and the Threatened Works of Walter Gropius

Starting at 2:00 p.m.
Tour to convene under the brick archway that spans 29th Street at South Ellis Avenue.

Join us for a free walking tour of the Michael Reese Hospital campus in Chicago, Illinois! Co-sponsored by the Gropius in Chicago Coalition, Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond, and Preservation Chicago, the tour will be led by the GCC's head researcher, Grahm Balkany.

The Michael Reese Hospital Campus is the threatened and highly significant repository of Modernism on Chicago's near South Side. With a master plan by Walter Gropius and several buildings executed with his heavy involvement, it is the only site in Illinois to bear his work. The understanding of Gropius's role in the site has only recently been brought into focus by on-going research, primarily from unique and heretofore-undocumented sources.

The entire hospital campus is presently threatened with demolition by the City of Chicago's proposed Olympic Village, but the important Gropius buildings could easily be adaptively reused as part of the Olympic project. Even if the Olympics don't come to Chicago, the City’s stated intention is to demolish all but one structure on the site, resulting from a lack of awareness of these masterpieces of Modernist architecture. Demolition could start as soon as this summer.

Focusing on the Chicago works of Gropius, but also discussing most of the 32 buildings at the site, its planning, and landscape, the tour will be a highly informative, first-hand look at a prime and overlooked work of art. Topics of interest include urban renewal and social change on the Near South Side, changing trends in medical design, and Gropius's pioneering ideas in contextualism and climate-driven design. The similarly threatened Lake Meadows housing complex (by SOM) will also be discussed and viewed to a certain degree.

Architects and designers discussed on this tour include: Walter Gropius; The Architects Collaborative; Hideo Sasaki [Sasaki and Novak]; Lester Collins; Reginald Isaacs; John T. Black; Loebl, Schlossman, and Bennett; A. Epstein and Sons; Friedman, Alschuler, and Sincere; Gordon and Levin; and Schmidt, Garden, and Erikson.

The tour is expected to last between two and three hours and will include extensive walking, mostly on hard surfaces and paths. Ample street parking is available (metered), in the vicinity of 29th and Ellis, and also along Lake Park and Cottage Grove Avenues. Interiors of the buildings will not be accessible.

A donation of $10.00, to help support the costs of continuing research, is suggested at entry. Reservations are not required.

For more information, please see the following:
The Gropius in Chicago Coalition

Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond is flying filmmakers Leslie Streit and Robin McCain in from California for this very special event. We will view a clip from their upcoming documentary The Elly Glass Project at a very special tour of the Henry P. Glass House, one of the first passive solar homes in America located in Northfield IL.

In 1939 Elly Glass, an Austrian woman, rescued her husband Henry from Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The couple fled their native Vienna and emigrated first to New York and later to Chicago. Here in 1948, Henry, a trained architect (although best known for his groundbreaking industrial designs), built this one-of-a-kind house.

Adding onto the design innovations of Buckminster Fuller and the Keck brothers, Henry came up with several solar innovations of his own including an inverted roof, black floors and large Thermopane windows facing a Southern exposure. Elly, aged 94, still lives in this house, which from the start was also the family home.

This will be a rare opportunity to step inside the Henry P. Glass House. Your tour guide will be Anne Karin Glass, daughter of Henry and Elly. There will be a brief Q & A with Anne Karin and the filmmakers following the documentary clip. Reservations must be purchased in advance, $35 for members in good standing, and $45 for their guests.