Looking Up: Meet Louis Sullivan

Last week we discussed Louis Sullivan building a new kind of building, the mighty skyscraper. We learned about tripartite division and how pretty much everyone followed Mr. Sullivan’s suit and built their skyscrapers much like Sullivan did.

But even though they were following his blueprint, no one was building quite like Sullivan.

Sullivan was a philosopher, he thought long and hard about his buildings artistically and structurally. While Burnham was building the prettiest buildings he could, Sullivan was building his the only way they could be. They were organic, built out of the ground (Just as a little literary aside, Ayn Rand’s book “The Fountainhead” was based loosely off of Sullivan and his student, Frank Lloyd Wright, that’s why Howard Roark’s buildings are so organic and look like they “grew” out of the ground).

Sullivan coined the term “Form Follows Function”. If you look at Carson’s, you can really see his philosophy straight up. Look at the intense cast iron ornament surrounding the windows on the sidewalk. Sullivan didn’t want old Greek ornament, but he did want ornament! His ornate work on the bottom of Carson’s is all prairie land flowers and leaves, local fauna. With all that seemingly superfluous design, he basically made a picture frame to highlight what was going on in the windows.

Also, if you look at the side of Carson’s, you’ll see that Sullivan really emphasized the horizontal. If you look at the spandrels (the horizontal lines that run across the building) you’ll see that they’re wide and large and the vertical lines (the piers) are thinner. Sullivan knew this was going to be a department store, so by framing the windows and making the building more horizontal, his form is following his function, yes?

NOW! Look at the corner of the building, the rounded corner (left). Sullivan put the entrance on the corner to make it easier to come in and out, but what really stands out is the verticality on the side of the building (note how the piers are now emphasized to draw your eye upwards). Carson’s (it was first the Schlessinger and Mayer department store) in its day was definitely a skyscraper and Sullivan said (in an intense essay on skyscrapers that the skyscraper is “lofty. ... It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line.”

A proud and soaring thing. I love that. So now we see why Sullivan made sure to add some verticality to his building. To allow it to be a proud and soaring thing.

There is still even more to see on Sullivan’s building, and I’m in no rush. Take in what you can, look at this building now that it’s shut down and wonder for a moment what Sullivan might have wanted done with this space, now that it’s not a department store. What will go into those beautifully framed windows? Let’s hope it’s not a condo conversion and a stuffy old lobby. I fear Sullivan would come back and kick some ass.

Tuesdays Lost Youtube Clip: Let's Go To The Air-Show!

Every Tuesday, the CPC brings you the YouTube clip that you missed this week. But probably should've seen.

Hey Everybody, Let's Visit "The Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival!". This charming video of aerial shenanigans is charmingly set to the music of The Fifth Dimensions #7 Billboard hit of 1967, "Up, up and away" (In My Beautiful Balloon!) The perfect melding of video image and audio song!

Enjoy!

The Do-Gooder Corner: Kiva

Kiva

The Do Gooder’s Corner mission is to relay information on volunteer opportunities in Chicago. Sometimes, however, the Do Gooder would like to focus attention on other ways readers can make a difference. One such deserving organization is the focus of this week’s column: Kiva.

To understand Kiva, one must understand microfinancing, which supplies loans, savings and other basic financial services to the poor. Microfinancing is nothing new (who hasn’t gotten a small loan to cover the rent from a parent, sibling or friend?), but on a global scale starting in the 1950’s, it took the form of governments in developing countries providing credit to small and marginal farmers as a way of trying to raise income. Since then, microfinancing has grown and evolved, and according to the U.N., there are now over 7,000 microfinance institutions serving the needs of the poor. Microfinancing also received some attention in 2006 when Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, a microfinance bank, and Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, won the Nobel Peace Prize.

While microfinance institutions (MFIs) were doing good work to serve the world’s poor, Kiva founders, Matthew and Jessica Flannery, felt there was a gap between individuals who could make small loans and the small businesses those individuals wanted to help. Thus, the idea of Kiva was born: connecting micro-lenders (that’s you, fellow Do Gooders) with small businesses in developing countries.

Kiva partners with MFIs that are already “on the ground” in the country or region the businesses are located. The MFIs assess whether a business is a good candidate for a loan, and if accepted, forwards the profiles Kiva. Kiva then posts profiles of loan candidates on its website. Individual lenders, primarily from the United States and England, can then make a loan (minimum of $25) through PayPal. The MFI then distributes the loan.

Lenders are paid back in full at the end of the loan term (usually between 12-18 months), but they do not receive interest for their loan. Because this is a loan, Do Gooders cannot claim it as a charitable donation on their taxes, however, any donation to Kiva itself is tax-deductible. Lenders receive periodic updates from the MFI about repayment progress and how the individuals are doing via email and journal entries.

You can watch PBS Frontline/World’s 15-minute documentary on micro-lending and Kiva at this link.

