Chicago: City of Architecture, Film and Ideas, Part 2

Chicago's Architecture Biennial offers tours* as far-ranging as visits to Frank Lloyd Wright's H.C. Johnson Center in Racine, Wisconsin, but there is plenty to see without leaving Chicago. Our first stop was the Chicago Cultural Center at 78 East Washington, looking across Michigan Avenue towards the Frank Gehry-designed band shell, and featuring the indoor exhibits for the Biennial which runs until January 7, 2018. The exhibits are free, and if you get hungry you can cross the street to Toni's Patisserie at 65 E. Washington. 

Inside the Cultural Center, our longest and most engaging stop was prompted by 3 projects on display by Archi-Union, a team of architects from Shanghai.  Showing models as well as photos of completed structures, Archi-Union made a strong impression with an approach combining elemental geometry, structural expression and organically warped surfaces.  An example of the latter is the way the sheer brick wall in the model below grows outward into a form recalling an eyebrow; this form echoes the angled parapet above at the same time it marks the entry.

The model of a structure with figure 8 roof is in the foreground below; the photo in the background is of the completed structure, where the roof is covered with tiles sized and shaped by computer.

The roof is even more striking without the roofing material attached, as the model shows its winding, mobius-like form curving over itself, as well as the clarity of the radiating structural ribs.

An entire gallery dedicated to the re-enactment of the 1922 Tribune Tower competition invites viewers to think about the genesis of form, with some examples echoing the emphasis on structural rigor which prevailed in the Chicago of the 1970s (one thinks of Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building) to the whimsical, impractical approach below, where a riot of forms, components, shapes and colors are stacked into an assemblage with the implication that they could be easily rearranged into another composition...

An architect friend suggested a visit to the Poetry Foundation, and on a day enlivened by crisp autumnal sunshine, we had a look.  The building by John Ronan Architects houses a library with 30,000 volumes, an exhibit gallery, a public performance space and the Foundation's offices, as well as the home of Poetry magazine. Visual intrigue is enhanced by the way the largely transparent building creates a sense of enclosure in the landscaped courtyard by deploying a punched metal screen as a sort of privacy curtain. The screen, which also shields the outer envelope on the street facades, solves a complex problem simply. It also manages the trick of revealing the building's mysteries gradually, avoiding the diagrammatic approach which tells the whole story before you get to the front door.  A poetic solution...

In the past decade or so, Chicago has paid more attention to its namesake river, with the construction of the popular Riverwalk (about which more later) and with two award-winning boathouses on the river designed by Studio Gang, the firm founded by Jeanne Gang, who combines community spirit with a fresh, inclusive approach to design.  Both the Riverwalk and the boathouses, one on the North Side and one on the South, have attracted national attention.  I decided to have a look at the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park, which fronts the Chicago River on Rockwell Street, tucked behind Lane Technical High School.  From the east or west elevations, the buildings have a sawtooth profile which the designers say was inspired by the motions of the rowers who practice on this stretch of river in all but the most forbidding weather.  Harder to capture in photos, but apparent in architectural drawings (here you can visit studiogang.com so we can avoid copyright infringment) is the alternating placement of trusses with "V" or "A" shaped profiles in the east-west direction, creating a series of south-facing clerestories which provide light year-round as well as solar heat in winter.

Another thing these trusses to is provide warped roof surfaces which enliven the interior spaces and provide a dash of complexity which is complemented by the careful use of materials (slate, metal and glass on the exterior, with wood and concrete complemented steel trusses inside).

The WMS Boathouse and the Riverwalk can be seen as part of an urban trend to revisit rivers, harbors and waterfront areas for their ecological value as well as their value as tourist destinations and recreational centers, and this trend has picked up its pace in recent years. In a project presaging that movement by around half a century, Chicago architect Bertrand Goldberg designed Marina City at State Street on the Chicago River in 1959. Completed in 1968, the two 65-story residential towers embodied a number of innovations. First, they incorporated a low, horizontal marina as a podium with restaurant spaces above boat slips, a recognition of the river's potential as a lively part of the urban scene.  Provision of an office block, covered parking in the tower bases*, an auditorium, swimming pool, health club and indoor shops and restaurants provided the option of living and working in a sort of megastructure without needing to experience harsh winter weather...it was, after all, called Marina City. The intent of the complex was also an innovation; it was financed mostly by the Building Service Employees Union as an effort to provide a viable downtown living alternative to the then-prevalent flight to the suburbs.

Today you can view Marina City from a pedestrian walkway across the river, on the Riverwalk which was begun in 2001 and constructed in three stages, with design provided by Ross Barney Architects.  On a warm autumn afternoon like this one, you can go fishing, take a boat tour, or idle among the restaurants, shops and bars which line the promenade.

*Footnotes and Facts:  I want to thank Chicago resident and longtime friend Toni Riccardi for hosting and taking pictures at the Biennial show, and architect Charlie Cunov for telling me about the Poetry Foundation.  As this website is entitled Poeschl on Cars, and I was in Chicago during the Film Festival, I cannot resist mentioning that two stunts have been filmed with real cars plunging into the Chicago River from the Marina City parking ramps. One was Steve McQueen's last movie, The Hunter, where a Pontiac Grand Prix crashes into the water.  For an insurance commercial in 2006, an Olds Cutlass tumbles from the 17th floor. You can sign up for building tours involving a lot less risk at the Chicago Cultural Center during the Biennial.

Photo credits:

Top:  the author.

Photos 2 through 6:  Toni Riccardi
Riverwalk at night (bottom):  wikimedia

Remainder of photos:  the author.