designslinger

Friday Snippets 3.19.10

designslinger — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:32:00 GMT

[Leroy, W. Cornelia Street, Chicago, March 5, 2010 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

The museum curator, updated version. [NY Times]

Lucian Freud at the Pompidou. [Guardian]

Philanthropist Eli Broad my be making Grand plans once again. [Architects Newspaper]

Renovating some of Britain's exceptional buildings with the Renovation Man. [Telegraph]

The art dealer as museum director. [Culture Grrl]

Maybe writing your thoughts down on paper isn't such a bad idea after all. [NY Times]

New life for a demolished archway. [Guardian]

And, opening in New York this weekend.... [ArtInfo]

Going to enjoy the sunny, warm weather before it gets back into the 40s and rainy.

See you Monday.

What's Missing?

designslinger — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:35:00 GMT

[Wall along West Grace Street, Chicago, March 5, 2010 /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

We often walk past this tall concrete wall as we explore the streets in our neighborhood.
As you can see it's pretty massive and prison like, but there is no sign of what this wall once protected, or protected us from.

[Vacant acres, 1126 W. Grace Street, Chicago /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

Midway along its length an opening reveals a huge empty lot with a small pile of rubble,
weeds, and remnants of a concrete pad of some sort. For some reason I remembered hearing that this large piece of property had once been occupied by an orphanage, but I couldn't be sure. So after some research, I found the answer.

[Former House of the Good Shepherd buildings behind existing concrete wall; Chicago Daily News Collection,
LoC/CHM #ichicdn n 007832 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

Through the magic of Photoshop, we've replaced the missing piece of the puzzle with a
ghosted image of the structures that once filled this 10-acre, one-square-city-block plot of land, the House of the Good Shepherd. Operated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the facility provided housing and vocational training for 400 young women, described variously over the years in the press as: "fallen pentinent women" (1904); "disturbed and delinquent girls" (1967); "socially maladjusted girls" (1971); and finally, "girls who are wards of the state" (1973). They primarily came to Good Shepherd through the auspices of the Cook County Juvenile Court system, because they were trouble makers in trouble and were given over to the care of the nuns to learn how to become productive cititzens. Apparently the Sisters never took in "unwed" mothers, so don't jump to any conclusions.

[Former Convent of the House of Good Shepherd behind existing gate; Chicago Daily News Collection, LoC/CHM
#ichicdn n 007837 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

The large opening in the wall once lead up to the imposing entrance of a 4-story convent
which provided housing for nuns belonging to the religious order. And although the 125,000+ square feet of brick structures (which started out with a laundry and power plant in 1904) were torn down in 1974, the Sisters still carry on in a much smaller and newer quarters providing shelter to battered women and their children.

designslinger: Word of the Week

designslinger — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:38:00 GMT

[Foils in a tracery window, Fourth Presbyterian Church (1914) Chicago; Ralph Adams Cram, Howard Van Doren Shaw,
architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

foil [foil] n. in tracery, any of several lobes, circular or nearly so, tangent to the inner side
of a larger arc, and meeting together in a point called a cusp. < Latin: folia, folium

[Foils, Scottish Rite Cathedral (1873) Chicago, Burling & Adler, architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

A Temple of Music

designslinger — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:39:00 GMT

[Bush Temple of Music (1901) Chicago, J.E.O. Pridmore, architect /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

Years ago, I used to take the Chicago Avenue bus from my parent's apartment in
Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, downtown. As we approached Clark Street, the bus would pass this large building with one of the most imposing roofs I'd ever seen.

[Building details, March 4, 2010 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

It was built to house the offices and retail establishment of the Bush & Gerts Piano
Company. William H. Bush came to Chicago in the 1850s, started a lumber business, began investing in real estate, became wealthy, and retired in 1875. His two sons, who had been working in the piano industry, convinced their father to come out of retirement and together they started manufacturing pianos in 1886.

