Lynn Becker

@cmgiulini.bsky.social

1125

Posts

drifter/writer on architecture, culture and Chicago, photographer specializing in out-of-focus images. there will be posts on opera, apologies in advance.

Posts Replies Media

Just checking ... (2008)

Legal Seafoods at Marina City edging ever closer to opening...

... and here's a series of images to give you an idea of what it was like on this day 20 years ago when Millennium Park opening for the first time (part 3)

... and here's a series of images to give you an idea of what it was like on this day 20 years ago when Millennium Park opening for the first time (part 2)

... and here's a series of images to give you an idea of what it was like on this day 20 years ago when Millennium Park opening for the first time.

"July 16th will be remembered as the day the Bilbao effect took Chicago" is what I wrote about Millennium Park's opening 20 years ago today, and my post-mortem is still a pretty thorough, "you are there" recounting of how the sausage was made. www.lynnbecker.com/repeat/Gehry...

Rain actually crossing all the way across the balcony and onto the windows. Almost never happens.

I have the most incredible sense of Deja Vu

So Trump managed to pick as his VP the one man who may be even more dangerous than he is.

Mixed message (closed Starbucks, Borg-Warner Building)

Bloomberg's Kriston Capps has a good report on the National Building Museum's new exhibition Capital Brutalism and Studio Gang's proposal for D.C.'s Forrestal Building. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

How to Save Brutalism From the Wrecking Ballwww.bloomberg.com A new exhibit examines the history of Brutalist architecture in Washington, DC, offering provocative solutions for some of the city’s least-understood buildings.

The new exhibitions inferred message of brutalism=bad is refuted by Ty Cole's striking photograph of Harry Weese's spectacular DC Metro, a brutalist triumph of grace and power. www.nbm.org/exhibition/c...

Although her latest book is on Architectural Grafting, Gang's remedy for Curtis & Davis's 1969 Forrestal Building is a matter of pruning, removing the middle of the 760-foot long structure and relocating the excised modules as badly-needed housing elsewhere in the city. www.nbm.org/exhibition/c...

Chicago's Studio Gang is among seven firms taking on "rescuing" seven widely reviled brutalist works in the National Building Museum's new exhibition, Capital Brutalism. www.nbm.org/exhibition/c...

What passes for Chicago-style food in L.A. (includes a Ginos and a Portillos) www.latimes.com/food/list/th...

Watching 'The Bear'? Here's where to find a taste of Chicago around L.A.www.latimes.com Chicago's iconic Italian beef shop Mr. Beef is popping up in L.A. this weekend with 'The Bear' culinary producer Courtney Storer. Can't make it? Here's where to find great Italian beef, Chicago dogs, ...

Bill Daley resurfaces from God-knows-where to whitewash the legacy of his brother, who trashed his own legacy with final terms of such vindictiveness, capriciousness and financial irresponsibility that he left office one of the worst mayors in Chicago's history. chicago.suntimes.com/fran-spielma...

Bill Daley slams Johnson's claim of 'decades of disinvestment' by past mayorschicago.suntimes.com When Richard M. Daley became mayor, he "understood more than anybody ... that he had to address what was called Beirut-on-the-Lake at the time because of the racial divide," his brother Bill Daley tol...

One of the glories of modern architecture, New York's Chrysler Building, is not doing well. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/12/r...

The Chrysler Building, the Jewel of the Manhattan Skyline, Loses Its Lusterwww.nytimes.com Is the building’s reputation enough for it to endure as an icon, even as its ownership and interior crumble?

CBS2 Chicago has rebuilt its sidewalk studio on Dearborn across from Daley Plaza for broadcasting newscasts.

Beginning the installation of the construction elevator at the former Thompson Center/future Googledome

If you've ever wanted to get up close and personal with Yuja Wang, Lang Lang . . . or Falstaff, DGG's Stage+ streaming is now offering a series of concerts in spatial video viewable on your $3,500 Apple Vision Pro headset. www.stage-plus.com/partner/part...

The steep decline in church attendance is a challenge to Chicago's historic houses of worship across all religions and denominations. The Hyde Park Herald's Ella Beiser has a great report on two splendid but massive Hyde Park churches working to survive and serve. www.hpherald.com/evening_dige...

As church attendance declines nationwide, local pastors get creative with vacant spacewww.hpherald.com At first glance, the gothic halls of First Presbyterian Church appear empty, with plaster walls crumbled and cracked in places from 98 years of use. Yet, tucked away in these

Here's a non-paywalled account of the Adler & Sullivan's Wainwright being sold off by a Republican governor as he abandons St. Louis. www.archpaper.com/2024/07/loui...

Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright Building is up for sale in St. Louis. But will it stay?www.archpaper.com Politicians recently voted to sell the Wainwright Building to relocate state employees from downtown St. Louis to the suburbs. Bidding started at $5 million last week

A MAGA governor gives the middle finger both to St. Louis and the importance of architecture by abandoning the city and selling off Adler & Sullivan's landmark Wainwright Building, which the State of Missouri has owned for 50 years. (paywalled) www.stltoday.com/opinion/edit...

Editorial: Parson's latest middle-finger salute at St. Louiswww.stltoday.com Editorial: A St. Louis problem most American cities don’t have to contend with is state political leadership that is not merely ambivalent but outright hostile toward the city.

Egg in a Garden

Under the L 7/10/24

A July 25th Heritage Auction from the estate of Director/Producer Stanley Kramer includes a bound second-draft script of Mad (4) World, a painting by Jonathan Winters, and a print of Charles White's "The Folk Singer" given to Kramer by Sidney Poitier. entertainment.ha.com/c/search/res...

Deconstruction

Dance of the Transit Bureaucrats: vaguely interested in their passengers but fearsomely protective of the sacred agency turf. They don't need no stinkin' merger -just more money, a lot more money, without all that "meaningful change" or "accountability" nonsense. blockclubchicago.org/2024/07/10/c...

CTA, Metra And Pace Leaders Plead For Funding — Not Merger — At State Hearingblockclubchicago.org CTA, Metra and Pace executives appeared at a hearing Tuesday over a state proposal to merge the agencies, a move they say doesn't get to the root of public transit's problem: a lack of funding.

Albertson/Jewel "merger" a scam? To satisfy regulators, Kroger proposes selling 100's of stores, including all but 7 Mariano's, to C&S Wholesale Grocers, and a leaked memo reveals Albertson's COO will simply move over to run C&S if the merger is approved. www.supermarketnews.com/news/alberts...

Albertsons COO to lead C&S retail if Kroger merger deal approvedwww.supermarketnews.com A leaked Albertsons memo cites CEO Vivek Sankaran making the announcement

Early morning rain . . .