Full Stop: Wiel Arets new Dean at IIT

As we reported on Friday that Edward Lifson had reported on Thursday, IIT has now made the official announcement that Wiel Arets is the new Dean of the College of Architecture.  As the press release reads:

Illinois Institute of Technology Provost Alan Cramb announced today the appointment of Wiel Arets as the new dean of the IIT College of Architecture. Born in the Netherlands, Arets, an internationally acclaimed architect, educator, industrial designer, theorist, and urbanist, is known for his academic progressive research and hybrid design solutions. He is currently the professor of building planning and design at the Berlin University of the Arts. His architecture and design practice, Wiel Arets Architects, has multiple studios throughout Europe and its work has been nominated for the European Union’s celebrated ‘Mies van der Rohe Award’ on numerous occasions.

Arets, who was dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam from 1995-2002, will join IIT this fall and will lead an academic program originally shaped by the vision and work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Considered by many to be one of the founders of modern architecture and design, Mies chaired the IIT architecture program from 1938-1958 and  designed the IIT Main Campus, home to many of his iconic structures including S.R. Crown Hall.

Arets currently has projects under construction throughout Europe and Japan, including the Allianz Headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland, Amsterdam Centraal Station’s IJhal, the Schwäbischer Verlag in Ravensburg, Germany and the A’ House in Tokyo. His many distinguished projects include the library on the Uithof campus of Utrecht University, the Academy of Art & Architecture in Maastricht, the Euroborg Stadium in Groningen, and the Hedge House in Wijlre, the Netherlands.
“The College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology has a global reputation and attracted outstanding candidates for dean from leading programs worldwide. It is indicative of the position of the IIT College of Architecture that we have found such an accomplished architect to lead the school in a new direction,” said Cramb.

Arets has been a guest professor at many of the world’s preeminent architectural universities, including the AA London, Columbia University and Cooper Union—and served on the Advisory Council of Princeton University from 2003-2012. He graduated from the Technical University of Eindhoven in 1983, where he obtained his Master of Science in Architecture . . .

Wiel Arets new Dean of Architecture at IIT?

 click image for larger view.  photograph: WAA

Blogger Edward Lifson reported yesterday that Dutch architect Wiel Arets will be named the new Dean of Architecture at the College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology, following in the footsteps of Mies van der Rohe, and most recently, Donna Robertson, who held the post from 1996.

A discussion board on Archinect speculated Arets was next in line when had been "spotted making the rounds" on the campus this past May.  The architect served as Dean of Rotterdam's Berlage Institute 1995-2002/

Awaiting an official announcement . . . .

That Mies - He's So Colorful!

Crown Hall meets Unité d'Habitation.  Google Australia gets the jump on Mies van der Rohe's 126th birthday, Tuesday, March 27th, and gives the master a chance to see how a little color might have spiced things up.  (thanks to Edward Lifson for the heads up.)

("Mies, Mies, Mies," says the real estate agent as she walks through Crown Hall.  "You know we all adore you, but let's face facts, this is grim.  Grim! I went to a funeral and there were more giggles.  Black - don't get me wrong - always in fashion, always tres elegante.  But less is more, if you know what I mean - where have I heard that before?  Well, of course, you told me.  And who could argue?  But just between us, is there anything you can't add improve with that extra bit of pop! - a pinch of orchid here, a dash of coral there, and maybe a little splash of Marimekko to give all that banker's charcoal the warm and fuzzies?")

And, of course, Tuesday night at Crown Hall,  the Mies van der Rohe Society is throwing its usual birthday bash, for which registration is now closed.

If you forgot to get your tickets or can't get in, there's always our Mies van der Rohe Architect's Page, with links to articles, books, videos and photographs on the work and legacy of the pride of Aachen.

