Printers' Row: Park or Plaza? Cherchez le chien (and bring a mirror).

A couple of Saturday's ago, they dedicated what's called the Printers Row' Park, a generous strip between Dearborn and Federal, between Polk and Harrison, just south of the Transportation Building. There was music, poetry and dancing, as you can see in pictures in the Chicago Journal's report here.The most distinctive element of the park adorns the sides of the seating benches - segments of neighborhood street names in reverse type, a reference to the area's origins as the center for Chicago's printing industry.To create the park, an existing fountain was retained, two cross driveways closed off, and a number of mature trees removed. Their replacements appear to be mere pups. The cusp of winter is a poor time to judge the quality of a landscape design, this one coming from Ernest Wong and the Site Design Group, Ltd. Right now things are looking more than a bit sparse, but come next spring, perhaps it will look a lot more like the original site plan.

A larger question is whether this place can really be considered a park - "an area of land, usually in a largely natural state, for the enjoyment of the public" - at all. Like the newly renovated Pritzker Park at Van Buren and State, paving dominates over lawn. And what there is of lawn is raised up within concrete curbs.

This is said to be a strategy to avoid contamination by dog leavings, which would appear to be confirmed at Printers Row by a green chalk inscription along the raised circular lawn's concrete rim: "This grass should NOT BE A DOG TOILET. LET PEOPLE ENJOY IT TOO!" As the inscription continued, the word "NOT" was effaced, leaving the words "GRASS ______ DOGGIE POTTY" below which one could see a smear that had every appearance of being what we called, when I was a child, "dog dirt."
When I visited the park this past Saturday, there seemed to be as many dogs as people. No violent confrontations were observed.
"Curb you dog" used to be enough. When you box up the lawn, you have what I found at Pritzker Park, also on Saturday. Pretty much everyone was sitting along the periphery, on the concrete edges along State Street. The rest of the park, except for the pigeons, was empty. Raising up and boxing in is apparently the perfect "keep off the lawn" mechanism, discouraging dogs and people alike.For nearly twenty years, dogs and people managed to co-exist, despite the usual conflicts, at the handsome park south of the AMA Building, an accidental greenspace created by John Buck as a placeholder for an office building he expected to develop on the site. Maintained by Buck for decades, it was a model of what a park in the middle of density could be. As River North grew up all around it, the trees growing into mature beauty, the park became an increasingly central civic resource, for both people and their pets. And, of course, the city rebuffed offers to purchase it, and sat on its hands while the only real greenspace in River North was destroyed for still another hotel.Nature wasn't in boxes at the AMA Park, nor is it at another splendid amenity, the landscaped plaza at One South Dearborn, a wonderful forest oasis in the heart of downtown density, where the greenery remains at ground level, protected by a smart use of seating elements.Contrast this to the new 353 N. Clark office tower. In an ever more dense River North that is parched for parkland, the opportunity to create an AMA-like amenity was rejected for still another trees-in-big-boxes design. What could have been a much-needed park became just another self-aggrandizing plaza.
Maybe that should be rule number one: If you can't walk on the grass, it's not a park.

Auction of Architectural Books from PAB at Hindman Auctioneers on Thursday

This Thursday, November 19th at high noon, at 1338 West Lake, Leslie Hindman will be auctioning off over 50 lots of rare architectural books from the famed, late, lamented Prairie Avenue Bookshop. You can review the entire catalogue, which also includes such literary items as first editions of This Side of Paradise, Catch-22, In Our Time, and The Sun Also Rises, as well as antique volumes such as a 1692 London edition of Aesop, and a selection from Rainer Maria Rilke's stash of losing lottery tickets, on-line here.

Among the many architectural items of interest:

