Return of the Flown Gargoyles

photograph: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.  - click images for larger view

One of the amazing thing about old skyscrapers are the details the architects took pains to create even when they're scarcely visible from the ground.

A case in point is Karl M. Vitzthum's Steuben Club building on Wells, now reborn as the apartments of Randolph Tower.  We related the story of its origins, decline and rebirth last week, and got an highly illuminating email - with photos - from Brett Laureys of Wiss, Janney, Elstner, the company behind the spectacular restoration of the terra cotta facades.  

photograph: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

Laureys related the story of these striking gargoyles.  Although an integral part of 1929 building's original design, they were removed during a down-and-dirty 1960's patch-up and replaced with limestone slabs.  Working with a historic photograph, WJE had the gargoyles remade by terra cotta specialists Gladding McBean and now, after a half-century's absence, they're back where they belong, just above the equally spectacular two-story-tall flying buttresses way up at the 39th floor.

photograph: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

Laureys also provided some key information on the dark granite we were so critical of in our original article, which we've now incorporated into the expanded revision - with more photos:

Read:
Baron von Steuben Refashioned - Randolph Tower: Restored Faux Gothic with a Candy Core

. . . and speaking of gargoyles . . .

When you walk by the Ford Oriental Theater on Randolph, do you ever get the creepy feeling that you're being watched?  Well, look up . . .

. . . Way up, to the top of the building.  

Perched 300 feet above the sidewalk, these may be the world's only guard dogs with a bird's-eye view.

Towers (Olympia and Randolph), Pecha Kucha, Vanavehu, Wright's Heller House, Future City 2013 - more for the January calendar!

See - we told you.  We're already adding great new dates for the January Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

click images for larger view

Grab your ascot and reserve the night of Friday, January, 18th. Tickets are going fast for a special Pecha Kucha, co-sponsored by UK/Chicago, at the top of the 61-story-high Olympia Tower, in the the home of the British Consul

General.  It's a benefit for Vanavevhu, which supports and advocates for child-headed households in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Next Thursday, the 10th, you can visit your (substantial) TIF dollars at work at a Real Estate & Building Industries Council sponsored tour of the beautifully renovated Randolph Tower, which began life in the 1920's as the Steuben Club.  Proceeds benefit Landmarks Illinois' programs, including efforts to expand the Illinois State Historic Tax Credit.

On Saturday the 12th, Save Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy is offering an Open House for Wright's Heller House in Hyde Park, offering you the opportunity to say, "I liked the tour so much - I bought the house!"  The 1896 residence is actually for sale.

And on Saturday, January 26th, it's time again for the 2013 edition of the Future City Chicago Regional Finals, at Student Center East at UIC, a great event in which 6th, 7th, 8th graders are introduced to engineering and use Sim City to design their cities, with the winners going on to the finals in Washington with the big prize a trip to U.S. Space Camp.

Check out the details for these events and another several dozen others still to come on the January Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.