Liquid Stone, aka Concrete

An online version of the National Building Museum's exhibition Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete is available and is very well done and worth checking out.

29 projects are featured, broken up into four categories: Structure, Surface, Sculptural Form, and The Future of Concrete. The wide range of projects displays the almost endless possibilities of concrete as a contemporary building material, from simple and orthogonal designs to sculptural forms and treated surfaces. Many are obvious, such as any building by Tadao Ando, Simmons Hall by Steven Holl, and the Tenerife Opera House by Santiago Calatrava. But others aren't so obvious, like Alberto Kalach's GGG House and the Big Belt House by Massie Architecture, making it a learning experience as much as looking at pretty pictures.

......
White Temple in Japan...Mexican Embassy in Berlin

Thanks a lot to Eric M. for the head's up on this link.

Book of the Moment

To be published in the fall, Taschen's Architecture Now! series continues with installment number three. Again written by Philip Jodidio, the nearly 600-page, $40 book will once again feature "many new and exciting names as well as recent projects by perennial favorites."


Sample page; larger and more available at above link.

(via RE.Design News)

Beauties and the Beasts

Today's Chicago Tribune lists the "beauties and beasts" as part of their week long coverage on the Loop and its history. Patrick T. Reardon and Blair Kamin weigh in with the following top fives:



LOVELIEST:

1. Monadnock Building, 53 W. Jackson Blvd. -- An unadorned wonder, with thick brick walls that curve inward and upward to suggest an Egyptian pylon.



2. Carson Pirie Scott & Co., 1 S. State St. -- One of the great Louis Sullivan's greatest buildings, its lush, nature-inspired ornament designed to beautify the street and draw in customers.



3. Chicago Board of Trade Building, 141 W. Jackson Blvd. -- The summit of Art Deco elegance, complete with a pyramidal roof crowned by an aluminum statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture.



4. Richard J. Daley Center, block bounded by Washington, Randolph, Dearborn and Clark Streets -- Perhaps the finest Mies van der Rohe-style building not designed by Mies himself. The chief architect? Jacques Brownson.



5. Inland Steel Building, 30 W. Monroe St. -- This elegant, innovative 19-story office tower was Chicago's first completely air-conditioned building and pioneer in the use of stainless steel as an exterior material. Built in 1958, it remains much-admired today.

UGLIEST:

1. The Mr. Submarine building, 18 W. Jackson Blvd. -- Ouch! The sign-plastered exterior is further maligned by the neo-asphalt panels and the blank wall along the alley.



2. The Roberto's building, 214 S. State St. -- How many times do we need to be told the store's name? In this case, three times, each in a different style. It's hard to croon "State Street -- That Great Street" about this one.



3. The parking deck at 332 S. Wabash Ave. -- The Loop has plenty of eyesore parking lots, but this one, with its exposed concrete frame and garish yellow railings, is one of the sorest.



4. Harold Washington College, 30 E. Lake St. -- Third-rate, trickle-down modernism.



5. The Walgreens building, 151 N. State St. -- It's hard to believe that this two-story clunker occupies the same site as the grand old Masonic Temple, a gable-topped cloud-buster that once reigned as Chicago's tallest building. (The demolished Masonic Temple, by the way, was the model for architect Philip Johnson's 190 S. LaSalle St. office building of 1987.)

I'm a sucker for lists, even though this one seems like a list for list's sake. Arguing with the Lovely buildings seems pointless (though I would argue the Federal Center buildings over Daley Center and include the Reliance Building), but I think instead of drawing attention to those anonymous, ugly buildings like the Mr. Submarine and the Walgreens, how 'bout taking a shot at buildings with higher intentions that fall flat? Here's my revised "bottom 5" (in no particular order):

Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State. -- Technically on the border just outside the Loop, the infamous Harold Washington Library is an eyesore, from the massive reddish-brown stone to the enormous owls and other copper sculptures on the roof. The fact the library is neither user-friendly nor inspiring inside doesn't help.



