Tag: architecture

Reebie Storage Warehouse

Seth Anderson0 comment

I’ve long admired the Reebie Storage Warehouse, even purchased some moving supplies from there back in the 1990s, even though I probably didn’t need to. I have taken dozens of photos of the place over the years, a few of which are Flickr-ized

Reebie Building - Stand Like an Egyptian

Reebie Scarab - Kodachrome

I had a vague sense that the building was Egyptian Revival, but didn’t really glom onto the details until I discovered this blog post on the new BluePrint Chicago blog:

Egyptology was all the rage in the early 20th century, particularly after the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. One effect this had was seen in the popularization of Egyptian Revival architecture across the United States. However, not all of the buildings were equals in terms of being historically accurate. Some buildings fit into the category of Egyptian Revival, and some Academic Egyptian Revival. Egyptian Revival architecture was much more common, and though it had many Egyptian-like elements, it lacked a sensibility to Egypt’s history. Instead they were “picturesque” – which is lovely, but not necessarily accurate. Academic Egyptian Revival architecture was historically accurate. And The Reebie Storage Warehouse is one the country’s finest examples of Academic Egyptian Revival architecture.

The warehouse was based on two ancient Egyptian temples: Dendera and Edfu, both of which date back to the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II (around 200 BCE). The columns on the Reebie building are replicas of columns at the Temple Horus at Edfu. The ornamentation on them is symbolic of the unity of Ancient Egypt through the depiction of the bundled lotus flower which represents Upper Egypt, and the water lily representing Lower Egypt. On either side of the building’s entrance is a statue of Ramses II, representing the two Reebie brothers: William and John. Beneath the two statues are William and John’s names written in the hieroglyphic equivalent of their phonetic spellings. Two other hieroglyphic inscriptions read “I have protection upon your furniture and all sealed things” and “I have guarded all your property every day warding off devouring flames, likewise robbery.” All of the ornamental drawings for the Reebie warehouse were reviewed for accuracy by both the Field Museum and Art Institute prior to their implementation.

[Click to continue reading Reebie Storage Warehouse « BLUEPRINT: Chicago]

[via The Chicago Reader]

Virtual Time Travelling in Assassin’s Creed 2

Seth Anderson0 comment


“Assassin’s Creed II” (UBI Soft)

Video games sure have progressed in sophistication since the days of Pitfall Harry on an Atari 2600

Melik Kaylan writes:

With the release of Assassin’s Creed II in November, a lot changed. Ostensibly the story of a time traveler who journeys back to the Renaissance, becoming a hooded Florentine protagonist tasked with avenging the murder of his parents, the game is set in Florence, Venice and Rome over a number of decades leading up to the year 1499. The game’s producer-authors chose those years as the most eventful of the era and labored lovingly to re-create the environs as exactly as possible. They hired Renaissance scholars to advise on period garb, architecture, urban planning, weaponry and the like. They took tens of thousands of photographs of interiors and streets. They used Google Earth liberally to piece together the ground-up and sky-down perspectives through which the action flows.

…

The game’s creative director, a Montrealer named Patrice Desilets, lived in Italy for some years, where he acquired a feel for the vivid intrigues of the Renaissance. He grew fascinated, he says, with the notion that “finally people can control time, and relive the past, through games.” The producer, Sebastien Puel, was born in the south of France, in the fortified medieval French town of Carcassonne, and grew up surrounded by history. The head writer, a Harvard graduate from Los Angeles and former screenwriter, Corey May, was driven, he says, by the challenge of “telling a story that feels real and is set among real people who existed.”

The game’s plot, boiled down to its bare essentials, serves up the standard, if glowingly visualized, perquisites of current pop-fiction narratives—regression through genetic memory, Dan Brown-ish secrets of the Templars, and a central fictitious protagonist, Ezio, who traverses venerable Italian cities with great physical agility hunting Renaissance bad guys. In Florence, for example, Ezio leaps and climbs, in a manner that calls to mind the urban gymnastics of Parkour, over and through such familiar monuments as the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo and the Palazzo Vecchio. That’s when he’s not crossing roofs or wading through streets inhabited by courtesans, brotherhoods of thieves and Florentine soldiers, all of whom come with little optional windows where you can learn about their customs. Even the faces of bystanders are based on portraits of the time.

