One major feature of
Make New History is a contemporary exploration of the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower competition at a monumental scale in the
Chicago Cultural Center’s Yates Hall. Select participants have been invited to reimagine the landmark structure (the drawings of the original competition's over 280 dramatically varied entries were all published and displayed in a touring exhibition that attracted international attention). The competition was famously revisited in a group exhibition organized by Stanley Tigerman in 1980, (when some of the most influential architects of the time put forward their "late-entry" visions.) and produce new vertical visions that address the pressing issues of the 21st century.
The eventual winner, built on a prominent Michigan Avenue site at the southern end of the city's Magnificent Mile, was a neo-gothic building by New York architects John Howells and Raymond Hood.
Curators told at the Biennial's launch event: "We thought this was a good time to revisit the notion of the tower; the skyscraper at the size it used to be, which was much more human compared to those we see today. Some were thinking about structure, some were thinking about surfaces. In the end, they form this sort of hypostyle hall of towers."
Among the models is an construction of aluminium tubes by Boston- and Madrid-based Ensamble Studio, a stack of cast-glass cubes by New York practice MOS, and a totem of turned materials by London studio 6a Architects. And more:
Kéré Architecture – the Berlin studio behind this year's Serpentine Pavilion in London – imagines a stack of blue cylinders with cutouts inhabited by circular platforms. Éric Lapierre from Paris took a decahedral column used in his firm's 365 Student Housing and rescaled it as a monolithic white tower.
Sam Jacob Studio from London took elements of the completed building and merged them with Austrian architect Adolf Loos' 1922 competition entry – a building shaped like a massive doric column atop a cube-like pedestal. The result: "Our tower borrows Loos; tactic of appropriating existing architectural forms while using the Tribune's fragments as an architectural reference library, stacking each piece like an architectural game of exquisite corpse," said Jacob, who named his design Chicago Pasticcio.
Architect Tatiana Bilbao from Mexico similarly used an exquisite corpse approach for her (Not) Another Tower submission. Participants that included several Mexican and American studios, along with students from Columbia University's GSAPP, were each given a portion of the tower to design independently. After, the elements were then assembled forming a jumble of tiny rooms, structures, staircases and objects.
London studio Serie Architects populated its white open-framed structure with brightly coloured miniature furniture, while Barcelona-based Barozzi/Veiga covered its dark tower with a repeated relief pattern of circles and squares.
A model of Adolf Loos' initial design also features in the exhibition, along with German architect Ludwig Hilberseimer's rational block from the original competition.
Another primary element of the show is a collection of scale model dioramas that reconsider the interiors of some of architectural history’s most iconic buildings. The Cultural Center’s GAR Hall will be filled with an array of displays that enable visitors to explore these new designs up close.
The second edition of the
Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is the largest architecture and design exhibition in North America, showcasing the transformative global impact of creativity and innovation in these fields. This year’s Biennial features over 141 practitioners from more than 20 countries addressing the 2017 theme
‘Make New History.’ Artistic directors
Sharon Johnston and
Mark Lee have selected architects and artists whose eye-opening creations will invite the public to explore how the latest architecture can and will make new history in places around the world.
CAB is hosted by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events at the historic
Chicago Cultural Center. The
‘Make New History’ exhibition extends to off-site locations and is amplified through six community anchor exhibitions in the neighborhoods and two special project sites — plus installations, performances, talks, films, and more hosted by over 100 local and global cultural partners.
The main exhibition is free and open to the public from September 16, 2017 through January 7, 2018.
