The Babuk Report

Category: Speaking Engagements

  • Canadian Architects of the Chicago School 1880 – 1935

    A striking feature of Chicago that amazes visitors and newcomers alike is the ability of taxi-cab drivers to identify city landmarks by their architect.  The Thompson Center? – why that’s Helmut Jahn.  The Loop Post Office? – it’s Mies van der Rohe.  The Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park – Frank Gehry!

    The part of the story that few seem able to recount is how many of the architects cited are Canadian.  Frank Gehry – from time to time claiming to be Torontonian or from someplace thereabouts – is one example.  But dig a bit deeper into Chicago’s heritage…

    While everyone can recite the name of at least one Frank Lloyd Wright building, few realize that the River Forest Tennis Club in River Forest was originally built as a carbon copy of the “Frank Lloyd Wright Pavilion” in Banff National Park.  The Tennis Club was moved and altered in 1910, but many basic parts of the existing building are just as they were built in Banff.  Why Banff, you ask?  In his travels to Japan, a favourite steamship of Wright’s was the Canadian Pacific “Empress of Asia”, which left from the Granville Street Terminal in Vancouver.  In those day, Canadian Pacific sold “through tickets” that accommodated passengers in their ocean liners, trains and hotels in trips around the world.  One of the easiest ways to get from Chicago to Tokyo was to take the Canadian Pacific Railway train through Moose Jaw, spend a couple days at the Banff Springs hotel, and in just a couple steps from your train stop in Vancouver, catch your steamer from the same building.  One of Wright’s protégés – Francis C. Sullivan of Ottawa – introduced him to many contacts within the Canadian Department of Public Works, including the Banff National Park Warden and Superintendant.

    Likewise, many marvel at historic buildings in the Chicago Park District or along the Chicago River, or delight in presentations at the Graham Foundation.  When he was sixteen, Hugh Garden was one of three sons of a Toronto family that immigrated to Chicago. For a time, Garden worked in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park studio before partnering up with other architects to establish a prolific Chicago practice.  As Designer in Charge, he was responsible for projects like the Madelener House and the hotel addition to the former Chicago Athletic Association.  His client relationship with the Chicago Park District produced memorable works such as the Garfield Park Refectory and the Columbus Park lanterns; his last major project was the former Marshall Fields Warehouse complex along the North Branch of the Chicago River.

    And meanwhile, several buildings in Chicago – the clubhouse of the Union League Club of Chicago being a good example – are credited to William LeBaron Jenney, despite the building having been built in 1925 and Jenney having died in 1907.  William LeBaron Jenney was a Chicago Architect who invented the steel cage skyscraper frame, for which Chicago became known world-over as the birthplace of the skyscraper. Few recognize that Jenney mentored and appointed a successor Architect to assume his practice – a Hamilton, Ontario native named William Bryce Mundie. A quiet and unassuming fellow, Mundie was never-the-less a professional and social pillar of Chicago. Upon his hiring in 1884, Mundie was given the assignment of being the Project Architect of the Home Life Insurance Building, a landmark building recognized as the world’s first skyscraper. Mundie became a partner in what became Jenney and Mundie Architects in 1891. Louis Sullivan credited Mundie as being the inventor of the “Skyscraper Setback Style” in a treatise describing the Manhattan Building.  Instrumental in the adoption of building code and professional regulation standards, he was appointed Supervising Architect to the Chicago Board of Education in 1898. Here, his personal mission being to bring school construction to high standards of safety, in the aftermath of the Iroquois Theater fire tragedy.  A Board Member of the Canadian Club of Chicago and of the Illinois Saint Andrew Society, he was also the First Vice President of the American Institute of Architects. He donated his services – twice – to build and rebuild the Scottish Home in North Riverside. And, of course, he was a Member of the Union League Club of Chicago, and Architect of its present clubhouse.

    So, we all know the architectural landmarks of Chicago, but do you know of the Canadian landmarks here?

     

  • Happy Canada Day! … from Chicago…

    In connecting two concepts:

    July 1 is Canada Day. July 1, 1867 was the day that HRM Queen Victoria signed the British North America Act and officially declared Canada to be a country.

