Nu, Jun-Jei Jason, author.

Wonder in the Windy City : how Chicago architecture foundation tours impress / by Jun-Jei Jason Nu.

2016.

2 volumes (v, 373 pages) : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm

This dissertation explores the practices through which attitudes in respect to architecture and urban design are developed and transmitted. How people regard the built environment has an impact on the future form and function of cities. Recognizing this, design professionals and civil society groups have sought to increase the public's awareness of why architecture matters. My project investigates the work of one leading architecture advocacy organization, the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF). CAF engages over 415,000 people annually in guided tours that bolster a sense of appreciation for Chicago's architecture. While much has been written about the political economic motivations involved in place promotion, little research has focused on the everyday material and emotional labor that goes into this kind of urban architectural boosterism. My project attends to this gap by investigating how CAF's corps of over 400 docents curate urban space and perform narratives of why design matters. An overarching question guides my research: How do architecture tours impress? In other words, how do CAF tours move people, physically and emotionally, to care about buildings in Chicago and the field of architecture in general? To attend to this question, I spent the better part of 2014 conducting ethnographic fieldwork on CAF's tour program. My observations lead me to the following conclusion: architecture tours impress by evoking wonder. CAF tours are engines that generate and circulate a sense of appreciation for the city of Chicago and its architecture. Driving this engine is the feeling of wonder. Participants in the tour event are enmeshed in a dramatic performance that conjures extraordinary sensations and wondrous moments. CAF docents are key coordinators of these moving moments. They work with heroic narratives and flashy building facades to orchestrate an experience that casts the city and its architecture in an awe-inspiring light. These wondrous impressions give force to the discursive claims that Chicago's architectural legacy is extraordinary. It is through these repeated acts of appreciation, and the continuous evocation of wonder, that individual edifices gain momentum as architectural treasures, and Chicago architecture as a whole sustains its status as a prestigious cultural brand.

Chicago Architecture Foundation.
City promotion Illinois Chicago.
Villes Marketing Illinois Chicago.
Geography.
Urban planning.
Architecture.
Architecture appreciation.
Chicago.
Place promotion.
Tourism.
Urban image making.

Academic Dissertation
dissertations.
Academic theses
Thèses et écrits académiques.

Location: Library main 319911
Call No.: 319911
Status: Available