• Harold Bradley's Directory to Apartments of the Better Class on the North Side of Chicago. Chicago, 1917.
• David Adler. The Architect and His Work. New York, (1970). With 1 other copy of the same
• Edward H. Bennett. The Plan of Minneapolis, 1917.
• Charles Garnier. Le Nouvel Opera de Paris. Paris, 1878-1881. 4 vols. (2 text, 2 atlas).
• Walter Gropius. Bauhaus Bucher #4. Munich, 1924. With 3 other books.
• Josef Maria Olbrich. Architektur von Olbrich. Berlin, (c. 1904). 150 plates.
• An extensive archive of maps, printed documents and legal papers pertaining to the North Shore Syndicate. The North Shore Syndicate, which focused on the residential development of Lincoln Park between Belmont and Diversey, was chaired by John G. Shortall and Charles L. Strobel during years 1890-1932. Residents included Oscar Meyer and Chicago author Arthur Meeker, both of whom lived on what was then called Meatpackers' Row which is now Wellington Avenue between Lake Shore Drive and Sheridan Road.
• Seventeen volumes, 1904-1912.,(49-65) , of the Engineering Record.
• The National Builder, A Journal Devoted to the Builder Interest. Chicago, 1885-1887, 1910-1911. 6 vols.
• A similar lot.
• Extra string . . . in abundance.
  

The items to be auctioned can be previewed Saturday, November 14 from 10:00 a.m., to 3 p.m., Sunday the 15th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 17, from 10:00 a.m., to 6:00 p.m., and Wednesday the 18th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 312/280.1212

Is Dubai God's Way of Telling You you have too much money?

. . . and the migrant workers who built it far too little?

The spectacular Burj Dubai Lake Fountain:



and a half mile up atop the spire of the Burj Dubai, now scheduled to open in January:


(thanks to Scott Rench)

Edgar Miller on Saturday, Isaac's Knowledge Box on Monday, Lyster's Infrastructural Ecologies on Wednesday, and more!

Every time I turn around, I stumble on still more great events to add to the November calendar.

(lecture Saturday, November 14) -Edgar Miller and the Handmade Home - Chicago’s Forgotten Renaissance Man - This is the title of the new book by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams, with photographs by Alexander Vertikoff, which chronicles the work of Edgar Miller, a key figure in the Artists Colony - also including such names as Carl Sandburg and Ben Hecht - that took a decaying neighborhood that was originally a fashionable 19th district of Victorian mansions and reimagined it into what would become Old Town, a bohemian conclave transformed by Miller's design. Miller partnered with Sol Kogen, who bought a mansion at 155 West Carl Street (now Burton Place) to create Carl Street Studios, a home for young artists. The result, including other rehabbed buildings on Burton, remains to this day one of the most distinctive blocks in Chicago. The interior of the mansion was gutted and laid out anew by Miller to provide light-filled artists studios, with both interiors and exteriors reconceived with striking frescoes, stained glass, mosaics, and more, the materials often scavenged not only from the neighborhood's demolished mansions, but from everyplace from Maxwell Street (Kogen was the son of a Maxwell Street merchant) to the buildings of the 1932-33 Century of Progress World's Fair.

The new book by Cahan and Williams documents the long career of Miller, who was born in Idaho and lived to the age of 93. He became a Chicago resident after coming to the city to study at the Art Institute in 1917. Among his other work, Miller collaborated with architect Andrew Rebori on the facade and artwork of the Fisher Apartments on North State, created murals for the Art Deco Tavern club, and beautiful sandblasted glass relief panels for the late, lamented Diana Court. a sample of which can be seen in the architecture gallery at the top of the Art Institute's great stair. Miller was unapologetically eclectic in his approach, described in a quote Alan Artner included in his Chicago Tribune obituary:

I accepted influences from anyplace. Every time I saw something that was value, I absorbed it. Influence is nothing but nourishment and you grow by it. To be afraid of influence is like being scared to eat.

Miller's life and work and the new book will be subject of a lecture this Saturday, November 14th, sponsored by the Chicago Art Deco Society in the 2nd floor Congress lounge at Roosevelt University, with a reception at 3:00, and a lecture at 3:30 - copies of the book available for purchase and signing by the authors.

(panel Monday, November 16) - Knowledge Box Re-created. This is an intriguing series I've dropped the ball on, a schedule of late Monday afternoon panels presented in conjunction with the School of the Art Institute's Learning Modern exhibition. This Monday's panel promises to especially interesting, as it includes Ken Isaacs, creator of 1962's Knowledge Box, an amazing precursor of today's multimedia world in which 24 slide projectors saturated the interiors of a 12 foot wood-framed cube with images, text and textures. Originally constructed in Mies van der Rohe's Crown Hall, it's now been recreated by SAIC students for the Learning Modern exhibition.



The panel also includes Victor Margolin, Professor Emeritus, Design History, University of Illinois, Chicago and Susan Snodgrass, project curator. It takes place from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Monday, November 16th, in Sullivan Galleries, 7th floor, 33 S. State.

