Tours
Green in the Loop 1908-2008 architectural walking tour
Date: Sunday, April 27, 2008
Time: 2:00-3:30 PM
Location: Daley Plaza, Washington St & Dearborn St (meet on south side of Picasso sculpture)
Introduction
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A city is made of more than monuments
What can I expect from this tour?
Tour details
Testimonials
Your guide
Press
Related posts
More gratuitous architecture photos
The view skywards from the Blue Line stairs at Jackson and Dearborn Streets.
Introduction
While Chicago makes strides toward the future to become a green city, what did green mean a century ago?
In the early 20th century, architects and engineers did not depend entirely upon the highly advanced technologies we take for granted today. While newer advances such as electric light, elevators, and steel were increasingly used, buildings still relied heavily on tried and true engineering, design, and planning principles - locally-sourced materials, balancing structural redundancy with efficiency, gravity-fed water supplies, naturally lit and ventilated spaces, and civic responsibility.
Having special relevance during Earth Week 2008 (April 21-27), learning from past achievements will help illuminate the way toward truly sustainable cities.
Image source: Google Earth
A city is made of more than monuments
These buildings are worthy of study.
Why?
Because they still stand.
They still stand because they were well-made, they work, and we love them.
These are testaments to their value.
From buildings designed by some of the world’s greatest architects to lesser-known gems, however, it is important to understand how a living city works (and worked) by learning about buildings in the fabric of the city of which they are a part, rather than as isolated monuments.
GAR Rotunda in the Chicago Cultural Center. The dome once brought natural light to lower floors with the help of glass blocks inset in the tile mosaic floor.
What can I expect from this tour?
This is not an exhaustive historical tour.
Names of architects, exact dates, exact building weight and height… all fun facts, but not the point. Those may be found online or any number of excellent publications on Chicago architecture.
You will not be quizzed.
This is not a test.
This tour is about experiencing buildings in their context, seeing how they are used, have been adapted, and imaging how they once were and might be again.
My intent is for you to leave this tour with a greater appreciation for the fundamentals of what make our buildings relevant.
Buildings you will visit include:
Carson Pirie Scott & Co.
Chicago Cultural Center (form. Chicago Public Central Library)
Monadnock Building
Railway Exchange (Santa Fe) Building
Hotel Burnham (form. Reliance Building)
The Rookery
Delaware Bldg
Don’t forget… we won’t ignore the present city while touching upon the past.
Contemporary buildings and spaces visited will include:
Art Institute new addition and south garden
Bank One building and plaza
Daley Plaza
Harold Washington Library Center
John S. Buck Company Building
U. S. Post Office - Loop Station (incl. Alexander Calder “Flamingo” sculpture)
We look forward to having you along!
Tour details
Type: Walking
Suitable for: Ages 12 and up
Duration: 90 minutes
Limit: 20 people
Testimonials
“Fifteen bucks for a 90-minute tour? And both old and new buildings in the context of the city? That’s a godfather deal! This particular tour has never been offered before, but I can still give a testimonial, right?”
- Anonymous
Your guide
Practicing architect Dave Hampton, principal of Echo Studio and a co-founder of Urban Habitat Chicago will lead this ONE DAY ONLY tour.
His projects include the New Orleans Global Green Competition, the Warren-Boulton Residence, the Bronzeville rehab, and deconstruction advocacy for the Chicagoland area.
Mr. Hampton has presented lectures on topics ranging from the work of pioneering structural engineers to building deconstruction as an alternative to demolition at venues such as the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago Department on the Environment, and the Chicago Center for Green Technology.
He has also blogged extensively since 2004 on architecture and sustainability.
Mr. Hampton will likely arrive for your tour on Echo Studio’s Mobile Unit One.
Please do not feed it.
Press
Tour de Force, Ideal Bite
Time Out Chicago
Related posts
If the subject of this tour interests you, see also:
10 hopes for the future of Chicago sustainable design
Is Green Good Enough?
Case study: Mt. Airy Public Library
Green infrastructure
More gratuitous architecture photos
The “flying carpet” light-filtering roof soars above Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s Art Institute Modern Wing (scheduled completion summer 2008).
Natural light penetrates 6 floors down in the atrium of the oft-overlooked Delaware Building (you’d never know it by eating in the ground-floor McDonald’s).
Typical mixed-use building in West Loop/Greektown with wells on north side for natural light and ventilation. Architect and date unknown. Sorry… not on the tour, but it’s just a great example.