9/14/14

FALL 2014 EVENTS: LAKE FOREST ELEGANCE, MODERN HOUSES, EVANSTON WALK, RUIN PORN





PARTNER ORGANIZATION
Lake Forest Preservation Foundation Presents
Enclave of Elegance:  Architecture, Interior Design and Gardens at Their Best
4 Historic Homes, 5 Gardens and Reception
Saturday, September 27, 1:00 to 3:30 PM Tour, 3:30 to 4:30 PM Reception
Tickets in Advance - General $95 - Patron $150, Day of Event purchase - $120
Organized with the assistance of SAH Member and Lake Forest historian Art Miller, this tour offers rare access to a range of sites from 1920s chic to the latest in traditional architectural and design high style.  The benefit House and Garden Walk funds preservation projects.  With four neighboring houses and five gardens, the last for a reception, the event promises to combine the kind of history, classic and current high style, and great stories locals travel abroad or to the east or west coasts to experience.  To attend this stellar walk please visit the Foundation website, www.lfpf.org and or call the office at 847-234-1230. 
Advance tickets must be purchased by September 24. Tickets are limited.

SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS CHICAGO CHAPTER: FALL SCHEDULE

Susan Benjamin Lecture: “Strikingly Modern” Houses of the 1930s-1960s
When: Monday, Sept. 29, 2014; 5:00 p.m. reception, lecture at 5:45 p.m.,
Where: AIA Chicago, 35 E. Wacker Dr., 2nd
What: Author Susan Benjamin’s upcoming slide lecture, “Strikingly Modern”, given in memory of the late Thomas Earle (a longtime member of CCSAH), defines Chicago’s great residential architecture of the 1930s through1960s. The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe was great on subsequent practitioners of Modern residential architecture, those who designed many of the best houses in the Chicago area: i.e. Harry Weese, Edward Dart, James Speyer, Bertrand Goldberg, Edward Humrich, Bruce Graham, and David Haid, among others. Arguably every mid- century architect in Chicago reverberated off of them--Wright and Mies were the “elephants in the room”. Their ideas and work were accepted or rejected, but never ignored. Learn also about the challenges of preserving a Modernist icon owned by the Village of Schaumburg--the 1938 Paul Schweikher Home and Studio.  Susan will also explain how certain tax incentives and landmark designations, both local and national, can help save modernist houses, citing Dart and Weese houses.
Cost: Free to members, $10.00 for non-members.
RSVP: For questions, and to sign up, please contact Judy Freeman: by email: jrfree3500@aol.com, or telephone:  773-929-0329

Evanston Lakefront Houses Walking Tour
When: Saturday, October 11, 2014, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Where: Meet at the Charles Gates Dawes mansion, now the Evanston History Center, at 225 Greenwood Street, Evanston, IL 60201 (nine minutes east of the Dempster stop on the Purple Line toward Linden) at 12:45 p.m. for a 1:00 tour of the museum and more.
What: Tour of the Dawes house by historian Kris Hartzell, followed by a walking tour of lakefront architecture in the vicinity of the museum, including the Japanese Consular Residence, the Arthur Orr house of 1888 by J. L. Silsbee (F. L. Wright’s first employer), with its gambrel roof. Shingle Style clapboard, stone bases and round porches, and also the eclectic 1892 C. F. Bradley house by architects Bosworth & Chase, among several other notable houses. This tour is given in honor of the new book, Evanston: 150 Years, 150 Places, Design Evanston 2013, by authors Kris Hartzell, Stuart Cohen, Heidrun Hoppe, Laura Saviano and Jack Weiss. This tour is limited to about thirty persons, so please reserve early.
Cost: Museum tour and walking tour admission fee is $15.00 for CCSA members, $20.00 for non-members.
RSVP: For further details, and/or to reserve a spot, please contact Judy Freeman by email:  jrfree3500@aol.com or by telephone: 773-929-0329.

Eric Holubow, Urban Archaeologist and Photographer
When: Monday, October 27, 2014, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Where: American Institute of Architects Chicago Chapter office, 35 E. Wacker Drive, Suite 250
What: Urban archaeologist and architectural photographer Eric Holubow will speak on his new book: Abandoned: America’s Vanishing Landscape (Schiffer Publishing, $50.00), as well as his oeuvre of photography.  Eric’s photos speak: “For a relatively young country, America is rich in decaying ruins that cover its landscape.” Through his striking photography, Eric Holubow provides a glimpse inside these perilous structures to reveal the slow but unforgiving wear and tear that has befallen many of the country’s forgotten sites. What transpires is a surprising, yet undeniable beauty beneath the rubble and decrepitude.  Eric Holubow's compelling work forces us to pay attention to formerly grand, significant landmarks and institutions that have long been ignored, and reminds us of the tragic fate that they and everything we know eventually share.”
Cost: $10.00 for members, $15.00 for non-members
RSVP: Judy Freeman, email:  jrfree3500@aol.com

Annual Holiday “Show and Tell” Slide Show Dinner at Cliff Dwellers
When: Wednesday, Dec. 3. 2014, from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Cliff Dwellers, 200 S. Michigan, 22nd floor
What: Please save the date for our very own annual party of historical architecture slide shows.  Current SAH members who have ideas for presentations should contact Bill Locke, wlocke@ameritech.net or 312-932-9790.


