Early one morning I stood on what might be the last undeveloped piece of land in the Loop’s radius. The site of the forthcoming DuSable Park is, currently, a soil mound bursting with prairie life located where the Chicago River punctures Lake Michigan’s mouth. This, says architect Ryan Gann, who is working with Ross Barney […]
Category: Architecture
Biennial as experimentation
In 2017, a barge drifted along the Chicago River. It wasn’t carrying the usual Ozinga concrete or gravel; instead it floated a museum. Produced by the Floating Museum, an interdisciplinary collective comprised of architect Andrew Schachman, artists Faheem Majeed and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, and poet avery r. young, the museum barge showcased artwork from dozens of […]
On winter and the built environment
Winter is inevitable, but it still feels like an unwelcome surprise each year. To architecture journalist Anjulie Rao, it’s a season of reevaluation, reflection, and transformation. Fascinated by what winter represents, Rao has started a small publication on the topic—a “grand experiment” whose biweekly publishing schedule will follow the length of the season, December 21, […]
Building 63rd House
On August 5, 1966, near Marquette Park, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was attacked while leading a protest to demand housing desegregation. Several blocks away from this spot stands 3055 W. 63rd, a formerly abandoned post office that turned 100 years old in 2020. This is the location where Blue Tin Production (a […]
A more local Chicago Architecture Biennial
The Chicago Architecture Biennial focuses on a “deeper engagement with the local community” in “The Available City.”
“City on Fire: Chicago 1871”
From its humble beginnings as a settlement founded by the Haitian Afro-Frenchman Jean Baptiste Point du Sable in the late 18th century, Chicago experienced explosive growth in the 19th century to become a hub of American economic and industrial innovation and progress. As wars and the forcible removal of the region’s indigenous population opened up […]
Open House Chicago
Open House Chicago (OHC), produced by the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC), is back this October, with a multitude of ways to discover the city’s greatest treasures. Enjoy behind-the-scenes access to architecturally, historically, and culturally significant sites in over 30 neighborhoods during this free festival on October 16-17. Explore sites across Chicago, in a diverse array […]
Romanticism to ruin: The Garrick Theatre
The Wrightwood 659 exhibition “Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright” explores two long-demolished architectural masterpieces: Louis Sullivan’s Garrick Theatre, which opened in Chicago in 1892, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building, which opened in Buffalo in 1904. The exhibition opens on September 24. The destruction of the Garrick Theatre (originally […]
Romanticism to ruin: The Larkin Administration Building
The Wrightwood 659 exhibition “Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright” explores two long-demolished architectural masterpieces, Louis Sullivan’s Garrick Theatre, which opened in Chicago in 1892, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building, which opened in Buffalo in 1904. The exhibition is open through December 18, 2021. Designed for the Larkin Soap […]
The midwest, tweet by tweet
When Josh Lipnik answers the phone for our interview, he’s pulled over on a drive to Cleveland, on his way to take photos for his popular Midwest Modern Twitter account (62,500 followers and counting). Think of Midwest Modern like a photographic road trip through the region. Lipnik hunts out the hidden gems beyond the city […]
Studying the cityscape
This fall brings the return of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, an exposition of activities, tours, and exhibitions all over the city that highlight the power of architecture and the ways in which Chicagoans inhabit the spaces of the city. Although looking at skyscrapers and touring old houses are always edifying and fun ways to check […]
With the Thompson Center on the block, CAC celebrates its late creator
“Helmut Jahn: Life + Architecture” at CAC offers big pictures and tiny buildings.
Helmut Jahn is gone, and the Thompson Center is for sale
Can we save his most important Chicago building?
Is this library politics?
A new building filled with social service and education amenities at Altgeld Gardens is a test case for the limits of design and architecture.
Our favorite things for fall arts, part two
Visual arts and architecture highlights break us out of our screen life.