School of the Art Institute dormitory, 162 N. State. -- Across Block 37 from the Reliance Building, this new dormitory building tries to be a mirror image of that historical gem but fails in the plasticity of the facade and clumsy cornice, among other architectural shortcomings.



190 S. LaSalle. -- The only building in Chicago by Philip Johnson is a product of his post-modern phase, complete with oversized lanterns, a sparse, gold-leaf lobby and a derivative form, as mentioned in the Trib article.



Harold Washington College, 30 E. Lake St. -- I'll give them this one. U-G-L-Y.



180 N. LaSalle. -- A bland box from the early 1970's that tried to safe face with a one-story base renovation by Ricardo Bofill, but the postmodern facade just calls attention to how bad the rest of the building actually is.

What A Bargain!

Forbes.com features the Most Expensive Homes in the Midwest, concluding that the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin) is the place to buy luxury estates at rock bottom prices. Compared to the Most Expensive Homes in the Northeast, the Midwest is a bargain, with the price range of the top ten from $10-25 for the Midwest, while the Northeast ranges from roughly $30-75 million.



Not surprisingly, the majority of the houses are located in Illinois, either in Chicago or the city's North Shore suburbs. The Chicago houses tend to be large but notable for their architects (Frank Lloyd Wright, David Adler) while the suburban houses are much larger with acres and acres of land, typically on Lake Michigan. (via Archinect)

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

Ini Ani Espresso Bar in New York City by Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis.

The updated book feature is The Archeworks Papers, edited by Stanley Tigerman.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

This is What Democracy Looks Like, a post at CPR4Democracy shining a light on the suppressions of freedoms via the designated "free speech zone" outside the Democratic National Convention in Boston, with pictures (via The Bellman).



4 Teams 4 Visions, the masterplan submissions of the four finalists to renovate the High Line in Manhattan.



The Mies van der Rohe Society at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Aerial Art

My friend Eric posted an image of a woodblock by artist Shiko Munakata, but enlarged in a rice paddy in Inakadate to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth. About 600 of the villagers participated in the evolving land-art, made from variously-colored rice plants.



The aerial view reminds me of the work of Kansas artist Stan Herd, who uses crops to create images ideally viewed from an airplane. Like the Munakata work in Japan, Herd's pieces are large scale, temporal, agrarian, colorful, and collaborative, requiring more than one individual for their fruition. They are also reminiscent of ancient earthworks by Native American cultures, making each timeless regardless of their temporary nature.

Yikes!

Came across this picture over at City Comforts, taken as the eight-story building in Manila on the left - leaning precariously for days - decided to collapse, damaging the building across the street (from The Seattle Times).

Soldier Field Landmark Status

According to an article published in yesterday's Chicago Tribune (registration req'd),

The National Park Service on Tuesday sent its recommendation to withdraw landmark status, the highest honor the government bestows on buildings and places, from the Chicago Park District, which owns the structure. Federal officials also recommended removing the venerable stadium from the National Register of Historic Places.

The incompatibility of the new stadium design by Wood + Zapata and local architect Dirk Lohan is the main source of contention in the report, which will go the Advisory Board Landmarks Committee and then make a recommendation to the full board in September, eventually forwarding its recommendation to the U.S. secretary of the interior. This final decision will most likely remove the Landmark status, but the Mayor's spokesperson, Jacquelyn Heard is optimistic that Soldier Field may keep its designation, believing it was the preserved colonnades that were important for landmark status.



To me, this seems like a non issue. It's obvious that the current stadium design doesn't retain enough of the original character to keep landmark status, but because of that fact why should the City and the Park District care if it keeps landmark status? The design is a compromise that keeps a portion of the historic Soldier Field while (unfortunately) abolishing that element from the fans inside and overpowering the view of the same from the outside. The city gambled on an ambitious and unique, contemporary design so it should lose the landmark status.

But is it a punishment for "destroying the landmark", in the words of Preservation Chicago president Jonathan Fine? I don't think so, because landmark status isn't necessarily any greater or better than a different way of building with history, as was done at Soldier Field. Preservation, like architecture, needs to evolve over time and recognize that mummifying buildings and their uses isn't always the best solution. I'm all for continuity in our cities, something that happens through preservation efforts. But at least in this case, something different came from the proceedings, instead of a completely demolished old stadium or a preserved stadium, inadequate for its current use (though that opens a whole other can of worms in terms of the public nature of the lakefront and the presence of the Bears, that I won't go into here), we got something "alien" but also lively and unique.

