In a Illinois Medical District campus overwhelmingly populated by four-square structures of deep sobriety:
The headquarters for the Medical District Commission at 600 South Hoyne clearly stands out . . .
. . . not only for the distinctive form with a loving nod to classic Rooty-Tooty-Fresh-'N-Fruity design, but for the heightened security provided its executives by the killer rabbit standing guard at the entrance . . .
Photos courtesy of our indefatigable correspondent Bob Johnson.
and, yes, we're slumming for still another day, but, hey, it's summer!
A few commentators slammed me for being ungracious when I suggested in 2007 that we impose on the developer of Santiago Calatrava's proposed Chicago Spire, Garrett -"I have absolutely no doubt this project is going to sell out" - Kelleher to monetize upfront, as a reasonable pledge of good faith, his $9,000,00 commitment towards the estimated $14,ooo,000 cost of realizing a Calatrava design for DuSable Park, intended to honor the city's first non-native settler, on a 3.5 acre strip of land at the mouth of the Chicago river. The project has been gestating ever since Mayor Harold Washington dedicated the site all the way back in 1987. Two and a half years after Kelleher's announcement, the Chicago Spire remains nothing more than an enormous hole in the ground, and the photo you see above depicts current conditions at DuSable.
Almost five years after its premiere, Thomas Adès opera, The Tempest, is now available in a recording from EMI of a 2007 performance that included much of the original cast. Adès himself conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. $20.99 on CD from Amazon. $15.99 downloadable on iTunes. The recording has been named Gramophone magazine's August CD of the month. Alex Ross's fairly ecstatic review of the original production here.
Via weburbanist, 15 often amazing transformations of elevators from the almost unseen workaday machines of numbing repetition to shock-to-the-system attacks of visual theatrics. Videos included.
via Opera Chic and the Daily Telegraph, a member of the all-Remy orchestra conducted by photographer Ellen van Deelen. View the entire ensemble here.
Chicago's Crain Business reported this week that 203 N. Wabash has failed to find a developer, is behind on its taxes, and faces foreclosure on a $9 million dollar loan from John Hancock Life.
had a rocky history. The bank itself lasted only another few years, being liquidated in 1932. More recently, a 2004 restoration of the building's exterior has not been enough to attract a buyer. With a width of only 48 feet bringing light deep into the floorplates, you'd think the building would be a natural for residential conversion, but proposals to make the property a hotel from both Sage Hospitality and Kimpton Hotels, and another proposal to convert it to student housing have all fallen through. In 2007, it was reported to be 86% leased, last year the figure was 60%, and the latest Crain's report puts it as 42%.
Which is strange, because it's a gem of a building that was designated an official Chicago landmark 
in 2003. It is one of only two office buildings attributed to the firm of Rapp & Rapp, best known, best known for movie palaces like the Chicago, Uptown, Palace and Oriental. While the overall profile of 203 North Wabash is handsomely restrained, you can see Rapp & Rapp's hand in the building's whimsical ornament, which includes gargoyles, 
griffins, squirrels, ducks, among other creatures. It's listed currently at $12,500,00, but for now I'm betting you could pick it up for a song and, if you've got deep enough pockets to outlast the current economic collapse, make yourself a very neat profit once things turn around.
and this:
and this:
and this:
We've written before about how the rich legacy of Bauhaus inspired architecture on the former Michael Reese Hospital campus is living on knife edge waiting to be sacrificed to the mayor's Olympic vision. Now it's crunch time.Far too heavy and large for amateurs to remove, the sculpture was surely uprooted from the fenced-in site by one of the various contractors. The GCC has been attempting for the last week to locate the sculpture, without luck. At the present time it is considered stolen, and joins several other irreplaceable historic artifacts in this pathetic category. On June 30th, a source at the hospital informed the GCC that demolition contractors had wanted to remove the important Richard Hunt sculpture so that it could be sold as scrap metal. If anyone has any knowledge of the sculpture’s whereabouts, please contact us immediately.We are told we have no choice but to do this, to provide an athletes' village for the 2016 Olympics. This is, of course, a lie. The Michael Reese location is a very capacious 37-acre site. It would not be hard to strike a balance between preserving Chicago's rich history and supporting a better future.
As can be seen in this photo provided courtesy Edward Lifson, the city, amazingly, has already put the replacement newsstand in place at Chicago and Michigan.
Sinai Congregation last Thursday, but the local branch of Sacred Space International is offering a total of 12 tours this summer of "a diversity of worship spaces throughout Downtown Chicago with architectural tour guides."
the young city's most prominent houses of worship centered around Chicago's public square, on the block now occupied by the Daley Center. Chicago Temple's current sanctuary includes five stained glass windows designed by architect Dirk Lohan.
the ground floor appears to be the usual State Street retail building but "with one step inside, the DIC offers visitors a calm oasis away from the activity of the city. The founding of this center stemmed from the need for a place to observe Jummuah, traditional Islamic Friday prayer." 
