Future of Grant Park Postponed, Nicholson's Aliens, Ghosts and Spirits invade, Lumenhaus to MP, Nickel archives to AIC

Apparently, the future is not yet here.  We received word today that an unveiling of the plans by Michael van Valkenburg and Associates for North Grant Park, aka Daley Bicentennial Plaza, aka Children's Museum battlefield, scheduled for this Wednesday the 17th has been cancelled.  "The team is not fully ready to present and other timing issues have arisen," wrote the Grant Park Advisory Council's Bob O'Neill, who said the session will be rescheduled at an unspecified date in the future.

Stepping into the void, the always provocative Ben Nicholson will be kicking off the Chicago Architectural Club's fall schedule with a talk on "aliens, ghosts and spirits" 7:00 p.m., at Archeworks, 625 N. Kingsbury, at Ontario.

Also on Wednesday,  Lumenhaus, Virginia Tech's entry to the DOE's 2009 Solar Decathlon competition comes to the north-south promenade of Millennium Park for a five day residency during this years Greenbuild Conference and Expo.

Inspired by the glass pavilion style Farnsworth house designed by Bauhaus architect Mies Van Der Rohe, Lumenhaus is a structure with open, flowing space that connects inside living with the outside world and is completely powered by the sun.  The north and south walls are all glass, maximizing the owner’s exposure to bright, natural daylight. The fully automated Eclipsis System, comprising independent sliding layers, permits a revolutionary design in a solar-powered house, while filtering light in beautiful, flowing patterns throughout the day.

The structure will be open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for tours.

The big news today:  as reported by the Trib's Blair Kamin, the Richard Nickel Committee has announced its archive of 15,000 items has been donated to the Art Institute of Chicago.  The news follows the recent publication of over 800 of those images in The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan, a landmark catalog of all the firm's known work.