No Little Plans

By Margaret Hicks in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 27, 2006 4:30PM

Whew, Chicagoist had a busy weekend. We had some friends in from out of town, so we went downtown and had a look at some buildings. Luckily spring is arriving, so even behind the scaffolding of the Federal Center, we could see the easy simplicity of Mies van der Rohe’s big black boxes. We told our friends that “less is more” and “God is in the details” and about the evolution of Chicago’s architecture. We looked at the new One South Dearborn and marveled at its slant on Modernism. We discussed the differences in the aesthetic touch of Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan. We gawked at the thick-windowed, load-bearing Monadnock, and were tickled by the crazy, Post- Modernist Harold Washington Library with all of its loving Chicago references.

Well now we wish we had held off a few days, because tomorrow the editors of Chicago Architecture : Histories, Revisions, Alternatives will be at the Chicago Architecture Foundation ready to de-bunk some of Chicago’s Architecture myths. The Amazon review reads “that the mythic status of Chicago architecture has distorted our understanding of the historical circumstances in which it was realized.” Uh oh! We better get our friends back! It’s a lunchtime lecture, so feel free to bring your lunch and learn something while you eat your Quizno’s.

You can see Katerina Ruedi Ray and Charles Waldheim at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan Ave. at 12:15 p.m. Tues; free. (312) 922-3432, ext. 266.