AN EMPIRE ON PARADE
The Chicago Art Deco Society Presents
Art and Architecture of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition
1:00 p.m.
Roosevelt University Angell Reading Room, 10th Floor
430 S Michigan Ave.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Fair Park in Dallas, Texas is one of the finest collections of Art Deco architecture in the country, but it is so
much more: the embodiment of Texan swagger, it is a testament to the Texanic task of creating a dazzling
spectacle in the darkest days of the Depression. Fair Park Deco focuses specifically on the Art Deco art
and architecture of Fair Park. In their illustrated lecture, authors and photographers Jim Parsons and David Bushwill take the audience through Fair Park as a visitor might have experienced it in 1936, telling the stories behindthe iconic design that keeps the “Magic City” a magical destination today.
Jim Parsons, a native Texan, puts a passion for the Lone Star State’s history and architecture to work as
director of special projects and walking tours chairman for Preservation Houston.
David Bush holds a master’s degree in historic preservation and has worked professionally in
preservation since 1990. He has spent most of his career with two organizations: Galveston Historical
Foundation and Preservation Houston.
Parsons and Bush have written and photographed three books on modernistic architecture in Texas: Houston
Deco, Hill Country Deco and Fair Park Deco.
9/15/15
9/1/15
Stuart Cohen on Howard Van Doren Shaw
When: Monday, Sept. 28, 2015, talk at 5:30 pm
Where: AIA Chicago, 35 E. Wacker Dr., 2nd floor
What: A new book by architect Stuart Cohen, FAIA, Inventing the American House: Howard Van Doren Shaw, architect, and a book-signing lecture by Mr. Cohen hosted by AIA Chicago.
Shaw was one of the best-known architects of his generation. His work frequently appeared in “Town & Country”, “The House Beautiful”, and “The Architectural Record.” Architectural critic Herbert Croly, editor of “The Architectural Record”, wrote in 1913, “In the first place Mr. Shaw is extraordinarily popular…These houses are charming and inviting to a degree rarely exceeded in American domestic architecture-a fact which justifies Mr. Shaw’s success as well as accounts for it.
In 1926, the year of his untimely death, Shaw was awarded the Gold Medal of the AIA. He was only the fourth American architect to be recognized in this way. Shaw’s masterpiece, Market Square in Lake Forest, (1916) is on the National Register of Historic Places and was lauded for its design as both a unique town green and the first American shopping center designed for automobiles.
In spite of his reputation, Shaw was dismissed by 20th century historians as one of a group of eclectic architects, and today his work is little known outside the Chicago area. Cohen’s lecture will reconsider Shaw’s work in the context of 20th century ideas of modernity.
Cost: $5.00 to members, $10.00 for guests.
RSVP: Please contact Judy Freeman: by email: jrfree3500@aol.com, or telephone: 773-929-0329
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