Things I Learned from David Mamet in Sunday's Financial Times

• Liberals are evil.
• Criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic
• The British are really anti-Semitic
• T.E. Lawrence was really neat, though
• Liberals want Israel to give up Tel Aviv
• Barack Obama has bankrupted America (apparently all those huge Bush budget deficits had nothing to do with it)
• Barack Obama dismantled health care
• Barack Obama weakened America around the world (Bin Laden must be head-over-heels about that - oh, wait . . . )
• Sarah Palin is wonderful. "I am crazy about her." (After reading his FT interview, I think I can understand why.)

Special bonus item I learned about Chicago in this Sunday's Financial Times:

• $100,000 will buy a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment

Tour Chicago's Great Landscapes with the all-stars: What's Out There Weekend this Saturday, Sunday

It hasn't been a good week for Chicago vegetation. We wrote earlier this week about the dumbing down replacement of Hoerr Schaudt's wonderful work at Trump Tower, and now one of our correspondents has tipped us off that the traditional vines on Harry Weese's addition to Newberry Library appear to have gone defunct.

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There is, thankfully, still a lot of great stuff surviving, and this weekend you'll have an incredible opportunity to take it all in.  This Saturday and Sunday, the 11th and 12th, The Cultural Landscape Foundation is offering  up a What's Out There Weekend, covering no less than 25 of Chicago's "historic designed landscapes," with tours led by many of Chicago's leading landscape designers and other architectural all-stars.

park photographs: courtesy Cultural Landscape Foundation

Everything from Graceland Cemetery, the final architect's final resting place (Root, Burnham, Sullivan, Mies, Goff, and more), in a two hour tour led by Ted Wolff, to Lincoln Park's new South Pond boardwalk designed by Studio Gang, tour led by Brian Houck.

Alfred Caldwell is represented not only by his restored Lily Pool at Lincoln Park (tours every 30 minutes from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00), but by a rare chance to visit his two-and-a-half acre roof garden at Lake Point Tower, and a tour led by Peter Schaudt of the IIT campus.  Julia Bachrach leads tours of Midway Plaisance and Humboldt Park, Dennis McClendon of Fuller Park, Joan Pomeranc of the Stephen Douglas Memorial, Ed Uhlir of Millennium Park,  Ward Miller of Logan Square Boulevard - unfortunately, a lot of them already appear full, but you get the idea.

There's also a selection of family activities - mosaic making at Exelon Plaza, fishing in Sherman Park, and more.

My apologies for not giving you more advance notice but this is an absolutely fantastic event.  All the tours are free and open to the public.  For some, you just have to show up.  For others - it looks like it may include many of the ones I just listed - space, as they say, is limited, and many already look full, so you want to make your reservations now. Information and booking here.

If you can't get in to the tour of your choice, the Cultural Landscape website also contains detailed profiles - generously illustrated - of over 30 of sites including in this weekend tours.  You can find the list here.  It's great stuff, but in person is better.

Pillow Fight: will River North's ghost skyscraper finally be completed?

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Crain's Chicago Business reported today that Oxford Capital, which owns the Felix Hotel right next door, has taken over the construction loan for Staybridge, the uncompleted Valerio Dewalt Train hotel at Lasalle and Huron that's been kept under wraps - literally - for over three years.  Oxford is battling for control of the property with Corporex, which bought up the general contractor's lien last year.  Virgin's Richard Branson is almost reported to be in the hunt. 

 Let's hope they all don't just cancel each other out. Chicago's hotel market is apparently heating up, increasing prospects that someone will take Staybridge to completion.  That would be good news for Valerio's striking design, but the kiss of death for the ghost skyscraper of River North.

See what Staybridge will look like when finished, and read about its innovative staggered truss frame in our piece from 2008, here.

