Main entry:

Kamin, Blair, author. aut

Title & Author:

Who is the city for? : architecture, equity, and the public realm in Chicago / Blair Kamin ; with photographs by Lee Bey.

Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2022.
©2022

Description:

298 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes index.
Introduction -- Part 1: Presidents and Their Legacy Projects : Self-Aggrandizing or Civic-Minded? Trump Takes Aim at Design and the Design Press. The Trump Sign, a Poke in the Eye, Mars the Riverfront ; Trump's Sycophantic, Vitriolic Treatment of Architecture Critics ; How Should Trump Make Federal Architecture Great? By Ignoring the Ideologues Who Speak for Modernism and Classicism -- The Obama Presidential Center : No Walk in the Park. Obama Center Design: Promising, Populist, not Yet Persuasive ; Obama Center's Plans Won't Destroy Olmsted's Park : They Should Be Improved, not Rejected -- Part 2: Urban Design : Boom Times for Cities, but Who Benefits? Urbanization on the March : and on Hold Because of the Pandemic. China's Skyscrapers Are Trophies for the Nation and a Lifeline for Chicago Architects : but Growth Has Its Price ; Attacking "Plop Architecture" : There's a Better, Transit-Oriented Way to Design Our Cities ; The Rise of Chicago's Super Loop : So Much Building, So Little Architecture ; The Things We Love about City Life : Public Transit, Urban Hustle : Are the Very Things That Put Us at Risk for COVID-19 -- Public Spaces : A Burst of Innovation, with Mixed Results on Equity. Maggie Daley Park Is a Seed with Potential to Blossom ; Chicago's Downtown Riverwalk : A New Phase of the City's "Second Lakefront" Takes Shape, a Model of Waterfront Urbanity ; The 606, Two Years Later : As Its Landscape Grows, So Do Concerns about Displacement ; Rating Chicago's Latest wave of Parks and Public Spaces by the Three "E"s : They're Better on Entertainment and Ecology Than Equity -- Transit and Infrastructure : After a Bumpy Start, Solid Advances. Signs Uglify Our Beautiful Bridges ; First New Loop "L" Station in Twenty Years Creates Curvy Gateway to Millennium Park ; Along the Dan Ryan, an Eye-Grabbing CTA Terminal Reaches beyond the Ordinary ; On Chicago's South Lakefront, a Curving Pedestrian Bridge over Lake Shore Drive Also Bends Toward Justice ; Chicago's New "Shared Street" Tilts the Balance in Favor of Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Social Distancing, but It's Tinkering, not Structural Change -- Part 3: Architecture: Are Buildings Good Citizens? Tall Buildings : Highs and Lows. 150 North Riverside May Look Like It's Teetering, but There's a Method to Its Madness ; When Bad Things Happen to a Good Architect : The Saga of 151 North Franklin ; A Celebrated New Yorker's New Chicago Tower : The Peak of Urban Luxury, not the Height of Skyscraper Style ; The Vista Tower, Now Chicago's Third-Tallest Building, Brings Stirring Curves and More to a Squared-Off Skyline ; Fifty Years Later, Lake Point Tower Is a Singular Achievement : Let's Hope It Stays That Way -- Flagship Stores : From Fine-Grained to Flashy. Apple's New Flagship Store an Understated Gem on the Chicago River ; McDonald's New Flagship in River North : Not Ketchup Red or Mustard Yellow, but Green ; In Skokie, an Architecturally Arresting Pot Shop Reveals How Marijuana Has Gone Mainstream - Museums : Reacting against, and Reaching beyond, "Starchitecture". George Lucas's Museum Proposal Is Needlessly Massive ; MCA's Renovation Is No Hostile Takeover. It Reflects How Audiences Interact with Art and Each Other ; The National African American Museum Still Stirs the Soul : and Drops Hints of What to Expect at the Obama Presidential Center -- Public Buildings : The Benefits - and Limits - of Good Design. Chinatown Library Breaks the Cookie-Cutter Mold and Builds Bonds of Community ; A New Boathouse along the Chicago River Transforms the Motion of Rowing into an Instant Landmark ; Chicago Shows How Public Housing and Libraries Can Coexist and Be Visually Striking. Now We Need More of These Creative Combinations ; A Former North Side Public-Housing Project Is Beautifully Remade, but at What Cost? -- Part 4: Historic Preservation : What Gets Saved and Why? Who Should Determine a Building's Fate - the Experts, the Community, or the Clout-Heavy? Changes Will Erode Foundation of Landmarks Commission ; Evanston Plan to Demolish Harley Clarke Mansion : Public Vision or Hidden Agenda? ; A Plaque on Emmett Till's House Is Just a First Step. Chicago Can Do a Better Job of Preserving Black History Sites ; The Despised Pilsen Landmark District Is about to Get a Hearing. Here's How to Save the Treasured Neighborhood -- The Struggle to Save - and Better Understand - Buildings of the Recent Past. As Prentice Comes Down, Stakes Rise on Its Replacement ; Spare Jahn's Thompson Center from Rauner's Death Sentence ; The U of C's Architectural Oddball, by the Designer of the Aon Center, Gets a Vibrant, Energy-Saving Remake ; A Different View of the Masterful Farnsworth House - Hers -- Preserving Buildings of the Distant Past : Yesterday's Designs, Some Viewed as Radical, Are Today's Classics. Delayed Restoration of Unity Temple Was Well Worth the Wait ; The Robie House Is Again a Full-Fledged Architectural Symphony ; Union Station Plan on the Wrong Track : All the Grandeur of a Holiday Inn ; With Cubs' Commercial Excess Mostly in Check, Wrigley Field's Nearly Complete Multiyear Renovation Is a Hit ; Chicago's Old Post Office, the Nation's Largest Reuse Project, Delivers the Goods ; Once Facing the Wrecking Ball, Old Cook County Hospital Reemerges, Handsomely Remade -- Part 5: Two Mayors, Two Directions : Who Can Make the City Work for All? Rahm Emanuel : Retrospective and Climactic Battle. Emanuel Thought and Built Big, but Progress was Painfully Uneven ; An Incredible Transformation? Not Really. The "Meh" Blocks West of Navy Pier Are a Cautionary Tale for Chicago's Next Round of Megaprojects ; Improvement or Invasion? Lincoln Yards Plan Is Too Tall and Out of Place. The Mayor and City Council Should Slow It Down, and Press Architects and Developers to Rethink and Redesign -- Lori Lightfoot and Maurice Cox : Detroit Prelude, Chicago Blueprint. Detroit's Downtown Revival Is Real, but the Road to Recovery Remains Long ; Changing Course : Lightfoot's Top Planner Will Focus on the City's "Soul" - Its Neighborhoods, not Just Its Downtown "Heart" ; Time to Stop Planning and Start Building : It's Crunch Time for Lightfoot's Drive to Revive South, West Sides -- Epilogue: The End of a Journalistic Era - and What Comes Next? A Farewell to Tribune Tower and a Shout-out to Its Architects ; Reflecting on Twenty-Eight Years of Reviewing Chicago's Architectural Wonders and Blunders - and Why Such Coverage Should Continue.

