A DAILY CHICAGO JOURNAL ABOUT THE BUILDINGS
AND URBAN SPACES THAT SHAPE OUR LIVES
BY BLAIR KAMIN | E-mail | About | RSS

« Final items delaying opening of Hadid's Burnham Plan centennial pavilion | Main | The Z-pod has landed: Delayed but worth the wait, Hadid's Burnham pavilion is a small structure that celebrates big plans »

August 04, 2009

Michael Reese campus to come before landmarks commission

The Michael Reese Hospital campus, which Chicago's Olympic organizers and the Daley administration want to demolish for a residential complex, will come before the Commission on Chicago Landmarks on Thursday, August 6.

The commission apparently will be considering whether to recommend to the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council whether the campus should be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.

The meeting will give historic preservationists an official forum at which to air their view that all or part of the campus should be preserved. Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius helped plan the campus and co-designed several of its buildings.

With the city racing toward demolition, however, it would seem that the hearing will be little more than a formality. The Daley adminstration has pledged  only to save the hospital's main building, a Prairie Style structure with which Gropius was not involved.

If the campus were given National Register status, it would mean that state historic preservation officials would be called in before federal funds could be used for demolition.

The meeting is at 12:45 p.m. at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St., room 201-A.



  

  

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Follow up to Reese activity. You commented on WTTW that a case has to be made by preservationists to save buildings like Reese where there are no "beautiful decorations, gargoyles, swirling Louis Sullivan ornament." I understand that.

But does that mean that any important mid-century building lacking the decorative and swirly elements is doomed to the wrecking ball? There has to be a way to preserve, appreciate, educate and celebrate the aesthetic that mid-century represents.

BK: Of course there is a way and I've explained it in pieces on the Yale Art and Architecture Building, the Farnsworth House and other modern landmarks.

These buildings don't appeal with decoration; they appeal with the fruits of 20th century technologies--soaring, complex interior spaces; stunning transparency; lightness rather than mass (though Brutalism can be quite massive).

But those things are difficult to communicate to the public. Why? Perhaps because, while they convey the architectural element of "delight," it's subtle delight, not the easier-to-digest delight you get from Sullivan's ornament.

Of course, it took a long time for people to appreciate Sullivan--too long to save some of his great buildings in Chicago. So the critic's job is to keep on articulating the reasons why the best buildings--not all buildings--are worth saving.

The comments to this entry are closed.

Cityscapes RSS

>> About this blog
>> About Blair Kamin





•  A new link for Cityscapes; this blog is going mobile
•  Bye, bye, Chi-town; hello, Beantown; dear readers--I'm off on a fellowship and will see you next year
•  Pounded by the weather, Wright's Glencoe subdivision markers are crumbling
•  Dutch architect and educator is IIT's next architecture dean
•  Less parking, more parklets: City hopes new 'people spots' will increase foot traffic; first designs are more pragmatic than creative
•  Emanuel administration not ready to talk Prentice
•  While I'm away......critic Cheryl Kent, reporter Ron Grossman to cover architecture, historic preservation for the Tribune
•  Time can be an ally for preservationists; new plan for Athletic Association, Prentice battle show how circumstances, attitudes can shift
•  The 'parklet' wave is about to hit Chicago
•  Sun-Times editorial, Tribune op-ed: Save Prentice

• Aqua
• Architectural compensation
• Architectural education
• Architecture
• Architecture awards
• Architecture books
• Architecture bookshops
• Architecture business
• Architecture competitions
• Architecture criticism
• Architecture events
• Architecture exhibitions
• Architecture films
• Architecture lectures
• Architecture magazines
• Architecture on television_
• Architecture panel discussions
• Architecture tours
• Art Institute of Chicago Modern Wing
• Barack Obama and architecture
• Barack Obama and urban policy_
• Block 37
• Bridges
• Building safety and security
• Burj Dubai
• Burnham Plan Centennial
• California wildfires of 2009
• Campus buildings
• Casino architecture
• Chicago architecture
• Chicago Architecture Foundation
• Chicago Children's Museum in Grant Park
• Chicago Humanities Festival
• Chicago landmarks law
• Chicago river walk
• Chicago riverfront
• Chicago Spire
• Chicago's lakefront
• Church architecture
• Cultural buildings
• Current Affairs
• Daley Bicentennial Plaza
• Design
• Engineering
• Engineering awards
• Evanston Fountain Square tower
• Flood of 2008
• Flood of 2008_
• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Green architecture
• Health care architecture
• High-speed rail
• Historic Preservation
• Home design
• Hotels
• Infrastructure
• Interior design_
• Landmarks
• Landscape architecture
• Lectures
• Legal challenge to Chicago landmark law
• Millennium Park
• Museums
• New York architecture
• Norman Foster
• Obama stimulus package
• Obituaries
• Observation decks
• Olympics
• Parking garages
• Parks
• Performances in landmark buildings
• Professional news
• Public housing
• R. Buckminster Fuller
• Regional planning
• Rem Koolhaas
• School architecture
• Science
• Sears Tower name change
• Skyscrapers
• Sports
• Stadiums
• Stimulus package
• Structural Engineering
• Suburban office buildings
• Sustainable architecture
• Tear-down houses
• The flaneur
• Transportation
• Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago_
• Trump International Hotel & Tower_
• Urban design
• Waterview Tower_
• World Trade Center
• World Trade Center reconstruction_
• Worst architecture of 2008
• Wrigley Field
• ArchNewsNow.com, news and reviews from around the world
• Hugh Pearman, Sunday Times of London
• David Dunlap, The New York Times
• Lynn Becker, ArchitectureChicago PLUS
• Edward Lifson, The New Modernist
• Steve Litt, Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Curbed Chicago
• The Architect's Newspaper
• Vince Michael, Time Tells
Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age
Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago
Tribune Tower: American Landmark

August 2012 posts
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
Archives

• Chicago Architecture Foundation tours
• Chicago Architecture Foundation public programs
• Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts public programs
• Landmarks Illinois events
• Preservation Chicago events

Chicago Tribune Media Group