Leslie Goddard’s book Remembering Marshall Field’s is a work of historical preservation that conserves the memories and meaning of a special department store within the collective consciousness of Chicago. At a recent lunchtime lecture at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Goddard spoke about the intimately intertwined relationship between Marshall Field’s and the city of Chicago, revealing a rich history of urban and cultural transformation with experiences that influenced millions of peoples’ lives. The story begins in 1852 with a small dry goods store on Lake Street called P. Palmer & Co. that would grow...

Introduction Roosevelt University is in the midst of a campaign to elevate its status as an institution of higher education. The centerpiece of this venture is the newly constructed Roosevelt University Tower (435 South Wabash Avenue) where the educational standard is physically manifested in the architecture and design. Chuck Middleton, Roosevelt University’s President set the stakes high for the quality of both academics and architecture saying, “We are building the quintessential 21st Century university structure and it’s going to give us a dramatic new image on Chicago’s skyline.” The high expectations and...

The Navy Pier Redesign Competition brought plenty of excitement to the Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesday night, the first of two evenings of presentations by the design teams articulating new visions for the Chicago landmark. The public was able to inspect models of the proposals and glance at television screens flashing renderings. As the start of the program approached, the 300-seat theater was at capacity, and even the overflow room was overflowing. The strong public interest illustrates Chicago’s love of visionary design and Navy Pier’s ability to generate publicity for the project. Despite coming for different corners...

Don’t let the hole in the ground fool you. A real drama is underway at the corner of Racine and Fullerton. Six months after groundbreaking, the opening act of DePaul’s new Theater Building is well underway. Heavy machinery guided by men with orange vests move the earth, pour concrete and lay pipes as they transform a parking lot into a modern arts facility. The architect of this play is Cesar Pelli, the former dean of the School of Architecture at Yale University with a portfolio full of notable international projects. DePaul has made an unusual move selecting someone as creative as Pelli for the commission. After a ripe...

The 1960′s were boom years for campus construction in the United States and Chicago was no exception. Mayor Richard J. Daley decided it was time to construct a quality public university accessible to the children of the city’s working class, something the city still lacked. Daley selected his favorite architecture design firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for the project with architect Walter Netsch leading the design team. Two themes dominated the project: Brutalism and Field Theory. Brutalism, a offshoot of Modernism, is an architectural style combining repetitive angular geometries with concrete as the predominate material....