And check out www.kiva.org for more information and to make your micro-loan.

Looking Up: The Triparte Division.

Okay , now is when this stuff starts to get really interesting.

Last week we talked about why Chicago was really the first to start building skyscrapers, and we’ve touched a little on why Burnham made Louis Sullivan so frackin’ mad. While Burnham relied on his go-to Grecian style, Sullivan wanted to build something...organic, something new, something no one had ever done before. (That last sentence, by the by, is a direct quote from Eddie and the Cruisers. I know Sullivan would approve).

Sullivan was very influenced by nature. He wanted to bring the beauty of nature back to the dark, black, dirty city of Chicago. He believed a building should grow much like a tree does. And like an acorn, he believed a building was going to be what it was before he even started. Confusing? A bit. But lets start with an example, the Carson Pirie Scott Building finished in 1898 (right).

Sullivan designed his buildings in three parts, officially called a “tripartite division”. Sullivan’s skyscrapers had a base (or roots) usually with big windows for retail stores, the shaft, or “trunk” of the building where the design remained the same, and the cornice, or the “flowering” on the top. The cornice is the top of the building, the part of the roof that usually overhangs the building.

Once Sullivan applied this type of design to his skyscrapers, other architects did the same thing. Most of Chicago’s historic skyscrapers (including Mr. Burnham’s, I mean come on, wha...he’s NOT going to do what everyone else is doing?) are designed in a tripartite division.

Check out this building, the aptly named Chicago Building at 7 W. Madison designed by Holabird and Roche in 1904 (left). You can clearly see the three divisions in the building. Also, the Chicago Building is one of the only buildings with the original cornice in tact.

Or lets go back to the Marquette building, also by Holabird and Roche….

Or lets even go back to the People’s Gas Building…even Burnham’s building has this tripartite division.
The tripartite division is one the hallmarks of the “Chicago School” of architecture. We’ll learn more attributes as we go on, but this one is essential.

Alas, I cannot even begin to explain the beauty of Carson’s in one entry, so we’ll come back to Carson’s next week to examine Sullivan’s philosophy of “Form Follows Function”.

Field Sobriety Test: A Tale Of Two Bomb-Makers.

So FST is a pop culture blog, right? Cool. Well POP-ular culture hasn't changed for me in quite some time, but I have had something pretty weighty on my mind. And it goes into a killer insight section. So anyways, what I've been thinking about is the bomb.

Yes, that bomb. The big bomb. I have been researching for a play that I'm writing and in my research I came across just how painfully human the search for the bomb was. We all know that the end result was blowing off a chunk of Japan, but in the process, many careers were made and ruined and all of that great stuff. There were two gentlemen in particular that always stand out to me when I research this stuff. That brings us to this column's

Fun Fact Section

The head scientist and the head military advisor for the bomb both hated the project, but for very different reasons.

Dr. Robert Oppenheimer was the head of the Manhattan Project, which produced the bomb. He considered himself a citizen of the world and a nihilist (as most scientists of his time did) and was horrified at the destruction that he had unleashed on the world. On top of this, many of Oppenheimer's theoretical physics colleagues were German. He had spent extensive time in his formative years lecturing and touring Europe so he was afraid that America was going to kasplode his buddies.

Col. Leslie Groves was a top military advisor to the Manhattan Project. On top of this, Col. Groves was an extremely gifted commander who had been put in charge of two top secret and super important projects (namely the construction of the Pentagon and the Manhattan Project). Great, right? Wrong. Col. Groves apparently requested a transfer to an "active" theatre of war on a regular basis and dreaded the day that the war came to an end. As if he hadn't had a chance to prove himself.

These two people were friends and they worked side by side. Both of them hated what they were doing, which brings us to this column's

Insight Section

I think everyone hates their job. I know very very few people who like what they do. Are you ready to follow me on this one? Ok, here goes.

I personally come to the conclusion that human beings are genetically wired to be unhappy. Why is this? Well, if you think about out formative years as a species, the people who were unsatisfied were the ones the kept foraging longer than their cave man brothers. Those fuckers took a nap and got eaten by a T-Rex.

All dinosaur jokes aside, I honestly think the advent of desk life on modern society didn't give time for evolution to catch up. Dissatisfied people make great farmers because farming take toiling. Being a receptionist who is antsy to get things done is just a drag. Being a farmer that aches to work is smart.

Oh...and the bomb and shit.

Anywhoo...so this week doesn't have a mail bag because no one wrote in to ryandeegilmour@hotmail.com. So, this week’s mail bag question is.

"What other things about human nature hurts us in modern times."

Okey-dokey. Everyone be safe and remember to email

Super Short Poem

"He who finds a job they love will never work a day in their life."
-Quoted from Con-Fush-Ous
Unless someone lied to me a long time ago

Tuesdays Lost Youtube Clip: The Physics of Superheroes.

