The Centennial of the Chicago Plan of 1909 – the Burnham Plan – provided for a season of great networking this year. One of the last Burnham events – a reception to honour the entrants of the Burnham Memorial Competition was held last night at the Field Museum. Nice group, but didn’t have the previous reception’s star power of Mayor Daley and Valerie Jarrett.
It was an “Invitation Only” competition, though a handful of unsolicited entries were submitted. One was submitted by an architect who interned under me in his previous life, Casimir Kujawa, and his intern, Mason Pritchett. I wish that their entry would have been displayed; it was a tremendous design and a stunning presentation.
Otherwise, the fundraising for construction portion of the competition program starts, and will be challenging in this market.
On the way back to the train after the reception, I was able to stop by the Art Institute and retake a couple photos that didn’t take at all well last week during that Burnham Reception. The Chicago Loop at night is exceptionally photogenic. With a camera suitable for night photos, it’s impossible to take a bad photo. These are the last few days for the Burnham Pavilions on display at Millennium Park, they were glowing profusely. It will be sad to see the pavilion describing the earth, they sky, and the city that grew in between be taken down.