Creative Placemaking, 5 Big Ideas, North Grant Park Revised, plus Lifson on Prentice, Uhlir on Netsch, Aquilino, Doug Reed - lots more for February

Yeah, I know - I thought we'd be done by now, too, but I was wrong.  We've just added several great new items to the February Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

This Thursday, the 23rd, in the Millennium Room on the 5th floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, the Great Cities Institute is sponsoring Creative Placemaking: How, Why, Outcomes, presenting the results of a national scan of successful creative placemaking efforts. On Tuesday the 28th at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation Chicago will present Building the 21st Century City: 18th annual Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards, with Rahm Emanuel scheduled as keynote speaker, and an afternoon forum 5 Big Ideas for the 21st Century City.  And on Wednesday the 29th, at the Daley Bicentennial Fieldhouse, the Grant Park Advisory Council will both be electing officers (who knew?) and presenting the latest revisions from Michael van Valkenburgh for the North Grant Park Renovation Project.

From Edward Lifson discussing Those Mysterious Curves of Bertrand Goldberg's endangered Prentice Hospital at Häfele on the 23rd, to moderating a session of CAF's Chicago Debates - Beating the Odds: Designing a Casino for Chicago on the 28th, to Roman Catholic Art and Architecture and VOA's Roosevelt Tower, Marie Aquilino at the Graham, and Doug Reed at Crown Hall, all this Wednesday the 22nd,  

Rebecca Graff on Urban Archeology at Charnley-Persky, and a lecture and booksigning for Barbara Lanctot's A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery at Glessner House, all on Thursday the 23rd, Merritt Bucholz at IIT on the 27th, and the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois all-day seminar on Wind Loading and Wind Engineering on Tuesday, the 28th, and a Wednesday, the 29th crammed with Connecting Digital and Physical Space at DePaul, Randolph Tower at CAF, Ed Uhlir on The Legacy of Walter Netsch at the Cliff Dwellers, and a Pocket Guide to Hell at Gallery 400 . .  .

There are still over two dozen great items to check out on the February Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Lifson on Prentice Curves, Explore Engineering at CAF, Marie Aquilino, Carolyn Armenta Davis, People's History and Preservation, plus last days for Bertrand Goldberg:Reflections - more for February

We told you there was a lot more coming to the February 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events, and it turns out we weren't kidding.  We've just added another dozen+ items.

On Thursday, the 23rd, Edward Lifson will be talking about Those Mysterious Curves: Why Prentice Women's Hospital Should be Reborn at the Häfele America Chicago Showroom, while a mile or so north, Rebecca Graff will be presenting Archaeology at the Charnley-Persky House: Changing Tastes on Chicago's Gold Coast, 1890-1930 at, appropriately enough, the Charnley-Persky House.

On February 29th, the Chaddick Institute at DePaul will have a symposium bridging the real and the virtual, Connecting Digital and Physical Space: Social Media and Technology's Impact on How & Where We Work, Live & Shop.  And on Sunday the 19th at CAF, Chicagoland Engineers Week will be sponsoring Explore Engineering - How do they do that? Find out. Figure Out. Try Out, "a day-long festival of fun, hands-on activities designed to help families discover what engineers do, try out activities, have fun building, constructing, and solving engineering challenges," targeting families with kids 5-13 and students 14 to 18.

And for Wednesday, the 22nd, we've added a lecture at the Graham Foundation by Marie Aquilino, editor of the book Beyond Shelter, Architecture and Human Dignity, who will describe the ways in which some of the world's most innovative architecture and engineering firms, nonprofits and research centers are changing how we engage in disaster recovery solutions.

This week, on Monday the 6th, we've got Yolande Daniels of Studio SUMO lecturing at the Art Institute, and on Tuesday the 7th, Jamie Simone talks about Planning in Progress: The Bloomingdale Trail Project at the Great Cities Institute in the afternoon, and in the evening there's the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois monthly dinner meeting at the Cliff Dwellers, on the topic The Structural Engineer and Construction Disputes, while Emmanuel Pratt is at the Chicago Cultural Center for Archeworks, and Carolyn Armenta Davis discusses Creativity Released: Designs from Black Architects in Paris, Dakar, and Beyond at Alliance Française de Chicago.