(lecture Wednesday, November 18th ) -
Infrastructural Ecologies - 6:00 p.m., Center Core, Crown Hall, 3360 South State at IIT. A lecture by Clare Lyster, architect and one of the most original thinkers in the city today.

but wait, there's more! - Tayrn Mead lectures on Biomimicry in the Built Environment on the 24th, Ronald Jones discusses Moholy-Nagy and the Bauhaus Curriculum on the 30th, Modern Technologies at the Sullivan Galleries on the 23rd - November is going away quietly. There are nearly two dozen events just next week, 11 just on Thursday, the 19th, including a 6:00 p.m. screening of documentaries by Mathieu Borysevicz, Shu Haolun, and Sylvie Levey as part of Columbia College's Museum of Contemporary Photography remarkable exhibition, Reversed Images: Representations of Shanghai and Its Contemporary Material Culture. Plus CAF's Patron of the Year awards, the Chaddick Institute's conference, Shrinking Cities: Redefining & Reengineering Distressed Cities & Suburbs, Harboe Architect's Bob Score on Restoring Carson’s Iconic Cast Iron, S. Lloyd Natof on Reading Wright and . . . well, check out all the great stuff still to come in November on the calendar here.

The van Berkel stripped bare by her disassemblers, even

photographs: Bob Johnson

In her second childhood, on the road to oblivion, looking very much like she did at the beginning, in the promise of Spring . . .

Doing anything this weekend? Architecture for Humanity Chicago needs a new logo

via my colleague Will Payovich and core77, here's word of a competition Architecture for Humanity, Chicago Chapter is holding for the design of a logo to brand the groups new role as a government-funded national chapter. Deadline is 5:00 p.m., Monday, November 16th. more info and rules here.

Bench still again, as aerial sculpture

Here's what may be the most intriguing view of Dan Peterman's bench on Millennium Park's Chase Promenade, from our indefatigable correspondent Bob. Johnson.

Chicago Nightscene: ". . . always the same. people come. people go. nothing ever happens."

Longest bench in the world versus longest - and ugliest - bench in Chicago

The longest bench in the world? In the resort of Littlehampton in West Sussex, by Studio Weave.
Just £68 buys your own dedication on one of the multi-colored slats.

The most endless bench in Chicago? We give you this bit of loveliness, running alongside Da Bean in Millennium Park.
What genius thought this up?Extended postscript: Actually, a pretty talented guy, as poster Duane has brought to my attention: artist Dan Peterman. It's called Running Table. It's actually 100 feet long, and, according to the City of Chicago website:

Made from the equivalent of two million recycled milk bottles, the table is simultaneously a product of consumption and an invitation to consume more as visitors sit down, relax and enjoy their own lunch at the table. Like a picnic bringing people together, the table reminds visitors of the communal social purpose made possible by individual actions.

It's originally appeared in 1997 in a section of Grant Park that is now M.P. What inspiration it provided to the guy in my second photo (above) who's on his knees, appearing to be burying his head in his girlfriends lap, I won't even venture to guess.

Running Table looks a lot more at home on the lawn shown in the 1997 photo, when it was the only object in a lightly traveled area. Placed on the heavily trafficked Chase Promenade, blocking access to Cloud Gate except at its end points, it's a massive obstruction that restricts movement to no good purpose but to serve as a hammer-upside-your-head approach to making a point about waste and recycling. It's like the drunk passed out in the doorway that forces you to walk around him. I'd be very interested to find Running Table in another setting, and will be very happy to see it leave its current location next February.

Late Reprieve

and, for Elmhurst Erik . . .

Fine Arts cleans up, cleans out Artists Snack Shop sign

This whole historic preservation thing is more complicated than we thought.
Take the case of the Fine Arts Building, acquired by real estate magnate Robert Berger in 2005, which sits on Michigan Avenue just north of Adler & Sullivan's Auditorium. In the latest stage of Berger's exterior renovation of the historic structure, stone whose color for decades could only be described as "grimy" is being cleaned, revealing delicate pink hues quite possibly not seen since the time of the building's 1885 opening.
Another stab at authenticity has seen the removal of the George Mitchell's Artists Snack Shop sign, a festival of light that was Pop long before Pop was Pop. You can see it in all its lit glory here.
Obviously, the sign was not part of Solon Beman's design for the building, originally a showroom for Studebaker automobiles. Of course, the temporary replacement doesn't exactly say Fin de siècle Chicago, either.
Which raises the question: what is preservation? Is it a meticulous return to the state of a building at the moment of its completion? Or does it leave some record of a structure's passage through time?

