 1870's retail buildings on Wabash, for Landmarks Illinois at the Cultural Center, Adrian Smith at CAF, the history of streetcars at APA Chicago, the presentation of finalists up for this year's Structural Engineers Association of Illinois Excellence in Structural Engineering awards, Richard Avery and Jess TerMeer at the Graham discussing their award-winning reimagining of the unloveable strip mall, John Lupinos talking about the soon to open Nichols Bridgeway, again at CAF, and a special May 17th tour of the Michael Reese Hospital Campus, where the city in its mad dash towards a still unsecured 2016 Olympics seeks to smash to dust a number of splendid Bauhaus-inspired buildings by Reginald Isaacs with the previously little-known assistance of Walter Gropius.

For all you Burnham worshippers, CAF is hosting another lecture by Kristen Schafer on how Uncle Dan was the sun around which all lesser mortals merely orbited, plus, on another day, Carl Smith discussing planning before Burnham, and, co-sponsored with DePaul University, a two-day conference on Burnham, Chicago, and Beyond: Politics, Planning, and the Progressive Era City.

As always, we've only scratched the surface. Check out the full May calendar here.