    Milt Rosenberg is an iconic Chicago radio broadcaster. Over the years, he has regularly interviewed the likes of Henry Kissinger and Margaret Thatcher. Mr. Rosenberg has a regular show, “720 Extension” that may be heard on Chicago’s WGN Radio. WGN Radio broadcasts on 720AM and at www.wgnradio.com and on numerous social media.

    This year, on Sunday, July 1, 2012, Milt Rosenberg will commemorate Canada Day by interviewing Canadians who live in the Chicago area. I happen to be one of those lucky Canadians invited to participate.

    “720 Extension” will air Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 10PM Central Time.

  • Darrel Babuk presented with Visit Oak Park Award

    At the Annual Meeting of Visit Oak Park (formerly known as the Oak Park Area Visitor and Convention Bureau), Darrel Babuk was presented with the “New Member of the Year Award”, in recognition of the Babuk Presentations, Inc.  initiative.

    Though Darrel Babuk is a practicing architect – having completed various project and program management projects for clients such as the Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Public Schools, and West Suburban Hospital –he has always been doing public speaking engagements and other presentations.

    It may have started with his presentation to the Royal Institute of British Architects in London that described architectural internship and formal education in the United States, which Darrel was invited to present as part of his tenure as National Vice President of the American Institute of Architecture Students.  The concept of Babuk Presentations took off when Darrel was tapped by the City of Chicago Mayor’s Office of Special Events for a series of presentations about Chicago’s architecture and railroad history for the Great Chicago Places and Spaces festival series.  His address to the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s national convention last year was but one of several out-of-town presentations where he has promoted Oak Park; on the flip side, he is constantly delivering customized presentations about Chicago and Oak Park to organized groups visiting from out-of-town and abroad.  

    He has always been organizing events – like “Canadian Architecture in Chicago Week”, or the “Scottish Motor Club and British Car Show” at the Illinois Saint Andrew Society Highland Games, or even the “Oak Park Architecture Photo Party” for the North Avenue Business Association. 

    Putting all of this together created Babuk Presentations, Inc, a hobby turned into a business that promotes Oak Park. 

    In connecting even more of the dots, Babuk Presentations, Inc. provides cross-border US / Canada goods and services trade consulting to clients in the Architecture / Engineering and Construction sectors.  

    It’s all great fun to do, and fun to be doing it in Oak Park.

  • It’s been a while, folks….

    …and a whirlwind of activities it has been.  Just to name a few of the distractions that came over me:

    Leading a program for the National Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians that was held in Chicago.

    Delivering a presentation of “Canadian Architects of the Chicago School 1884 – 1935” to the National Festival of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and delivering abbreviated versions of this presentation to the Racquet Club of Chicago, and to the Cliff Dwellers Club.

    Being a Docent for the Pleasant Home Foundation’s annual “Pleasant Homes of Oak Park” fundraiser.

    At the request and sponsorship of Visit Oak Park, planning a program describing the art and architecture of Oak Park’s churches to be given during the Oak Park Arts Council’s “ArtRageous! Oak Park” Festival, to which the kind folks at Porter Airlines generously donated a pair of roundtrip airline tickets as a silent auction item.

    All of the speaking engagements have lead to some fascinating research, like finding meeting minutes of the River Forest Tennis Club first approving the membership applications of Mr.  & Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright in 1907, only to be succeeded by Board Meeting minutes in 1912 or so, rescinding the memberships of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, for reason of “Philandering”.

    There’s been lots of travel, including some time on the west coast (prairie kids always want to wind up on the coast).

    And a trip to speak in Saskatoon (it’s a city in Saskatchewan), where I found that not only was the person in line behind me at the airport the Senior Advisor to the Premier of Saskatchewan going away on a quick vacation of sorts, but that the incoming flight was grounded due to a bird strike and ensuing engine flame out.

    But that if that wasn’t enough for careening into famous political figures, I bumped into Paul Martin (former Prime Minister of Canada) at the Island Airport in Toronto – he actually took a seat next to me in the Departures Lounge.