Update 07.25: Blair Kamin argues (registration req'd) that Soldier Field should have its National Landmark status removed, citing the National Park Service's recommendation, "the stadium has fundamentally lost its association with the past."

Update 08.02:
Local stadium architect Dirk Lohan defends the Soldier Field addition on Chicago Public Radio(Real Audio link).

Gehry Goes 2d

According to a July 15 press release posted at The Simpsons Archive, Frank Gehry will join Springfield's cast of characters as a guest voice in the upcoming 16th season, as himself. No additional information is available on his guest appearance, but he will be in good company this coming season, as he is joined by Ray Romano, rapper 50-cent and Thomas Pynchon, among many others. (via Archinect)

Public Space and Architectural Criticism

This month's issue of the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) newsletter, Making Places, takes aim at celebrity architects and architectural criticism.



July's feature on the Seattle Public Library by Rem Koolhaas not so much critiques the buildings as it critiques critiques of the building, from Herbert Muschamp to Paul Goldberger and online bloggers. Benjamin Fried's article talks about architecture "critics' unbridled enthusiasm for elite designers," contending that "readers must sift through the hype and hyperbole that saturate the bulk of today's criticism," eventually coming to the conclusion that "critics...are failing to hold architects accountable for the impact of their designs on the public realm," and that there exists a need "to introduce new standards for excellence in public architecture."



As you can surmise, the author doesn't believe that the Library is a positive addition to downtown Seattle, particularly in the way it interacts with the public at the street level. But the positive praise levied upon the building by many architecture critics, including Muschamp and Goldberger, is the real issue.



Fried's article references the 2001 survey "The Architecture Critic: A Survey of Newspaper Architecture Critics in America" (pdf link) which seems to confuse matters with the following:

Many architecture critics go beyond opinion about the aesthetics of individual buildings, including reporting on sprawl and urban development. At the same time, they express regret that the field pays too much attention to the work of popular architects.

What seems to be happening is an awareness, on the critics part, that architecture exists as a part of urban - and other - fabrics, but their coverage tends to focus on the individual works of architecture instead, typically by well-known architects like Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaas. But this quote indicates that there already exists a constituent of critics that can "give deeper consideration to the ways architecture affects public space," as PPS would like to see. So what's holding them back? Their editors? A mis-perception of what the public wants? The appeal of sensual photographs and buildings? All of these, and more, contribute in some way.



I think part of the problem lies in the treatment of architecture both as a singular object within its context and the critique of architecture on purely formal terms, as opposed to focusing on a building's relationships, with its surroundings, its internal spaces, with the user, etc. Of course, not all critics do these things, but neither do they all do what PPS is rallying against. But if architecture criticism had one approach, it wouldn't be very democratic. My definition of criticism is more about ways of looking at, and thinking about, things, as opposed to judgments along the lines of this is good/this is bad. By providing the reader with another point of view, hopefully a well-informed and relatively expert one, the reader can apply this thinking to other parts of the environments and see things in a different way.



So as much as I'll admit that PPS has some good points, their goal will only be realized by people with similar ideas expressing their views, not by silencing critics who don't agree with their perspective. If anything, we need more, varied voices so a dialogue about architecture and the environment can grow and expand.



-------------------



On a side note, PPS is doing its part in improving the role of the critic with sidebars on the feature page. These include:

Tips on being a do-it-yourself critic



Five things you can do to influence your local critic



Tell us about your favorite new architecture

Tips on the first two sensible, while your vote on the last should meet PPS's criteria for being a successful public spaces, sensible criteria but limitations nonetheless.