[Chicago/Clark Building, 100 W. Chicago Avenue /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Piano making was big business in Chicago. By 1904 the majority of piano's manufactured
in the United States were produced by factories in the city. W.W. Kimball & Co. of Kimball piano fame, was headquartered here. Unlike many manufacturers who built their instruments for the wholesale market, the Bush company sold their pianos in retail outlets owned by the firm.

[Hints of the past /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

When the Bushs asked architect J.E.O. Pridmore to design a new corporate office they
were making money and thinking big. They called the building the Temple of Music, which would have ground floor retail space, including a Bush & Gerts Piano Store, while the upper floors would have offices, rehearsal rooms and space for a large theater. Unfortunately Bush senior didn't get to see the building completed. He died in 1901 just before it was finished, but his sons carried on and in 1914 the German Opera Association took up residency in the theater space. The Temple remained the home of the Opera company until 1922 when the building was sold and the theater was demolished to make room for more offices.

By the 1930s the Depression had taken its toll on the piano business and the company
folded. When Bush's son died in 1941, the headline of his obituary read, "W.L. Bush, once wealthy, has died a charity patient." But the building still stands, and although there have been changes over the decades, there are still hints to be found in Pridmore's exterior decoration, of the structure's musical patrimony.

Wrapped in Marble

designslinger — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:43:00 GMT

[Rosehill Mausoleum (1914) Chicago, Sidney Lovell, architect /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Many cemeteries have mausoleums for those who wish to be safely and snuggly interred
in a vault above ground. Chicago's Rosehill Cemetery has one of the more elaborate halls for the deceased, lined from top to bottom in shiny, white marble.

[Rosehill Mausoleum art glass, December 16, 2009 /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

It seems that no expense was spared when cemetery trustees asked architect Sidney
Lovell to design a mausoleum in 1913, unlike any other in the city. And when Lovell died in 1938, he himself was placed in one of the marble-lined crypts.

[Mausoleum crypts and family rooms /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Perhaps one of the reasons for all the opulence was that many of Chicago's most
prominent citizens had already purchased crypts and private family "rooms" prior to construction. When the building was completed, it proved to be so popular that there were few available spaces left, so plans were immediately drawn up for an addition. By 1965, the original structure had been added-on too ten times.

[John G. Shedd family room /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Among the more recognizable names like Ward of the giant Montgomery Ward catalog
company, and his rival Richard Sears of Sears Roebuck, rests John G. Shedd, the chairman and president of Chicago's venerable Marshall Field & Co. Shedd started at Fields as a clerk and was taken under the wing of the department store's founder who saw in Shedd the same qualities Field had as a young man. Shedd is very well known to Chicagoans primarily because the city's aquarium bears his name. He also has the largest and most prominent "family room" in the structure, where no matter what your social standing happens to be, you can all spend an eternity wrapped in marble.

See our previous Rosehill post: Memorials in Glass.

Friday Snippets 3.12.10

designslinger — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:24:00 GMT

[Melba, Chicago, March 3, 2010 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

Picasso, Matisse, Giacometti, Moore, Braque, Degas, Vuillard; a Los Angeles art collection
goes to auction. [LA Times]

Computer art circa 1975. [Rhizome]

Michelangelo hits the button for a plastic surgeon. [eternally cool]

Trends from Paris Fashion Week. [NY Times]

5,000 nudes on the Opera House steps. [Sydney Morning Herald]

A Giotto is rediscovered with ultra-violet light. [artdaily]

Caravaggio climbs the charts. [NY Times]

Sears Tower, the John Hancock Building, and architect Bruce Graham. [WSJ]

The last of Alexander McQueen. [LA Times]

We're off to see a screening of a documentary about architect Louis Sullivan on Sunday,
thanks to our blogging pal Sharon at Chicago History Journal.

See you Monday.