This Friday, the 10th, there's what promises to be a different kind of look at historical preservation with a  round table discussion at the Jane Adams Hull-House Museum, This is Not My Beautiful House: Historic Preservation and the People's History, with Vince Michael, Roberta Feldman, Estevan Rael-Galvaz, Mary Means and Lee Bey.

We're already in the second week of the month, but there's still 50 great upcoming events to check out on the February Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

And a final reminder that you have only through this Wednesday, February 8th, to catch the great exhibition, Bertrand Goldberg:Reflections at the Arts Club of Chicago.

today's daVinci or merely the future of British Architecture? Thomas Heatherwick at Crown Hall this Thursday

click images for larger view

It was the architectural sensation of Shanghai 2010 Expo - the Seed Cathedral, the UK Pavilion designed by Thomas Heatherwick 

a 20-metre high building, constructed from 60,000 transparent 7.5-metre long optical strands, each of which has embedded within its tip a seed. The interior is silent and illuminated only by the daylight that has filtered past each seed through each optical hair.

In August of that year, roaming scholar Edward Lifson had a great piece in Metropolis on the Seed Cathedral, including a Q&A with Heatherwick, of London's Heatherwick Studio, who says that the project brief was "exactly the same brief that every other designer of every other pavilion has been given.".  Lifson's article shows how what they got was anything but ordinary.  Don't miss Lifson's end photograph, which is super-cool.  Make up your narrative (but the one combining languorous eroticism and Sunkist jellies is already taken.)

In a last-minute coup, the School of Architecture at IIT is bringing Thomas Heatherwick to Crown Hall this Thursday, January 26th, for a 6:00 p.m.,  lecture, Current Work, in which we expect the architect will talk about such spectacular projects as the London drawbridge that doesn't just rise up, Chicago bascule fashion, but actually bends back and curls up into a ball.

 There's also a streamlined resign of the classic London red double-decker bus, and this . . .

. . .  Bleigiessen, the spectacular piece pictured above, in the 8-story atrium of the London Headquarters of The Wellcome Trust.  Bleigiessen refers to a German/Austrian New Year's tradition is which small amounts of lead are melted in a spoon over a candle and then dropped into a bowl of cold water, where they quickly harden into shapes that are then read, like tea leaves, to foretell a person's future for the coming year.  Heatherwick and his associates repeated this process to create over four hundred "extraordinary and complex forms in a fraction of a second."  Finally they came up with a single final form as the building block for the installation . . .

142,000 glass spheres suspended on 27,000 high tensile steel wires; 15 tonnes of glass and just under a million metres of wire. The spheres, made in Poland in a spectacle lens factory, were the result of a collaboration with Flux Glass, their shifting colour and brightness coming from a layer of dichroic film set between the two hemispherical lenses that make up each sphere.

Something like this could be perfect for the tall Macy's atrium not covered in Tiffany - are you listening, Terry Lundgren?

Heatherwick has been called everything from the daVinci of our time, to the man who could be "the future of British, if not world, architecture."   No pressure there.

In the current edition of Intelligent Life, there's a great profile of architect, The Designer Who Makes Buildings,  by Bryan Appleyard - the same guy who hinted at Heatherwick as architecture's savior. Heatherwick's entrance?

Finally, a dark, curly-haired, slightly bearded man appears with a wide-open, ecstatic expression, a bit like Harpo Marx when playing the harp.

An ecstatic Harpo Marx?  Can Crown Hall's minimalist sobriety endure such subversion?  Will it dissolve into a mist?  Beams of metal in spontaneous meltdown, reborn as a galaxy of shimmering spheres?  Stop by Thursday at 6:00 and find out for yourself.