Farr Associates Architecture & Urban Design

It was a joyous occasion to join Governor JB Pritzker in Pullman to announce Celadon’s public-private partnership to restore the Historic Hotel Florence, Hotel Annex, Factory building, and grounds located within the Pullman National Historical Park and State Historic Site on the south side of Chicago. The project will continue the collective efforts of Pullman’s community members who have long advocated for the preservation of the Pullman Historic District. This project stands as both a celebration of the past and a commitment to a more connected, creative, and inclusive future on Chicago’s South Side. While our technical service is the restoration of the Florence Hotel and Annex, the Front Erecting Shops, and the grounds, our intangible duty includes the translation of 150+ years of cultural heritage, labor and civil rights history, and grassroots advocacy. Visit the link in our bio to: 🫶 Share personal memories, artifacts, or ephemera from Pullman! 💌 Join our Pullman mailing list to follow the project’s progress! ✨ Learn more about the partnership in the Governor’s press release! Historic Hotel Florence & Annex Design Team 🛎️ Celadon Construction Corporation NFP: Developer @farrassociates : Architect of Record Ramsey Historic Consultants: Historic Preservation Consultant @skenderbuild : General Contractor @artofcultureinc : Curatorial Programming @sitedesigngroup : Landscape Architect Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.: Structural Engineer & Envelope/Façade @terraengineering : Civil Engineer dbHMS: MEP Engineer & IT @thresholdacoustics : Acoustics @schulershook : Theater Planner & Lighting Design

Hey! Hi! 👋 We’ve done a thing! Farr Associates has a couple of new faces on our ownership team, but we’re still committed to high-performance, sustainable design. 🎤🤝 Please allow us to reintroduce ourselves: Mercedes Miley, President, Len Sciarra, Vice-President, and Doug Farr, Founder. 💚 Together, we will focus on strategic partnerships to advance the firm’s mission of prototyping the future and bringing cutting-edge, affordable, sustainable design to all. ✔️✔️✔️ Drop us a ✏️〰️〰️〰️ line or stop by our office 🔜 on October 1st to celebrate with the Farrside team! 💐🥂🎉 📸: @kaibrownphotography

Drawing from Collections ✨ The Illinois State Library’s digital collections are a valuable resource for research and learning from cultural artifacts that have been carefully preserved from Pullman’s Historic Hotel Florence (and beyond!). This iconic pen and ink drawing of the Hotel Florence was created by K. Pryor. The drawing itself is an artifact and lives on through printed matter such as pinback buttons, restaurant placemats and menus, pamphlets, and artworks like the needlepoint version of the hotel by Norma Zarris. The Hotel Florence “GALAXY” milk glass mug was an ebay find and most likely produced as a souvenir or fundraising item by the Pullman Civic Organization (PCO) now the Friends of Pullman National Historical Park (@friendsofpullman ). The reverse side of the mug features the PCO’s interlocking “P” logo with a phrase that reads “A community with a past preparing for the future” Explore the Pullman collection in the digital archives here: /digital/collection/pshs Captions with links to archival materials: 1. Hotel Florence GALAXY milk glass mug, more than half full, at Breanne’s desk 2. Hotel Florence Artwork: Black and white ink drawing of Hotel Florence by K. Pryor, date unknown. /digital/collection/pshs/id/11806/rec/2369 3 (top). Needlepoint of Hotel Florence: Cross stitch picture of the Hotel Florence, done by Pullman resident Norma Zarris, in 2006. /digital/collection/pshs/id/14995/rec/568 TIP: Experience this artwork in person at the Pullman Coffee Club! 🪡 3 (bottom). Promotional Buttons as Wearable Art: Two buttons with image of Hotel Florence by K. Pryor. Both read “Historic Pullman District”, one in serif font (/digital/collection/pshs/id/15582) and the other in sans serif font (/digital/collection/pshs/id/22048). 4: Hotel Florence Restaurant House Tour Menu: Cover of 22nd Annual House tour on October 7-8, 1995 featuring K. Pryor’s drawing of the hotel. /digital/collection/pshs/id/18564. #HistoricPreservation #SavingPlaces