[Click to continue reading Assassin’s Creed II Brings Time Travel Closer to Reality | By Melik Kaylan – WSJ.com]

[non-WSJ subscribers click this link to read full article]

Sounds like a lot of fun, actually. I hope the game is wildly successful and generates many sequels…

Reading Around on December 15th through December 16th

swanksalot1 Comment

A few interesting links collected December 15th through December 16th:

  • Local Taste Dept.: On Top of Spaghetti : The New Yorker – Cincinnati-style chili has little in common with the Texas variety except for the ardor of its fans. The core concoction consists of ground beef in a thin, tomato-based sauce that is tangy rather than spicy. (Chocolate is rumored to be a secret ingredient.) In the basic presentation, the chili is poured over slightly overcooked spaghetti and topped with shredded Cheddar cheese; this is known as a “three-way.” Adding onions or red beans makes it a four-way; adding onions and red beans turns it into a five-way. There is no such thing as a six-way, although oyster crackers are the customary garnish. Chili and cheese on a hot dog is called a Coney.Sounds gross to me
  • A Million Times – Louis Sullivan designed the facade of the building that was built by architect, William Presto (Presto!) in 1922. It was his last commission before his death and I just think it’s one of his prettiest. Clad in terra cotta (basically a baked clay) the excellent, intricate design frames the large retail window, bringing your eye to the goods being sold inside. Even though the building is smaller than the ones that surround it, the Krause store seems to stand taller and larger because of its awesome.

  • Superheroes Throughout History – This interesting collection of images by Indonesian artist Agan Harahap, titled “Super Hero”, features famous superheroes (and villains) inserted into iconic war photographs.

    Though it’s not “photography” per se, we found this set of images quite amusing.

Unions Push to Finish Tallest Tower in Chicago

Seth Anderson0 comment

The 2,000 foot planned condo tower, designed by Calatrava, has been stuck at hole-in-the-ground status for a while now. [Wikipedia has a few photos, including this one]. Wonder if this latest surge will help complete the project?


[artist’s rendition of the Spire, via Wikipedia]

The stalled construction of North America’s tallest building, a 150-story luxury residential tower planned for downtown, may get a boost from unionized construction workers desperate for jobs.

Any effort to save the Chicago Spire faces major hurdles, especially coming after a real-estate glut that flooded Chicago with new condos. Plans call for the 2,000-foot-high Spire to have nearly 1,200 units — more than are expected to be completed for the entire downtown area in 2010. Prices start at $750,000, with the bulk of the condos costing $2 million to $15 million.

Workers broke ground with great fanfare in 2007, but the project stalled last year amid the financial crisis when funding dried up. That left many doubtful that the Santiago Calatrava-designed tower would ever emerge from the circular foundation that sits about a block from Lake Michigan.

Now a group of union pension funds is conducting due diligence on a plan to lend $170 million to Irish developer Shelbourne Development Group, said Tom Villanova, president of the Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents 24 unions with some 100,000 members.[Click to continue reading Push to Finish Tallest Tower – WSJ.com]
[Non-WSJ subscribers use this Digg-enabled link]

The Chicago Spire website is a flash-centric p.o.s., but if flash annoys you less than it annoys me, browse the Chicago Spire website here for lots of photos, descriptions and the like.

and the failed Olympics bid continues to have a ripple effect on the Chicago economy:

The Spire got an unlikely break in early October with the demise of Chicago’s hopes to host the 2016 Olympics. Mr. Villanova, who was on Chicago’s Olympic bid committee, said the unions had committed to help fund the Olympic Village to house athletes. “When that went south on us, we started focusing on the Spire project,” he said.

After cranking out an average of 4,500 new condo units a year downtown for the past four years, Chicago developers expect to complete 900 units next year and fewer than 100 in 2012, said Gail Lissner, vice president of Appraisal Research Counselors, a Chicago appraisal and consulting firm. “We don’t see cranes in the sky anymore,” Ms. Lisser said, which could mean the Spire would arrive in a much-changed market in four or five years.