Lakeside Press Moves On

designslinger — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:26:00 GMT

[Lakeside Press Building, Calumet Plant (1912-29) Chicago, Howard Van Doren Shaw, Charles Z. Klauder /Images &
Artwork: designslinger]

By 1912, R.R. Donnelley & Sons were doing so much business printing a catalog for Sears,
the country's telephone directories and various and assorted other materials, that they outgrew their printing plant on Plymouth Street. (Here's the link, in case you missed it) The new building Howard Van Doren Shaw designed for the company also continued to expand over the intervening years, until it occupied an entire city block, becoming the largest printing concern in the world by 1930.

[R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Lakeside Press Building, 350 E. Cermak Road, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Shaw again gave Donnelley a building that pushed the envelope when it came to
manufacturing plant design, and was heralded as one of "the finest essays in Industrial Gothic" architecture.

[Lakeside Press/R.R. Donnelley & Sons, building details, Chicago, July 11, 2009/ Images & Artwork: designslinger]

[Lakeside Press Building, Calumet Avenue facade, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

In addition to printing the Sears catalog and over 1,000 different telephone directories,
Donnelley clients included Time, Life, Look, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic and Fortune magazines. It published the Encyclopedia Britannica, World Book and Comptons. Their roster of print work wasn't limited to just large publications, they printed millions of brouchures and pamphlets for small businesses around the country. Over 4,000 people walked in and out of the Calumet Avenue plant everyday day for work. The operation was so huge that the U.S. postal service had a post office location in the complex dedicated to handling the vast volume of mail that was generated on a daily basis. But by 1993, when Sears decided to stop printing their catalog, Donnelley shut down its Chicago plant. The company is still one of the largest printers on the planet, but they have become a global company with a focus on the Internet and computer based printing technologies. The building itself now serves as a "carrier hotel" for the telecommunications and Web-hosting industries, supporting the weight of computer equipment instead of old printing presses, serving our increasingly fiber-optically wired world.

designslinger: Word of the Week

designslinger — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:29:00 GMT

[Cusp, St. Ita Catholic Church, Chicago /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

cusp [kuhsp] n. the intersection of two arcs or foliations in a tracery.

[Cusps]

The figure formed by the intersection of tracery arcs. Latin; cuspis, a point.

The Telephone Book Goes to Press

designslinger — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:31:00 GMT

[Lakeside Press Building (1897) Chicago, Howard Van Doren Shaw and Samuel Treat /Images & Artwork:
designslinger]

When Richard R. Donnelley opened his print shop in Chicago in 1864, he planted the seeds
of what would grow to become the world's largest printing company. In 1886 Donnelley began publishing Chicago's telephone directory which lead to R.R. Donnelley & Sons changing fortunes. When Sears Roebuck & Co., also headquartered in Chicago, wanted to sell products to a nationwide audience and was looking for a relatively inexpensive way to reach them, they turned to Donnelly. Soon after they began publishing a catalog for Marshall Field & Co., along with other telephone directories for cities around the country. By 1896 business was booming and it was time to move into larger quarters. Architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, with partner Samuel Treat, designed a structure that was called, "a radical departure from the usual kind of manufacturing building in the city."

[R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Lakeside Press Building, 731 S. Plymouth Court, Chicago /Images & Artwork:
designslinger]

The exterior of the Lakeside Press Building didn't look like your average printing plant.
Shaw and Treat's use of wide expanses of glass set into brick bays, decorative ornamentation and attention to detail, set the building apart from the typically mundane, smoke-belching, late 19th century factory.

[Columbia College Dormitory, February 11, 2010 /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Donnelley's business continued to grow as it entered the 20th century. So much so that it
eventually outgrew its Polk Street plant. The building was converted into residential condominiums in the 1980s and became a dormitory for students attending nearby Columbia College in the 1990s. So where did Donnelley go? Find out on Thursday when we continue the story of the world's largest printer.