Summary:

"Two decades ago, Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin's series "Reinventing the Lakefront" documented the stark disparities between the shoreline parks bordering the city's mostly white, affluent North Side neighborhoods and those along its largely Black, poor South Side. The series, which spurred new civic investments in the south lakefront, won a Pulitzer Prize and signaled Kamin's commitment to activist criticism. That commitment continued through his last column for the Tribune in January 2021. This book collects 55 of Kamin's columns from the past decade, organized around questions of equity that loomed over the built environment as over American society generally: Who benefits from urban development? Are new private and public buildings good citizens? Which historic buildings get saved and why? And how did the polarizing US presidents and Chicago mayors who ruled over this decade play into the larger drama of the city's public realm? Covering major new structures--from the Trump Tower sign to the Obama Presidential Center, the Riverwalk to The 606--as well as the bridges, CTA stations, hospitals, skyscrapers, and other buildings that constitute the everyday fabric of the city, the columns are illustrated with photographs by Lee Bey, former architecture critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. The epilogue, featuring Kamin's farewell column, marks the end of an era in the nation's architectural capital"-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780226822730 hardcover
0226822737 hardcover
electronic book
9780226822877

Subject:

Architecture Illinois Chicago.
City planning Illinois Chicago.
City planning Social aspects Illinois Chicago.
ARCHITECTURE / General.
Architecture
Buildings
City planning
City planning Social aspects
Chicago (Ill.) Buildings, structures, etc.
Illinois Chicago

Form/genre:

Informational works.
Documents d'information.

Added entries:

Bey, Lee, 1965- photographer.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 316699
Call No.: 316699
Copy: 1
Status: Available