Every Tuesday, the CPC brings you the YouTube clip that you missed this week. But probably should've seen.

This week, we proudly present 2 Clips for your Viewing Pleasure! Both of these clips are of Dr.Jim Kakalios giving a lecture on the Physics of Superheroes at the CONvergence Comic Convention. Dr. Kakalios is the author of the book, "The Physics of Superheroes", which you can purchase at this link.

In this first clip, Dr. Kakalios explains the difficulties of picking up entire buildings and flying around with them. Be forewarned, this clip discusses the tragic Superman-caused massacre of a building full of orphans.



In this second clip, Dr. Kakalios discusses why normal people don't go around carrying chunks of White Dwarf Matter to their car trunks.



To learn more about Dr.Kakalios, his theories or his book, you may want to check out his website, www.physicsofsuperheroes.com

The Do-Gooder Corner: Community Building Tutors.

Community Building Tutors

Rachel Lewis’ exposure to the Community Building Tutors happened when she was running workshops on nonprofit organizations for the Illinois CPA Society. When she met Bart Phillips, founder and current Board President of Community Building Tutors, Rachel says “I was so impressed with what he was doing that I asked how I could become involved.” Rachel now serves on CBT’s Board of Directors.

Community Building Tutors is a relatively new volunteer organization in Chicago, with its first program taking place in Spring 2005 at the Chicago Park District’s Chase Park. CBT joins young professionals and students at all grade levels - elementary through college - for one-on-one tutoring and community focused projects.

Community Building Tutors recruits young professionals to serve as the coordinators of tutoring services of elementary and middle school children. High school and college students perform the actual one-on-one tutoring, with young professionals proctoring the sessions. At the end of the year, all CBT volunteers and students participate in a one-day community service project.

Community Building Tutors serves a diverse population of young students, and this year has expanded to serving three sites: Chase Park (4701 N. Ashland), ACME Art Works (1741 N. Western), and Merit School of Music (38 S. Peoria).

There are different time commitments for volunteers, depending on the way one wants to get involved. CBT is looking for tutors, site coordinators, activity leaders, volunteer activity participant and Board members. Potential volunteers can email specific question about getting involved at playarole@cbtutors.org.

To find out more information about Community Building Tutors, check out the website at www.cbtutors.org.

Or better yet, attend CBT’s Spring Tutoring Session Kick-off Fundraising Party, Friday Feb. 9 at Wrightwood Tap (1059 W. Wrightwood), 8-11pm. For $25, you can get into the all-you-can-drink party. Proceeds, of course will benefit CBT.

Looking Up: An Introduction to Steel Frame Structures.

We’ve talked a lot about Burnham and how he struggled with developing the “Chicago School of Architecture” because he was so stuck in the architecture of the past.

You may have heard the term before, The “Chicago School”, but what does it mean? What do I mean when I say that Sullivan was building in a whole new way? What was going on here that wasn’t going on in New York or Boston?

Well it all started with the fire of 1871. Previous to the fire, most of the buildings were cast iron or wood. When the fire hit, 70,000 buildings burned, 300 people died. It scared the city, and new builders were told to only build fireproof buildings.

NYC and Boston weren’t nearly as scared of fire as we were, and our fear of fire led to the innovation of what is now known as “steel frame structure”. William LeBaron Jenney built the first steel framed structure building in 1885, (The Home Insurance Building. Alas, it no longer stands), meaning the skeleton of the metal frame was actually holding up the building. Previously to this, the walls bore the load of the building (known as “load bearing” buildings, imagine that). When building a load bearing structure, the walls had to get thicker as the building got higher. For example, check out the Monadnock building at 53 W. Jackson (above), designed by Daniel Burnham and John Root. The higher the building goes, the thicker its walls get. You can see how thick they are through the windows. (left) The Monadnock is still the tallest, occupied load-bearing structure in the world.


But once the skeleton could hold up the walls, the buildings could grow higher.

When Jenney built his skeleton frame, he basically hung the walls of the building onto the skeleton. Even today, the cladding of a building is called the "curtain wall", because you’re just hanging it right off the frame. We mostly used terra cotta as the cladding, because it was fireproof.

So, boom, in Chicago we’re building buildings no one had ever seen before...Skyscrapers. With the invention of the elevator and the revolving door (which regulated wind and heat in the building), the buildings got higher and higher. Initially, people were generally afraid of these higher buildings, so when you look at historic Chicago skyscrapers, they tend to look boxy, and big, and sturdy.

Check out the Marquette building designed by Holabird and Roche in 1895 at 140 S. Dearborn, notice how dark and heavy it is. (left)

Next week we’ll learn how Louis Sullivan managed to influence almost the entire city (including Burnham himself) with his plan to build these new-fangled skyscrapers.

