Things To Do While Self-Isolating in Chicago: Part 6 — Visit 9 Museums in Your Underpants
It’s been a lot of years since the average Chicago family could afford to visit one of the big-name hometown museums. With lunch, transportation, and parking, taking a family of four for an afternoon of culture can easily cost more than a car payment. Since this is a quarantine, and not a vacation, we can’t Amtrak it down to Saint Louis, where world-class museums are free. So what’s an average...
Things To Do While Self-Isolating in Chicago: Part 5 — Great Chicago Reads
With tens of millions of Americans suddenly forced to work from home, to stay at home, and to confront the general cleanliness of their homes; this seems like a good time to discuss things to do while self-isolated in Chicago. The dilemma: You’re sheltering in place and confined to your home just as spring arrives and blooming flowers and trees beckon you to experience Chicago’s myriad sights, sounds and smells. What to do? A good...
Art Institute of Chicago Buildings Getting a Makeover
One of the city’s most important buildings is in for a change. Spanish architecture powerhouse Barozzi/Veiga plans to transform the Art Institute of Chicago’s multi-building campus which sprawls across the Metra tracks in Grant Park. The Art Institute’s good side (file) The company is named for its founders, Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga. We wanted to assess their museum chops, but unfortunately, there’s...
Slice of Life: No One Bitten At Wreathing Of The Lions
Standing on a frigid Black Friday morning alongside a couple of hundred other animal lovers, I came up with a joke. Question: How do you put a wreath on a lion? Answer: Very carefully. I realize this probably won’t get me an audition at Second City. But when the lions are quite huge and made of bronze, perhaps it’s still a fitting answer. They’ve been standing guard in front of the Art Institute of Chicago (111 South Michigan Avenue)...
10 Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About The Art Institute of Chicago
Thousands of people walk through the Chicago Art Institute every year to see “American Gothic” and “Nighthawks.” Students of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” can check out “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” But only the true architecture geek will bypass the historic works of art on display at Michigan Avenue and Monroe in favor of the architectural curiosities of the grand old building. How much do you know about the...
Slice of Life: The Stacking Lions
Outside the Art Institute of Chicago (111 South Michigan Avenue)… It’s a lion… inside of another lion! I’m a genius! I should have gone to art...
Inside Studio Gang Architects Exhibit Features Works By Celebrated Chicago Firm
When the City Hyde Park mixed-use development (1501 East Hyde Park Boulevard) is completed in 2014, residential units will boast an innovative balcony construction without external bracing. The result will be column-free views and balconies extending farther from the building. The creative design of the South Side project is typical of the work of Studio Gang Architects (SGA). City Hyde Park and a dozen other SGA projects are featured...
Hot Model: Untitled Picasso
At some point in a building’s life, whether it be before, or after, or during construction, a model of the building is made. Very often these models end up hidden away in offices, closets, and storage spaces where they can’t be appreciated by the public. But every once in a while, one of these smoking hot models escapes and is on public view. This is one: This is the model that Pablo Picasso made of the untitled...
One Way to Avoid the Splat of Birds
As long as people have been putting using glass in buildings, birds have been smacking into it. Sometimes the buildings are too tall, or in a centuries-old flight path, and sometimes the birds are just … well… bird-brained. This art school in Chicago put stickers of birds on its windows to maybe give the birds a clue that the wild blue yonder doesn’t continue through the glass. I’m not an expert on birds, but...
