The Last ... Picture Show

Starting Friday -- and running through October 29 -- at Stephen Daiter Gallery is the exhibition "The Last Great Maxwell Street Picture Show", featuring photographs by numerous artists since the 1930s.

For those unfamiliar with Maxwell Street, it was host to a Sunday market that was the biggest in Chicago. Described as "a carnivallike riot of human interaction," the area was home to Jewish and other immigrants, most recently a nexus for African-Americans. A scene in The Blues Brothers is indicative of the vitality of the area and the importance of the Blues in its history, as John Lee Hooker growls on the crowded street. The relatively recent demolition of the last remaining buildings along Halsted near Maxwell was the unfortunate end of a long battle to Save Maxwell.


Top: Untitled, early 1930s by Kaufmann & Fabry
Bottom: Untitled, 1968 by Jack Jaffe

These and other photographs can be seen on the Gallery web page. The Stephen Daiter Gallery is located at 311 West Superior.

Monday, Monday

My weekly page update:

Ironworkers Local 580 Training Facility in Long Island City, New York by Daniel Goldner Architects.

The updated book feature is The Architecture of Modern Italy: Volume 1, The Challenge of Tradition, 1750-1900, by Terry Kirk.

Some unrelated links for your enjoyment:

Labor Blog Roundup
The Labor Day Edition, at The Bellman.

Katrina Shelter
"A grassroots gathering of people opening their hearts and their homes to those left homeless by katrina".

Katrina 1: Levee City
Part one of BLDGBLOG's 3-part post on Katrina.

Book of the Moment

Although published two years ago, and covering a topic now ten years old, Eric Klinenberg's Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago is timely for the parallels between the local government's handling of the 1995 heat wave that killed almost 800 and the federal government's handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster this last week. The author's recent article at Slate spells it all out.



(via Gapers Block)

Archinect Aid

Check out Archinect's Adopt an Architect/Disaster Relief Information page. It has news and discussions as well as

:: A list of firms offering employment to architects that have been displaced by hurricane Katrina.

:: A list of schools offering placement to students that have been displaced by hurricane Katrina.

:: Links for donations and volunteering

:: Public announcements

Repent Chicago

If this ridiculous article holds any truth, Chicago better watch out 'cause it's destruction is next. Why? Because the Center on Halsted, the "Midwest's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social service agency", designed by Gensler, is now under construction. Luckily, the building won't be finished until 2007, so we have some time to prepare.



(via Archinect's Katrina roundup)

Katrina in Pictures

Being a visual person, I need imagery as well as words for things to sink in. Katrina's aftermath has provided no shortage of photographs illustrating her impact on New Orleans and surrounding areas. Here's some galleries with images that range from unsettling and shocking to strangely beautiful:

:: New York Times photos
:: New York Times infographics
:: Washington Post

The "New" Downtown

The Chicago Sun-Times is in the midst of its five-part coverage on "The New Downtown", tracing Chicago's downtown from 1967 to the present.



While the "New" in the title stinks a bit of marketing - face it, downtown is an ever-changing and evolving entity that's a mixture of old and new, not just "new" or a place "reborn" - the variety of places and topics covered clearly illustrates the renewed interest in downtown (and here's the important part) for residents, more than tourists. Lots of pretty pictures, too, especially in the Growth Plates (image above) and in the "Then ... and now" comparisons.