12/15/18

Art Deco; Spatial Urbanism


Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America, with author Robert Bruegmann
When: Thursday, January 17, 2019; reception at 4:30 pm, lecture at 6:00 pm, with optional dinner afterwards.
Where: Cliff Dwellers, 200 S Michigan Avenue, Chicago. For dinner reservations @ $35.00 per person, please call Cliff Dwellers at (312) 922-8080. (For validated parking after 4:00 p.m., $14.00 at the Adams-Wabash garage, SW corner, get parking card from night manager at the Cliff Dwellers).
What: Robert Bruegmann presents Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America (2018) in a talk entitled “The Art Deco Visual Universe”. “Art Deco as a style term was invented in the 1960s. It represented a genuine popular revolt against the accepted wisdom of the Museum of Modern Art and the advocates of avant garde modernism. Despite almost continuous opposition from academics, it has increasingly become a standard art historical term for architecture, graphic design, product and industrial design between the two world wars. In Art Deco Chicago we defined it as much of the modern design production between 1910 and 1960 that was neither strict historical revival on the one hand or avant garde on the other. Seen in this light Art Deco architecture and design, from Deco pioneers like Frank Lloyd Wright or Ludwig Hoffmann to the stripped-down traditional buildings of the postwar decades like the Ferguson Wing of the Art Institute or automobiles from Detroit, can be seen as the mainstream of modern design, a real international style, and the last genuinely popular design paradigm.” Mr. Bruegmann is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Art History, Architecture, and Urban Planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also the author of the The Architects and the City: Holabird and Roche of Chicago, 1880- 1918, and, most recently, The Architecture of Harry Weese. Please join us for this event, good for AIA/CEU credit. AIA Chicago is co-sponsoring this event with CCSAH.
Cost: Free to members, $10.00 for non-members.
RSVP: To sign up, contact Judy Freeman: by email: jrfree3500@aol.com, or by telephone: 773-929-0329.

John Ronan FAIA to speak at Cliff Dwellers on “Out of the Ordinary: Spatial Urbanism”
When: Wednesday, February, 2019, reception (cash bar) opens at 4:30 pm, lecture begins at 6:00 p.m. (Dinner details as at left in the Robert Bruegmann lecture notice).
Where: Cliff Dwellers, 200 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago.
What: “Out of the Ordinary: Spatial Urbanism”. In this presentation, John Ronan FAIA, Founding Principal of John Ronan Architects, will discuss the firm's investigations of the relationship between the building and the city, and the exploration of urban spatial conditions that exist between inside and outside, public and private, building and street that expand and enrich the public realm, adding complexity to the urban spatial experience. These "urban room" projects such as the Poetry Foundation, 151 North Franklin office tower, Obama Presidential Center competition design and new IIT Innovation Center in Chicago pose the question, "Where does the building end and the city begin?" John Ronan FAIA, of John Ronan Architects in Chicago, founded in 1999, serves as Lead Designer on all projects and is known for his abstract yet sensuous work which explores materiality and atmosphere. Some of his notable buildings in Chicago include the Poetry Foundation (shown above left), the Akiba-Schecter Jewish Day School, the Gary Comer College Prep and Youth Center, Christ the King Jesuit Preparatory School, the new 151 North Franklin office tower, and the upcoming Kaplan Innovation Center at IIT. Additionally, he is the Rowe Professor of Architecture at IIT, and has also been a visiting professor of architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. A monograph of his body of work entitled Explorations: the Work of John Ronan was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. Please join us for this exciting event! Reserve early to save a seat.
Cost: Free to members, $10.00 for non-members.
RSVP: For further details, and/or to reserve a spot, please contact Judy Freeman by email: email: jrfree3500@aol.com, or by telephone: 773-929-0329.