8/22/14

CHARNLEY PERSKY HOUSE DAMAGED BY STORM / FLOODING

CHARNLEY PERSKY HOUSE DAMAGED BY STORM / FLOODING: HELP NEEDED

Charnley-Persky House experienced serious flooding on Tuesday afternoon. Water poured in through the sink and toilet of the second-floor powder room, on the north side of the house. The water flooded the room and traveled down through the ceiling and walls to the living room library on the first floor and continued on to the basement.

 

SAH staff tried to mitigate the flooding.  Once the flow of water stopped, staff members vacuumed up water from a storage room in the north side of the basement and the flooded powder room. Water had rushed down along the eastern wall of the library, onto Sullivan’s ornately carved fireplace surround and enclosed bookcases. The original white oak woodwork and wood floors were dried with rags and towels, but a portion of the ceiling, saturated with water, collapsed from the weight.

Plumbing professionals are on-site and found a blockage in a drainage pipe, which was likely the source of the backflow. SAH is assessing the damage and working with professionals to make repairs. Restoration architect John Eifler is advising SAH as it works to restore the damaged ceiling and walls of the house.  Professionals will help dry out the walls and ceiling before plaster and painting restoration can be undertaken.

HELP NEEDED
Cynthnia and Ben Weese have given SAH a $10,000 Challenge Grant for repairs and restoration of CPH. So, every dollar donated up to $10,000 will be matched from the grant.

PLEASE CONSIDER DOWNLOADING THE ATTACHED FORM AND MAKING A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION TO THE RESTORATION.


SAH Chicago Chapter will provide periodic updates, including an estimate for restoration as the information is available.

3/7/14

3 GREAT PROGRAMS FOR SPRING: JENNEY PREMIER & DECO AT ALLIANCE FRANCAISE, TOPS OF BUILDINGS



FILM PREMIER:
WILLIAM LEBARON JENNEY: IN HIS OWN WORDS
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
6:30 p.m.
Alliance Francaise - 54 West Chicago Avenue
Free Admission - RESERVATIONS REQUIRED

Trained in Paris as an engineer, William Le Baron Jenney (1832 - 1907) was known as the father of the steel skyscraper. He designed Chicago West Parks and Boulevards in the 1870's and is best known for having designed the Home Insurance Building in 1884 - 1885.  Watch the documentary "in his own voice", preceded by a talk with Robert Bruegmann, architectural historian recently retired from the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Please note: Mr. Bruegmann's introduction will be in English. The documentary is in French, but a French/English transcript will be available in hard copy. You can also download the English transcript now, or on your smart phone during the program. Merci!

Download the transcript in English (Word document)

This program is made possible thanks to L'Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures.  Special thanks to John Notz for special support.

For reservation information call: (312) 337-1070


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Building Tops Tour Number Four
When: Afternoon of Wednesday, May 14th, 2014, from 2:20 p.m. to about 5:30 p.m.


Where: Santa Fe Building, 224 S. Michigan Avenue--please meet in lobby prior to 2:30 p.m. start time.


What: The tour starts at our first stop, the gorgeous sky-lit offices of Goettsch Partners Architects, on the 17th and topmost floor of Daniel Burnham’s Santa Fe Building at 224 S. Michigan Avenue. Then, on to a 4:00 p.m. visit to the new Wabash Tower (photo above), added to Roosevelt University in 2012 by Chicago architects Vickrey, Ovresat and Awsumb; this tour by arrangement with firm leader architect Vic Vickrey, and led by Leslie Slavitt of Roosevelt. We’ll see the lobby and bookstore, a higher floor dormitory room in the new tower, faculty offices, dining facilities, science and business classrooms and other educational spaces. Please do come join us for two very impressive architectural tours on high (thanks to our organizers).


Tour Capacity: Past Building Tops tours have been very popular, and they tend to sell out quickly.


Cost: $10.00 (Please reserve a space by phone or email.) This tour is limited to thirty persons.


RSVP: For further details, please contact Judy Freeman: jrfree3500@aol.com /Tel: 773-929-0329.

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CHICAGO ART DECO SOCIETY, ALLIANCE FRANCAISE CHICAGO and CHICAGO CHAPTER SAH PRESENT: An Art Deco Symposium with Pascal Laurent and Keith Bringe        
  • Dates: 23 May, 2014
  • Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • Address: The Alliance Française de Chicago
  • Contact: Judy Freeman
  • Email: jrfree3500@aol.com
Friday, May 23, 2014, from 6:00pm-9:00pm at The Alliance Française de Chicago

Please join us for a lecture by architect Pascal Laurent of Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais (ENSAPM). He will present a slide lecture on the 1931 Exposition Coloniale Internationale, erected in the Bois de Vincennes, Paris, and its impact on architecture, industrial design and ocean liner interiors.


Keith Bringe will present a brief overview on the Houses of Tomorrow featured at the Century of Progress 1933-1934 Chicago's World Fair.

Reception to follow in the Salon.

Cosponsored by the the Alliance Française, CADS and CCSAH.

Cost: $15.00 to members, and $20.00 to non-members of CCSAH, CADS, and/or AFC.

RSVP: Judy Freeman: jrfree3500@aol.com