Photo Study: 9/11 Memorial

Back in September I had the opportunity to hear Michael Arad speak about his experiences designing the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. I was most struck by how emotional and personal the design was for him. His initial idea for the project, to have two empty spaces in the shape of the towers being perpetually filled with water, came unbidden to him after witnessing the towers fall from the roof of his apartment building. This is in contrast with many memorials (and most architecture) which are a very deliberate design acts as opposed to a profound emotional response.

The memorial consists of a public park space with the two cavities occupying where the two towers once stood. In the center in each collecting pool is a square drain that disappears into darkness. This simple design invites multiple interpretations: about the passing of water and time, the meaning of the union of many streams to form one flow, etc. Above all else it is about anomie and mourning; the acute sense of absence and the meditation upon that absence. The pools are lined with plaques listing the dead: the list reminds us what we are looking at just as much as who we are missing.

The idea of mourning is more than just grief. It can imply a remembrance, even a transportation, to the past. The memorial itself attempts to provide a tranquil medium or a profound stimulus for this act. However, the memorial itself is surrounded by a context that is firmly rooted in its time and place. Reservations and tickets are mandatory, security and electronic surveillance are heavy, and everything is still under construction. The memorial aims to be an oasis of perpetual mourning though the act of entering it and leaving it will always firmly remind visitors of our post-9/11 world.  

Photo Study 1: 9/11 Memorial 

Photo Study 2: 9/11 Memorial 

 Photo Study 3: 9/11 Memorial 

Photo Study 4: 9/11 Memorial 

Photo Study 5: 9/11 Memorial 

Photo Study: Aqua

This will likely be my ultimate post before I go on Summer hiatus; I hope to return to posting in August or September.

"The Aqua" is a fairly recent addition to the Chicago skyline though it has made quite an impression despite being hidden away in the cluster of skyscrapers West of Michigan Ave. between the Chicago River and Millennium Park. It was designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang architects and was completed in 2009. The tower's proportions, which are long and slender compared to most in Chicago, immediately set the structure apart. What truly makes it unique is clearly its waves.

Skyscrapers have an immense verticality that can be exploited for captivating effect. Art Deco towers emphasized their height by featuring unbroken lines that would run along their surface from top to bottom. Mies buildings, with their numerous I-beams running their vertical length, change their appearance as you walk alongside them. The Aqua building presents a different vista; one that morphs as one's distance to Aqua's base changes. It's surface undulates before your eyes, creating a delightful effect. If the sky had been blue I'm sure Aqua's "valleys" and "lakes" would have been ocean azure as well, though the perpetually grey Chicago sky precluded that possibility for today.

Photo Study: Aqua 1

Photo Study: Aqua 2

Photo Study: Aqua 3

Photo Study: Aqua 4

Photo Study: Aqua 5

Photo Study: Aqua 6

Photo Study: Aqua 7

Photo Study: The Rookery

It's a common misconception that buildings are designed and built in one fell swoop. Most are built and modified over time by a number of architects and owners in both subtle and less-than-subtle ways. I wanted to look at the Rookery because it's an excellent example of just such a composite structure that is the result of many creative influences.

The Rookery, located on La Salle St., was initially built in 1887-88 by Burnham and Root, a firm responsible for many of Chicago's great early skyscrapers. The building featured a "light court," a large open internal space designed to bring in natural light throughout the structure. The space has undergone two significant renovations; one in 1905 by Frank Lloyd Wright and another in 1932 that added the staircase that begins on the 2nd floor of the light court.

Wright's renovation totally changed the character of the court, though was able to very successfully subsume elements of the old cast-iron decorations (see photo of column revealing the marble's hidden interior). The art-deco staircase similarly works with the existing space, and not against it, despite its return to the cast-iron motif. This court epitomizes the aesthetic evolution of a building, though hides that evolution behind the great craftsmanship that blurs its heterogeneous styles.

Photo Study: The Rookery 1

Photo Study: The Rookery 2

Photo Study: The Rookery 3

Photo Study: The Rookery 4

Photo Study: The Rookery 5

Photo Study: The Rookery 6

Photo Study: The Rookery 7

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

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: John Hancock Center

The John Hancock Center is a powerful symbol of Chicago, in good part thanks to its unique facade. It's exterior beams, which rise up from the plane of its windows as they criss cross its surface, make for a very distinctive figure. Its simple grid of supports is made beautiful by virtue of its simplicity and its (massive) scale.

I've tried use that scale and simplicity in these photos. These images, taken without a frame of reference, force you to see only the patterns within the Center's exterior. In these images I also see Burke's notion of the sublime. Burke describes the powerful feeling we experience when we are faced with something incomprehensibly massive and vast, such as the stars or the ocean. On one level, the Center's height, somber coloring, and massive lines make it appear great and terrible, like some sort of Leviathan. On another level, it seems wondrous and magical. That's the duality of the sublime.

 John Hancock Center Study 1

 John Hancock Center Study 2

 John Hancock Center Study 3

John Hancock Center Study 4