John Vinci to receive AIA Chicago 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award, even as his indispensable Adler and Sullivan book still out of print

Davis House, Vinci|Hamp Architects

AIA Chicago announced last Thursday that long-time architect, preservationist, and activist John Vinci will receive the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award at this years Designnight Gala October 24th.

Vinci has just finished curating the open-air exhibition Millennium Park: An Anatomy in Photographs, on the park's North Boeing Gallery, which runs through October of next year.  From the press release . . .

Vinci, 77, has been practicing architecture since he graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1960. A collaborator with famed architectural photographer Richard Nickel, Vinci is known for his staunch, outspoken defense of classic Chicago architecture over the past 50 years.  From his initial preservation work as a student - organizing an IIT exhibition on the work of Adler & Sullivan or salvaging ornamentation from the then soon to be demolished Garrick Theater - he has played an integral part in the preservation and restoration of works from architects as varied as Frank Lloyd Wright to modernists Ed Barnes, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen. Among his numerous restoration projects, Vinci was instrumental in the salvation and reconstruction of Louis Sullivan�s Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room.

�No one has moved so effortlessly from past to present to future as John Vinci,� says AIA Chicago executive vice president Zurich Esposito. �His designs are rooted in history and informed by his scholarship yet most certainly of our time.�

�John is both a consummate designer and life-long advocate and practitioner of preserving Chicago�s historic architecture,� Bonnie McDonald, president of Landmarks Illinois says. �Because of his leadership and perseverance, some of Sullivan�s and Wright�s greatest works have been restored for generations to enjoy. And his dedication to the legacy of Adler and Sullivan, especially as documented by the late Chicago photographer Richard Nickel, resulted in The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan � a book that will continue to motivate all of us to preserve Chicago�s great architecture.�

KAM Synagogue, from The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan

That book, a collaboration between Vinci, Tim Samuelson, Ward Miller, building on the work of photographer, preservationist and scholar Richard Nickel, is one of the most essential resources on Chicago architecture, but it remains out-of-print, only four years afters its publication. (The going price is around $600.00 both at William Stout Architectural Books and Amazon.)  The volume is now owned by the Art Institute of Chicago, which acquired it as part of acquiring the Richard Nickel Archive in November of 2010.  AIC could bring something to the Vinci - and Chicago architecture - party by announcing sometime between now and October their intention of bringing out a new edition - or even a web version  downloadable as a PDF.

Vinci will receive AIA Chicago's Lifetime Achievement honor Friday, October 24th, at the Designight Gala in the Grand Ballroom of Navy Pier

mo Maas, van Berkel, Balmori, Petit, Vinci, Valerio, Water, Spotted Stone, Pecha Kucha 30 and more - it's the March Calendar!

Half-a-hundred great items mark the just posted March Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

Architects?  We've got Diana Balmori Tuesday at AIC, Ben van Berkel Thursday at Crown Hall, and later, in the month, Herman Hertzberger at IIT,  Emmanuel Petit at UIC . . .

John Vinci on Restoring the Auditorium Building . .  .

and then, again at Crown Hall, MVRDV's Winy Maas . . 

Elements?

There's water, both an Archeworks Chicago Expander session at AIA Chicago,  and a Great Lakes Symposium - Designing for Life along the Water's Edge at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  SEAOI has an Anchorage to Concrete symposium, and Nate Lielasus takes on The Spotted Stone, Quarried in Chicago, at AIA Chicago.

Tim Samuelson leads a curator's talk of his don't-miss exhibition, Mecca Flat Blues, at the Cultural Center.  You may take in the Chicago Design Exchange's Critical Pitches at the Graham, where the Chicago Architectural Club will announce the winners of its 2014 Emerging Visions competition.  You can also learn about the 1893 World's Columbia Exposition's Garden in the Phoenix in Jackson Park from Robert Karr Jr. in a Friends of the Parks lecture, and help honor John A Terlato, Joe Antunovich and Theaster Gates as Legendary Landmarks at Landmarks Illinois annual gala at the Four Seasons.

Emily A. Remus discusses Consumer's Metropolis: The Loop in the Age of Daniel Burnham, at the Driehaus, while Wednesdays lunchtime at CAF, Joe Valerio will present his Earl Shapiro Hall, Don J. McKay of Nagle Hartray talks about their Fountaindale Public Library, and JGMA's Juan Gabriel Moreno's discusses their Northeastern Illinois University - El Centro Campus.

March 27th brings Mies Pieces, the Mies van der Rohe Society's celebration of what would have been the architects 128th birthday, at Crown Hall. 

Just this week, Tuesday to Saturday, there are no fewer than 18 events.  Tuesday is logjam day, with Balmori, Luftwerk's Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, Pecha Kucha Chicago Volume #30 and SEAOI's rescheduled dinner meeting on Hurricane Sandy and Coastline Rebuilding Efforts.  Wednesday lunchtime at CAF, there's Jerry Johnson of Perkins+Will talking about Cedar Ridge High, and Susan Vreeland discussing the �girls� of Louis Tiffany's studio, and the Grant Park Advisory Council providing updates on such projects as Maggie Daley Park and the South Grant Park Skate Park.  Thursday, Yue Zhang discussed her book The Fragmented Politics of Urban Preservation: Beijing, Chicago and Paris at the Great Cities Institute, and Anthony Rubano talks about Postwar Suburban Housing at the Oak Park Public Library.

Even with all this, we've only scratched the surface.  Check out all 50 items on the March Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.