City Farm

swanksalot0 comment
City Farm
City Farm, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

Division and Laramie, or nearby.

www.resourcecenterchicago.org/70thfarm.html

Schiff Residences building in the background with what look to be wind turbines for generating electricity

Dwell Magazine write-up about the building:
www.dwell.com/articles/all-aboard-concepts.html

Fisher Building

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Fisher Building
Fisher Building, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

Dearborn

View On Black

taken last year.

From Wikipedia:

The Fisher Building is 20-story, 275 foot tall neo-Gothic landmark building in the Chicago Loop community area of Chicago. Commissioned by paper magnate Lucius Fisher, the original building was completed in 1896 by D.H. Burnham & Company with an addition latter added in 1907.

It was designated a Chicago Landmark on June 7, 1978. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976.

Currently owned and managed by Village Green Management Company, the building houses apartments on floors 3-20 and commercial stores on the 1st and 2nd floors. At the time of its completion, the building was one of two buildings in Chicago that was 18 stories tall, the other being the Masonic Building. To this day, the Fisher Building is the oldest 18 story building in Chicago that has not been demolished. The Masonic Temple, while taller and older, was demolished in 1939

Though a project of D.H. Burnham & Company, the original structure was designed by Charles Atwood. In 1906, an addition on the northern side of the building raised it from 18 to 20 stories. A former employee of the Burnham firm, Peter J. Weber, designed and oversaw the building’s addition which was completed in 1907

Reading Around on November 4th through November 6th

swanksalot0 comment

A few interesting links collected November 4th through November 6th:

  • The Unemployment Rate for People Like You – Interactive Graphic – NYTimes.com – “For white men ages 25 to 44 with a college degree”: 3.9% unemployment. Oh, well that makes a less compelling headline now, doesn’t it.
  • Dorms for the dead | Crain’s Chicago Business – The dead may breathe new life into the Three Arts Club in the Gold Coast. Once a 110-room dormitory for women artists, the landmark building could become a permanent home to the cremated remains of as many as 15,000 people. That plan, put forth by a group of investors led by Chicago architect Bill Bickford, is a novel one for a property revered by preservationists
  • Preserving the History of Haight-Ashbury – Photo Journal – WSJ – “Two groups are planning museums in the legendary neighborhood to capture memories of the 1960s hippie movement before they fade with age. If the museums launch, they would be the latest in a recent push by San Francisco groups to better document the city’s history”

The Three Arts Club Chicago – a Mausoleum

swanksalot1 Comment

Gold Coast

www.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/T/ThreeArts.html

Crains reports: building considered being converted into a mausoleum www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?article_id=325…
Seems sort of a ridiculous waste of an architecturally significant building.

Designed by Holabird & Roche and completed in 1914, the Three Arts Club was home to more than 12,000 female artists during its nearly 90-year existence but closed in 2003 because it didn’t have money for a major renovation. The building was designated a landmark in 1981.

A company controlled by Chicago developer Mark Hunt paid $13 million for the building in 2003 with the idea of converting it into a boutique hotel and social club. But that plan fizzled, and Mr. Hunt put the property back on the market.

THE CREMATION TREND COULD FUEL DEMAND FOR MORE PROJECTS. ABOUT A THIRD OF AMERICANS WHO DIED LAST YEAR WERE CREMATED, UP FROM 7% IN 1975.

Mr. Bickford confirms that he and his partners have a letter of intent to buy the building. Sources say Mr. Bickford’s group has agreed to pay $6 million to $7 million for the property, less than Mr. Hunt’s $9.8-million loan, which came due in February. Mr. Hunt did not respond to requests for comment.

Where Mr. Bickford’s idea goes from here will depend in part on how Gold Coast residents react to it. Alderman Brendan Reilly (42nd), whose ward includes the property, is reserving judgment but likes the proposed project’s limited impact on traffic.

sure, it would be quiet, but is that really what the building should be used for?