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.

9/30/18

October 2018 and more

Exhibition of Architectural Models at Cliff Dwellers
When: Wednesday, October 3, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. onward.
Where: Cliff Dwellers, 200 s. Michigan Ave., 22nd Floor, Chicago
What: An opening event for an exhibition of architectural
models, plus an exhibit of drawings by Chicago artist Jack
Simmerling, entitled “Preserving Chicago’s Architectural Legacy”.
The architectural models on display include projects by bKL
Architecture, Smith + Gill Architects, Helmut Jahn, SOM,
CannonDesign, Gensler, Studio Gang Architects, and other
Chicago architecture firms. Optional dinner follows at 6:00 p.m.
Reservations: (312) 922-8080, with parking details as above.
Doug Farr on his Firm’s Recent Work
When: Thursday, November 8, 2018, cash bar at 5:00 pm, lecture
presentation at 6:15 pm., with option of dinner (reserve a space
by calling them at 312-922-9080. Parking after 4 p.m. at Wabash-
Adams garage, $14, get pass from Cliff Dwellers night manager).
Where: Cliff Dwellers, 200 S. Michigan Avenue, 22nd Floor.
What: An illustrated lecture by architect Doug Farr of Farr
Associates Architecture & Urban Design, with offices in the
Monadnock Building in Chicago. Talk title to be announced.

Illustrated Lecture by WTTW Producer Dan Andries: “A Mid-Career Perspective” at Cliff Dwellers, Chicago
When: Thursday, October 11, 2018. Cash bar at 5:00 p.m.; program at 6:15 p.m.; optional dinner at 7:15 p.m.
Where: Cliff Dwellers, 200 South Michigan Avenue, 22nd floor, Chicago, IL. For dinner reservations, call Cliff Dwellers at 312-922-8080. Parking $14.00 after 4:00 p.m. at the Adams-Wabash Garage, 17 E. Adams; pass from Cliff Dwellers night manager.
What: A talk by Dan Andries, Executive Producer at WTTW, entitled “A Mid-Career Perspective”. Dan Andries will talk about his career in producing his very popular televised tours and travelogues. The formidable career of longtime WTTW Chicago director, producer, and writer Dan Andries includes over one hundred feature segments and full-length documentaries. Dan’s award-winning works on Chicago history, arts and culture are exquisitely constructed and researched classics that have endured the test of time. In addition to overviews on the built environment such as “Chicago by Boat: the New River Tour” with Geoffrey Baer, Andries has travelled the world documenting the winners of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Architecture. Most recently, Dan wrote, produced and directed the “Making a New American Nutcracker”, a televised presentation shown in 2017 on WTTW (photo below). In a highly visual presentation, Andries will provide a career overview, from his early work through current and upcoming projects. Join us for this fascinating glimpse into the work behind the scenes in the world of WTTW and Dan Andries.
RSVP: Reservations are required for the free talk. To sign up, contact Judy Freeman by email: at: jrfree3500@aol.com, or by telephone at: 773-929-0329. Reservations will be taken on a first come, first served basis, so please reserve early.

Art Deco Chicago Launch at Newberry Library
When: Tuesday, October 16, 2018, at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Newberry Library, 60 W Walton Street
What: Chicago Art Deco Society’s new book, Art Deco
Chicago: Designing Modern America, edited by Robert
Bruegmann, with Jonathan Mekinda, Teri J. Edelstein, Lisa
D. Schrenk and Neil Harris (Yale, 2018). A reception
celebrates this book, the companion publication to the new
exhibition, “Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlines
America”, at the Chicago History Museum, which runs
from October 27, 2018 until December 2, 2019. For further
details, see the CADS website, www.chicagodeco.org/book.


Art Design Chicago for Fall/Winter 2018
Art Design Chicago is a yearlong celebration of Chicago’s art
and design legacy. Five years in planning, it is a $7.9 million
series of two dozen exhibitions, public shows, academic
programs and publications. Part of an effort to showcase
minority artists’ contributions, the first show was “Arte
Diseno Xicago: Mexican Inspiration from the World’s
Columbian Exposition to the Civil Rights Era” at the National
Museum of Mexican Art (closed, August 19). Upcoming
exhibitions include “Designers in Film: Avant-Garde and
Commercial Cinema in Mid-Century Chicago” at the Mary &
Leigh Block Museum of Art (Sept.- Dec. 2018); “Keep
Moving: Chicago’s Bicycle Culture” at the Chicago Design
Museum at Expo 72, 72 E. Randolph Street (Oct. 27, 2018-
Mar. 3, 2019); “African American Designers in Chicago: Art,
Commerce and the Politics of Race” at the Chicago Cultural
Center, 78 E. Washington Street; “Yasuhiro Ishimoto:
Someday, Chicago” at the DePaul Art Museum (Sept. 6-Dec.
16, 2018), 935 W. Fullerton; “Participatory Artists: Crafting
Social Change” at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Univ.
of Illinois at Chicago, 800 N. Halsted St. (Sept. 6, 2018-May 3,
2019); “Todros Geller: Strange Worlds” at Spertus Institute
for Jewish Learning and Leadership, 610 S. Michigan Avenue
(Sept. 6, 2018-Feb. 17, 2019); and “Gilded Chicago: Portraits
of an Era” and “Treasures from the White City: the Chicago
World’s Fair of 1893” at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, 40
E. Erie Street (Sept. 8, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019), and more events.