Great Houses of Chicago, Mrs. Huxtable's "Terroir" & Financial Times Montage

This post has three subjects that have a random, subtle relationship. I didn't plan it but they share ideas about the sense of place that surrounds a design.

The first is an extended review of a great and heavy new book about rich people's houses in Chicago. My review was originally published on the Society of Architectural Historians Chicago Chapter Blog - this version is more personal and wanders a bit.

The second is simply a recommendation that you buy the Wall Street Journal if for no other reason than to get Mrs. Huxtable's occasional essay - especially her recent exploration of context vs. destination and spectacle architecture.

The third subject is an image - the Financial Times widespread campaign that uproots all the world's major modern banks and trading structures (some imagined, I suppose) and plops them on an island.

Great Houses of Chicago 1871-1921

Susan Benjamin and Stuart Cohen

Foreword by Franz Schulze and Arthur H. Miller

9 x 12 inches, 334 pages, ISBN: 978-0-926464-39-8 •

$75.00 Acanthus Press

Synopsis: An essential reference tool for Chicago architecture, interior design, decorative art and history libraries.

SAH and Chicago Chapter members Susan Benjamin and Stuart Cohen have produced the most comprehensive overview on Chicago’s mansions, castles and residential fortresses.

This outstanding volume balances diverse sources and matches the pantheon of architects with those early patrons - the pioneers, nouveau riche and old eastern money. Nearly 350 sepia toned photographs, drawings, and floor plans are breathtaking in scope and detail. The visual content effectively evokes the muffled footsteps of parlor maids and rebukes by gruff railroad barons.

Rare figures of inhabitants intervene only occasionally; a child on a tricycle, Mr. Eliphalet Blatchford in his library but mostly the human presence consists of portraits above highly embellished fireplaces. The majority of these pictures were taken as silent documents of wealth and expressions of erudition but they evoke a surprisingly shaky, unconfident sense of style.

Even so, readers will derive a clear sense of each family’s private aesthetic and public facade. Interior design and decorative arts are as compelling as the structures. Paintings, sculpture, textiles, carvings, animal skins, all manner of souvenirs from grand tours and chotzkes galore - are piled in impeccable abandon.

It's tempting to search for the very few objects that found their way to the Art Insitute's collection.

The Editorial content is superb in providing the ontology of Chicago’s residential style, social context, family history and the sources of wealth.

Great Chicago Houses is also peppered with aridly amusing anecdotes. It makes a surprisingly entertaining read.

I was especially touched by the 1903 Julius Rosenwald House by Nimmons & Fellows and the authors' treatment. The book’s testimony to one of the greatest of Chicago’s early entrepreneurs and philanthropists is gracious and the house itself is uncomplicated but beautifully designed.

The strange sadness that pervade the book - especially for a lifelong Chicagoan - is linked with the number of demolished structures. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. These captains of industry built these palazzo's on the prairie to last. The quality of workmanship and materials was meant to echo the european structures that they saw on their trips. It was one of their frequent and futile, strikes at immortality. I wonder if they imagined that their children would inhabit the houses after them, shuddering from the capitalistic ghosts of their patriarchs or if they thought there would be tremendous competition to acquire their peculiar ornate newel posts (done - but in salvage yards).

For the great majority - their ghosts left with a wrecking ball within fifty or sixty years! They built with a sense of permanence and luxury that would institutionalize their memories but technology, location and that wierd, short cycle - 30 years after construction - when vernacular architecure becomes distasteful - killed a lot of them.

Chicago's growth continues -- inevitable, consistent and totally unrepentant in ravaging the past.

One note for the 2nd edition: while some photo dates are available in the Illustration Credits, label dates or indication of the probable range when the pictures were taken (circa) or even “date unknown” would provide an even richer context. Knowing if the varnish on the spindles is dry or decades old would add polish to this significant volume.

