Wittman Smartman

By Margaret Hicks in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 10, 2006 3:44PM

Every once in a while an opportunity presents itself that we must hoist upon you from way up high at the Chicagoist offices, an opportunity not to be missed.

On Wednesday, at the Chicago Architecture Foundation lunch lecture series, Tim Wittman will give a lecture on “Sullivan and the Synthesis of Nature and the Machine”.

Tim Wittman is an architectural historian and Adjunct Professor of Architectural History & Historic Preservation at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. And he’s awesome. Seriously.

We’ve seen Tim Wittman speak a few times, and he is the best. He has taken us on rides around Chicago history, making links and connections we understand while we’re sitting there and then forget the second we walk out of the room. We somehow manage to tell our friends that Chicago history relates to the monolith in 2001, which relates to the Third Reich, which relates to the price of meat in Asia.

We once saw Mr. Wittman at the movie theaters and blushed like a prepubescent schoolgirl. He couldn’t have been nicer as we gushed to him about how he made us see things we would never see on our own and that we thought he was the smartest man in the universe. All the poor guy wanted to do was go see Friends with Money.

If you’ve got the time tomorrow, bring your lunch, and settle in for the best hour of your week. We promise, Tim Wittman will not disappoint.

You can see Tim Wittman at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan on Wed., October 11, 12:15 p.m. Feel free to bring a lunch with you. This program is free.