(Thanks to El for sending me a link to this page on the public spaces of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao that lead me to read PPS's newsletter)

P.S.1 Pics

nARCHITECTS has an image diary for their urban beach project built in the courtyard of P.S.1 for this summer. Scroll way down to the bottom, wait for all the images to load, then scroll up and see the bamboo canopies take shape. (via RE.Design News)

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

The Kam L. Liu Building of the Chinese American Service League in Chicago by Studio Gang Architects.

The updated book feature is The Illegal Architect by Jonathan Hill.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Public Architecture, putting the resources of architecture in the service of the public interest.



Construction photos of the New Scottish Parliament, aka Holyrood, the last building by Enric Miralles.



Design for the World, design for people in need.

Yesterday Was The Day

Here's some photographs from last night's opening festivities at Chicago's Millennium Park. Although gray at times, luckily the weather didn't give way to rain, though not making for the best photo weather. Nevertheless, enjoy.

Reference map for image locations.

BP Bridge (Frank Gehry):

1 - View from across Columbus Avenue, looking west
2 - View from across Columbus, with Sears Tower in the background
3 - Detail of landscape between snaking portions

Pritzker Pavilion Trellis (Gehry):

1 - View from the BP Bridge, looking west
2 - View looking southwest from stage left
3 - View looking southwest from under trellis

Pritzker Pavilion Bandshell (Gehry):

1 - View looking north before Orchestra performance
2 - Close-up view before performance
3 - View looking north during performance
4 - Detail of bandshell structure

"Cloud Gate" (Anish Kapoor):

1 - Overall view from the northeast
2 - View on axis from the south
3 - View of the underbelly

Crown Fountain (Jaume Plensa):

1 - View from the north as fountain commences
2 - Close-up view of spitting fountain
3 - Close-up of LED display

Lurie Garden:

1 - View from the south on main path
2 - Detail of travertine wall and landscaping
3 - Detail of steel plate water overflow

Today Is The Day

No I'm not referring to the Yo La Tengo song. Today is the opening of Millennium Park in Chicago. On this splendid occasion, I thought I would compile a list of links, resources if you will, for further information, images, etc.:

The official Millennium Park web site, with an interactive map and other goodies.



The Public Building Commission of Chicago's page with a map and links to construction photos.



Another City of Chicago page on Millennium Park, with information on the different attractions, as well as practical advice, like how to get to the park via public transportation.



NewCity Chicago's Best and Worst of Millennium Park.



MillenniumPark.net, lots of images at this page.



The Heritage at Millennium Park's live webcam of the Park, requires Java.



Millennium Park Imagexlposion at Archinect.



Panoramic before photos of the Park site, by Thomas Yanul.



The Chicago Sun-Times special section on Millennium Park, with many, many articles on the Park.



Chicago Public Radio's page devoted to the Park, with audio clips on different Park elements and information about upcoming opening weekend events.



Google News for the latest news on Millennium Park Chicago.

I'll add links as I find them, but this list should suffice for now. Enjoy.



Update 07.18:

Blair Kamin's criticism of the Park (registration req'd).



A slide show at the New York Times (registration req'd).

High Line Update

A while ago, this page featured a post on the High Line, the unused, elevated railroad tracks in the Chelsea/Meatpacking area of Manhattan. After an open design competition and money and the general OK from the city, Friends of the High Line picked four finalists (Field Operations w/Diller + Scofidio + Renfro, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl, TerraGRAM) after an RFQ for the eventual redesign of the Line as a park. Domus online (registration req'd) features images of the four finalists, which are currently on exhibit at the AIA New York's Center for Architecture to inform the late summer final decision.


TerraGRAM entry

I'm excited that things are moving ahead for the High Line's reuse, though I'm also disappointed that a 720-strong design competition yielded a shortlist with the usual names. Surely, the competition achieved its primary result, to raise interest in the creative possibilities for reuse and drum up support and money for the cause. But the process gave way to an RFQ that shortlisted only familiar names, not the wide variety found in the open competition. It seems that at least one of the four winners from the competition should have been automatically shortlisted to liven things up and give somebody outside the usual bunch a shot.

