Back in Chicago.
Breeze block is everywhere, including on North Orleans Street, in Lincoln Park.
This iteration of the ‘I Will’ motif dates prior to the extension of what is now the Blue Line to O’Hare Airport in 1981.
#blaservations #chicagoarchitecture #iwill
Otherworldly Art Deco in Miami Beach. I’m thinking a lot about the similarities between Miami Beach and Waikiki—both places are narrow and mashed up against the sea by a man made canal (Ala Wai and Collins, respectively) both are a mix of short and tall (funky zoning?) and both have a particular kind of American Tropical Modernism that stirs me.
For my monthly column in @mascontext I reviewed ‘Lilly Reich in Barcelona: The Materialization of a Neglected Authorship’ by @guerenuu , which brings to light both the brilliance—and obfuscation—of the work of architect, designer and creative director Lilly Reich.
Learning about Lilly Reich, who was so adept at understanding materials, texture and detail, will forever have me looking at the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe differently. Those little choices that make such a difference in modern architecture; the way a vertical meets a horizontal, opacity versus translucency, the placement of a bolt, or the way in which a curtain floats, are so critical in Mies’s work—but are they Mies alone?! Read the book, and you too might find yourself looking at Mies’s work differently.
Link in bio. Thanks, as always, for reading!
The John J. Glessner House (Henry Hobson Richardson, architect, 1887) looking both modern and ancient. #blaservations #chicagoarchutecture #chicagolandmark
Chicago Municipal Device, Chicago Fire Department Engine 103, South Laflin Street, West Loop, Chicago, Illinois #blaservations #chicagoarchitecture #chicagomunicipaldevice
When our house was built in 1948, it included a “tropical rec room” in the basement, complete with a full bar, wood paneling, mirrors and wallpaper. By the time @aaaensign purchased our house, the wallpaper had been painted over, but there were small spots where two patterns were visible—a vibrant red paper with silhouetted bamboo stalks and foliage, and a green paper with bubbles and seahorses. Other elements remained, and while any other 2010s owner might have ripped out the paneling and mirrors and man caved the basement with budget boob lights and grey paint, Alex leaned into them as a decorative anchor.
Friends began to help Alex fill the space with appropriate furniture—like the patchwork whiskey barrel loveseat and chairs. When I moved in, I already had things that somehow fit perfectly in our basement “speakeasy;” a metal grocery store display for Krispy Kreme donuts, a lime green chair that matched Alex’s lime green chairs, and many things given to me by friends and relatives—including lots of tchotchkes given to me by my mom and my Grandma Blanche, who both knew that I appreciated old, weird things. The space was made perfect when Alex’s ex girlfriend gave us a cherry red Roche Bobois sectional that had been rescued from an alley years earlier.
People bring us items to decorate the basement all the time, and we love it when friends, neighbors and family come over and see them! It makes this very unique part of our house a collaboration between Alex and I, our shared community of loved ones, and periods of time.
The parallels between Gerri’s Palm Tavern in Chicago and the Lenox Lounge in Harlem are abundant. Both are 1930s Art Deco entertainment venues and places of incredible cultural history to Jazz music. Both lasted into the 21st century. Both are no longer extant—Gerri’s Palm Tavern is an empty lot, and the Lenox Lounge is an ATM. It’s encouraging, however, to know that nationwide, there are efforts to make history visible when the building where that history happened is gone.
I spend a lot of time thinking about historic homes-turned-museums as a typology in preservation. This is the former Andrew Carnegie Mansion, built in 1902, now the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum. Instead of period rooms stuffed with Tiffany lamps, marble busts and palms, the rooms are exhibit and gathering spaces. Not every historic place needs to be interpreted to the time when it made history! It feels more authentic sometimes to allow for historic interiors to be places that inhabit the present, instead of being stuck behind velvet ropes.
