Louis Sullivan: Tragedy and Triumph

Dec. 14, 2011
From 1880 to 1895, Louis Sullivan and his partner, Dankmar Adler, headed one of the country’s most creative and successful architectural practices.

McCormick Place architect dies at 83

Dec. 14, 2011
Architect Gene Summers, whose flat-roofed lakeside McCormick Place building has been one of the city's most powerful expressions of modernism--and a target for open space advocates and a former mayor--since its completion in 1971, has died.

Ice Cube chills with Eames

Dec. 9, 2011
I like this. Actor/rapper Ice Cube walks us through the work of midcentury design luminaries Charles and Ray Eames.Don't snicker. Cube tried his hand at architectural drafting in trade school back in the 1980s."

The Magnificent Auditorium

Dec. 9, 2011
We take most of our old buildings for granted. Today the Auditorium is known as the home of Roosevelt University. But when it was dedicated on this date in 1889, the Auditorium was the largest building in the country.

A critic seen through the architect's eyes

Dec. 8, 2011
Did you see WBEZ's Justin Kaufman's funny post Tuesday about the West Coast artist who drew sketches of NPR hosts based on how their voices sounded like to him on the radio?The artist, Gaelan Kelly, was pretty close with Ira Glass, actually. Terry Gross, too.

Custom Frank Lloyd Wright house up for auction

Dec. 7, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright certainly left his mark on architecture. He also had something of a reputation for being inflexible on matters of design. But there’s at least one house where he let the client define the process.

A brewery's glory, past and present

Dec. 7, 2011
Too often we see fine old buildings turn to dust and rubble--particularly out in the neighborhoods.But this doesn't always happen, of course. We remember the demolished buildings but often pass by the ones that are saved. A good example is the former Schoenhofen Brewery near 18th and Canalport.

What next for Chicago school buildings?

Dec. 5, 2011
Walter Dyett is one of two high schools that could be phased out under that shake-up announced last week by school officials.But what happens to the school buildings once the students are gone?The question is worth considering because public school buildings compose a pretty significant rank of the

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