Of course, to get back to the beginning at the Studebaker, you'd have to lop off the top three floors - and their skylit studios - which Beman added in 1898 when the building became the Fine Arts we know today, and rip out the rehab of the theaters done by Andrew Rebori in 1917.

Truth be told, Beman's facade is what is often called, euphemistically, "quirky". It's a wedding cake building, without the setbacks, a festival of questionable proportions, with a two-story base, a squat, three-story body, a high two story arcade, topped by a newer two-story arcade, topped by its own one-story arcade. At the center are two stubby columns at ground level, topped by pilasters with toothpick columns on either side, topped by thick, two-story columns with Romanesque capitals sitting in front of windows and supporting a story of arched fenestration above. It's a work that inspires affection more than admiration. The Artists sign added to the amiable confusion by spanning only two/thirds of the central bay, further breaking up the tenuous symmetry.

The real splendor of the Fine Arts is in its interiors, and in the home they've provided to Chicago's artistic community for over a century.You can read all about the Fine Arts in a history created by the building's management here. Even better, according to the Building's website, this week on November 13 is one of the "Second Fridays" of each month when, from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m., you can take your own self-guided tours of the Fine Arts' glories.

Global Architecture Brigades, CAF Patron of the Year, Shanghai x 3 at MoCP - new additions to November Calendar

That's right, we're still adding stuff to the November calender, and if the past is any indication, there'll be even more by the time last turkey emerges from hiding on the 30th.

Global Architecture Brigades: Student-:Led Design Build - Monday at noon in the lower core of Crown Hall at IIT, director John Cunningham will be talking about the Global Architecture Brigades, a "volunteer student-led collaborative dedicated to the design and construction of socially responsible solutions to architectural problems in rural Panama. A think tank design approach utilizes extensive community dialogue and independent research to create efficient, appropriate, and elegant structures to be embraced and utilized by those for whom they were built."

Chicago Architecture Foundation Patron of the Year Awards - there's still time to buy tickets for this annual event, held at a midday luncheon at the University Club on November 19. The announced winners will come from a pool of 31 nominees that range from the Wit Hotel, the rehab of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Powerhouse, to the restoration of the dome in Preston Bradley Hall, the Chicago Riverwalk, and the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute.

Film Screening: Works by Mathieu Borysevicz, Shu Haolun, and Sylvie Levey - also on the 19th, at 6:00 p.m., this is a screening of works currently part of still another absolutely first-rate Columbia College Museum of Contemporary Photography exhibition, Reversed Images: Representations of Shanghai Contemporary Material Culture. I hope to be writing about this show later, but it's one you shouldn't miss. Since it runs 70 minutes, I saw only part of Shu Haolun's Nostalgia, a remarkable documentary that plays like a home movie of the directors childhood neighborhood, but actually is a vivid portrait of one of Shanghai's traditional Shikumen, named after the ornamental gateways to what was once one of the city's dominant residential types, now disappearing under the bulldozers in the rush to modernity.



Just this week, there's almost a dozen and a half events, from Landmarks Illinois own 2009 Real Estate & Building Industries Council Award at the Sullivan center, Ruth J. Abram's, John Wasik, Chris Poland, Jorge Pardo, David Woodhouse, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss. Jaume Plensa and more. Check it all out here.

First Jerry Lewis. Now Steve Jobs. Parisians mob new Apple Store in Paris.

.
Microsoft Cafe opens at 47 Boulevard Sebastopol. Apple Store opens at Carousel du Louvre, beneath the famous museum and in clear sight of I.M. Pei's iconic glass pyramid. The acolytes gather, en masse.

Three Cats Sleeping; one dog dancing

And now for something completely different: the Sliwinska of dancing dogs - wearing more clothing than usually found on Edyta:



(thanks to Scott Rench for bringing this artist to our attention.)

