High Art: Chicago Athenaeum’s New Video Celebrates Skyscrapers
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The video was originally produced as part of a traveling exhibit of the same name that features some 175 drawings of Chicago high rises built over the last four years–about 80 towers in all. The exhibit, currently in Warsaw, Poland, has been seen in more than ten European and South American cities. The finished video is a somewhat solemn but carefully crafted and informative study of four existing buildings–the familiar green 333 W. Wacker, by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates P.C.; Northwestern Terminal, by Murphy-Jahn; 190 S. LaSalle, by John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson; and the AT&T Corporate Center, by Skidmore Owings & Merrill–and one proposed building, the Miglin-Beitler Tower by Cesar Pelli & Associates, which if ever built would be the world’s tallest skyscraper.
For those interested in taking a closer look at this city’s modern architectural riches, Laine and Blomstedt’s video serves as a good primer. But Laine continues to wonder whether the city will ever get around to aggressively marketing its architectural wonders. “This administration is beginning to wake up,” he says, but it still has a long way to go in developing an effective advertising and promotion campaign that would convey the excitement and beauty of the city’s high-rise architecture to potential visitors and the local populace. Part of the problem, Laine says, is that many people have not been educated to understand that modern. architecture is both functional and aesthetic. “We’re still trying to get across the idea that architecture is an art form.”
Ketchup and Relish, But No Hot Dog
But even Lettuce Entertain You isn’t always sure what it wants. At last month’s opening of Maggiano’s Italian restaurant and bakery at Clark and Grand, founder Rich Melman said another of his upcoming entries, a Greek eatery called Papagus, has been delayed for several months while he’s worked on getting the design concept the way he wants it. Getting the right look required rejecting several designers who had submitted ideas and finally bringing in Pat Culetto from San Francisco. Culetto designed the Fog City Diner in San Francisco and the Buckhead Diner in Atlanta, among other projects. At Papagus, located in the Embassy Suites Hotel at 620 N. State and scheduled to open January 14, Culetto will use stone walls, tile floors, arched ceilings, and lots of bleached wood. Papagus will bring to eight the number of restaurants Lettuce Entertain You operates in River North. Melman said his restaurants have been affected by the slump in dining out, but not as much as some. “I think the top 100 restaurants in the city will always do OK,” said Melman; he also thinks the recession could continue to affect the restaurant business for another 12 to 18 months.
