Version Festival, Swiss Futures, Marshall Brown's Urban Imaginary, Armenta Davis, Evanston Places, White City Simulated and more - lots of new stuff for the June Calendar!

Yes, I know it's June 17th, and no, it's not too late to be adding another half dozen great items to the

June Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

This Wednesday, June 19th, Version Festival will be the focus of a gallery walk through the great Spontaneous Interventions exhibition at the Cultural Center, where on Saturday the 29th, there'll be a Scholarly Perspectives panel discussion moderated by Gordon Douglas, with Jeffrey Kidder, David Schalliol and others.

On Tuesday, the 25th, The Swiss-American Business Council will be sponsoring A Swiss View: Urban and the Future of Cities: 5, 10, and 50 years from Now, with Tom Jacobs, Hanno Weber and Susanne Cannon.

Thursday the 27th is bursting with newly added items, beginning with 's Marshall Brown discussion with Geof Oppenheimer on Architecture, Power, and the Urban Imaginary at the Western Exhibitions Gallery, which is currently hosting Brown's show, Center of the World, Chicago.  That same evening, there'll be a book launch at the First Bank and Trust for Evanston 150 Years, 150 Places; while at the Woodson Regional Library, architectural historian Carolyn Armenta Davis will discuss Today's African-American, Afro-European and Africa Architects.

The Museum of Science and Industry marks its 80th birthday with a double-header from Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson on Sunday the 23rd.  In the morning, he partners with Lisa M. Snyder of the Urban Simulation Team at UCLA for Exploring the White City, the latest iteration of the UCLA's evolving computer simulation of the 1893 World's Columbia Exposition, this time with an emphasis on Louis Sullivan's polychrome Transportation Building.  

Then in the afternoon, Samuelson teams up with University of Arizona architectural historian Lisa Schrenk for a look at Building a Century of Progress, exploring the often strikingly modernist pavilion and exhibit designs for the 1933-34 Chicago's World Fair.

The MSI events are incredibly pricey - $20-$25.00 atop the museum's minimum $27.00 entry fee - but the White City simulation, especially, is a fascinating project, and these events usually sell out quickly, so be warned.

Already on the schedule is Martin Adolfsson on Suburbia Gone Wild this Tuesday the 19th, and then on to Creating the Pullman Cultural Renaissance, Channel Glass Wall Systems, the Wells Street Bridge Rehabilitation,  the Common Cause of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright, the new growth industry of Urban Farming in Chicago, the Original Sears Tower, the Illinois Statewide Preservation Conference, and a lot more.

How much more?  Well, check it out for yourself - two dozen great items still to come on the June Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

BIG's Bjarke, Spontaneous Sorkin, Cruz, Feldman, Gil, Manaugh, Pleasure Seeker's, ChiScape, Bucky, FLW, Burnham, Soleri and much more - its the June Calendar!

Get your running shoes on:

a.  There are already over 60 great items on the June Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

b.  Almost half of them take place in the first week of the month. I guess everyone is rushing towards that summer break

This weekend, there's an extraordinary series of events scheduled in conjunction with Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good, the great new show at the Cultural Center that was originally mounted at the 2012 Venice Biennale.  There are workshops, panel discussions, curator talks, show-and-tell's. and barn raisings, with the large roster of participants including Teddy Cruz, Stephen Zacks, John Preus, Nathan John, Cathy Lang Ho, Iker Gil, Douglas Burnham, Robyn Paprocki, James Rojas, Robert Feldman, Michael Sorkin, and more.

And then MAS Content has BLDGBLOG's Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley talking about Mines, Fruit, and Military Bases: A Year on the Road with Venue, Monday at Public Works on Damen. On Tuesday, AIA Chicago gives a look at the collaborative installation Grounds for Detroit, and Steve Pantazis, Nick Adams, Anna-Marie Panlilio and Ryan McRae are among the presenters at Pecha Kucha Chicago Volume #26 at Martyr's.

And if you're into sin, on Saturday the 1st at the Newberry Library, Paul Durica and Bill Savage talk about their new book, a reprint of the alternative guidebook to 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago by Day and Night: The Pleasure's Seeker's Guide to the Paris of America.  Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Wednesday, lunchtime at CAF, Don Macica of the Chicago Sinfonietta gives a preview of ChiScape, a newly commissioned four-movement work by four different composers with each movement inspired by a different Chicago landmark: Crown Hall, the Pritzker Pavilion, Aqua, and the Modern Wing.  AIA Chicago has a presentation on Saving Buckminster Fuller's Dome Home in Carbondale, and Urban Land Institute Chicago presents this year's Urban Vision Awards at the Bridgeport Arts Center.

Thursday, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has Diane Dillon talking about Nature in the Work of Daniel H. Burnham and Frank Lloyd Wright at Fourth Presbyterian's Gratz Center, while over at the Cultural Center, Friends of Downtown has Greg Borzo discussing Chicago Cable Cars, and back at CAF, the Chicago Architectural Club unveils the winners of its 2013 Burnham Prize Competition, Next Stop: Designing Chicago BRT Stations.

And that's just the some of the events scheduled for June's first week.  (Did I mention CGT's presentation on Backyard Chickens?)

Move forward a week, and it's NeoCon, with keynotes from Bjarke Ingels, Michael Vanberbyl, Holly Hunt, and Lauren Rottet.  There's a reception for SET OFF, SAIC's Graduate Exhbition on Monday the 10th, and the announcement of SEAOI's 2013 Excellence in Structural Engineering Award winners at its annual banquet on Saturday the 8th.

More?  the Graham screening of Paolo Soleri: Beyond Form; Peter Copeland on Tobey Furniture at Second Presbyterian, Martin Adolfsson on Suburbia Gone Wild, the Wells Street Bridge Rehabilitation, Pamela Robertson on Common Cause: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright; Kristen Dean of the Foundation for Homan Square at CAF to talk about The ‘Original’ Sears Tower, this year's Illinois Statewide Preservation Conference, and much, much more.

I know we'll be adding still more stuff that we've missed, but for now, check out the over 60 great items already on the June Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.