Update 07.19: Archinect features extensive galleries for the four finalists:

Field Operations w/Diller+Scofidio+Renfro
Zaha Hadid
Steven Holl
TerraGRAM

2 Days and Counting

This Friday starts the Opening Weekend Events for Millennium Park's Grand Opening. Even though all parts of the park won't be complete, the line-up of events is impressive. Here's some highlights (full schedule here):

Fri, 10pm - Redmoon Theater illuminates the park with a dramatic installation of lanterns, fire and film.

Sat, 3:30pm - Over 40 musical performances over four hours at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and throughout the park.

Sat, 10:45pm - Ira Glass of "This American Life" with the visuals of Chris Ware.

Sun, 10am - "Wait, Wait ... Don’t Tell Me", Test your news savvy during a live taping of NPR and Chicago Public Radio’s oddly informative news quiz.

Update: This image gallery at Archinect has a good selection of Millennium Park images to get your juices going.

Uptown Rebirth

The Slatin Report features a piece on a recent development in the Uptown area of Chicago. Called Uptown Square, the development is about a block south of Lawrence and Broadway, the nexus of Uptown, with the Riviera, Aragon, and Uptown Theaters located around the intersection, as well as the well-known jazz club Green Mill.



As the image above illustrates, Borders is the main retail tenant of the development - renovated by architects Hartshorne + Plunkard - which also features market-rate condos and affordable units. The article is a good lesson in the real estate/developer decisions driving the economic regeneration of parts of the city, as well as the political steps along the way. With Uptown's illustrious history between the wars, it was only a matter of time before its built environment found new life, evidence of the cyclical nature of city neighborhoods.

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

The Holy Rosary Church Complex in Louisiana by Trahan Architects.

Book update: Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, edited by Jack Flam.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

THE ARCHITECTURE CRITIC: A Survey of Newspaper Architecture Critics in America, PDF version of a 2001 report by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. Look for comments regarding this report on this page later in the week.



Tomorrow begins the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival, held in Grant Park at sundown. Ebert & Roeper will be on hand at 8:15 before "His Girl Friday" for a little Q&A.



Sites of Reversible Destiny, an "experience park" at Yoro Park in Gifu, Japan by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.

McMakeover

The northeast corner of Chicago and State Streets, about a quarter mile west of the Magnificent Mile and the Water Tower, has been home to a McDonald's for quite a while. The location has also existed as an overlap between the affluence and consumerism to the east and the grittier area to the west, with YMCA residents and other "undesirables", to use Jane Jacobs's term, frequenting the McDonald's and other nearby establishments. The recently-opened makeover of the McDonald's, in tune with the adjacent subway renovation with its neo-traditional canopies, threatens to destroy this unique clashing of class and race, or does it?



The above view is the approach from the east on Chicago Avenue. Two drive-thru lanes are off camera to the right. An entry is under the second of four golden arches from the right, under a canopy highlighted with more golden arches. Beyond the overly-large, cantilevered sign is a fenced-in, corner park, visible below.



The building is an "L"-shape plan, cradling the park with outdoor seating adjacent to another entry and planters with built-in seating beyond, to the left of the picture. The exterior masonry is a mixture of two color of brick and split-face block. Storefront windows wrap three sides of the one-story building, towards the street, drive-thru and park.

Inside, a diagonal axis is set up from the corner entry to the order counter near the skinny portion of the "L", in the solid portion next to the outdoor space. Materials have been elevated from the norm, with stone tiles on the floor, patterned wall coverings, velvety curtains, "iron" railings, and so forth. All the while a feeling of faux-ness pervades the interior. Is that real stone on the floor? Why don't the curtains pull down? Why are exterior railings inside and why do they have fake straps? Why is there a sofa and a coffee table in a raised portion? Is this McDonald's-cum-Central Perk?

Edward Lifson, of Chicago Public Radio, rightly praises (Real Audio link) the design for its improved exterior design, the nicely landscaped park with seating, and the sophisticated interior design. I agree that the design is a huge improvement over its predecessor - even if the budget only creates the impression of a nicer interior - but I'm also concerned with its impact on the neighborhood, if any at all.