Pritzker Prize Winners Sejima and Nishizawa lecture June 29th

We'll be adding this the calendar tonight, but here's a heads up that the Architecture and Design Society of the Art Institute of Chicago has just announced a June 29th lecture by SANAA's Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, winners of the 2010 Pritzker Prize.  The lecture will take place Wednesday, June 29th, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., in Rubloff Auditorium off the Columbus Drive entrance of the Art Institute.  $10.00 for members, $15.00 for the general public, $5.00 for students and SAIC faculty and staff.  More information and registration here.

My piece on SANAA from when they won the Pritzker here.

Chicago Streetscene: Details, Details

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This Thursday: Rare opportunity to view WPA murals at Lane Tech, plus Gunny Harboe on restoring the Rookery Tuesday - just added for June. Tonight: Bowling for Prentice. Tuesday: Bruce Mau on aging infrastructure, PechaKucha 18, much more

A quick reminder that Monday, June 6th, is the date for the Bowling for Prentice benefit to help save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital from being destroying by Northwestern for a vacant lot.  It's a 10 Pin at another should-be Goldberg landmark, Marina City, 300 North State from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.

We're still adding great events to the June 2011 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events  This week on Thursday, the 9th, Preservation Chicago and portuluz will be offering a rare tour of the WPA-era murals at Lane Tech High school.  On Tuesday, the 7th, Gunny Harboe will be talking about the restoration of the Rookery, 7:00 p.m. at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park.  Also on Thursday, the 9th, the Harry Chaddick Institute at DePaul will have  panel discussion on Strategies of Improve Historic Preservation in Suburban Communities.

Just this week, there's Peter Calthorpe at CAF on Monday. On Tuesday, Bruce Mau and Armin Linke discussing Global Designs for Aging Infrastructure, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in conjunction with their great new show, Public Works, as well as Eileen Mackevich at the Cultural Center for the National Public Housing Museum, and PechaKucha 18 at Martyr's. On Wednesday, Irene Murray talks about Palladio at CAF lunchtime, and Martin Hackl discusses John van Bergen and the Prairie School of Architecture at the Barrington Area Historical Society.  Saturday, the 2011 Structural Engineering Awards will be announced at the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois' annual banquet, at Newberry Library. while Marcus Schmickler performs at Madlener House at the Graham, and on Sunday, the Glessner House Museum offers its annual house tour of both interiors and exteriors of the mansions of Prairie Avenue and the Second Presbyterian Church.

There are more than 50 events still to come in June.  Check 'em all out on this month's calendar, here.

Certainty

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Whether you live in the smallest apartment or largest mansion, it can never have a place so isolated or forgotten that revisiting it after an extended period of time you wont' find several items encrusted in dried-out cat vomit of uncertain date and provenance.

Trumped: An Oasis of Urban Magic Vanishes

Look at this landscaping . . .

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If you had never been in the place before, no doubt it would strike you as professional and pleasant.  Then why, when I first saw it about a week ago, did my heart sink into my stomach?  Because I was expecting this . . .

This is an example of the absolutely wonderful landscaping designed by Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects for the Trump Tower riverwalk, a rich, complex composition of native plantings that was a delight, as I've written before, even in the winter's snow.

Now it's all gone.  According to Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin's report, when Peter Schaudt first saw what had befallen his design "I was aghast.  My mouth dropped."  Which was pretty much my reaction when I saw the workers from McFarlane Douglass destroying Schaudt's work, for this . . .

According to Kamin, Schaudt was not even given the courtesy of a call to warn him.  Daniel Weinbach and Partners were called in to replace him.  Weinbach is certainly capable of fine work.The firm's  tall-treed plaza for One South Dearborn is one my favorite new public spaces. Apparently, however, all Trump management was asking for was something comfortably generic, lots of the kinds of plants that people are used to seeing everywhere else, lots of evergreens that show no signs of decay, no winter's death, a kind of landscaping botox that turns the wonder of nature into a denial of the seasons.

They've already made gravel a big part of the design.  Why not just replace everything else with plastic and be done with it?