Exit Zaha - au Plus Vite

It's completion was six weeks late, but it's left the stage with the speed of a zephyr. Via our indefatigable correspondent Bob Johnson, here's a photo account of the quick departure of the Burnham Pavilion designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
After closing on the last day of October, tent fabric that had become streaked with grime only days after its opening was quickly stripped away, leaving the pavilion to be seen, however briefly, at its best: a beautiful, intricate aluminum shell.
. . . which construction crews made quick work of dismantling . . .
. . . leaving only a grimy sidewalk shadow behind.
Now the wrecking crew turns its attention to Ben van Berkel's UNStudio pavilion, the glossy white surface pried away to reveal the plywood guts beneath, with the underlying steel frame still to be revealed.

When we wrote about it this past April, the Hadid pavilion was touted as being "designed to be re-used, a 'giant erector set' whose structure can be dismantled, its fabric "zipped into bags" to live another day in a different location, for a new purpose." But like so much else with the wildly dysfunctional Hadid pavilion, the truth fell far beneath the claims. Like the van Berkel, it's now simply headed to the recycling bin, never to be seen again.

Tonight - One Night Only! at Schubas: Burnham Smackdown!

Yes. I know this is a shameless plug for an event I'm moderating, but there's a great panel, and beer - what more can anyone ask? It's tonight, November 4, 7:00 p.m., upstairs at Schubas Tavern, 3159 N. Southport at Belmont, a former tied house. Suggested information $5.00. Register on-line or take your chances.

And what is it?

Using the 1909 Plan of Chicago by Burnham and Bennett as a jumping-off point, a panel of local architects, landscape architects, and planners will take YOUR QUESTIONS about the future design of our city in this lively, fast-paced discussion,

Urban Habitat Chicago has assembled an amazing panel, pictured above, bios below:

Richard Avery, Architect, ALA, Principal, Hampton Avery Architects
Richard Avery is a Principal at Hampton Avery Architects in Chicago. The firm focuses on developing ideas, concepts, and design solutions at both the scale of the city and the house, to realize the opportunities for a better life presented by transitioning to a built environment that uses less energy and resources. Recent awards include the 2009 Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence, and an honorable mention in the "Flip-a-strip" design competition.

Nicholas Petty, MLA, Project Manager, Urban Habitat Chicago
Nick addressed vertical gardening technologies in urban locations in his master's thesis from the School of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia, and has since emerged as one of the leading experts on the subject. Winner of the UHC Achievement Award for Outstanding Service on the Joy Garden at Northside Preparatory High School, he is also responsible for design of the Sunlight of the Spirit Garden.

Rashmi Ramaswamy, LEED AP, AIA, Architect, SHED Studio
Rashmi has been working as an architect in Chicago for 14 years, and has a strong personal interest in public housing and environmental issues. She has served multiple not-for-profit clients, in projects including a campus for at-risk teen youth, a transitional shelter for women, HUD 202 senior housing and a daycare facility. She also serves on the boards of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Faith in Place and ReBuilding Exchange, and is a member of USGBC, Chicago Chapter Programs Committee.

Mike Newman, AIA, Architect, SHED Studio
Mike has been an architect in Chicago for 16 years, and worked previously in Boston and Philadelphia. His work has focused on design innovation for sustainability and affordability in housing, and social justice projects, such as Tryon Farm in Michigan City, Indiana. He has also participated in community built projects with Madhousers, Habitat for Humanity, and Tryon. Mike has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, School of the Art Institute, and Archeworks.

Lesley Roth, AIA, LEED AP, Architect.
In her 10 year career, Lesley has been responsible for project management, project design and direction and client contact on architecture and planning projects. Her professional training and practice include both domestic and international experience with an emphasis on liveable communities and sustainable design.

Zoka Zola, Architect, AIA, RIBA, LEED AP,
Principal, Zoka Zola Architecture + Urban Design
Zola has received the UK's Young Architect of the Year Award, was awarded a Home of the Year Award by Architecture Magazine, and has taught at the Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, the Architectural Association in London, and The School of the Art Institute Chicago. Zola's work avoids "singularity" - whether in the design of a zero-energy single-family residence, green stock plans for 21st Century Chicago, the design of an open-source website, or affordable housing in Croatia.