I've always liked walking to the Red Line subway stop at Chicago and State, sometimes extending my walk during nice weather, rather than walking the shorter route to the Grand stop four blocks south after work. As I mentioned it's still a relatively gritty part of town, only blocks away from American Girl Place, Ralph Lauren, the Park Tower, basically the $$$ of Michigan Avenue. So to walk from that area to the panhandlers outside Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's next door I feel like the city is still an accepting place, able to sustain the commerce and tourism of Michigan Avenue and the people who can't afford to buy anything beyond McDonald's menu. As neighborhoods even farther from downtown are displacing residents through gentrification, I'm glad this area has not been homogenized by those same forces, even though this area is that much closer to the downtown and the majority of the city's money.

But will this facelift change that? I hope not, and the continuing gritty characteristic of the street corner indciates that may be the case.

Update 07.12: Here's an image of the McDonald's design that will replace the popular Rock N' Roll McDonald's (which closes next Monday) in River North (image from Chicagoist ,and thanks to Karen for the Crain's link).



Update 08.06: McDonald's Press Release from July 12, with animated flyby (thanks to Brian T. for the link).

Cloud Gate Unveiled

A couple images of Cloud Gate, by artist Anish Kapoor, were sent around the office where I work. The sculpture is part of a raised garden east of the skating rink in Chicago's Millennium Park. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the sculpture will be concealed again (after months being constructed under a vaulted tent) around the end of the month with its final unveiling in September. Yet the "official" opening of the Park is July 16. The park won't be completely done until some time in 2005.


Looking at the sculpture from the southwest.


Looking at the sculpture from the north.

I don't know who took these pictures, so if you did let me know and I'll give you credit.

Design by Committee

An interesting quote I read while riding the train into work today:

What kind of building is this which is so strategically located, so very tall, so elegantly built, and which not only overwhelms its own micro-environment but which alters the profile of the city itself?...It is unmistakably a Chicago building, more easily attributable to the place than to its particular author...It is not so much the building's great height which is troubling. Rather, it is the image of teams of process-oriented silent technicians, calculating the most profitable use of land, materials, strategies of investment, producing an architecture - received Miesian aesthetic aside - which lacks vision and refuses to comment on the general problems of our time

Although written in 1970 Alvin Boyarsky for AD, it sounds equally valid today, especially in the much-loathed high rises of River North. Certainly today the scope of his statement could even extend beyond Chicago.

Huh?

According to Architectural Record's July 2004 print magazine,

Daniel Libeskind has been named the United States Cultural Ambassador for Architecture by the U.S. State Department.

What's that, now? He's been named what? By who? Or is it whom?



Searching around the internet, I wasn't able to find anything to corroborate this statement. Nothing at Google news. Nothing at Archinect. Nothing at the US Department of State.



Now I don't necessarily doubt Record, I'm just wondering why something like this isn't news elsewhere. I figure that Record's deadline for the print issues creates a lag behind news that would be reported online, so basically this story has been news to them since about a month ago, I would guess. So why can't I find any information beyond that one sentence?

What Next?!

Click on the image below for a 12-panel art piece by R. Crumb, titled "A Short History of America", available in both animated and non-animated versions.

Ship It!

The Architect's Newspaper features an article on the popularity of shipping containers, from disaster-relief housing to a media school. Costing around $1,500 to $2,000, they are economical, structural, mobile, and increasingly more aesthetic ways to design.

(via Archinect)


Anybody know who designed this?

Update: For a good source on shipping containers used for architectural purposes, check out the Shipping Container Architecture Information Database.

Patron of the Year

Recently the Chicago Architecture Foundation announced that it would be adding another architecture prize to the mix, but instead of awarding architects, as is the norm, their Patron of the Year Award will focus, naturally, on the client. Intended to boost the quality of buildings in Chicago by getting the attention of developers and other clients, winners will be chosen in three categories: Commercial, Governmental, and Institutional building types.



The award reminds me of the RIBA Client of the Year award, of which the British organization describes, "Unless the people who commission buildings have vision and faith, there can be no good architecture."



Nominations (pdf link) can be submitted by anybody and are due July 31.