Schaudt's design was unlike anything else you could find in downtown Chicago, a special place that took seriously Trump's claim to uniqueness, giving the riverwalk a spectacular beauty.

Now the Trump landscaping looks pretty much like what you can find in any suburban apartment complex.  Serviceable.  Common.

If you've been around for a while, it shouldn't be a surprise, but it still shocks: aim low, and you can live forever. Create magic and be prepared to watch it snuffed out impatiently, as if it were a disease.  Yet for all who experienced and loved it, Schaudt's landscape will endure clean and bracing in our memories, even as its replacement is forgotten the moment you walk past it.

Prentice Update: Prelminary Designation removed from today's Commission meeting agenda.

from an e-mail just received from Preservation Chicago:

NORTHWESTERN REQUESTS DEFERRAL
OF PRENTICE LANDMARKING VOTE

In an 11th hour move, Northwestern University has asked the city to remove Prentice Women's Hospital from today's Landmarks Commission agenda.  In addition, Northwestern University assured the city that they would not be applying for a demolition permit at any time in the near future in order to discuss the situation with city officials. 

If you had planned to attend the meeting to testify, we thank you for your commitment, but your presence today will not be necessary.  We apologize to anyone who made the trip down to city hall.
   
We will keep you posted on this issue as it develops. Until then, please sign the petition to save Prentice if you have not  already done so and forward it on!

http://www.change.org/petitions/landmark-old-prentice-hospital-save-goldbergs-modern-masterpiece?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email#signatures

Deferred: NOT Today, at City Hall, 12:45 p.m., the battle to define Chicago's profile. Take a late lunch; support saving Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:  At Northwestern's request, the item concerning preliminary landmark designation for Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital on the agenda for today's meeting of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks has been removed.

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Today, Thursday, June 2nd, at a meeting to begin at 12:45 p.m., in Chicago City Council chambers on the second floor, room 201-A of City Hall at 121 N. LaSalle, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks will consider preliminary landmark designation for Bertrand Goldberg's iconic Prentice Hospital, which Northwestern is planning to demolish in order to create - a vacant lot.  For reasons too embarrassing to detail, I won't be able to attend, but all of you who can, please show your support.  If any of you will be tweeting from the meeting, let me know, and I'll post a link to your Twitter feed.

It comes down to this: What kind of city do we want to leave to our children?  Look at the buildings on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital campus.  Is there a single one, other than Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice, that you'd consider a legacy worth passing down?   Galter and Feinberg are massive fortresses.  The new Prentice has it's best face facing out, on Chicago; facing in, on Superior, it offers only a brutal, graceless arcade of oppressive scale.  And the other buildings?  How could the healing powers of a great hospital, offering so much hope, encase itself in such a veneer of faceless despair?  Without those optimistic, gently rounded forms of Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice towers, there 's no contrast, no relief from the medical complex as an architectural necropolis.

If Northwestern is allowed to destroy Prentice, what do we get?  Nothing.  Just an extension of the two-block-square gravel yard just across the street, that's been there since Lakeside Veterans Hospital was demolished two years ago.  There is no construction on the boards, nor expected any time soon. Nothing will be left behind but the palpable ache of absence.

This fall, the Art Institute of Chicago will open a highly anticipated retrospective on the architecture of Bertrand Goldberg.  If Northwestern gets its way, at the very same time the exhibition brings the wonder of Goldberg and of Chicago architecture to a global audience, photographs of Prentice's destruction will damn the city in the eyes of the world.

Two faces, deeply contrasting.  Which one will be Chicago's?

Major Breaking News: Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital on Landmarks Agenda for Thursday

The just published agenda for the monthly meeting of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks includes an item for "Preliminary Landmark Recommendation: Prentice Women's Hospital."  What's in store for Thursday is still anyone's guess, but that the Commission is now officially considering designation is a major victory.

You can find the list of Commissions on their website here.   We should very respectfully and eloquently be making sure that each of them is fully aware of all the reasons that Bertrand Goldberg's masterpiece deserves official designation. You can also make sure that you're getting everyone who know, in Chicago and across the world, that believes in the importance of this building to sign the petition here.

