The death of modern architecture in Chicago, as seen by John Whiteman, director of the Chicago Institute for Architecture & Urbanism: “When I first arrived in ChicagoÉ everyone I met had a fragment from one of Sullivan’s dismantled buildings. These they proudly showed me. ‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ I was asked, repeatedly. Indeed each individual piece was beautiful, but, gazing on fragment after pathetic fragment, I could think only of Sullivan’s sad biography: the loss of his office, the dismissal of his theoretical ideas as ‘transcendental,’ his nervous breakdown after completing the Auditorium, his alcoholism, and his debts. Now I was being shown the dismemberment of his work” (Inland Architect, May/June 1990).
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What, no matchmaker? “We expect them to be like our grandfathers–little bearded men in black coats who would take any job to survive,” Marilou Kessler of Jewish Vocational Services tells the Chicago Reporter’s Jennifer Wolff (June 1990) about the unprecedented influx of Soviet Jewish refugees–roughly 100 a week this year–into West Rogers Park and nearby suburbs. “But these people are very similar to Americans in their wants and needs. They are not from ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’”
“We have not forgotten that this organization was founded by and for Chicago’s gay community,” writes Howard Brown Memorial Clinic executive director Judith Johns in HBMC’s newsletter Wellspring (Spring 1990). “Howard Brown is one of the few AIDS organizations which actually has the word ‘gay’ in its mission statement. Our programs and services are specifically designed for the needs and sensibilities of gays. So, when you see the diversity of our staff and volunteers, when you see us serving non-gay persons with AIDS, when you see us reaching out to raise money beyond the gay community, please understand… we are using the experience and the expertise of the gay community to help others deal with the AIDS crisis….The gay community fought this battle for many years almost entirely alone. We have an obligation to share what we have learned.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Carl Kock.