Buckle up for the 34th annual Congress for the New Urbanism! 🤠 Mercedes and Doug will be in the Ozarks for the multi-locational convening — say howdy and if you’re attending be sure to catch Doug in these sessions: 5/13📍Fayetteville “Accelerating Climate Action at Regional Scale” with co-panelists Carl Elefante, Stephen Luoni & Jeffrey E. Huber 🌳 5/14📍Bentonville “Building the Practice with Practice” with co-panelists Dhiru Thadani, Juniper Rose Hentz & Matt Lewis 🌿 5/14📍Bentonville “The Climate Action Handbook for Urbanists: Engaging the Movement” book release and talk with @cnu_newurbanism leadership and co-authors of the new publication 🌱 congratulations to all! 🎉🥳 #CNU34 #FarrsideFieldNotes @doug.farr.73 @mercedes.e.miley

Farrside Field Notes 🧱 We spent a glorious day at the BAC District Council Training Center and International Masonry Institute where apprentices learn the tools and techniques of the craft trades. The facility housed an incredible array of expertly designed and installed demonstration walls, terrazzo flooring, lentil repair, and and and! Thank you RestoreWorks Masonry Restoration and International Masonry Institute for the hands-on workshop! We learned about tuckpointing, bricklaying, anchoring, pull testing, glaze repair, and so much more. Sidenote: Cool event alert!! If you like what you see here, @brickofchicago will host a workshop as part of Will’s book release, at the BAC District Council Training Center on June 26! Congratulations, Will!! 📖🧱 Images: 1: Multi-story brick demonstration wall with ropes, pulleys, and a platform for moving up and down the wall. 2: Three brick demonstration walls that are used for practicing pointing techniques. 3: A museum-like wall didactic for a brick and mortar sculpture called “Labor Column III” and constructed by skilled union masons. The text describing the column reads “Echoing the contours of tilled soil, this column design addresses the historical relationship between slavery and land-particularly in the American South, where the agricultural industry relied on enslaved laborers and sharecroppers. This iteration of the Labor column is made of brick, a material that evokes not only the earth but also a long lineage of Black builders in America-including enslaved laborers-who erected commercial buildings, plantation houses, universities, and even the White House. The work can be interpreted as an architectural monument to collective memory and a tribute to the Black Americans who built this nation.” 4: A broken section of ornamental terra cotta with sculpted floral design used to demonstrate color matching during restoration. Continued in comments… 😅 #TrowelTrades #HistoricPreservation

File Under: Object Lessons, or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to DOCOMOMO! 🌀 1: We co-hosted a sparkling Office “After” Hours gathering for @docomomochicago members that included a visit to ours and our Monadnock neighbors Preservation Futures and Eifler & Associates. Photos: Top - Historic color photo of the interior of the residence hall lobby. Bottom - Black and white exterior documentation including construction of the lobby’s circular ceiling in the background by Fred Berglund & Son, Inc. 2: The Keller Center, our flagship mid-century deep-energy retrofit project, was a spirited topic of conversation and architectural lore. Designed by Edward Durrell Stone for the Kellogg School of Continuing Education and the Graduate Residence Hall, it’s been home to the Harris School for Public Policy since 2019 and was recognized with @aianational ’s COTE® Top Ten in 2020. Photo: Wide view of the building’s new four-story atrium filled with light, seating, and people working on computers. Video: Mingling with docomomo guests discussing and looking at photos of the Keller Center. 3: During office hours, architectural historian Elizabeth Blasius noticed a glass prism sitting off to the side on our materials shelf aka the petting zoo. She mentioned the Stock Exchange Trading Room and its prismatic lighting. I grabbed this book from my desk, as it has been on my reading list since the room made @preservationchicago ’s 2026 Chicago 7 most endangered list. Topical! @blaservations ’ wrote a column for @mascontext devoted to the Art Institute’s Stock Exchange Trading Room, its history, and the imminent threat of demolition it is facing once again. Photos: Top - Elizabeth pointing to prismatic lights in the AIC’s Stock Exchange Trading Room book. Below - Scans of the book featuring an elaborate stencil on the cover and Trading Room section drawings. Continued in comments…