Samuel Assefa, formerly of the Dept. of Planning and Development, City of Chicago
Assefa has served as Director of Land Use + Planning Policy for the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, where he helped oversee implementation of green planning and urban design policies. He also taught architecture at the California College of Arts, and has designed and implemented sustainable land use policies in various cities. As the senior urban designer for the City of San Francisco's Planning Department, he developed and directed land use policies for high-density, transit-oriented developments, industrial area design guidelines, and guidelines for high-rise mixed-use developments for San Francisco's downtown.

More info on-line. It should be a great evening, fun, invigorating and educational. And did I mention the beer?

Evicted Three Arts Club members may get to return - but only if they're very, very quiet

Somehow I doubt this what Holabird & Roche had in mind.

The current Crain's Chicago Business has a great report on the latest chapter in the saga of the Three Arts Club, the handsome 1914 building on Dearborn Parkway chartered "to provide a home and a club for young women engaged in the study of the arts in the City of Chicago." Which is exactly what it did for thousands of women, all the way up until 2003, when the money ran out, the building was sold, and the club tore up its charter to instead hand out $15,000 grants to six lucky artists a year. A proposal to convert the property to a hotel fell through, as did a proposal to take it condo, as did - well, there are many such stories in the wake of the great crash of '08.

Now an investors group led by architect Bill Bickford of Depree Bickford Associates LLC, whose funereal specialities include the restoration of the Palmer Mausoleum at Graceland Cemetery and Hotchkiss Chapel at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, which also holds Louis Sullivan's Wainwright Tomb, has a new vision for the Three Arts as a columbarium for up to 15,000 urns.

On the plus side for it's chi-chi neighborhood, it would definitely hold down traffic and noise around the building, (except, perhaps, once a year on the 31st). And, of course, it would be something of a homecoming, a throwback to the good old days when what is now Lincoln Park, at the Gold Coast's northern boundary, was the city cemetery.

Still, it's seems a bit of a waste. Oh, I know, I'm the guy who rhapsodized over the prospect of turning the Old Main Post Office into a municipal mausoleum, but I would still suggest there's a significant difference. The Post Office, set atop an expressway and a rail line, doesn't have much of an adjacent residential population, and it's basically a huge warehouse, with immense, bare, loft-like floors. The Three Arts Club, on the other hand, was built as a residence and clubhouse. According to the AIA Guide to Chicago, it was the first - and accomplished - design by a young John A. Holabird after he joined his father's firm. There's a dining hall, a library, and a famously graceful courtyard.

To enable it to survive by having it turn to ash wouldn't be a tragedy, but a nagging sense persists that holding out for something with a bit more life would wind up being a whole lot better.

A badelynge of critics, a Burnham Smackdown, Jones, Pardo, Plensa, Peel, Kearns, Gang, Hadrian and more - over 50 events on the November calendar

It begins on Monday with Wes Jones at UIC, and continues with critics, critics, everywhere this week - first Joseph Rosa talking with Paul Goldberger on Wednesday, and then Goldberger again, plus Hawthorne, Goldhagen, Kamin and Lifson at a Chicago Architecture Foundation panel on Thursday. Me? I'll be at the bar, Schuba's Tavern, to be exact, this Wednesday, moderating Urban Habitat's Burnham Smackdown! with Sam Assefa, Richard Avery, Nicolas Petty, Rashmi Rasaswamy, Mike Newman and Zoka Zola discussing extending the lessons of the 1909 Plan of Chicago into the city's future while ducking beer bottles thrown by dissenting attendees.

Elsewhere on the architects front, there's Markus Miessen and Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss at separate events at the Graham, Jeanne Gang on MEP systems at Crown Hall, Jorge Pardo at the Art Institute, David Woodhouse discussing his Burnham memorial at AIA Chicago, where later in the month Larry Kearns will be discussing his firm's recent work. There's Bob Score, at the Cultural Center for Landmarks Illinois, talking about the restoration of Louis Sullivan's Carson Pirie Scott cast iron ornament, and Joseph Dolinar and Ken DeMuth lecturing on their Park Monroe at CAF.

Plus Hadrian's Rome, Infrastructures for Change, High-Speed Rail, the Mannahatta Project's Eric Sanderson, What is Archeworks?, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Cul-de-Sac Syndrome, Park District proposals for Northerly Island, the Wacker Manual, Jaume Plensa, Green Retrofit, Laurence Okrent on the Evolution of Grant Park, and, believe it or not, much, much more. Before things shut down for Thanksgiving on the 22nd, there are over 50 items on November calendar. Check them all out here.