Below: Julius Rosenwald Residence: Demolished

Images courtesy of Acanthus Press.

Again, With Mrs. H.

Mrs. Huxtable's brilliant contruction in the Wall Street Journal includes an archicentric use of the word "terroir" and this ruthlessly correct phrase:

"None of this matters; superperfectionism seems stale and out of date."

As usual, I agree with every character she writes even though a good friend has admonished
not to idolize, deify or carve a pedastal - I can't help myself. Why don't we hear her.

It reminds me of what Frank Lloyd Wright said about Adlai Stevenson: "He didn't win because Americans don't like a thinking man in the White House."

The Financial Times Version of the Island of Doctor Moreau

Try to get a cab or a 2 bedroom vintage rental.

Mrs. Huxtable in WSJ on Early Soviet Modernism

Mrs. H's new review of MoMA's photo show that documents dissapearing early modernism is classic Huxtable. The exhibition, book and her article demonstrate the importance of memory - that the early Soviet ideals included a place for new art and architecture and their influence on society. This period of bold utopian ideals embodied in design is still fresh and relevant. Unfortunately, freedom of expression was short-lived and it's a terrible shame.

Be sure to click on the slide show.

She ends the article with an account of visiting an elderly, forgotten master. This story within the article is a little slice of Pushkin. She rocks on and this is more rationale for an autobiography.

There is no mention of my favorite: Tatlin's Tower but a radio tower in the slide show embodies some astonishing constructivist features.

SAH Chicago Dual Subject Tour at U of I - Chicago

The Society of Architectural Historians – Chicago Chapter invites you to join us for a tour and reception on Saturday, September 29th, 2007.

Dual Subjects: Netsch Design for the U of I at Chicago

& The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition Collection at Henry Hall

Hosted by David Sokol and Keith Bringe

The tour kicks off from Henry Hall (click here for printable map), 935 West Harrison \

at 1:00 pm. A reception will follow.

Takamura Ko-un's Ram-ma from the Hooden – or Japanese Pavillion.

Collection: U of I - Department of Art History

RSVP to Keith at 708-358-1394.

Free for members of SAH-Chicago. $10 for non-members.

Take advantage of this special offer; join SAH-Chicago for a full year of great tours, receptions and events at just $25 for individuals and tour for free.
Download this form and bring it with you.

The tour will include a viewing of the Ram-ma - two monumental carved screens that were featured in the Japanese Pavillion, or Hooden in 1893. This popular and influential feature of the Expo exerted tremendous influence on Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as the community. Unfortunately, these rare surviving 19th century gifts from the Imperial Government of Japan are in terrible condition and are in dire need of conservation and restoration. They were “rediscovered” in the early 1970’s – wrapped in canvas stored under the bleachers at Soldier’s Field. This is an excellent period overview on the Hooden including the Ram-ma. The Ram-ma were positioned at the level of a clerestory and served as ventillation panels.

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U of I Tour Part 2: Netsch Campus Design

Walter Netsch original design for the U of I represents a watershed in the history of urban campus design. Netsch was inspired by the idea of a drop of water with waves emanating from a central court - or "forum". The design was visionary and was the first true expression of his Field Theory, but the political circumstances of the University's development and community response have combined to dilute the original vision. We will view surviving buildings and discuss the evolution of the campus. Read Betty Blum's "Chicago Architects Oral History" interview with Netsch (pages 191 - 218).

The Behavioral Sciences Building expresse a jump forward

in approach to academic form andd function.

But How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?

Yesterday, over a greek salad with an art historian on the side, I was searching my brain for a great word. My brain responded today. The word is 'anastylosis'.

Anastylosis describes the somewhat controversial practice of reconstruction in archaeology, historic preservation and even can be extended to object conservation. It is a thing of degrees, a subject of quality and a slave to the time in which it occurs. It effects what we see on buildings, in art and culture in general.

There is a poem here somewhere. The Japanese idea of wabi-sabi is central to a romantic ideal of restoration.

