And the Oscar Goes to . . . Divergent - Production Design: Walter Netsch and Helmut Jahn

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If you were watching the VMA awards this weekend, you probably saw this early trailer for the Shailene Woodley/Theo James/Miles Teller/Kate Winslet film Divergent, scheduled to be released next March.  The film - and the Veronica Roth novel on which it's based - is set in a dystopian future version of Chicago.  Yeah, I know - the more things change . . .

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It was only this past June that we showed you the Divergent village that had been constructed on the long empty Grand Central Station site in the South Loop, which you can see in the film with pretty much the same architectural backdrop as in our photograph . . .

But Divergent director Neil - Yale-grad-just-like-Blair - Burger and Production Designer Andy Nicholson didn't limit their set design to custom-built construction. 

Apparently, if you want a glimpse of what the future will look like, you have only to hop down to 57th and Ellis on the U of C campus, where the library power combo of Walter Netsch's Regenstein and Helmut Jahn's Mansueto are standing in for the headquarters of what I'm betting is some kind of evil empire. 

Which of Divergent's five factions do they house? Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless or Erudite?  And - whatever faction - will there be field theory and archi-neering?  And cake?

(If you can identify other Chicago locations in the trailer, please let us know in a comment.)

Read More:

Divergent at Lionsgate website

Hilberseimer Place?  Divergent's Housing on Harrison.

Helmut Jahn's Mansueto Library at the University of Chicago

No Maas Tuesday, but Stroik, Hillebrand, Mars (Roman) Holy Name, Mischa Leiner, Bill Latoza, John Norquist and more - New Additions to the April Calendar!

We've just added over half a dozen more great items to the April Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

First the bad news:  MVRDV's Winy Maas has cancelled his Tuesday lecture at UIC, to be rescheduled this Fall.  However, that afternoon, architect Duncan G. Stroik will be at Fourth Presbyterian Church for the Society of Architectural Historians/Chicago Chapter (registration was officially closed last Monday, but if you're motivated, engage your inner resourcefulness.) 

This Wednesday, April 10th, the Graham has a panel discussion on The Artist as Philanthropist: Artist-Endowed Foundations as a New Force in Cultural Philanthropy.  This Saturday, the American Planning Association kicks off its five-day 2013 National Planning Conference at the Hyatt Regency.

On Thursday, the 18th, Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park hosts 99% Invisible's Roman Mars, while on Friday the 26th, the IIT Armour College of Engineering will be at Maggiano's Little Italy with a lecture by Richard Kristie of Wiss, Janney, Elstner on The Repair of Holy Name Cathedral, and on Saturday the 27th at Francis Parker, Argonne Lab's Don Hillebrand will talk about Chicago: A Leader in Energy and Technology Breakthroughs.

This week, Mischa Leiner of CoDe will be at UIC on Monday the 8th, Bill Latoza discusses Walter Netsch's Legacy in Chicago's Parks for Friends of the Parks at the Cliff Dwellers on Tuesday, the Congress for the New Urbanism's John Norquist will talk about The Market Embraces Urbanism at CAF lunchtime on Wednesday.

And there's much, much more, this week and beyond.  When we first put up the calendar, we said we had over 50 items.  Now, we're a week into the month and we still have over 50 great items.  Check out the April Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Inland Steel - Jewel Box of the Loop - Goes to Seed: popup sculpture Garden Alterpolitan

The main floor retail space of the Walter Netsch/Bruce Grahm/SOM Inland Steel Building went green - literally - last week.

photograph: Chicago Loop Alliance (click images for larger view)

As reported by Treehugger, volunteers laid down 3,800 square feet of sod and installed plants and 27 sculptures to create Alterpolitan: An Indoor Sculpture Garden, a collaboration between Noisivelvet, Art Advisory LTD and Turnstone for one of the Chicago Loop Alliance's more than a dozen current installations in its popular Pop-Up art projects.  Check out a video of the laying down of the sod here.

By this past Saturday, however, the lawn seemed to have already entered its brown phase.  I wasn't able to get inside, but the gallery is open weekdays, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. for the next couple weeks, "a social space where pedestrians can enjoy impromptu conversations and an artful reprieve from Chicago's bustling downtown."   You can see all the sculptures and learn who made them at Jyoti Srivastava's indispensable Public Art in Chicago website here.


