Inaugural Garofalo Fellow Molly Hunker shows her cards: at UIC with Myth, through May 10; at the Graham in person Monday night with Spiritual Kitsch

Last August, architect and designer was Molly Hunker, co-founder of the Los Angeles design firm SPORTS, was named as the first recipient of the Douglas A. Garofalo Fellowship, established by the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago to honor the talented architect who died far too soon in 2011.

Hunker took up residence at UIC last fall, with the plan of teaching courses, pursuing independent research, and preparing a public exhibition and lecture. That exhibition, Myth, is now up in the South Gallery of the Arts and Architecture Building at UIC, 845 West Harrison, where it runs, 9 a.m. through 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday through May 10th. The exhibition . . . 

. . . focuses specifically on the religious genre of the home shrine, re-envisioning the richly decorative and kitsch assembly through the lens of the architectural installation. . . . Myth re-envisions the home shrine through the lens of the contemporary architectural installation. The project learns from the careful collection and curation of sentimental objects commonly found in home shrines, producing an emotionally resonant experience that recalibrates contemporary notions of atmosphere and engagement.

Mythuses the decorative prayer candle as the primary object through which to explore how home shrines can provoke new understandings of visual and atmospheric opulence in the architectural interior .

The project suspends hundreds of handmade wax container - candles on cotton wicks, creating a semi-enclosed shrine-space by the accumulation of the colorful objects . While the overhead candles are geometrically simple, the candles closer to the ground are increasingly articulated with a grotesque featuring strategy inherent to the transformation of wax from liquid to solid . This articulation technique partners with a gradient of increasing color saturation and shimmering cosmetic in order to engage with a kitsch sensibility that provokes greater emotional resonance with visitors.

Tonight, Monday, April 7th, 6:00 p.m. at the Graham Foundation, 4 West Burton Place, Hunker will deliver a lecture, Spiritual Kitsch.  

The discussion will explore how home shrines and related assemblies can provoke new understandings of visual opulence and lead to the production of emotionally resonant architecture.

 More information and registration here.

Wednesday: Asthma and Housing; Today: Carlo Caldini - more for November

We're still adding content to the November Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events (and soliciting feedback from our readers whether it's worth all the work to keep the calendar going into 2014.)

Wednesday morning at University Center, the Chicago Asthma Consortium is sponsoring a half-day seminar on the rarely discussed topic of Asthma and Housing, taking design beyond aesthetics to the home environment and its effects on asthma sufferers.  It includes lectures, a panel and roundtable discussion, with participants including Catherine Baker of Landon Bone Baker, Ginger Chew of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, caregiver Sophia Ragland, among many others.

Tonight, Tuesday, at the Graham Foundation, Florence-based architect Carlo Caldini, will discuss his 1970's co-founding of Gruppo 9999, and his contributions to the 1972 MOMA exhibition Italy: The New Domestic Landscape, which is the focus of the Graham's current exhibition, Environments and Counter Environments.  Then on Thursday, as the future of the Egyptian-styled former Nick's Uptown is debated before the Landmarks Commission, preservationist and historian Heather Plaza-Manning will discuss Romancing the Sphinx: American Egyptian Revival Architecture at the Uptown Public Library.

These are just a few of the over dozen great item happening just this week to check out on the November Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Where if Not Us? - Participatory Design and Its Radical Approaches opens at the Graham with reception and discussion - more for June

I'm pretty sure these will be the last additions for June Calendar of Chicago Architecture Events, but the Graham Foundation is opening a new exhibition, Where if Not Us? - Participatory Design and its Radical Approaches, with a reception this Thursday the 27th,  and a public discussion Participatory Design and its Radical Approaches, on Friday with Mathias Heyden and Ines Schaber, as well as Roberta Feldman, Landon Bone Baker Architects and Henry Sanoff.


Thursday is one of those log-jam days, with a special Chicago Commission Landmarks rubber stamp session on Wrigley Field in the morning, and in the evening, in addition to the reception at the Graham, the opening the Illinois State Preservation Conference, an AIA/Chicago tour of the Joyce Foundation's new offices, The Green Office Challenge at the Center for Green Technology, Marshall Brown and Geof Oppenheimer discussing Architecture, Power and the Urban Imaginary; a signing and reception for the new book Evanston: 150 Years, 150 Places, and Carolyn Armenta Davis discussing The Art of Architecture: Today's African-American, Afro-European and African Architects at the Woodson Regional Library.


Even with only 5 days left, there are still well over dozen great items still to check out on the June Calendar of Chicago Architecture Events.

Last Days for Inside Studio Gang and The Lost Vanguard

In case you haven't made it yet, this weekend brings your last chance to see two essential exhibitions.