Various North Arrows ⬆️ from our borrowed collection of @hpnclub drawing sets! Images: 1: North arrow drawn by Keck & Keck, 1947 2: North arrow drawn by Keck & Keck, 1950 3: North arrow drawn by Keck & Keck, 1984 4: North arrow drawn by m.j. root & associates, 1988 5: North arrow drawn by Chicago Associates Planners & Architects, 2001 6: Len pointing and analyzing a structural drawing set, 2026 7: Len & Moid discussing the new high-performance roof while looking and pointing to a studio monitor, 2026 8: Original Keck & Keck color pencil sketch of the exterior of Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, undated #HighPerformance #HistoricPreservation #Farrchitecture #SavingPlaces #LenPointing

Celebrating the Last Days of Deco Month! ⚜️ Many thanks to @savingplaces and @wandawlau for this profile of the beloved Lawson House, Jewel of the Gold Coast, in Preservation Magazine 💜 Images: 1: Scan of the cover of Preservation Magazine featuring a woman standing on the front stoop of a residential building framed by a lilac tree. 2: Scan of magazine spread featuring Lawson House article by Wanda Lau and color photo of the chapel by @rossfloyd . Also included is a multi-image composition with aerial view of the art deco building, a residential apartment unit, and laundry room. Aerial courtesy of @thebiggreenw 3: Historic black and white photo of the gymnasium paired with video of the current gym and resident shooting hoops and cameos by @mercedes.e.miley and @zachmortice . 4: Historic black and white photo of swimmers in the pool paired with color photo of ribbon cutting ceremony with @chicagosmayor . The audience is seated in the area where the pool has been infilled (a process that can be reversed in the future!). 5: Historic black and white photo of the barber shop paired with color photo of the updated space that now serves as laundry facility for residents. Laundry photo by @rossfloyd 6: Pull quote that reads “To preserve the building’s original use and not gentrify it… the vision was remarkable.” Quote by Sharon C. Park, Preservation Architect & Associate Director Emerita at the Smithsonian Institute #HistoricPreservation #Farrchitecture #SavingPlaces

Pullman Reading List in honor of National Library Week! 📚💜 We are so lucky to be neighbors with the Harold Washington Library Center. Thank you @chicagopubliclibrary for all you provide—books, things, community resources, respite, and so much more! 🥰 #NationalLibraryWeek #LibrariesForThePeople #PullmanProud

#HowThingsStart 👀🏩 The work to restore the historic Hotel Florence & Annex is underway! Members of the team recently convened at Skender HQ to map the project’s timeline. 🗓️ It’s a tight one—we’re aiming to “break ground” next spring! Link in bio to join our Pullman mailing list. 💌 🌟Team Pullman🌟 — Celadon Construction Corporation NFP: Developer — @farrassociates : Architect of Record — Ramsey Historic Consultants: Historic Preservation Consultant — @skenderbuild : General Contractor — @artofcultureinc : Curatorial Programming — @sitedesigngroup : Landscape Architect — Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.: Structural Engineer & Envelope/Façade — @terraengineering : Civil Engineer — dbHMS: MEP Engineer & IT — @thresholdacoustics : Acoustics — @schulershook : Theater Planner & Lighting Design — IllinoisDNR: Illinois Department of Natural Resources #SavingPlaces #HistoricPreservation #PullmanHotel #AIAChicago

Lines & Shapes & Textures 〰️ Field notes from this morning’s visit to our historic single-family restoration project in Kenwood! 🌥️ Fun Fact: Built in 1888, the residence was designed by Pullman architect Solon S. Beman. 🧱👀 #PeopleSavingPlacesForPeople #HistoricPreservation #Farrchitecture #HighPerformance @savingplaces

What does a career in design look like?? The youth have questions!🌟And we’re delighted to support @territorynfp in nurturing the next generation of design leaders at their Teen Career Fair this weekend! 💚 We’ll have goodies to share from @aiachicago PLUS Mercedes will join folks from @sitedesigngroup , @perkinswill_chi , @planning_muse in a design career discussion to share their varied paths and chat with the teens! 💜 #Farrchitecture #HighPerformance