The 21st Century Library - panel discussion tonight

The United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) and Urban Works is sponsoring a panel discussion tonight, June 7th, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., at the Instituto Cervantes, 31 West Ohio.

The topic is The 21st Century Library and its role in Chicago's Communities and Schools.  Panelists will include:

• Anijo Mathew, IIT Institute of Design
• Patricia Saldaña Natke, AIA, UrbanWorks Ltd.
• Amy Yurko, AIA, Brain Spaces
• Julianne Scherer, AIA, Nagle Hartray
• Jeanette Pierce, Loyola University Chicago, Richard J. Klarchek  Information Commons

Lee Bey, executive director, Chicago Central Area Committe will moderate.  RSVP via email.

Uneasy Courtship: The Bowman and Magdalene

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Chicago Streetscene II: Caged Flamingo

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Target Goes Rad/Red at Louis Sullivan's Carson Pirie Scott

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Business Week writer Matt Townsend is calling it Target's "most radical experiment since bringing designer goods to the masses 15 years ago," and it's right here on State Street, in the landmark building Louis Sullivan designed over a century past for Carson Pirie Scott.  The department chain, like Lord and Taylor, decided there wasn't much future in Chicago's center city, and shut down their flagship State Street store in 2007.

Yet even as traditional department store chains deep-sixed the downtowns,  the competitors who have been eating their lunch - big box retailers like Target, who built their empires on cheap suburban land, vast parking lots and warehouse-styled stores - are now turning to the city as the best bet to keep their companies growing.

According to the Business Week story, in the first quarter of 2012, Target has added but one new location.   The smaller-sized State Street store is a prototype for growth via moving into downtown.  And so they're working on re-calculating their winning formula - athletic clothes rather than women's apparel at the entrance, smaller sizes and product lines suitable for apartment dwellers,  and - window displays.  The State Street store will be the first Target ever to use window mannequins. 

A DSW Shoe outlet has just opened south of Target, in the last Carson's addition on State Street, the design handed over, not to Sullivan, but to Burnham.  And more big changes for State Street on our their way.  Burlington Coat factory is going into the space recently vacated by Filene's Basement at 1 North State, and Old Navy is leaving its flagship store at State and Washington for smaller digs in the former Border's store at State and Randolph.  While The Gap told the Sun-Times' David Roeder that they'll continue to use the Washington Street building for "other concepts", the sale of the building last year for $23,000,000 would indicate that new, taller construction may be in line for the site, once home to W.W. Boyington's 16-story Columbus Building.

 Target is scheduled for a July opening, with other in-city stores set for L.A. Seattle and San Francisco.  You can read the Business Week article - and see a striking rendering for the L.A. store - here.

SEAOI Awards, Pecha Kucha 22, Mies' Lafayette Park, rehabbing the Wrigley, Ian Schrager and much more - it's the June Calendar of Architectural Events!

Okay,we've got a ways to go, but we've got a good start on the June 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events

The week starts out on Tuesday, the 5th, with Volume 22 of the always popular Pecha Kucha Chicago, at Martyr's.  On Wednesday the 6th, Jean Guarino talks about Transforming Land Use for a 24-Hour Downtown, lunchtime at CAF, and on Thursday the 7th, Friends of Downtown host Jan Goldsmith of Zeller Development and Leonard Koroski of Goettsch Partners to talk about The Wrigley Building: Vintage Rehab of Chicago's Architectural Icon, while over at the Art Institute, assistant curator Alison Fischer presents a gallery talk on the exhibition, Rethinking Typologies: Architecture and Design from the Permanent Collection.  This Saturday, the 9th, the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois hosts their annual Structural Engineering Awards Banquet.

This week also holds the openings of two new exhibitions.  On Wednesday the 6th, the Chicago Architecture Foundation hosts a panel discussion with Joseph Calabrese of Cleveland, Michael Schwartz of San Francisco, Ted Orosz of NYC and Gabe Klein, Peter Skosey and Forest Claypool in conjunction with their new exhibition Ticket to Ride:  Bus Rapid Transit: Next Stop, Chicago.

Then on Thursday, the 7th, the Mies van der Rohe Society holds an opening party for its new show at Crown Hall, Lafayette Park: The Settlement Shape, concerning the Mies van der Rohe project, still thriving today, that was the first urban renewal project in the U.S.  The evening will also include a lecture by Noah Resnick, A Bustle in the Hedgerow - Urban Living in the Prairie Landscape, and offer a rare opportunity to see the show outside of working hours.  Normal hours are 9:00 to 5:00, Monday to Friday.  On the afternoon of June 16th, Kevin Harrington will offer another related lecture, Figure and Pattern: Mies, Hilberseimer and Caldwall at Lafayette Park.

NEOCON, Ian Schrager, Julia Bachrach at the Cliff Dwellers for Friends of the Parks, Christopher Vernon on Graceland Cemetery lunchtime at CAF, Frank Lloyd Wright's Ross House in Glencoe discussed by John Eifler for Landmarks Illinois - there's lot a more, and we've already got over two dozen great items to check out on the June 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Color Jam 360: from Drab to Fab

See! One Day Only! Frank Lloyd Wright's Doghouse!! At Unity Temple! plus FLW in California

It's June 1st?  You're kidding me- the first of the month again?  So I guess it's time for the June calendar, right?  Someday ....... someday .......

For now, a reminder that today, Friday, June 1st is your one-day opportunity to see Eddie's House, the doghouse that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for 12-year old Jim Berger in 1956.  A reconstructed version of the structure, plus the original plans and correspondence will be on display from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at FLW's Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street, Oak Park.  "This is the doghouse's only trip to the Chicago area." You don't want to be the one having to tell your grandkids you let this opportunity pass you by.

Also today, at 5:00 and 7:30 p.m, there will be a screening of the documentary Romanza: The California Structures Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, with writer/director Michael Miner on hand for discussion.

Romanza gives us unprecedented access to every Wright building in California. We see it all, including the textile block houses in Los Angeles, famous for their appearances in Hollywood films; Wright's only San Francisco commission (a building he described as a "glass of champagne"); and the Berger House in San Anselmo, for which Wright also designed a doghouse. [see above]

Tickets are $15.00 for AIA members, Wright Plus members and volunteers; $18.00 for the general public.  Purchase here.