Chicago Studies

Chicago Studies: Chicago Historical Schools

Chicago Studies will be a semi-regular post to promote the theme in your classroom.

Wow, almost the end of the semester and I’ve not had time to provide as many posts as I wanted. My apologies. Here’s one that may interest you:

Chicago Historic Schools

As the intro to the site reads, “This website is devoted to the rich architectural and social history of Chicago’s public schools. It reflects several years of research but remains a work in progress.  Our goal has been to identify and document a range of historical schools representing various periods, architects, and neighborhoods.”

The schools I attended are not listed, but as the authors of the site stated, this is a work in progress. So far, they’re off to a great start.

Have a good and strong end to your semester everyone!

Chicago Studies: Open House Chicago

Chicago Studies will be a semi-regular post to promote the theme in your classroom.

If you are like me, you are putting your final touches (or initial touches!) on syllabi this weekend and getting ready to post to Blackboard. I’d like you to consider including Chicago Open House in your curriculum for the Fall. See the video below:

Open House Chicago takes place October 19th and 20th. (End of Week 8/Beginning of Week 9 in our semester.)

The event is sponsored by the Chicago Architectural Foundation. If you are interested, I believe they are still looking for volunteers to help out with the event.

This is the link to the official website: Open House Chicago

This is the link to Open House Chicago Sites

If you have any questions, let me know.

Chicago Studies: Mies

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is the father of Modernism in Chicago Architecture.

Take a look at this quick video to see how influential he was, and continues to be, in our city and suburbs.

I spent 5 years on the campus of IIT. I took classes in several building and completed my Architecture degree in Crown Hall. I was impressed with the building from day one.
There is an affection for the details of his buildings, as the video clip demonstrates. For Mies, God was in the detail of the design, and it was all about how the materials came together to create simple forms. He was all about the reduction, or minimalism, of architecture to create elegant structures.

The First Chicago School of Architecture gave the city the steel cage and covered it with stone, or brick, or terra cotta. This had everything to do with the horrors of the Great Chicago Fire and the desire to avoid it again at all costs.
Mies, appropriately identified as the architect of the Second Chicago School of Architecture, removed these materials and glorified the steel cage; literally giving rise to the modern architecture movement in Chicago.

I write this so you have an opportunity to appreciate the video and don’t assume, like some critics, that he only built ugly black boxes. Look at it this way, what Burnham and his White City was to our past, is what Mies and his black beauties are to our present.

A New Blog and A New College

Hi all,

If you are interested in Architectural News in Chicago, Chicago Architecture Magazine, published by the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, just launched a companion blog, CHICAGOARCHITECT.

You may want to read their first post. It’s an article on the new MX College.

The photo below is from the blog.

Photo Credit: Alonzo Rhoden, Malcolm X College

Photo Credit: Alonzo Rhoden, Malcolm X College

This is my effort to try and provide a regular (if not weekly, then biweekly, or monthly) post on The Lounge related to Chicago Studies, or art/architectural news. The editors will know what I mean.