A Note From Paris
serialconsign.com; Jens Frederick Larson, dartmo.com; Winning design by John Mead Howells & Raymond Hood,
TRAFFIK/TRAF.711 via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Our niece is back in Paris after her Christmas break, continuing her studies as a
Fulbright scholar. She wrote and told us that in class yesterday, they were talking about the Vienna Secession movement (more on that tomorrow) and architect Adolph Loos. She asked about a design he did for the Chicago Tribune headquarters in Chicago. Well, in 1922 the Tribune held a design competition for their new building on Michigan Avenue. Loos was just one of 263 entrants vying for the commission and the $50,000 grand prize. He had one of the more fanciful submissions (the image on the far right that looks like a big column), along with a very modern design by Walter Gropius. Eero Saarinen's entry is the third building from the left, and Jens Frederick Larson designed the Federal-style inspired building next to the Saarinen. The winner was the John Mead Howells' and Raymond Hood's, Gothic revival building that occupies a prominent corner on Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River. You should check your local library catalog for a book by Katherine Solomonson, The Chicago Tribune Tower Competition, it's very thorough and informative, with great images to boot!
Piano Design Workshop via enews.lbl.gov Frank Gehry, Times Tower model, kwc.org /Artwork: designslinger]
The New York Times decided a few years ago that their building on 43rd Street was no
longer going to serve the purposes of a newspaper in the digital age. So, they decided to move to 8th Avenue and 40th and asked several architects to come up with some ideas for the paper's new headquarters. The winner turned out to be Renzo Piano, though a very interesting design was submitted by Frank Gehry. In a way Gehry's building reminds of the whimsical nature of Loos' losing Tribune design. It's too bad the that neither the Trib, nor the Times, went out on a limb and chose a building that pushed the envelope a bit. Piano's building is very handsome and the Tribune Tower has become as much a part of the visual fabric of Chicago as the Old Water Tower. Given the current economic situation the newspaper industry finds itself in, talk of the Trib selling the Tower, and the Times recently mortgaging their building to raise capital, who knows how much longer either structure will carry a newspaper's name.
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