    And many volunteer activities:

    Volunteering to give impromptu Canadian geography presentations during the Tall Ships Festival.

    Chairing the British Car Show at the Illinois Saint Andrew Society Highland Games.  I had planned to enter the Caber Toss event and even contacted the Heavy Athletic Chair to enquire; I just didn’t get around to attending the training sessions held in a far western suburb of Chicago. 

    Assisting various community groups organize various car shows or British, Italian and German themes, complete with entertainment by the Thistle and Heather Highland Dancers, and various bagpipers.

    Oak Park Architecture Photo Party, which even extended into the Galewood neighbourhood of Chicago, an area rich with mid-century modern architecture.

    And I’ve started to develop manuscripts for books, including “Canadian Architects of the Chicago School 1884 – 1935”, “First Railroads, Then Skyscrapers”; and the one closest to publication “Art Deco Oak Park”, for which there is a hard bound draft copy lurking about.

    Whew!!  Perhaps I ought to simply get back to writing The Babuk Report…

  • The North Avenue Architecture Photo Party

    North Avenue, the border between the north side of Oak Park and the Galewood neighborhood of Chicago, is relatively newer than many surrounding neighborhoods. While the buildings along North Avenue post date Frank Lloyd Wright, he golfed here with friends and clients. Many used the area as a place to get away and hide from the City.  It was one of the first automobile oriented commercial strips in the Chicago area. A favorite location for drive-in restaurants, the road west of Oak Park and Galewood – known as State Route 64 – was a renowned teen hangout for street races. 

    Architecturally, the area is rich in 1920’s storefronts with highly decorative terra cotta cladding and details. Later buildings were exuberantly mid-century modern. 

    Experience the world renowned architecture of our town, which is just a scant eight miles / twelve kilometres from another equally world renowned and architecturally significant place, the Chicago Loop.  

    And besides –North Avenue has lots of great restaurants, stores and cultural attractions to discover and enjoy once you’ve completed the North Avenue Architecture Photo Party.

    Instructions:

    By walking along public sidewalks and right-of-ways contained along North Avenue between Austin and Harlem Avenues, and for an area one block north and south along Harlem Avenue; locate these architectural features and details, noting their location. 

    Oak Park is a living museum containing many private homes that just happen to be world renowned masterpieces.  No private residences are featured in the North Avenue Architecture Photo Party.   However, please respect the homeowner’s privacy and remain on the public sidewalks for the hunt.

    Here’s a sampling of the program:

    The Jetsons’ probably get their teeth fixed here.
    Terra Cotta TV
    A monumental building

    An additional feature of the scavenger hunt is the North Avenue Historical Photo Party.  This may be the most enigmatic image of them all:

    North Pole Drive In, River Forest, Illinois

    While historians agree that this was the North Pole Drive In, located in River Forest, Illinois.  It’s also agreed that its architect was Bertrand Goldberg.  No consensus exists on where this was located.  However, I have my theories….

     The entire program is on display in the lobbies of these banks on North Avenue, who have supported the North Avenue Architecture Photo Party:

    ABC Bank, North Avenue, Chicago

    Charter One Bank, North Avenue, Chicago

    Midwest Bank, North Avenue, Elmwood Park

    US Bank, North Avenue, Oak Park

    June 2010 North Avenue Architecture Photo Party is a production of:

    North Avenue Business Association

    Oak Park Architectural League

    This edition has been made possible by:

    Visit Oak Park

    Oak Park River Forest Historical Foundation

    www.3planets.com / www.shopoakpark.com

    Heitzman Architects

    Babuk Presentations, Inc / www.TourAboutChicago.com

    Keep following this event anywhere in the world at www.OakParkArchitectureParty.com

  • Canadians in the Chicago School 1884 – 1935 Presentation

    The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada holds a national convention every year, entitled the “Festival of Architecture”.  This year, the Festival is being held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and its theme will be “Sounds Like Architecture”.

