Art Museums and Museum Visitors as Art

The meaning and importance of museums have changed a great deal since the Renaissance. What began as a cabinet of curiosities or a private collection has transformed itself into a massive public institution where the state of art is actively defined and shaped. Granted, museums (especially in the beaux-arts tradition) have long worked to define the parameters of what art could or could not be. Despite the fact that those parameters have become meaningless with the advent of post-modern art, the museum has expanded to envelop this genre of expression as well. No medium or style is outside the purview of a museum of contemporary or modern art; any and all works are subject to its taste.

I don't wish to portray the museum as a monstrosity. They do an excellent job providing intellectual stimulation to the public. As an nascent architect I cannot help but be fascinated by the museum spaces themselves, which tend to be architecturally and stylistically neutral in deference to the art they contain. This seems a little ironic in contrast to their function, which inherently involves taste and choice. The clean lines and pale tones of the Griffin Court of the Art Institute's Modern Wing made an excellent canvas to capture these colorful images of guests moving through the museum space. I hope these images are both visually stimulating but also subtly, if indirectly, critique the museum's neutral facade.

Modern Wing 1

Modern Wing 2

Modern Wing 3

Modern Wing 4

Photo Study: The Inland Steel Building

From the very start of the Chicago Loop as we know it in the early 20th century, its architects and their clients have been guided by the search for the most economical and cost-minimizing ways to make office space. Unfortunately this search has, for the most part, produced rather boring office towers. However, a few original skyscrapers do stand out as both unique and beautiful.

One of those surprising stand-outs is the Inland Steel Building. Designed by architects from Skidmore Owings & Merrill and built 1956-57, the building strictly divides its office space from its secondary functions (such as elevators, bathrooms, heating, cooling, etc). While these secondary functions are cordoned off within a windowless steel tower, the adjacent office space is encased within a beautiful turquoise glass curtain wall. By separating these two portions of the building the architects were able to create massive swaths of uninterrupted office floor that could be customized to any client's desired configuration.

What I particularly like about this building is how its glass exterior interacts in the sunlight with the reflective stainless steel covering the load-bearing columns. In a beautiful example of art following structure (much like the dramatic ornamentation encrusting the flying buttresses of a cathedral), the steel and the glass work together to produce a wide range of colors and tones. It's a remarkably striking piece of corporate architecture.

Photo Study: Inland Steel Building 1

Photo Study: Inland Steel Building 2

Photo Study: Inland Steel Building 3

Photo Study: Inland Steel Building 4

Photo Study: Inland Steel Building 5

Photo Study: Inland Steel Building 6

Photo Study: Inland Steel Building 7

Photo Study: Frank Gehry's BP Bridge

As part of his push to make Chicago a "global city" (a center for transnational commerce and communication) the soon-to-be former Mayor Daley embarked on a significant effort to make Chicago a global artistic and cultural destination. Part of that effort to beautify Chicago and make it worthy of the global limelight was the renovation of Millennium Park, which borders the city's central business district, a major transportation hub, and the Art Institute. Daley selected Frank Gehry to design the center piece of the park, the Pritzker Pavilion.

Choosing Gehry comes as no surprise. Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao nearly single-handedly transformed that small town into a global destination on the sheer force of its photogenic and aesthetically pleasing appearance. Mayor Daley no doubt hoped that lightning would strike twice and that a Gehry building would similarly propel Millennium Park (and Chicago) into global renown.

Though the Pritzker Pavilion is quite beautiful, I chose to instead focus on the less well-known BP Bridge, which is located right next to the Pavilion. It is a foot bridge that connects two parts of the park that are separated by a small highway. Gehry's work is very sculptural and energetic. He has said in statements that he tries to simulate movement and action in his structures. I think the BP Bridge succeeds at this task, seeming to leap over a highway like a snake in a jungle leaping from one tree to another. It's a very simple and poetic structure.

BP Bridge Study 1

BP Bridge Study 1

BP Bridge Study 1

BP Bridge Study 1

The Reliance Building and The Rise of Plate Glass

Much like a hall of carnival mirrors, the streets of central business districts are lined with facades of glass that reflect and distort each other. When massive structures with glass retaining walls are lined up alongside each other in such numbers they create a "funhouse" effect on a scale that would put Barnum and Bailey to shame. This distortion is supremely prevalent in the Chicago loop, which is in fact the birthplace of the plate glass building.

The first skyscraper whose surface was more than half glass was the Reliance Building, built at the corner of State St. and Washington St. in 1895. At the time Chicago was a center of architectural and structural innovation; the introduction of plate glass and steel structural frames meant that the exterior of a structure could be fitted with unprecedented amounts of glass. This was because the interior steel frame alone carried the weight of the structure; the exterior was free to be constructed with any material(s). The spaces between the large glass panes were filled with decorative terra cotta, in the style of the times (after Chicago's Great Fire in 1871 many buildings were built with this fireproofing measure).

The Reliance Building has a remarkable lightness and modernity in its construction that I suspect can only be experienced in person. However, I thought it might be interesting to see its plate glass descendants reflected in its windows, and vice versa. It's certainly a rare opportunity to have the first of its kind in dialogue with its successors.

Central Business District as Carnival Hall of Mirrors

The Reliance Building Reflected

The Reliance Building

The Reliance Building Reflecting

Photo Study: The High Line

All cities have parks. In fact, they're such a familiar sight that we usually walk by them without appreciating how peculiar they are. A little piece of forest, of unspoiled nature, deposited in an urban jungle? I see two tensions that the city park evokes: firstly, the tension between its artificiality and its naturalness. Does a park try to present itself as a strip of virgin forest dropped into a city block - does it try to hide the fact that it was built with bulldozers and jackhammers, that its streams are fed by pumps and a sprinkler system runs throughout? The second tension comes from the inherent contrast between its own natural environment and the urban environment around it. Does it isolate itself and its visitors from the city or accept itself as just another feature on the urban landscape?

The High Line takes the opportunity afforded by its unique origins to play with these tensions. Before it was made into a park, the High Line was in a state of decay. It was overrun with tough grasses and bushes. That vegetation is still mostly there, in a perpetual state of contest with the concrete around it. The tension between artificiality and naturalness is released in the form of simulated decay. Playful decrepitude is the theme that creates transition. I found transition to be a common theme even in the benches and their materials, which seem to take the wood and steel of the High Line and rise up from its surface. The park also toys with its identity as both an urban and natural space: at times its concrete paths are constricted and confined by the wild areas around them while later the concrete isolates and contains the park's natural elements. Truly, the High Line resolves many of the conflicts inherent in a city park.

The High Line Study 1

The High Line Study 2

The High Line Study 3

The High Line Study 4

The High Line Study 5

The High Line Study 6

The High Line Study 7