Blair Kamin

Architecture books for the holidays: A wealth of offerings on urban visions, an iconic suburban campus, an intimate garden, ballparks and more

December 18, 2019 at 10:45 a.m.

Still searching for the perfect holiday gift for your favorite architecture buff? Here are six recommendations. "City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America From the Puritans to the Present"...

First-floor interior space of the Old Chicago Main Post Office in Oct. 2019.

Column: Chicago architecture went in new directions in the 2010s, and the world will follow

December 23, 2019 at 8:28 a.m.

Where does the art of architecture stand today, at the end of the teens? What belief systems guide the shapers of our buildings and urban spaces? There are no easy...

The central entrance on the first floor with tenant escalators at the Old Main Post Office.

Best in architecture in 2019: Notre Dame saved, Wright honored, Old Post Office revived

December 18, 2019 at 8:59 a.m.

It was a year of stark contrasts in architecture: The burning and near-destruction of Notre Dame Cathedral versus the revival of once-decrepit buildings like Chicago's Old Post Office. A group...

Franz Schulze, art critic, educator and biographer of Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, dies at 92

December 10, 2019 at 4:40 p.m.

Franz Schulze, a prolific Chicago art critic and educator who chronicled the lives and work of two of the 20th century's most consequential architects, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and...

NEMA Chicago, center, is shown under construction on Aug. 19, 2019.

Column: NEMA, city’s tallest rental high-rise, reinterprets Willis Tower in one of the finest efforts of Chicago’s current building boom

December 9, 2019 at 11:11 a.m.

It's no coincidence that the nearly complete NEMA Chicago skyscraper, which at 896 feet is Chicago's tallest rental high-rise, bears a strong resemblance to Willis Tower. The architect, New York's...

The Booth Cottage, a modest, originally temporary one-story house by Frank Lloyd Wright at 239 Franklin Street in Glencoe on May 1, 2019.

Column: With time running out to save a Frank Lloyd Wright cottage in Glencoe, a push is on to move it to another location

December 30, 2019 at 11:30 a.m.

A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed cottage in Glencoe could be spared a date with a wrecking crew, but it's unclear if preservationists can put together funds to move the house to...

All Stories

Architecture books for the holidays: A wealth of offerings on urban visions, an iconic suburban campus, an intimate garden, ballparks and more

Column: Chicago architecture went in new directions in the 2010s, and the world will follow

Best in architecture in 2019: Notre Dame saved, Wright honored, Old Post Office revived

Franz Schulze, art critic, educator and biographer of Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, dies at 92

Column: NEMA, city’s tallest rental high-rise, reinterprets Willis Tower in one of the finest efforts of Chicago’s current building boom

Column: With time running out to save a Frank Lloyd Wright cottage in Glencoe, a push is on to move it to another location

Column: North Michigan Avenue is aglow for the holidays but some stores are more ‘meh’ than magnificent

Column: The world’s largest Starbucks, opening Friday in Chicago, is one of the finest flagships on the Mag Mile

Column: The same people who demoted Willis Tower could strip Chicago of another skyscraper title

Column: Architects come to a party dressed as their skyscrapers and paint a picture of today’s high-rise scene