Friday 23
The longest bicycle in the world, made a few years back by a bunch of enterprising Marquette University engineering students, is 97 feet long, weighs five tons, and handles 36 riders. For the second year in a row, the bike is one of the centerpieces of the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities Christmas Parade today along Michigan Avenue. Also featured will be the Shriners’ “Big Wheels” bicycle corps, all riding those fin de siecle models with the huge front wheel and tiny back wheel. The parade starts at noon and goes until 2, running up Michigan from Balbo to Wacker. Call 880-0433.
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Monday 26
Coop Himmelblau is considered one of the most innovative architecture firms in the world; most recently, the Vienna- and LA-based company won an international competition to design La Ville Nouvelle de Melun-Senart, a satellite city planned for the outskirts of Paris. The firm is known for its philosophy of “open architecture,” which the Architecture Society of the Art Institute describes as exploring “the boundaries between art and architecture, indoors and outdoors, and decision by choice versus the unconscious.” Austrian architect Wolf D. Prix, one of the firm’s founders, speaks tonight on its work; he’ll concentrate on a new development in Vienna, the city’s first high rise, a 40-story “hybrid” that will include offices, apartments, a hotel, a recreation area, galleries, a small theater, and a cinema. The presentation begins with a cocktail reception at 5:30 at the Hyatt Suites Hotel, 676 N. Michigan; Prix speaks at 6. It’s $10 for members of the Architecture Society, $15 for nonmembers, $5 for students. Call 443-3949 for information.