As Churchill once said, this is not the end, or even the beginning of the end, but it is end of the beginning.  That the debate is now within the official context of the Landmarks Commission is a major achievement, but it is just the beginning.  Keep the story of this essential work of Chicago architecture in the forefront of the public, and the Commission.

The meeting of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks will take place this Thursday, June 2nd, beginning at 12:45 p.m., in City Council chambers, room 201-A, 121 North LaSalle.  Supporters of the landmarking Prentice Hospital are urged to attend to lend their support.

Prentice, Prentice, Prentice - plus Ronan's Poetry Foundation, Mau, Calthorpe, Enquist, Vergara: already at 60 items for the June 2011 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events

Wasn't it St. Augustine who once said, "Lord, give me my summer break.  Just not yet."

It was so hot on Memorial Day today, you could be forgiven for thinking everything was shutting down for summer.  But you'd be wrong.

I'm sure we haven't gotten everything yet, but there's already 60 items on the June 2011 Calendar of Chicago Architectural events.

And if there's a theme, it's Prentice, Prentice, Prentice.  The battle to save Bertrand Goldberg should-be-landmarked Prentice Hospital from Northwestern destroying it for a vacant lot is at full press, with a benefit, Bowling for Prentice, on Monday the 6th at 10 Pin at Goldberg's Marina City, a CAF debate, Re-Use It or Lose It: Prentice and Chicago's Modernist Architecture, on the 14th at Dick's Last Resort, also at Marina City, and Landmarks Illinois President James Peters talking about  what could be, The Rebirth of Prentice, at a CAF lunchtime lecture on the 29th.

The month starts out, however, with two pillars of Chicago's architectural legacy.  First up, Ward Miller and John Vinci will discuss their indispensable book, The Complete Architecture of Adler and Sullivan, first at CAF lunchtime this Wednesday, the 1st, and then again on Saturday the 4th at the University Center on State as part of this years Printer's Row Lit Fest.  Wednesday evening, there's a the kick-off of an 18 month celebration of the 125th anniversary of Henry Hobson Richardson's Glessner House, for which ground was broken on that day in 1886.

On Thursday the 2nd, Bernie Judge and Neal Samors will discuss their new book on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive at the Cultural Center for Friends of Downtown, while at Crown Hall at IIT, there'll be an opening reception of the summer's art exhibition, featuring the work of Jeff Carter.  Over at the Driehaus Museum, AKA Nickerson Mansion, Elizabeth Meredith Dowling will be discussing her book American Classicist: The Architecture of  Phillip Trammel Shutze, while on Saturday the 4th, Anna Wolfson will be talking about Natural Building at the Chicago Center for Green Technology.

On the 26th, John Ronan will give a waitlisted talk on the occassion of the open house for the new home he designed for the Poetry Foundation. On Tuesday, the 7th, there's edition 18 of Pecha Kucha at Martyrs', while on Saturday the 11th, Structural Engineers Association of Illinois will be unveiling the winners of its 2011 Structural Engineering Awards at their annual banquet. On Wednesday, the 15th, Archeworks will be holding its Design Riot: Rise for Good Design benefit at Haymarket Brewery.

What else have we got?  Let's see: Walter Frazier, Peter Calthorpe, Ellen Markevich, Bruce Mau, Armin Linke, Palladio, John van Bergen, wind, Marcus Schmickler, Jonathan Olivares, Phil Enquist and Beijing's CBD expansion,  Margaret Cederoth and Christopher Drew in Masdar, Chicago decarbonization, Carolyn Armenta Davis and the Black Diaspora of architects, Chicago lighthouses, schoolhouses, McCormick Place Redux, Camilo Jose Vergara, and much, much more.

Check out the sixty great events on the June 2011 Chicago Architectural Calendar here.