You can also check out Richard Lippold's Radiant One, commissioned by Inland Steel in 1957 for their building's lobby.

It's also a chance to visit one of the most iconic and beautiful buildings in Chicago, the Jewel Box of the Loop.  When the Inland Steel was  completed in 1958, it was the first new skyscraper to be constructed in the Loop since the Great Depression.  It's brushed steel finish showcased the product of the company making the building it's home, and it's innovative design supported the structure on just 14 columns that stand outside of the curtain wall, leaving the interiors completely unobstructed. The floors cantilever out dramatically at the north and south ends, and the green-tinted windows, an early form of anti-heat-gain technology that replaced Netsch's original design of a dual-pane system, give the Inland Steel a visual texture unique in Chicago architecture.  The detached service core is, itself, a spectacular steel-clad tower.

At the time of its construction, Inland Steel was the tallest thing around.  Although it had one less floor, it was sixty feet taller than the 1905 Majestic Theater Building next door, and a hundred feet taller than Burnham's 1903 First National Bank Building across from it on Dearborn.  Over time, the great view from the south captured in this classic Ezra Stoller photograph was obliterated by the replacement of the two-story structure to the south with SOM's rather dreadful 33 West Monroe.  By that time, however, another open view was created to the west when the First National Bank was demolished and replaced by the huge plaza of what is now Chase Tower.

In 2005, another open view of Inland Steel emerged, this time to the North, when the 1902 building Holabird and Roche designed for the Chicago Tribune was demolished to create a 16,000 square foot plaza for DeStefano Partners' One South Dearborn.  And while the turf at Alterpolitan may be turning a bit brown, the plaza to the north, designed by Daniel Weinbach and Partners,  holds one of my favorite spots in Chicago, a grove of sugar maples that have matured into a forest canopy respite from the proud, insistent towers.

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.

Tigerman's rêverie, CAF's Casino, Uhlir's Netsch, Yolande Daniels,Ragdale, the Monroe, Roosevelt's Vertical Dorm, and more - it's the February calendar!

 OK, I'm sure I'm going to find more stuff to add, but even now, we've got nearly 40 great items on the February 2012 of Chicago Architectural Events.

Today, Thursday the 2nd, there's a discussion of the new Target at Louis Sullivan's former Carson Pirie Scott store for Friends of Downtown at the Cultural Center, and the opening reception for the new Stanley Tigerman exhibition, Ceci n’est pas une rêverie, at the Graham, where Tigerman, himself delivers a lecture, Displacement, on Wednesday the 15th.

Monday, the 6th, Studio SUMO's Yolande Daniels is at the Art Institute, on the 7th Emmanuel Pratt is at the Cultural Center for Archeworks.  There's a program of short films, All Tomorrow's Cities, at Gallery 400 on Monday the 13th, while the 15th, Tom Lassin of Holabird and Root talks about his firm's recent renovation of the historic Monroe Building, lunchtime at CAF,  where the next Wednesday the 22nd, Christopher of Groesbec of VOA discusses the new Roosevelt Vertical Dorm.  On Tuesday the 28th, CAF is offering up the latest edition of its Chicago Debates - Beating the Odds: Designing a Casino for Chicago - Lakeside Resort or Bling Bingo in a Box - at the Chicago Theater, with an all-star panel including the Reader's Toni Preckwinkle, Mick Dumke, plus Jerry Roper, Dennis Judd, John Norquist, Kimbal Goluska and moderator Edward Lifson.

February closes on Wednesday the 29th, with the inaugural event in a new Walter Netsch Lecture Series 2012 sponsored by Friends of the Parks with Millennium Park Executive Director Ed Uhlir discussing The Legacy of Walter Netsch.

And this week is the last chance to catch the don't-miss exhibition Bertrand Goldberg:Reflections at the Arts Club of Chicago.  February 8th is the final day.

We've only scratched the surface.  Check out all the great items on the February 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Helmut arrays stern Walter with Stars at the U of C

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The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library (Murphy/Jahn, 2011) reflects on the Regenstein Library (SOM, Walter Netsch, 1970) . . .

. . . while a student studies a pop-up book . . .

. . . and Henry Moore, in the person of Nuclear Energy, gazes impassively on.

Three from UIC

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