    Proudly, I will be delivering a talk “Canadians of the Chicago School 1884 – 1935” at this year’s Festival, on June 26.  This topic talks of the contributions made directly by Canadians to the development of the 1880’s Chicago skyscraper format, and the contributions those Canadians brought back to create a “Canadian” skyscraper.

    This is a presentation delivered previously to the Chicago Architecture Foundation, and to visiting student and faculty groups from various Canadian and European universities.  I’m constantly drawing on research from many sources in preparation for this preparation.

  • So, what was that you wanted to know?

    The last month or so has seen a flurry of behind the scenes activity at the Babuk Report.  All for the good.  It’s all about Learn About Chicago a venture described elsewhere in this blog.

    Learn About Chicago is an initiative that is an extension of the sort of architectural awareness and organization that I’ve done in past.  It is a division of Babuk Presentations, Inc.

    The major focus of Learn About Chicago targets university students who want to spend an extended period studying Chicago’s architecture. It may be a studio class led a professor from a visiting institution, or it may be a program of presentations and interactive learning experiences that I assemble.  I work with the visiting groups to tailor make a Chicago experience that they will take with them, to further their studies at their home collegiate institution.  Learn About Chicago can work with many other groups wanting a series of presentations – presentations delivered by myself or others – bundled together into a program that describes Chicago.

    Tour About Chicago is another division of Babuk Presentations Inc.  Tour About Chicago focuses on delivering articulate and informative presentations about Chicago’s architectural and railroad history.  I weave Chicago’s historical sites into captivating and fascinating story lines.  Tour About Chicago is much like what I’ve been doing all along.  Many of the Tour About Chicago presentations – especially those that describe Oak Park and the near western suburbs of Chicago will be marketed through Visit Oak Park.

    Tour About Chicago specializes in the little known parts of Chicago.  Quirky history.

    Babuk Presentations, Inc. is a new direction within my architectural practice.  It specializes in all types of presentations; graphic design, public speaking and the like.

    Watch for a revamped web presence soon.

  • One Final Note about the Hanna Roundhouse

    The “Roundhouses of the World” exhibit that has been on display at the Hanna Public Library is closing this week.  In a way, it still lives on.

    The Oak Park Architectural League is having its Bi-Annual Members Show this month at the Oak Park Public Library in Oak Park, Illinois.  Being a member, my contribution to the OPAL exhibition is a condensed version of the “Roundhouses of the World” exhibit.  This exhibit depicts a bit of the work to date associated with the Hanna Roundhouse.

    Using Prince Phillip’s musing of the studio cottages of the Banff Centre of the Arts “I gather that it’s my duty to declare this facility much more open than it previously has been”; although the OPAL exhibition is currently open to the public, the grand opening, if you will, will be held on Wednesday, December 9 at 630PM.  I have been asked to say a couple words about the Hanna Roundhouse.

    The Oak Park Architectural League exhibit will remain on display in the Art Gallery of the library until December 29.

  • A Vacant Building in Chicago

    In writing about vacant buildings and storefronts in Oak Park, one would think that I’ve neglected to mention vacancies in Chicago.  Whenever I show friends the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park, they always ask about a darkened Venetian Gothic building across Michigan Avenue.  It’s the former Chicago Athletic Association; opened in 1894, architect Henry Ives Cobb.

    The Chicago Athletic Association Clubhouse
    The Chicago Athletic Association Clubhouse

    The Chicago Athletic Association was a gentlemen’s club, made up of the who’s who of Chicago at the time.  Marshall Field was a member, the office building that bore his name was half a block north.  At one point, there was a ten year waiting list to become a member, it was that sought after.  It was to have opened in time for the 1893 Columbian Exposition and World’s Fair, but was just a bit late.  Everyone’s human.  In the mid 1920’s, a hotel wing was added to the building, the architecture firm being Schmidt, Garden and Martin – Hugh Garden being a transplant to Chicago from Toronto.  To this day, the CAA clubhouse commands a breathtaking view of Lake Michigan.

