I have a new hobby!
As some people may have known, I recently took an interest in the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF). It is a non-profit group dedicated to advancing public interest and education in architecture and related design. As part of achieving this goal, they provide tours (for a fee) of Chicago. Most of these are walking tours of/around the Loop, though some are by bus for whole neighborhoods, or even on boats for the river. All in all, it's very cool. All of the tours are lead by volunteer docents. Yours truly will soon be entering into a crazy, 11-week training program to be one of these docents.
I am very psyched, moreso than I can really express for the time being. My life will be consumed this winter, but winters in Chicago kind of suck (no offense MDS!), so it will be nice to have something to do. And speaking more broadly, it will be nice to have something to do. While I am a man of my routine, it's really been a bit of a drag when I stop and think about what I do -- go to work, go home, drink beer and enjoy Netflix and/or tv and/or PS2. And repeat. Sure, sure, there are dinner parties and going out with my friends plenty often, but even then, it can feel routine from time to time.
Now, I have something else to do. Say it's Wednesday night. Sure LOST is on, but I have a report to finish on the Monadnock building. I could sleep in on Sunday morning, but I've got to get to the Field Building to get a closer look at their marble inlays in the lobby. And don't get me started on what I'll be doing at lunch while at work -- that Thompson Center isn't even open on the weekends, so if I want to get the full meaning of Helmut Jahn's design, I'll have to hoof it over and see for myself.
And I'm not even going so far as to think about this leading to a career in this or that. Right now, it's just a way to take a dozen tourists and explain why my city is the best city out there. I will be able to explain that the Chicago school of architecture means more than a base/shaft/capital construction, but a physical manifestation of how Chicago was the country's first, real home-grown city, and that Mies van der Rohe didn't just design boring buildings because it was cheap, but because it represented a new approach to urbanism, to walking that line between work and life, lines that were repeated throughout the country, particularly in places like Columbia, MD.
This will be fun. This will be rad. For any of you that won't get to enjoy my practice tours in the late January/Februaru blizzards, you can look forward to being friends with a bonafide CAF tour guide who can show you the ins and outs of Chicago's architecture. Tips will be appreciated.
email me
As some people may have known, I recently took an interest in the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF). It is a non-profit group dedicated to advancing public interest and education in architecture and related design. As part of achieving this goal, they provide tours (for a fee) of Chicago. Most of these are walking tours of/around the Loop, though some are by bus for whole neighborhoods, or even on boats for the river. All in all, it's very cool. All of the tours are lead by volunteer docents. Yours truly will soon be entering into a crazy, 11-week training program to be one of these docents.
I am very psyched, moreso than I can really express for the time being. My life will be consumed this winter, but winters in Chicago kind of suck (no offense MDS!), so it will be nice to have something to do. And speaking more broadly, it will be nice to have something to do. While I am a man of my routine, it's really been a bit of a drag when I stop and think about what I do -- go to work, go home, drink beer and enjoy Netflix and/or tv and/or PS2. And repeat. Sure, sure, there are dinner parties and going out with my friends plenty often, but even then, it can feel routine from time to time.
Now, I have something else to do. Say it's Wednesday night. Sure LOST is on, but I have a report to finish on the Monadnock building. I could sleep in on Sunday morning, but I've got to get to the Field Building to get a closer look at their marble inlays in the lobby. And don't get me started on what I'll be doing at lunch while at work -- that Thompson Center isn't even open on the weekends, so if I want to get the full meaning of Helmut Jahn's design, I'll have to hoof it over and see for myself.
And I'm not even going so far as to think about this leading to a career in this or that. Right now, it's just a way to take a dozen tourists and explain why my city is the best city out there. I will be able to explain that the Chicago school of architecture means more than a base/shaft/capital construction, but a physical manifestation of how Chicago was the country's first, real home-grown city, and that Mies van der Rohe didn't just design boring buildings because it was cheap, but because it represented a new approach to urbanism, to walking that line between work and life, lines that were repeated throughout the country, particularly in places like Columbia, MD.
This will be fun. This will be rad. For any of you that won't get to enjoy my practice tours in the late January/Februaru blizzards, you can look forward to being friends with a bonafide CAF tour guide who can show you the ins and outs of Chicago's architecture. Tips will be appreciated.
email me
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