Spring has Sprung

designslinger — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:30:00 GMT

[Daffodils, Lincoln Park Conservatory (1893) Chicago, Joseph Lyman Silsbee /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

Spring is coming. You can feel it in the air. The temps are creeping up into the 40s and the
daffodils are blooming inside the Lincoln Park Conservatory.

[Lincoln Park Conservatory Spring Flower Show, Chicago, March 4, 2009 /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

The blossoms haven't made an appearance outdoors yet, but wandering around in the
Conservatory on a warm sunny day, you know that Spring is on its way.

[Crocus and wisteria, Lincoln Park Conservatory /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

The crocus haven't appeared outside yet, but once you see 'em, you know Spring is ready
to be sprung.

Friday Snippets 3.5.10

designslinger — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:09:00 GMT

[Acme Industrial Co., Chicago, September 8, 2009 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

If you're interested in cities, history, architecture, urban life and historical photos, you
HAVE to check out SepiaTown. Thanks go to Adam for the snippet. [Invisible Paris]

The look of Shanghai. [National Geographic]

The book publishing revolution. [NYRB]

Making movies with a flatbed scanner. [Wired]

Antiques; the BBC can't get enough of 'em. [Telegraph]

The British Design Awards. [Evening Standard]

Ron Arad's Design Museum opens. [Wallpaper]

Paris Fashion Week. [NY Times]

New York's Frick Collection on video. [Art Babble]

It's supposed to be in the upper 40s this weekend. Guess what we'll be doing?

See you Monday.

The Commodore & Company

designslinger — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:11:00 GMT

[Commodore Apartments (1897) Chicago, Edmund Krause /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

The Commodore Apartments sit handsomely at the corner of Broadway and Surf Street,
spare on ornament but attractive never-the-less. The building was built in 1897 and was ranked among the "de-luxe" apartments of the period, catering to an "exclusive tenancy."

[Greenbrier Apartments (1904) Chicago, Edmund Krause /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

The venture proved so successful that developer E.J. Lehmann had architect Edmund
Krause design another upscale venture directly across the street. The Greenbrier would have larger floor plans, possibly created for an even more "exclusive" tenant.

[Greenbrier details, February 19, 2010 /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

By the late 1930s the neighborhood wasn't what you would consider exclusive, and the
buildings were sold. To maximize the new owner's profit potential the large floors plans were broken up to create smaller, and therefore more apartments. It was done with the financial assistance of the federal government under an unusual plan devised during the Second World War. The War Housing Center had been created to provide places for people to live who were streaming into large cities to do war related work. There was a severe housing shortage and a building owner could apply to the Home Owners Loan Corporation for money to fix-up an aging building, as long as the owner provided additional housing units within the existing structure. So, these two luxury buildings were "updated" and chopped up into smaller units. By 1985, the area was in an economic and popularity upswing and the buildings were renovated, and the small apartments of the war years were returned to their original proportions.

designslinger: Word of the Week

designslinger — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:13:00 GMT

[Paris building blocks /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

vermiculated [ver-MIK-yuh-ley-tid] adj. ornamented by irregular winding, wandering and
wavy lines, as if caused by the movement of worms.

[Vermiculated ornamentation on a Parisian building]

Majestic

designslinger — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:55:00 GMT

[Majestic Building (1906) Chicago, Edmund Krause with Rapp Brothers /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Majestic. It's a great descriptive word and was used to name this building and the theater
tucked inside its lower floors.

[Majestic Theatre Building /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

Designed by Edmund Krause in 1906 the upper stories were built for office workers and
the theater was built for the management of the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. Krause along with the Rapp brothers, wanted the Majestic to visually soar above the standards of the typical vaudeville house and created an explosion of decoration inspired by French Renaissance, to give the public audience something beautiful to look at.