Future tours, taking place through October 1st, will include such locales as the Midwest Buddhist Temple and Harry Weese's Seventeenth Church of Christ Scientist.
We received word from Grahm Balkany of the Gropius in Chicago Coalition that this Tuesday evening, July 21st at 7:00, 4th ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Chicago 2016, and the Chicago Department of Environment will unveil the plans for demolishing the historic Michael Reese campus and the Bauhaus inspired buildings designed in partnership with Walter Gropius, as well as the amazing beautiful Hideo Sasaki landscaping shown below.
It is not expected to be pretty, and the coalition is seeking to get as many sympathetic bodies in attendance as possible "for a polite showing of support in favor of a more sensitive plan. We will have some tee shirts for group identity, signs, etc."
morning, but for now here's a heads up that the session is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, July 21, at the Olivet Baptist Church at 31st and Martin Luther King Drive, itself an historic structure dating back to 1876. If you can, leave a couple bucks for the church's restoration fund, as well.
One of Chicago's last real newsstands, open 24 hours, that was there seemingly forever, suddenly vanishes into thin air, freshly poured sidewalks erasing any trace that it ever existed.
Sometimes the most enjoyable shows can be the ones at the periphery. Building the Business of 
Architecture: The Burnham Brothers and Chicago in the Golden Twenties, at the DePaul University Art Museum through September 16th is a small show but a good one. Although there some different pieces - handsome examples of terra cotta from Stuart Grannen of Architectural Architects and some drawings and photo's of the Carbide and Carbon Building (now the Hard Rock Hotel), probably the Burnham Brothers' most accomplished work, the exhibition focuses heavily on a single building,
West Wacker, is one of those large - and largely anonymous - buildings that fade into the surrounding streetwall, in this case the one along the south side of the Chicago river. At the time of its completion in 1928, however, it was a prestige project, home to a large number of engineering firms, with the headquarters of the Western Society of Engineers taking up the 11th floor. The exhibition includes a large number of "heavily annotated" working drawings, and sharp, informative text from curator Paul Jaskot, professor of art history at DePaul, who calls the building's Wacker drive location "a fantastic site for exploring the intersection of urban planning, economic history and the importance of advertising to architects in the 1920s." The Burnham Brothers were Daniel Burnham's sons, Hubert and Daniel, Jr. Their firm was one of two eventually split from D.H. Burnham and Company, the other being Graham, Anderson, Probst & White.
an expression both of economy, lightness, and an era when Chicago was still constantly rebuilding. "By 1926, the average building in Chicago's Loop district had a predicted lifespan of only twenty-eight years, and therefore builders did not choose the most expensive, long-lasting materials, preferring those that could be acquired cheaply while also being aesthetically pleasing."
When I was a kid growing up, out with the family, we would find ourselves, when nature called, searching for what was called, seemingly interchangeably, a bathroom, washroom or restroom. One of the most interesting part of the Burnham Brothers show is to see how these terms actually evolved at a time when women were becoming major components of the workforce. On the plan for the Engineering Building's 13th floor, there's the usual "men's toilet." But there's not only a corresponding "women's toilet", but adjacent spaces labeled "wash rm", "women's rest rm" and still a third, with the name "quiet room." Hey, in a time when we tend to be crammed into stacked cubicles, isn't that something all of us - regardless of gender - could really use today? There were also separate cafeterias for men and women, and, a sign of the slow tread of progress, a segregated cafeteria for Afro-Americans in the basement.
program that, through partners as varied as UIC, the U of C, the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Facets Multimedia, has created a year long series of events to introduce young people to the joys of science.
a really interesting tour of the labs of CTL Group, which specializes in R&D and testing of construction materials, including the concrete used in the Burj Dubai.
When the Trib's Blair Kamin wrote about the park at the ParkView Condominiums last October, he talked about it needing time to fill out. A summer later, and it's already on it's way.
The project has come out pretty much as described on the website of the developer, MCL Companies, in 2006, combining canopy trees set to produce rich fall color, perennial flowers, decorative grasses and a fountain.
Across the street, the former North Pier, revitalized by MCL as the River East Art Center provides a warm, colorful backdrop.
The longer-term issue, of course, is how long the current quality of the park will be maintained by private interests and whether, should the need arise, the Chicago Park District will step up to the plate and secure the park for permanent public access or, as at the park next to the AMA building, the only green space in River North, they will simply look the other way as its destroyed. When you look at the how beautiful the ParkView Condominiums park is today, you can only hope that day of reckoning is a long way off.