My fascination with this subject runs deep because important preservation decisions have consistently been derived from passionate, intense, personal ideas as experts and amateurs defend their understanding of style and material.

Sometimes the temptation to express our individuality can easily corrupt the authentic. This is the nature of history.

Contemporary art often includes an element of decay to intentionally frustrate the whole industry of preservation. Think conceptual art.

Just to set the scene, I imagine 56 shards of a red and black Greek vase lying in pieces on a steel table. Eight pieces of varying sizes are missing. Old Anastylosis goes about gluing the original pieces together with duplicated replacement pieces then painting them to match by assumption of style. The conservator becomes a secondary artist in the process – sometimes centuries after the original artist lays down their brush.

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The conservator continues painting lines across blank areas, interprets subject matter and aesthetics. A foot continues from the ancient leg to the modern toes, a face gets a modern nose but God is in the eyes and you can always tell from the eyes. Then the whole pot was varnished or rubbed with petroleum jelly (vasoline was a common gimmick to bring out the designs and in the last few decades "el marko" was used to touch up the Greek pots.)

The historical, moral and aesthetic consequences of this unpopular process have been exhaustively debated. But how interesting is a pile of fifty-two shards of an attic crater?

The contemporary compromise includes assembling original fragments and replacing the missing pieces with a neutral ground that can be easily differentiated from the original. All restorations must be reversible and with a material that decays faster than the original. The shape of the vase can reasonably be assumed from the existing pieces.

The exquisitely evocative settlement of Petra is an example of architectural anastylosis that is undergoing extensive revision as funds are raised for yet another restoration. The relentless hot winds of the desert reclaim the sandstone every moment.

Another Example: The Library at Ephesos

A Famous Example of Error in Anastylosis is the Laocoon

Restored Version. Note the Left Arm.

During the highest Renaissance, the fragments of this ancient masterpiece were excavated and they took 'em to the Pope. El Popo sought advice from artists and scholars about restoration. Passionate debates ensued. I like to imagine the characters of the day twisting themselves into the death throes they imagined a Hellenistic murder-by-serpent would require. The Laocoon was one of the most influential finds of the period – perhaps stirring souls toward a more mannerist ideal and then of course to the Baroque. Some contemporary dance group should intrepret Laocoon.

The placement of the arm on a “restoration” would be especially important. Everybody had an opinion. It was a passionate debate. Michelangelo had a good theory that would seem like a man scratching his back but Raphael was the appointed judge and he chose a more active, outward pose - the arm lifting up toward the sky - which was sculpted and joined to the original.

Skip ahead a few centuries to 1957. The original arm was found laying around in a workshop. It was turned inward toward the figure’s back. Michelangelo’s vindication expresses his deeper understanding of classical composition, human emotion, anatomy and the classical sculptural view. An unpopular truth.

Anastylosis continues in preservation communities and conservation labs everywhere, hopefully in a more justifiable and considered way.

The reason for this post was arriving at my favorite variation on this concept - wabi sabi -which is the best approach. Conservation and repair of objects in Japan have historically encompassed Zen spirituality. Ancient earthenware tea ceremony objects were fused with 23 karat gold. This idea has respected the history of the object. The origin, violence and truth are shown with an honest love.

Raku Tea bowl, 19th century, Dosai Edo period.

One more example, of great, contemporary architectural anastylosis - Eric Lloyd Wright and Joel Silver's restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's Storer Residence in Hollywood. Don't disturb the residents but if you can see the restoration treatment of the concrete "textile blocks" up close - you'll suddenly understand. This was a diffcult proposition and the treatment is sensitive, evocative and appropriate. Each block was treated individually, respected for its history and repaired carefully with similar but not identical materials. Moss grows through some of the restoration making it one of the most romantic buildings in America. I wish I had a better photo of the exterior. Here's one from Great Buildings Online: