Masterpieces of Chicago Architecture (Hardcover)

by John Zukowsky (Author), Martha Thorne (Author), Stanley Tigerman (Preface)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Chicago is universally recognized as the cradle of modern architecture. It is known worldwide for the development, beginning in the late 1800s, of the renowned "Chicago School" of commercial building. In the early 1900s, Chicago saw the birth of Wright's "Prairie School" of residential design, which gave rise to the modern, open-plan house we know today. Other world-renowned architects were also based in Chicago, such as Louis Sullivan, who designed the Chicago Stock Exchange, and Daniel Burnham, architect of the famous Rookery Building of the 1890s.

The 1940s were to see the completion of Mies van der Rohe's revolutionary Illinois Institute of Technology and his astonishing Lake Shore Drive apartment buildings. Skidmore Owings & Merrill's landmark Inland Steel Building was finished in 1954, their John Hancock Center in 1970, and their Sears Tower in 1974. Philip Johnson and John Burgee's 190 South LaSalle Street office tower went up in 1987.

The 200 illustrations in this volume all come from The Art Institute of Chicago's repository of 150,000 architectural drawings, vintage photographs, models, and building fragments, which comprise one of the most important such archives. These illustrations reveal interiors and details that give us a greater appreciation of Chicago in particular and architecture in general. With its definitive text, the book is a striking record of Chicago's great buildings and will be an important reference on the subject for years to come.


About the Author
John Zukowsky is Curator of Architecture at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Martha Thorne is Associate Curator of Architecture at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Stanley Tigerman is both a practicing architect and a professor of architecture, and has often been called the dean of Chicago architecture.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (June 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847825965
• ISBN-13: 978-0847825967
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 11.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #128,044 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #43 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Architecture > International > United States
  #58 in	Books > History > United States > State & Local > Illinois

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another tour de force on architecture from Rizzoli, July 14, 2004

By	Manon Kavesky (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you are visiting Chicago an el ride around the Loop will transport you through 100 years of architectural history in about 20 minutes. Chicago is a living architecture museum always in flux; new buildings are added to the skyline, old ones re-imagined and re-used, whole neighborhoods rising from decades of urban decay. Daniel Burnham, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies Van der Rohe all left their imprint on the city and contemporary masters such as Helmut Jahn, Frank Geary, and Rem Koolhaas, are shaping the Chicago of today.

For those attracted to architecture Masterpieces of Chicago Architecture is another tour de force from Rizzoli. Masterpieces of Chicago Architecture presents the first 100 vibrant years of built and un-built projects by the masters and their disciples. Generously illustrated with more than 200 photos, illustrations, models, and plans, from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The authors and curators of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago add thoughtful commentary and unique insights on the city to bring the past, present and future together in one glorious package. Chicago is the leading force in American building trends and to understand where Chicago is going is to understand something about the future.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous, impressive, a little frustrating, September 13, 2006

By	Michael Gebert (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a survey of many of the best-known examples of Chicago school architecture, replete with handsomely large reproduction of photos and (the real treat) often dazzling architectural drawings (Walter Burley Griffin's for a tract development in Iowa is especially lovely), there's a lot to admire about this book, and it deserves a place on many coffee tables.

Still, the title says "Chicago school architecture," which means that architecture that belongs in the club of well-known Chicago architects is in, and architecture that stands out of that group is not. The result is that there's an awful lot of post-1950 glass and steel office buildings toward the end, few of which evidence any reason to love them (only Marina Towers, perhaps); while art deco gets short shrift (where's the beautifully detailed Powhatan in Hyde Park? Where's the Civic Opera? Where's the Chicago Motor Club?) and semi-obscure one-shots-- Louis Bourgeois' contemplative Bahai Temple in Wilmette, the stunning Arts and Crafts-era Carl Schurz High School on the northwest side-- get no attention. Indeed, apart from the occasional McDonald's, there's little sense that architecture means anything other than skyscrapers-- few retail buildings or restaurants, no factories, few churches, only one recent school, few private homes (although if you want that, you might as well go straight to the book on David Adler). By the last pages, it seems a collection of the buildings that architects keep trying to convince us we should like, and we won't, any more than we'll all go around humming Schoenberg. Buy it for the first half, and for the beguilingly beautiful draftsmanship of early 20th century renderings above all.

5.0 out of 5 stars perfect gift, February 12, 2009

By	Melissa Bridgman (memphis, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this huge, beautifully bound and photographed volume of chicago architecture for my uncle, a transplanted native of chicago. He misses his city greatly- and loved this. It was perfect.