Architecture: Bleader, Chicago Reader

Artist Martyl Langsdorf, mistress of Schweikher House and creator of the world's scariest logo

Deanna Isaacs — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 06:41:13 -0500

Fourteen years ago, when the Village of Schaumburg rescued the storied Schweikher house from destruction by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, I toured the house and met its diminutive occupant, artist Martyl Langsdorf. She and her husband, nuclear physicist Alexander Langsdorf, Jr., had purchased the home in 1953 from its designer, architect Robert Paul Schweikher.…

Shh! Chicago's secret festival plan

Deanna Isaacs — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:11:00 -0500

I finally understand why Mayor Emanuel agreed to let Northwestern University tear down Prentice Hospital.

But if I tell you, you'll have to promise to keep it under your hat.…

The Save Prentice Coalition gives up the fight to preserve Prentice

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:25:00 -0600

One day before they were due back in court, the Save Prentice Coalition has given up the fight over Bertrand Goldberg's unique hospital building, which Northwestern University plans to tear down to make way for a medical research facility.

Here's the statement the coalition issued today:

Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Landmarks Illinois moved for a voluntary dismissal of their complaint in Cook County Circuit Court, signaling the end of their legal challenge against the City of Chicago and the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.…
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Prentice suit amended, but not as judge intended?

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:55:00 -0600

Last month, Cook County Circuit Court judge Neil Cohen gave the National Trust for Historic Preservation 30 days to fix up its lawsuit against the City of Chicago and the Commission on Chicago Landmarks over their haste in giving preliminary landmark designation to the former Prentice Hospital and then taking it away, all in a single afternoon.

Which left Northwestern University, owner (but no lover) of the distinctive Bertrand Goldberg structure, free to blow it to smithereens.…

The landmarks commission stages a Prentice do-over, with the same result

Deanna Isaacs — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:07:00 -0600

The hero of the Prentice Hospital saga wasn't there on Thursday, when the Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted once again to take back the landmark designation it had given—and rescinded—in a single day last November.

And since he wasn't there, the vote was unanimous.…

Groundhog Day: Landmarks Commission will vote on Prentice

Deanna Isaacs — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:21:00 -0600

Wait a minute: haven't we been here before?

Late last week, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks posted an agenda for its February 7 meeting that contains a couple of surprising items at the bottom of the list.

First, they're going to consider a report from the Department of Housing and Economic Development on the impact of landmark status for Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital building, which Northwestern University wants to tear down.…

Judge: One month for another try at saving Goldberg's Prentice Hospital

Deanna Isaacs — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:27:00 -0600

In a session with enough piss and vinegar to make Judge Judy jealous, Cook County Circuit Court judge Neil H. Cohen gave the National Trust for Historic Preservation until February 15 to amend its lawsuit against the city and the Commission on Chicago Landmarks for their hurry-up revocation of landmark protection for Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital.

If they don't, their case will be dismissed and Northwestern University will be free to take the unique building down in order to build a medical research center on its site.…

My translation of a Wolf Point letter from Alderman Reilly

Ben Joravsky — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:31:00 -0600

I read the public letter from Alderman Brendan Reilly (42nd) explaining the latest events surrounding the controversial Wolf Point development deal.

Here's the full letter, if you want to read it.…

Court date set in battle to save Prentice: January 11

Deanna Isaacs — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 15:42:42 -0600

This should be interesting: in Cook County court today Judge Neil Cohen said he'll hear oral arguments January 11 on the city's motion to dismiss a suit filed last month by preservationists trying to keep Northwestern University from destroying the former Prentice Women's Hospital building, which it owns.

The plaintiffs in that suit, Landmarks Illinois and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, maintain that a vote last month by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks to take back protective designation it had just granted the Bertrand Goldberg building was illegal.…

Prenticegate: a trip to the inside of Mayor Rahm's brain

Ben Joravsky — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:33:00 -0600

From a purely selfish perspective, I've done pretty well with Mayor Rahm's decision to let Northwestern University demolish Prentice Women's Hospital.

That is, I won a bet.…

NU's plans, groupthink, and the legendary Building 20

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:14:50 -0600

Northwestern University is citing "critical proximity" as a nonnegotiable aspect of its plan to build a new medical research center on the site of Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital. Critical proximity is a technical term that means absolutely essential right-next-doorness.…

Preservationists sue, win temporary protection for Goldberg's Prentice Hospital

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:33:00 -0600

Preservationists filed suit in Cook County court against the city and the Chicago Commission on Public Landmarks this afternoon, seeking to reinstate landmark designation for Bertand Goldberg's Prentice Women's Hospital. The designation was rescinded by the landmarks commission two weeks ago, immediately after it was bestowed.…

"Future Prentice": How's this for global, Rahm?

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 18:00:00 -0600

Architects from 13 countries have contributed 71 entries to the the Chicago Architectural Club's "Future Prentice" competition.

Three winning entries, chosen by a panel of jurors last week, will be announced Thursday; you can get a look at them in a related exhibit opening at the Chicago Architecture Foundation Friday.…

A statement by Rahm means high noon for Prentice

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:00:00 -0500

It looks like we can kiss Bertrand Goldberg's distinctive Prentice Women's Hospital building good-bye.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel came out today in favor of Northwestern University's plan to tear the iconic structure down in order to build a new medical research facility on the Prentice site.

Two weeks ago, 42nd Ward alderman Brendan Reilly announced that he'd reached the same conclusion.…

Jeanne Gang tackles Prentice

Michael Miner — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:06:00 -0500

I'm all in with the flight of fancy that Jeanne Gang has proposed to save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Women's Hospital.

Build over it, she's told the New York Times, furnishing the Times with art that makes her idea look not merely intriguing but ravishing.…

We shouldn't pretend it's pretty

Michael Miner — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:44:00 -0500

I jumped at the opportunity to contribute to Local Artist Week because one of Chicago's liveliest ongoing controversies turns on what to do with a problematic piece of local art.

Inconveniently, it is also a piece of architecture.…

A modest proposal for NU's next architectural project

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:00:00 -0500

The Commission on Chicago Landmarks promised to take up the matter of Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital this fall, but we probably shouldn't hold our breath. It isn't on the agenda for the commission's meeting Thursday, and the next regular meeting isn't until November 1.…

Conversion conversations: Willis Johnson, owner of Classic Cinemas

Ben Sachs — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 11:19:42 -0500

In the last installment of this interview series on digital projection, I spoke to Gene Siskel Film Center projectionist Brandon Doherty about accommodating multiple projection formats in a single booth. Based on the challenges Doherty described vis a vis that process, I can only imagine the stress of converting 100 projection booths, as the suburban theater chain Classic Cinemas recently did.…

"The most significant piece of architecture that we own": NU Professor Gary Alan Fine weighs in on Prentice

Deanna Isaacs — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:12:00 -0500

After receiving two e-mails from Northwestern University that asked for support for its plan to tear down Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital without fully explaining what was at stake, NU professor Gary Alan Fine was moved to write the following letter to university President Morton Schapiro, Senior Vice President Eugene Sunshine, and Eugene Lowe, assistant to the president. Fine, who e-mailed the letter two weeks ago, hasn't yet received an official reply.…

Another Northwestern University poll (please do participate)

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:38:00 -0500

Hello! Do you have a moment to spare for our very brief survey?…

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Prentice will get its hearing at the Landmarks Commission

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 17:26:33 -0500

In an initial victory for preservationists, Chicago Landmarks Commission chairman Rafael Leon announced at the group's regular monthly meeting today that the former Prentice Women's Hospital building will be on the commission's agenda for consideration for landmark designation sometime this fall. Northwestern University wants to tear the iconic Bertrand Goldberg structure down and put a medical research center on its site; preservation groups have been trying for more than a year to get it a hearing.…
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Dear Rahm and Rafael: About that sudden groundswell of support for bulldozing Prentice

Deanna Isaacs — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:35:57 -0500

There's a good chance that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Landmarks Commission Chairman Rafael Leon are buried under a blitz of e-mails and phone calls about the old Prentice Hospital right now.

And most of those messages might be telling them to let Northwestern University go ahead and bulldoze Bertrand Goldberg's odd duck of a building.…
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More famous architects call for Prentice preservation; NU continues to press phony ultimatum

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:33:03 -0500

Five more Pritzker Prize winners have joined architects from all over the world urging Mayor Rahm Emanuel to save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital from Northwestern University's wrecking ball.

Tadao Ando, Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Eduardo Souto de Moura, and Robert Venturi have added their names to the dozens of signatories on a letter calling for the building's preservation.…
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Champions of the old Prentice Women's Hospital may be cloutless, but they shouldn't be

Michael Miner — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:38:00 -0500

About five years ago I got a telephone call from a well-spoken woman of a certain age and, if my ear didn't betray me, impeccable English erudition. I supposed her some sort of high official at Northwestern Memorial Hospital—or perhaps a chief surgeon's wife—and she was turning to me in an hour of need.…
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Learning through seeing: an interview with experimental documentarian Sabine Gruffat

Ben Sachs — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:55:00 -0500

Sabine Gruffat’s I Have Always Been a Dreamer (a choice selection of this year’s Chicago Underground Film Festival, which we cover in this week’s issue) is less a documentary than a city symphony—though perhaps it’s closer to the mark to call it a city double concerto. The movie compares the recent development of Dubai with that of Detroit; and while Gruffat’s sensitive to issues like labor relations, crime, and sustainable design, she’s clearly more interested in creating images than social analysis.…
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