Latest news with #MiesvanderRohe
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Elmhurst Art Museum highlights permanent collection in new exhibit
It started in 1981 with a group of teachers, artists and other art lovers who wanted to share that love with a wider audience. And the Elmhurst Art Museum has been gathering an impressive collection of artwork ever since. 'In the beginning, a lot of the local artists and people in the Elmhurst Artists' Guild and local collectors donated their collections to start the collection,' said Allison Peters Quinn, the museum's executive director and chief curator. A little over 10 years later, they had enough clout and resources to acquire the Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House, built in 1952. It was purchased in 1992 by a group led by artist and educator Eleanor King Hookham and moved to the Elmhurst Art Museum Campus. 'That set us on the path of art, architecture and education,' Quinn explained. Through Aug. 17, the museum is staging an exhibition of items from its permanent collection called, 'Legacies: Selections from the Elmhurst Art Museum Permanent Collection.' The focus of the show is on collecting and collections. 'We wanted to show how collections work,' Quinn said. 'Who gives and how.' Initially, the plan for the museum was to exhibit and collect works of local artists, but that focus soon expanded. The museum now has a permanent collection of around 1,000 works by a diverse assortment of creators. 'It's a collection that is focused on 20th century art and design by Midwestern artists,' Quinn said. She noted that pieces have been donated to the museum in a variety of ways. 'It could be a family member, it could be the artists themselves, it could be their friends who pulled together their resources to make sure that story is told by a museum,' Quinn explained. One interesting item in the collection, Quinn indicated, is the Barcelona Chair, attributed to Mies van der Rohe. 'It was designed actually by a designer, Lily Wright, that he worked with but it was always attributed to Mies van der Rohe, as happened with women artists in the '50s,' Quinn said. Although the primary focus era of the museum's collection is midcentury modern, Quinn reported, because of the way the museum was started, they do have pieces as old as the 1800s. 'We're telling the story of midcentury modern and contemporary because that's what the charter of the institution is now,' Quinn explained. 'When it started, it was a little bit more nebulous.' One valuable item in the collection is a large painting by Michelle Grabner, who taught at the School of the Art Institute for a long time and had solo shows in important institutions. Another interesting work that Quinn cited is 'Circus Wagon' by Joseph Burlini. 'It's this magical metal sculpture, about six feet tall, three by three feet square, but it's circular,' Quinn said. 'It has all these metal parts. When you look at it, it feels like it's moving.' The work was a gift from the Elmhurst Fine Arts and Civic Center Foundation. The museum's current exhibition draws from donations from over 200 collections and donors. It features micro installations of paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures from over a dozen collections. Works by local, regional, national, and international artists are included. The Elmhurst Art Museum is at 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave. More information is at
Forbes
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Zurich's Widder Hotel: A Masterpiece Of Design & Imagination
A guest suite at Zurich's Widder Hotel. The Widder Hotel is routinely ranked among the best hotels in Zurich, the picture-perfect city best known for Swiss banking that ranks at the top of world metropolises for its quality of life. The Widder is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary yet it's a hotel that defies expectations and rewires your brain. It was recently awarded two Michelin keys for it high level of service and five star comforts, but architecturally, it's not a classic hotel. It's a clever puzzle created out of nine townhouses dating back as far as the 15th century, where the alleyways are now corridors, the ceilings retain their vintage beams, and there are glass-walled elevators. A piece of a Roman stone wall was unearthed, and the hotel was built around it, yet the furnishings are a casting call for mid-century modern masterpieces by the likes of Charles and Ray Eames, Mies van der Rohe, Eileen Gray, and Le Corbusier. Guestroom at the Widder Hotel. Yet that still doesn't paint the entire picture. Imagine you had a rich, eccentric uncle with an unlimited budget and excellent but quirky taste who could piece such a hotel together in the heart of the medieval maze of Zurich, on a street called Rennweg, filled with classic Swiss design shops in houses of a similar vintage. For Zurich architect Tilla Theus, creating the hotel was a painstaking process that took a decade, enlisting a small army of designers, contractors, and conservators. It's a mashup of design imagination and restoration that set the bar three decades ago for what constitutes a hotel. A loft at the Widder Hotel Each of the 49 guest rooms is different and ranges from cozy rooms with leaded glass windows, marquetry, and parquet to a pop art loft that looks like it's straight from New York's Chelsea neighborhood, circa 1970. Artwork by Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Max Bill, Serge Poliakoff, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Alberto Giacometti can be found throughout the property. Yet The Widder is not an art hotel. It's a living, breathing hotel that is also supremely comfortable. The rooms feel more like apartments; if you want to stay put, you can gaze out onto the pedestrian-filled Rennweg and not feel like you're missing anything. Guestroom at the Widder Hotel. Classic Eames lounge chairs are ubiquitous, and you might feel, as I did, that you are simultaneously in a work of art, that eccentric uncle's historic home, and a sleekly high-tech, high-touch hotel. Service is friendly but discreet, something the Swiss have mastered like few others. The Widder Bar. The Widder Bar is a high point of any stay, drawing in well-dressed and well-heeled patrons to a mirrored bar that boasts (a very un-Swiss-like thing to do) of having more than 650 whiskies and 1,200 spirits. In summer, the Widder Garden is open for alfresco lounging. There are two restaurants: the Widder Restaurant, where Chef Stefan Heilemannich has been awarded two Michelin stars, and the brasserie-like Boucherie AuGust. The latter was my choice, a lively room that felt like an upscale butcher shop turned restaurant with as many locals as hotel guests. Expect classic Swiss mountain fare, including an array of sausages, sliced veal Zurich-style in a cream sauce with mushrooms, homemade pâtés, terrines pates, and beef tartare. Boucherie AuGust at the Widder Hotel. The Widder gives you the feeling of being in the center of things, and you are more or less in the very heart of this amazing city. The Bahnhofstrasse and the Hauptbahnhof, the central train station, are a few minutes walk away. The city's best sights are as well, like the Grossmünster church, the Opera House, and the waterfront park on Lake Zurich. The Widder belongs to a small hospitality group called The Living Circle, which includes hotels, restaurants, organic farms, and a vineyard in Ascona, in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino. Sister properties include another of Zurich's storied city-center luxury hotels, the Storchen, a few minutes away by foot, and the Alex Lake Zurich, a white-clad International Style resort located about 20 minutes outside the city on the shores of Lake Zurich. I loved the Widder for its design, location, and somewhat cheeky attitude towards stuffiness. Brilliantly designed but remarkably unselfconscious, it may be the quintessential Zurich hotel. Details at the Widder Hotel.
