Landmarks, Ty Tabbing on State Street today - March calendar . . . soon

 click images for larger view

Spring was in the air Wednesday - for all about two hours.  What better time not to do necessary work?   So, the March calendar isn't quite ready yet.  I forgot to feed the cat and he gnawed away the "M" key on my keyboard.  I don't think it agreed with him, 'cause when he thew up, it was only an "N". Maybe the rest will come out later.

But I digress.

So here's a heads-up that today, Thursday, March 1st, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks holds its monthly meeting at 12:45 p.m. in the City Council chambers, 121 North LaSalle, Room 201-A, marking still another month of being missing-in-action on the most important preservation issue currently in play in Chicago:  protecting Bertrand Goldberg's iconic Prentice Hospital from Northwestern's determination to destroy it for an empty lot.

Over at the Millennium Room at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington, at 12:15 p.m., Friends of Downtown puts on its monthly brown bag luncheon lecture (white bags also ok, clear plastic, no - nobody wants to have to look at all the stuff you're about to eat).

Ty Tabbing of the Chicago Loop Alliance will "present a talk on the history and the remake of State Street over the past two decades, including the removal of the mall."  Tabbing had written to us last November, when we had some rude things to say about the Alliance's Lightscape project, that the Alliance's Pop-Up Art program, using the windows of empty storefronts as temporary galleries, was still a going concern, and he's proven true to his word.

Pictured at the top of this post is a Pop-Up display of Scott Williams "past and present screen printed posters that have a heavy r&B/soul feel.  His posters have gained a cult following here in Chicago."  It's on display 24/7 in the street-level windows of the long-empty Holabird and Roche Century Building at 202 South State, owned by the Federal government.  With the new canopy and display windows, the GSA has turned what was once a derelict corner with rotting scaffolding into a handsome Loop amenity.

There's also, Artists Without Borders, the work of Liz Miller and Baltazar Castillo in the windows of the former Borders store at 150 North State.  I was looking at the work in one of those windows when a guy came up to me - "Hey, I see you looking at this.  You know, I was in the alley across the street over there by the theater and I looked down and I saw this piece of wood and it was shaped just like a dagger.  It looked just like this art in the window here, see?  I was thinking of just laying it down in front of the window, but then I said, nah, that wouldn't probably be right."

But I digress.

And now . . .

. . . a beaver with a stick . . .

from  the exhibition, Loop Value: The How Much Does it Cost? Shop, at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 South Michigan

So I have to go back to the calendar now, or maybe just lie down.

new for February: Oganwu, How Much Does it Cost?, Navy Pier, Cultural Plan and more

Never too late to add to the February Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.  IIT has added two lunchtime events for the lower core of Crown Hall for this week.  Monday, the 13th, Ifeanyi Oganwu of Expand Design will be discussing New Work, and on Tuesday, the 14th, Nancy Clark Brown of Autodesk education will be discussing how students and faculty are contributing  to the development of her company's product.

Elsewhere this week, the big event, Stanley Tigerman's lecture Displacement at the Graham on Wednesday the 15th is wait listed, but there's also a program of short films, All Tomorrow's Cities at Gallery 400 Monday the 13th, AIA/Chicago has The Role of Designers in Post-Disaster Scenarios, specifically Talca, Chile, lunchtime on Tuesday the 14th, Tom Lassin of Holabird and Root discusses their renovation of the Monroe Building at CAF lunchtime on Wednesday the 15th, and on Thursday 15th, Richard Sklenar of the Theatre Historical Society lectures at the Chicago Cultural Center, for Landmarks Illinois.  And this coming Sunday, February 19th, Chicagoland Engineers Week kicks off with Explore Engineering, an all-day events for kids 5 to 13 and students 14 to 18, at CAF.

Check out all the, conservatively estimated, billions of event still to come on the February 2012 Chicago Architectural Calendar.

On the exhibition front . . .

Architectural Drawing: From Europe at America, continues at the ArchiTech Gallery, 

. . . and we've added two new shows at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  

Friday the 17th is the official opening day for Loop Value: The HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Shop.

In a nation obsessed with acquiring the most stuff at the lowest price, how well do we understand the value of the buildings and products we buy? How do our purchases impact the future of our neighborhoods? Visit Loop Value: The How Much Does It Cost? Shop at the Chicago Architecture Foundation and find a new design for your city and your life. It's a shopping trip unlike any you've experienced before.

Also at CAF through mid-May are the proposals of the five finalists to the Navy Pier Competition, on display through mid-May.

There are satellite exhibitions of the finalist proposals at public libraries throughout Chicago, as listed on the Navy Pier Centennial Vision website.  On this on-line resource, you can look at the the various designs within the site, and download the complete presentations of each of the five finalists, as well as view the videos they created, and videos of the presentations made by the teams at the Museum of Contemporary Art earlier this year.  This is an absolutely top-notch website, setting a great example of how such a project should be presented on the web.  Check it out here.

There's also a great new website for the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan . .  .

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is asking residents, cultural organizations and community groups for their input in developing the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan.  The plan will deliver a set of recommendations to support the arts and artists throughout the city, as well as enhance economic growth and Chicago’s reputation as a global cultural destination.  The last cultural plan was developed in 1986 under Mayor Harold Washington.  Since that time, advancements have been made in many areas leading to greater involvement from vested interests.  Ideas that sprang from that plan include the renovation of Navy Pier, the redeveloped Theater Row in Chicago’s “Loop” and the creation of incentives for film projects.

The website is tied into an aggressive social media presence on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere.  Four town hall meetings are being held to get public input on the plan:

• Wednesday, February 15:  Columbia College from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
•  Thursday, February 16:  Nicholas Senn High School from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
•  Saturday, February 18:  DuSable Museum from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
•  Tuesday, February 21:  National Museum of Mexican Art from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Check out DCASE's Cultural Plan Initiative website here.