    A couple years ago, a friend brought me to have lunch in the Dining Room, introducing me to various members who were part of the 1960 US Olympic Team.  They trained at the CAA.  That was back when private clubs like this sponsored Olympians, and would-be Olympians trained in the splendour of very exclusive, very urban facilities. 

    To mark my own place in history, I believe that I may be one of the last few to have swam a mile in the pool.  A friend was a member, who found a way to get me in before the Club closed.  I swam in the same pool as did Al Capone and Bill Thompson, separated by a few decades.

    The Former Illinois Athletic Club, now dormitories for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
    The Former Illinois Athletic Club, now dormitories for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

    The exclusive gentlemen’s clubs of Chicago – and other clubs of that era – defined their members.  The members of the Chicago Athletic Association were very different than were the members of the Illinois Athletic Club, just a block south on Michigan Avenue; those members were very different from those of the Union League, or the Germania Club, and so on.  Modern day Chicagoans network differently – they live further away, and have a multitude of distractions and entertainment sources that didn’t exist a century ago.  Most of the old clubs have withered away, remembered only in folklore.

    The Chicago Athletic Association was affected too.  Its membership shrank, the clubhouse became increasingly expensive to properly maintain.  When a condominium developer offered a princely sum to the membership to purchase this building, they accepted.  The building has sat empty ever since, the condominium market having taken a nose dive.

    My bit of urban folklore to throw into the mix? The CAA sponsored various athletic teams around Chicago; they once granted permission to a fledging, northside baseball team they sponsored to use the CAA logo on their uniforms under the agreement that the CAA would never charge this team for the logo’s use or display.  While the CAA has folded, this baseball team (to remain nameless) is wildly popular though its success is arguable; the team itself is fetching an even more princely sum to continue, even though it’s never won a title or pennant in memory.

  • Ten Hours in Toronto

    Spending ten hours in a city usually happens unexpectedly when your airplane connection is delayed.  This wasn’t the case here; this was planned in advance.

    I had a promotional plane ticket given for me, one that was going to expire this month.  It had to be used, City of Toronto garbage collectors’ strike or not.

    In my wanderings around downtown Toronto, it really wasn’t bad at all.  I’d compare it to a clean day in New York City.  A train that I took, however, passed by one of the city parks turned into a makeshift dump – a rather surreal mountain of plastic garbage bags.

    There were hand sanitizing stations everywhere you could imagine. It seemed that someone was handing me a “moist towelette” wrapped in foil at every turn.

    Garbage collectors’ strike or not, it really wasn’t too bad.  At least downtown.

    The Porter Airlines thing

    I flew there and back on Porter Airlines – a “retro” airline that flies  in and out of Toronto’s Island Airport.  The stewardesses are decked out in pillbox hats and pencil skirts, they even offer passengers food and beverages – just like the old days.  And they too handed out those ubiquitous moist towelettes in foil packages.  Toronto must be the city with the world’s cleanest hands.

    It’s a veritable who’s who that fly on Porter.  At their gala reception in Chicago last February, I had a lengthy conversation with Mike Harris, former Premier of Ontario. Last March, who happened to take a seat opposite me in the departures lounge at the Island Airport but Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada.  This time, I had the pleasure of showing a reporter from the Toronto Sun how to take the El from Midway Airport into Chicago, and giving my “nickel n’ dime” tour of Chicago’s southwest side along the way.

    From the Island Airport Ferry, going to the Mainland
    From the Island Airport Ferry, going to the Mainland

    The Island Airport is incredibly handy to fly in and out of, it’s only a couple blocks away from the Royal York Hotel and Union Station.  At what other airport in the world is one required to take a ferry – across water – to the baggage check-in?  Then, they drive you to the Royal York. 

     The Royal York Hotel (I’m not sure if it still is a Canadian Pacific owned property) is always a hoot – ever since they closed the Beehive Room and ended the perpetual Petula Clark show that was ongoing for years (I’m suspicious that she may not have had THAT many hit songs to sing), they still have Her Majesty’s portrait hanging in the lobby, looking quite excited at the prospect at camping out there once more. I could never understand.