Chicagoans of the Year
Today's Chicago Tribune features the paper's critics' choices for Chicagoans of the Year. Blair Kamin's votes for Jeanne Gang, who definitely has had quite a year, from the Masonry Variations Exhibit at the National Building Museum and its awards to the recent Chicago Architecture Ten Visions Exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. In between were the winning entries for the Ford Calumet Environmental Center and the Hoboken September 11 Memorial, the opening of the Kam Liu Building in Chinatown.
Kamin mentions their consultant work for Lakeshore East. Hired by the developer/architect Jim Loewenberg, designer of many of Chicago's ugliest towers of late, Gang's contribution should help the large development under construction east of the Loop. He concludes,
As impressive as Gang's output has been, the most telling sign of her success is the stack of resumes that sit on a desk inside her firm's office. Many are from out-of-town architects, including some from overseas. Word about Gang and her firm is clearly spreading, as is word of Chicago's architectural revival after the largely dormant decade of the 1990s.
[Moved by web page administrator from original HaloScan comment box]: Regarding Weekly Dose:
ReplyDeleteI question the price of this prototype house, it would appear that perhaps the glazing alone would cost close to the overall price, but maybe not in Chile. I also would question the wide range public appeal of such a brutalist form(although not concrete) , as the building seems to be envisioned for the common folk. But perhaps the appeal of modernism in Chile is not what it is in the US. I Thoroughly enjoy the piece myself.
[Moved by web page administrator from original HaloScan comment box]:I'm hoping the wide range of possibilities available by the kit of parts will be aided by a wide range of exterior finishes, though that doesn't appear to be an issue at the moment. It's definitely a house designed from the inside out, and is therefore functionally driven and (hopefully) functionally successful. But what happens outside will definitely be a concern if the project is exported. Personally, I like the way the building fits into the natural site here, a contrast but one that works. Somewhere else that might not be the case.
ReplyDelete[Moved by web page administrator from original HaloScan comment box]:Jeanne Gang is hot. We could create some beatiful buildings together.
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