Monday, Monday

This week's update:

Elbberg Campus in Hamburg Germany by local architect Bothe Richter Teherani.

Updated book feature: GSW Headquarters Berlin by Sauerbruch Hutton Architects, Lars Muller Publishers.



Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

New York Times coverage of the cornerstone ceremony at Ground Zero (registration req'd).



NPR's coverage of Sunday's ceremony.



The Latest Revisions at Ground Zero by spa.uk.

Best of the Best

AIA Chicago published the results to its "Best of the Best", as voted by AIA Chicago member architects. Multiple-choice categories, like "best new building in Chicago in the last 10 years" and "the most significant building outside the central city", attempt to gauge what local architects think of the Windy City.



Without covering each category, I just wanted to talk about a couple in detail. All results can found at the link above.



What is the best indoor public space?

The Rookery (42%)

Chicago Cultural Center (18%)

Garfield Park Conservatory (16%)

The Rookery, an 1888 Burnham and Root-designed, 12-story office building in Chicago's Loop, has a skylit lobby space renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1905. The intimate two-story space features a grand stair with a mezzanine, FLLW flourishes like his oft-used planters, and overall an ornately-detailed interior that is high on architectural merit. Compared to the Cultural Center and the Garfield Park Conservatory, it definitely is the better architectural space.



But is it the best "public space"? I think not. I think the Cultural Center is the best public space of the three, not because of its architecture but because of its functions and activity. The Rookery's space is surrounded by shops that are fronted to the street, not the lobby, and it is separated from the main entrance by elevators, so many people using the building don't use the space; basically it's underused. The Conservatory is also a beautiful space, fulfilling its function but also exhibiting art and things as diverse as dinosaur fossils, juxtaposed with the vegetation inside; it has creative programming but not like the Cultural Center. At the Cultural Center one can listen to musical performances, watch a movie, attend a lecture, browse art and other galleries, grab a cup of the coffee at the cafe, even visit a broadcasting museum, all for FREE (except for the coffee). It is these diverse uses, bustling activity, and almost unrestricted access that make it the best "public space". Granted the question is probably concerned with the architectural container, but it's naive to separate the function from its architectural design.



What is the best preservation or re-use of an existing building in Chicago in the last 10 years?

Hotel Burnham/Reliance Building (48%)

Bloomingdale’s Home Store/Medinah Temple (17%)

Soldier Field (16%)

What is the hottest new project in the works?

Millennium Park (52%)

Trump International Hotel & Tower (13%)

Tree Studios Renovation (7%)

In my opinion, Tree Studios received only 7% of the vote, because it's in the wrong category! It should be listed under preservation re-use, not as a "hot project".



Most of Tree Studios is still under construction, though one tenant has moved in, Design Within Reach. Located in the southeastern-most portion of the Studios, DWR snakes through about 12 rooms on multiple levels that makes it the best presentation of its furniture it could ask for and a creative reuse of the building that splendidly showcases the original interior architecture.



Tree Studios was built in 1894 by a husband and wife who wanted to keep artists in Chicago after working at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. So they built in their backyard what is now the oldest artists' studios still in use in the United States. The understated, brick exterior now stands out amongst the bland residential high-rises that have sprouted in the River North area in recent years. DWR occupies two floors but is spread across multiple levels on each floor, the movement through akin to a maze or labyrinth. It's a voyage of discover with the modern furniture upstage by the complexity of layout, with windows and other openings creating views across different height spaces. It's something to experience. Furthermore the small rooms are a perfect display for the furniture, since they approximate the size of rooms in most houses, much much more than open-plan retail could ever accomplish. In terms of retail re-use, its size doesn't match the Bloomingdales in Medinah Temple next door, but its sensitivity to the original and creativity of use is far superior.

Siyathemba

Today is the start of registration for Architecture for Humanity's International Open Design Competition, Siyathemba, for a soccer/football facility in Somkhele, South Africa, an area with one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world.



The jury will choose three finalists and twelve honorable mentions, though the winning scheme (to be built in 2005) will be chosen by the Somkhele Girls Football Team. The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2004.