For Memorial Day: Charles Ives sings They are There

No matter how down I am - and believe me, I'm a pretty depressive personality - this song, as sung by its composer, Charles Ives, always lifts me up. Actually, I prefer Ive's second take, which you can download from iTunes for 99 cents.  What jump starts my spirits every time is Ive's explosive energy and enthusiasm, as he curses out with equal impatience both Kaiser Bill and his misperforming feet, barrelling past all physical and vocal limitations.  If there's such a thing as life force, Ives - and his music - had it, and you can hear it in these performances.

Beyond that, however, Ive's lyrics carry the same sense of optimistic idealism that's the bedrock of the "better angels" of the American spirit.  I reproduce them here, via Lipwalk, amended to be closer to the verses as sung by Ives in that second take. Composed in 1917, They are There, with its references to smashing dictators and overcoming politicians, it's fresh as today.  More than any lachrymose requiem, it embodies with an amazing rough beauty the idea of sacrifice in pursuit of a better world . . .

There's a time in many a life,
when it's do though facing death
but our soldier boys will do their part
that people can live in a world where all will have a say.
They're conscious always of their country's aim,
which is Liberty for all.
Hip hip hooray you'll hear them say
as they go to the fighting front.

Brave boys are now in action . (Hooray.)
They are there, they will help to free the world
They are fighting for the right
But when it comes to might,
They are there, they are there, they are there,
As the Allies beat up all the warhogs,
The boys'll be there fighting hard
a-a-and then the world will shout
the battle cry of Freedom.

Tenting on a new camp ground.
Tenting tonight.
Tenting on a new camp ground.

For it's rally around the flag,
of the people's new free world.
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

When we're through this cursed war,
All started by a sneaking gouger,
making slaves of men
(Goddam him!)
Then let all the people rise,
and stand together in brave, kind Humanity.
Most wars are made by small stupid
selfish bossing groups
while the people have no say.
But there'll come a day
Hip hip Hooray
when they'll smash all dictators to the wall.

Then it's build a people's world nation - Hooray
Ev'ry honest country free to live its own native life.
They will stand for the right,
but if it comes to might,
They are there, they are there, they are there.
As the people, not just politicians
will rule their own lands and lives.
And you'll hear the whole universe
shouting the battle cry of Freedom.

Tenting on a new camp ground.
Tenting tonight.
Tenting tonight on a new ground.

For it's rally around the flag,
of the people's new free world.
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

Then it's build a people's world nation - Hooray
Ev'ry honest country free to live its own native life.
They will stand for the right,
but when it comes to might,
They'll be there, they'll be there, they'll be there.
When the people, not just politicians
will rule their own lands and lives.
As you'll hear the whole universe
shouting the battle cry of Freedom.

Tenting on a new camp ground.
Tenting tonight.
Tenting tonight on a new ground.

For it's rally around the flag,
of the people's new free world.
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

Chicago Skyscape: After the Storm

click image for larger view (recommended)

Weekend Reading: Lady Gaga gets Fryed, Groupon's gag writers, Bikini Waxes, Kissinger's murderous sycophancy, Hunt Lieberson's sublime Berlioz

Some great weekend reading:

Not-So-Odd Couple - This weekend's Financial Times' Lady Gaga Takes Tea with Mr. Fry offers an engaging and enlightening account of the inimitable Stephen Fry's visit with the unsinkable chanteuse.

Kissinger's China - also in the FT, the last British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, reviews Henry Kissinger's new book On China, and paints a portrait of a brilliant man devoid of any moral sense. In his latest work the chronic enabler of blood-soaked tyrants offers up a whitewashing of Mao's crimes, to which Patten provides an sobering rebuttal.

Over at Business Week, there's a portrait of New Royalist Torquemada Grover Norquist. When even Tom Coburn thinks someone's a dangerous extremist, you know you're dealing with a real piece of work. Also in Business Week, there's a discussion of the relationship of the bikini wax to Brazil's measure of inflation.

