I’ve been recommending things to do/see in Chicago to friends and family and realize I neglected to blog about my visit last September to the Chicago Architecture Foundation, near the Art Institute on South Michigan Ave. Several interesting tours leave from the place – and it has one of the best gift shops I’ve come across anywhere, full of great stuff on architecture and design – especially clever architecture T-shirts. Also forgot to mention one of my new favorite buildings in chicago – the Aqua Tower by Jeanne Gang. I was mesmerized by it a few years ago when I spotted it during a Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tour. The New Yorker gave it a thumbs up too recently. see :
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/skyline/2010/02/01/100201crsk_skyline_goldberger
Category Archives: architecture
Chicago Architecture Foundation/Aqua building
Filed under architecture, Chicago
Mason City and Frank Lloyd Wright
We went up to Mason City yesterday to check out the work being done to restore the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed hotel there and while there’s a lot of work still to be done, it’s a great looking building and should be a gem if restored well. The hotel and adjoining bank – are scheduled to reopen on June 30, 2011 although I’m told guests probably won’t be able to stay there until later in the summer. The bank side looks far from done – and the ground floor has been completely gutted. We couldn’t see the hotel side as well (construction of the building and the streets its on restricted our access and view) but looks like it’s more intact. It will be the only remaining of six FLW-designed hotels in operation!
We also visited the FLW-designed Stockman House – took an informative tour for $5 a piece. Well worth a visit- it’s the first FLW Prairie Style house in Iowa and was saved from the brink of destruction back in 1993. We also toured the Rock Glen/Rock Crest neighborhood – with its Prairie Style homes by a FLW contemporary. And of course we had to stop at Birdsall’s, the old ice cream store on Federal Street that looks pretty much like it did decades ago (and has very good malts and sundaes.) Nearby Borealis looked like a good place too – a little cafe.
Filed under architecture, Iowa
The Frank Lloyd Wright house in northeast Iowa
Not long ago, D and I toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Robie House near the University of Chicago on the south side. The tour cost $15 and we were in a group of maybe 10 people. The house was mid-renovation and had little furniture. I couldn’t help compare this to my visit a few years earlier with my friend Francine, who was visiting from London, to Wright’s not-as-famous-or-grand house, Cedar Rock, near the town of Quasqueton.
At Cedar Rock, Francine and I paid a very modest suggested donation – a couple of bucks as I recall – then hopped on a little cart that took us down to the house on the river. We – and only we – took a guided tour of the building, which was fully furnished. We were astonished to have the whole place to ourselves.
Now comes word that the trust fund that enabled these tours has run dry and the DNR has assumed most of the financial responsibilty. Staff has been cut, visitor hours and tour times have been reduced. Perhaps they should charge more for admission (currently, a “$5 donation is suggested) – which seems only fair. The home is open Memorial Day through Oct. 21, Thursday – Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with hourly tours.
Filed under architecture, Iowa
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