[Majestic Building brass /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

The Majestic Theater lasted until the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was closed for 15
years before the Shubert Brothers, the New York-based theater impresarios, took over the space in 1945. The Shubert lasted into the 1990s before it became the La Salle Bank Theatre, which today is called the Bank of America Theatre. BofA swallowed up La Salle a couple of years ago, so I guess they got the theater name by default. The building itself no longer has office workers and instead houses a Hampton Inn hotel. And while the Majestic name is peeling away on one side of the building, and the theater has gone through several name changes, the Majestic sign board has somehow survived and shines as majestically as did 104 years ago.

Chicago's Manhattan

designslinger — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:16:00 GMT

[Manhattan Building (1891) Chicago, William Le Baron Jenney /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

William Le Baron Jenney was a pioneering architect. He is credited with designing the
metal skeletal-framing system which was used, in 1884, to construct a new-fangled building called a skyscraper. When he drew up the plans for the Manhattan in 1891, this iron framework supported the first 16 story structure ever built, and for a brief time, the tallest building in the world.

[Manhattan Building, 431 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

It was also the first building constructed with set backs and, although you can't see it,
the first skyscraper constructed with a sophisticated wind-bracing system.

[Details /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

The alternating rounded and angled bays which run up the front of the building at
different heights, makes what could have been a very ordinary office tower, much more interesting. In addition to the decorative ornamentation he added to the underside of the bays.

[Under a bay /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

When this section of downtown Chicago was in decline in the late 1970s and most of the
office tenants were leaving the area, instead of tearing down the Manhattan a developer decided to convert the building into residential condominiums. When the new Manhattan came on the market in the early '80s, the old building still had another first left in its long life - the largest building to undergo such a conversion up to that time.

Friday Snippets 2.26.10

designslinger — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:15:00 GMT

[Castlewood, Belmont Avenue, Chicago, July 11, 2009 /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

A Las Vegas mansion, inspired by Versailles, created with a glue gun, inexpensive
materials and a cake decorating kit. [NY Times]

Building buildings and playing games. [NY Times]

The 2010 Whitney Biennial, reviewed. [New York Magazine]

A laser technique used to remove tattoos is being used to clean and restore
artworks. [redOrbit]

An obscure Chinese painter, virtually unknown in the West, has become the world's
third best-selling artist. [Telegraph]

Jeanne Gang's Aqua named skyscraper of the year. [Chicago Tribune]

Speaking of ground breaking skyscrapers, remember The Spire, the screw-like tower
that was supposed to stand tall on Chicago's lakefront? Now the bank is suing the developer for unpaid credit card balances. [Crain's]

Moving from their old headquarters in Grosvenor Square to the south bank of the Thames,
the new U.S. Embassy building bears an awful resemblance to the old. [NY Times]

Amtrak looks to design teams to dream up ways to revitalize Chicago's Union Station -
again. [Chicago Tribune]

That's all for this week folks, see you Monday.

Walking on Clouds

designslinger — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:59:00 GMT

[BP Pedestrian Bridge, Chicago (2004) Frank Gehry /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

Although its official name is the BP Pedestrian Bridge, I've heard Frank Gehry's sinuous
walkway referred to as Cloud Walk.

[Cloud Walk (2009) /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

Anish Kapoor's sculpture Cloud Gate sits nearby, so perhaps the walkway's original name
was once tied to a cloud theme at work in Millennium Park.

[Bridge and landscape /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

But once the bridge's design was agreed upon and construction began, the cloud idea
may not have seemed quite right for the snaking, stainless-steel plated walkway. Plus BP ponied up the cash to cover the cost of the structure.

[Bridge's edge /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

When we spied this side of the bridge hovering over the landscape, spaceships and the
outer reaches of the universe came to mind. Maybe there is a connection to the sky and clouds and floating on air after all. What do you think?

designslinger: Word of the Week

designslinger — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:27:00 GMT

[Chicago Cultural Center (1897) Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, ceiling detail of palmette ornamentation /Image &
Artwork: designslinger]

palmette [pal-MET] n. an ornament derived from a palm leaf or the crown of a palm tree.