On the music front, The Financial Times finds Glyndebourne's Meistersinger flavorless mush, and reports that, after a slew of cancellations of dates earlier this year, including Chicago, Maurizio Pollini was back in top form at a Royal Festival Hall recital that included Chopin, Schumann, and Stockhausen Klavierstücke.

Over at the Sunday New York Times, David Streitfield's Funny or Die: Groupon's Fate Hinges on Words suggests that Groupon's continued success may hinge on its gagwriters - "musicians, poets, actors and comedians" who write the copy that keeps subscribers clicking coupons.

Elsewhere, Zachary Woolfe has a glowing review of the new live recording from 1995 of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's sublime acount of Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Ete , plus a selection of Handel arias, a must-have release that has been topping out my iPod for the past few weeks.

Memorial Day in Chicago, 2007 to 2010

 

Calling every one of you who cares about Chicago Architecture: As Demolition looms, battle to save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital ramps up and needs your support

At a SOAR public forum last week,  Northwestern's representative made clear that the only use they intend to consider for Bertrand Goldberg's iconic Prentice Hospital is as a pile of rubble.   As the 60-day moratorium negotiated by 42nd ward Brendan Reilly is set to expire, the battle to save the building ramps up.  Blair Kamin has slammed the Commission on Chicago Landmarks as MIA on the most contentious - and critical - landmark battles, something we've been writing about for years, and will write about again next week.

Now, the Save Prentice Coalition has launched a petition drive to demonstrate support for saving the hospital.  Check out the petition and sign here.   The petition urges Ald.Reilly to move forward with designating Prentice as an official Chicago landmark, something the Landmarks Commission hasn't listed a finger to do.  Reilly's ward office can also be reached via phone (312.642.4242) or email.  

And finally, there's the June 6th Bowling for Prentice benefit at 10 Pin, in another unprotected Bertrand Goldberg landmark,  Marina City.  5:30 to 8:00 p.m.

$35 for Adults, includes 2 hours of bowling, shoe rental, gourmet pizza buffet and soft drinks. A cash bar will be available. Proceeds will support the Save Prentice advocacy campaign.

Like the Adler and Sullivan's Garrick Theater and Chicago Stock Exchange buildings, this is one of the most critical preservation battles in the city's history.  To avoid the same disastrous result as those battles - to Chicago, it's architectural legacy, and the character of the city - this is the time to step up. Do a little bowling, a little shouting.  Sign the petition, and urge others to do so, as well.  Make your voice heard against those who would destroy our history just because they can.

A Moveable Feast of Healthy Food launches tour today in North Lawndale

Think of it as a really big, motorized camel, bringing rescue to the middle of the dessert.

In this case, we're talking about Chicago's food deserts. And the camel? It's an outdated bus, donated by the CTA . . .

to serve as a one-aisle mobile grocery store serving some of the many food desert areas within the city (swaths of the city with little or no access to fresh foods and grocery stores) . . . access to such foods has been statistically linked with higher cases of diet related diseases, diabetes, heart disease, and even premature death. Food Desert Action's plan was to find a simple way to create a system that would readily, and quickly, fill these voids in the urban fabric of the city. The solution, we feel, to be an elegant answer to the city's crisis.

The Fresh Moves Mobile Market, a collaboration with Architecture for Humanity, who designed the retrofit of the bus, and EPIC, which pairs creative professionals with non-profits, kicks off what is scheduled to be a six week run today, Wednesday, May 25th, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Lawndale Christian Health Center, 3860 W. Ogden, 12 to 2 p.m., at Sankofa Safe Child Initiative, 4041 W. Roosevelt, and 3 to 5:00 p.m., at Green Youth Farm, 3555 W. Ogden. Tomorrow, Thursday the 26th, from 11 a.m. to 2 the market will be t the Herbert Spencer Technology Academy, 214 N. Lavergne, and from 3 to 5 p.m., at Bethel New Life, Division and Lavergne. Check out the website for future appearances.