Chicago Tribune
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Ravinia Festival begins a $75 million renovation plan, starting with the Pavilion
The Ravinia Festival will renovate its grounds from now through 2029, starting with its 3,350-seat Pavilion, the festival announced Thursday. Ravinia plans to unveil the updated Pavilion in July 2026 as the Hunter Pavilion, named for a $10 million donation by the Hunter Family Foundation. The backstage area will also be renamed the Negaunee Foundation Artist Center, after a $21 million donation by the Negaunee Foundation. Lohan Architecture, a successor firm to Mies van der Rohe's office, will lead the project, with additional acoustic consulting by Threshold Acoustics and stage design consulting by Schuler Shook. The first phase of the Pavilion renovation, addressing backstage infrastructure such as artist facilities and loading areas, is already underway, according to comments and photographs provided by Ravinia President and CEO Jeff Haydon. The second phase will transform the Pavilion itself, improving the onstage acoustic and updating its seating, which dates to the 1950s. 'While this first phase might not be that noticeable cosmetically, it'll really impact the experience, at least for the performers,' says chief conductor Marin Alsop. The Pavilion is the largest seating area on the grounds of the outdoor music venue in Highland Park and hosts Ravinia's biggest concerts over its annual summer seasons. It was constructed in 1949 to replace the former Ravinia pavilion, which was destroyed by fire during the off-season. Once considered temporary, its backstage area was built out permanently by a renovation in 1970. The Pavilion's last major renovation was in 1995, when the backstage area was expanded to add administrative offices. 'During Jeff's interview, in June of 2020, we walked into the pavilion, and I saw the look on his face — he crunched up his nose a little bit,' recalls Ravinia board chair Christopher Klein, chuckling. 'I said, 'This is going to be one of our top priorities if you become the CEO.'' Improvements to the Pavilion are welcomed by musicians, too. Headliners range from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in its summer residency, to Sting, all with drastically different acoustic and backstage needs. Currently, the onstage acoustic is deafeningly loud for Chicago Symphony players and the backstage area is barely spacious enough to accommodate the orchestra, much less additional performers or pop stars with large production teams. The women's dressing room facilities, a fraction of the size of the men's facilities, are a relic of a time when the orchestra was predominantly male. (It is now approaching 40% women members.) 'For anything but an all-Mozart concert, I'm wearing earplugs onstage — and my section actually sits at the edge of the stage, with some distance between us and the brass,' says cellist Brant Taylor. For example, one visual by Threshold Acoustics labeled decibel levels on the current Pavilion stage. In their mockup, much of the stage was bright red — dangerously loud. In response, Threshold invited Taylor and CSO piccolo player Jennifer Gunn to its downtown offices to discuss the current Pavilion shell design and experience various simulated acoustic settings. Gunn and Taylor's feedback inspired various changes to the acoustic shell, which will be manufactured by the Wenger Corporation in Minnesota. The new shell will be made of much lighter foam, coated with a reflective wood veneer — material that will allow the shell's side walls to be adjusted more easily. That adjustment mechanism will be rebuilt, too, from a sliding track to a folding hinge system. Higher ceiling panels will allow orchestral sound more room to disperse, rather than clotting onstage. 'They're hoping the changes — the raised ceiling, the different acoustic tiles on the side walls — will change the way we hear everything,' says Gunn. Other updated elements include a larger, deeper stage and new flooring, replacing the springy, dancer-friendly wood implemented by George Balanchine during the 1970 renovation. The sides of the stage with LED screens will also become more flush with the stage, reducing distraction for musicians once in eyeshot of the monitors. The new stage and seating will incorporate design elements tying them closer aesthetically to the Prairie-style Martin Theatre, referenced in Ravinia's logo. Ravinia recently implemented some Pavilion improvements before this renovation project. In response to musician complaints about onstage temperature, the festival changed out incandescent bulbs to LEDs. Last year, the festival also installed a new sound system, which has already yielded positive feedback. Singer-songwriter James Taylor was so impressed he promptly booked a return engagement, scheduled for June 19. 'I ran into him right after the sound check, and he said, 'Wow, this is a great sound system. Tell me more about it,'' Haydon recalls. Lohan Architecture will also lead Ravinia's successive renovations of its other venues through 2029, the festival's 125th year. Bennett Gordon Hall will get a facelift, the Sandra K. Crown Theater will get a new stage, and the Martin Theatre, which dates to Ravinia's opening in 1904, will see 'structural restoration and enhanced production capabilities.' Meanwhile, a new outdoor performance stage will replace the Carousel Stage altogether. Some $50 million of the $75 million price tag for the project has been raised to date. The Hunter Family Foundation gift honors Maxine and Thomas B. Hunter III of Lake Forest, both involved donors of the festival. 'My mother was on the women's board, and I have memories of going there with her and my grandmother to see the Chicago Symphony,' says Bill Hunter, their son. 'It's nice to be associated with Ravinia — it's just the place to go to hear music in Chicago, as far as I'm concerned.'