Wrigley Re-deux

designslinger — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:20:00 GMT

[Wrigley Field, Chicago (1914) Zachary Taylor Davis, 1060 W. Addison Street /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

Change is coming to Chicago's venerable Wrigley Field. The Cubs will still play baseball
in the Friendly Confines, but under new ownership. Tickets for the 2010 season went on sale last Friday, and members of the Ricketts family, the new owners, were on hand to greet fans. For those of you reading from overseas, or not too familiar with sport of baseball, the Chicago Cubs have been playing at Wrigley since 1916, two years after the ballpark was constructed, which makes it the second oldest, major league stadium in the country. The Cubs haven't won a championship in 101 years, but that hasn't stopped the crowds from pouring into the old ball park. The place is as popular as any other major attraction in the city, often filling its 41,000 seats to capacity.

[Existing exterior wall condition; Removing pre-fab concrete panels and wire fencing from the Addison Street
facade /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

The Ricketts are doing some updating at Wrigley and it will be interesting to see what
happens once all the hideous wire fencing and 1960s era pre-fab concrete panels are removed from the Addison and Clark Street facades. Perhaps the redo will add to the charm found in the remaining original brick walls with their interior ivy covering. Hopefully they won't remove all the ugliness and replace it with more ugly.

[Scoreboard front and original brick wall; Backside of scoreboard under repair /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

The nostalgia factor also plays a large part in Wrigley's success. With mega stadiums
littering the landscape, the ball park takes you back to a time when your great-great-grandfather sat in the same arena, ate a hot dog, had a beer and popcorn and watched the score board changed by a guy who occasionally peeked out from behind the large openings that held the giant numbers. Your experience would be the same today, including scores changed by hand, not electronics. And what about the Wrigley name? The chewing gum family hasn't owned the team for decades, but the Wrigley moniker has remained. Naming rights bring in lots of revenue, and after having paid over $800 million for the team the Ricketts may be looking for some cash, though they've said there will be no name change.

[Wrigley Field from under the right field bleachers /Image and Artwork: designslinger]

Once the snow melts, and the construction debris has been cleared in preparation for
opening day on April 12th, we'll be back to take some pics and see if the improvements improved anything.

The Salvation Army Trains in a Tilt House

designslinger — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:35:00 GMT

[Joseph E. Tilt House, Chicago (1914) Holabird & Roche /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

It's hard to imagine this very large house sitting in a very dense urban neighborhood.

[Salvation Army Officer's Training Center, 700 W. Brompton Place, Chicago, /Image & Artwork: designslinger]

But that is exactly where the former Joseph Tilt mansion is located. Tucked behind a high
brick wall, protecting the current tenants the Salvation Army, from a highly congested Chicago intersection.

[Tilt/Salvation Army Center details /Images & Artwork: designslinger]

By the time Tilt built the house in 1914 he was one of the country's premiere shoe
manufacturers and quite wealthy. The prestigious architectural firm of Holabird & Roche designed the 29-room mansion for the footwear tycoon, his wife and two children. The family only lived in the home for about a year before vacating the manse and high-tailing it to Pasadena, California where many rich Chicago families spent their retirement years. Finally in 1920, Tilt sold the house for a tidy $200,000 to the Salvation Army who planned to use the former home as an officer's training center. The organization has added several dormitory buildings to the property in the intervening years, but the mansion still stands, and according to newspaper reports, most of its original interiors remain intact.

Apparently the hot Pasadena summers were too much for Mr. Tilt. In 1920, the same year
he sold this house to the Salvation Army, he purchased another large Chicago house for $135,000, just a few blocks to the east. Why he chose to sell one house in exchange for another a few blocks away is a mystery. He must have felt comfortable there though because he owned the property until his death in 1930. Unfortunately, that house was torn down and replaced by a non-descript, high-rise apartment building in the 1950s.