The Lost Vanguard: Soviet Modernist Architecture, 1922-32 runs only through Friday and Saturday, the 22nd and 23rd at the Graham, 11 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days.  The exhibition documents �the work of modernist architects in the Soviet Union in the years following the 1917 revolution and the period of instability during the subsequent civil war.�  At Madlener House, 4 West Burton Place.

 Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects closes at the Art Institute on Sunday.  It's �the first exhibition in the world devoted to the Chicago-based group headed by MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang.�  It includes models, renderings, product samples, and lots of rope, creating five different and ingenious �rooms� placed throughout the large gallery.  In the Modern Wing, 159 East Monroe.

And you know it's got to be  good because, to paraphrase something Elaine May used to say, �that woman is a doctor.�  On Friday, the School of the Art Institute announced that this years graduation ceremonies on May 18th at Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion will include awarding Jeanne Gang an honorary doctorate for a career �seemingly without limits.  In the process [she's made] great civic and cultural contributions that reflect on our interdisciplinary work an scholarship at SAIC.�  Also receiving doctorates will be artist Joe Zucker and actor, playwright and scholar Anna Deavere Smith, who will deliver the commencement address.

Sunday News Headline Edition: How to get money, a job, Deadlines, AIA Young Architects Awards, Walking Wright - plus stuff we just made up!

News: ripped from the headlines! (of items in my inbox). . .

Graham Foundation - Grants to Organizations Application Deadline is February 25th.  Last year, the Graham ladled out $400,000 to over 40 projects by organizations, and they're at it again.  The first step is submitting an Inquiry Form.  Details here.

Society of Architectural Historians Mellon Author Awards - The Andrew Mellon Foundation has awarded SAH $50k to administer awards �to emerging authors who are publishing monographs on the history of the built environment.�  Grant applications will be accepted beginning February 15th. Details here.

Landmarks Illinois seeks Springfield Office Director - Are you a �self-motivated, organized, and dedicated historic preservation professional�?  Can you entertain thoughts of dealing with legislators, bureaucrats and spending a whole lot of time in Springfield without beginning to sob uncontrollably?  Landmarks Illinois may have just the job for you.  The deadline for a submitting your application is February 15th.  Details here.

Richard Driehaus is one of 11 2013 recipients of the Horatio Alger Award - �presented each year to individuals who have overcome obstacles to become successful entrepreneurs or community leaders. �  Details here.

click images for larger view

Five Chicago area practitioners among 15 AIA Young Architects Award winners for 2013 - includes Latent Design's Katherine Darnstadt, Valerio DeWalt Train's Matthew Dumich, and SOM's Thomas Hussey, Brett Charles Taylor and Lucas Tryggestad.  Darnstadt has the added distinction of being the only Chicago award winner to exist in color.  Details here.

Glessner House Museum  begins Docent Training February 16 - details here.

Charles E. Cessna House added to 2013 Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk* - this always sold-out event sponsored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust in Oak Park on May 18th includes rare interior tours of private homes, five of which are new this year.  Details here.

*Legal disclaimer:  Houses do not actually walk.  Frank Lloyd Wright claim of being World's Greatest Architect not valid in Wyoming or Mississippi. If offered a tray of crackers and what looks to be cheese dip, politely decline. Please do not re-arrange magazines on the coffee table. (Yes, we're talking to you.) If a host offers to show you his post card collection, you've entered the wrong house.  Participants may be subject to Jeanne Gang driving by with a bullhorn crying out �Reverse, reverse!�

Esra Akcan on Kreuzberg, plus Neil Brenner, Terry Guen, Jeanne Gang - more for January

Yes, we're still adding great new items to the January Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

This Wednesday, January 16th at the Graham, professor and author Esra Akcan will be talking about about News from the Living Room:  Storytelling and Participatory Architectural Writing, exploring the International Building Exhibition that commissioned designs for public housing from architects from Aldo Rossi to Rem Koolhaas to Zaha Hadid, to name just a few, to transform Kreuzberg, a Berlin neighborhood populated largely by Turkish immigrants.

Then on Monday, January 28th, also at the Graham, Archeworks is sponsoring a talk by Neil Brenner, the Urban Age in Question, that critiques contemporary ideologies and how "the geographies of urbanization . . . today encompassed diverse patterns and pathways across the planetary sociospatial landscape . . . "

There's a double dose of Studio/Gang Architects at the Art Institute this week, with curator Karen Kice leading an overview of AIC's exhibition Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects on Tuesday, and Jeanne Gang, herself, discussing her firm's recent projects at Fullerton Hall on Thursday.

On Wednesday, landscape architect Terry Guen lectures at CAF lunchtime, while on Thursday, Matt Seymour discusses Randolph Tower (a/k/a Steuben Club) Terra Cotta Restoration at the Cultural Center for Landmarks Illinois.  (Friday's Pecha Kucha Night at Olympia Centre is wait-listed.)

There are a dozen great items this week, and over two dozen between now and the end of the month, so check out the January Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.