Field Sobriety Test: A Message For All Of You Late Bloomers.

For this to work, you’re going to have to close your eyes. Do it.

I want you to picture a third grade classroom with Mrs. Terry, the teacher having all of her kids lined up in front of her desk. This is Brentwood Elementary. Brentwood is a gentle blue color everywhere. Outside, various weather measuring devices litter the yard under the Indiana sky.

There are about thirty kids in Mrs. Terry’s class and we are all holding up 3x5 cards with that week’s spelling words on them. Mrs. Terry inspects the class’ cards. There are a couple of people who don’t have their cards done so Mrs. Terry says to all of us, “These are pretty good, but in the fourth grade, they won’t give those people who didn’t do their cards an extra day.” I was scared shitless.

I distinctly remember thinking, “Oh fuck, fourth grade is going to be hard as shit.”

Fourth grade was easy and dumb. This is because, within the frames that we construct, we have little to no control over what happens to us.

Fourth grade felt about the same, but I was sure middle school was going to be hard.
Middle School was easy, but I was sure that High School was going to be a challenge.
I slept through most of High School and kept a B average but I was sure none of these Plainfield types would bother me at Ball State.
I got to Ball State and met some of the biggest asses I’ve ever met in my life but I was sure, in the working world, there was no way that these people would make it.
Now, I work in an office, and it’s the same fucking people.

In conclusion, the people that surround you never change. I think it was someone really wise or a Hallmark card that said, “Bloom where you are planted.” This (through the magic of tortured logic) is the point that I’m trying to get to today. Saying “bloom where you are planted” is easy from the comfort of your ass, but in this column’s fun fact section, I’m giving you two avenues to get on your feet. Here is this column’s

Super Super Helpful Fun Fact Section

Now, if you have no ambitions in any creative areas, then you can stop reading. As a matter of fact, I want you to stop reading and go re-evaluate your life. Now…do it.

For those of you with writing ambitions, on of the greatest tools that you can use is Duotrope. Duotrope is a search engine of literary magazines and novel publishers. It gives information like, how often a magazine takes submissions, the format that they prefer. If a lad or lass was inclined (like I was for awhile), they could write one piece a week and submit it. If this is done, you WILL be a published author within the year. Mark my words. You will have bloomed into a poet.

For those of you with comedy ambition, you can rely on the third graders with flash cards of the major Chicago training centers, or you can make your own films for the web and be a producer. At www.chicagofilmmakers.org, you can join the Chicago Camera Co-op and have professional quality cameras at your fingertips at hourly rates. They also have access to editing studios and sound work. It’s a lot of work from this point, but we want to bloom here. Blooming is hard. Awesome, huh?

Those should be helpful. Let’s hope. It’s been a good time to evaluate lately. Which brings us to this column’s

Insight Section

“Never, never, never give up.”
Winston Churchill

See what I did there?

Let’s break this down. On one level, I just laid one of the most famous “bloom where you are planted” quotes in the world on you, my loyal readers.

On top of that, I just got out of having to have an insight section written. I was in LA all week and I’m BAWLS exhausted .On top of that, it’s negative one hundred million degrees outside.

Fuck, I’m smart.

Super Short Poem

If you want to fire me, that’s fine.
I’m ”adding value.”
I’m synergizing.
I’m team playing.
Just not at your company.

NOTE:
Field Sobriety Test is going to be adding (filler) some more content (filler) in the form of an email section (filler). If you would like to have your emails addressed in the column, email them to The Field Sobriety Test Mailbag at ryandeegilmour@hotmail.com. Emails will be reposted in the column.

Tuesdays Lost Youtube Clip: There is a Time...

Every Tuesday, the CPC brings you the YouTube clip that you missed this week. But probably should've seen.

This week, we proudly present "The Darlings on The Andy Griffith Show singing There Is a Time." The Darlings were actually played by the very talented bluegrass group, The Dillards. You can learn more about them, here.

Weekly Question #6: The Worst Date Ever.

(Every Monday, the CPC posts a New Weekly Question. CPC visitors are invited to answer the question, debating its points, in the comments section of the site. We write the question. You write the actual article.)

Jump right in!

You know you've suffered through the Worst Date Ever, don't you? It was just as bad as you remember it being. Why don't you tell us all about it?

THIS WEEKS QUESTION:

Tell us about The Worst Date Ever.
Specifically what was the Moment when you knew that things weren't going to end well for one or the both of you?

Discuss!

Kathleen On The Scene: 02-05-07

Hey Hipsters! Kathleen on the Scene here. As my “Mom” said, I comes and I goes. It’s hard to hold a hipster down. But I am popping in with a bite-sized trend report for you Scenesters! More soon. See you on the scene!
-KotS

IN: Disgust at the concept of Norbit
OUT: Disgust at the concept of Little Man

IN: Authentic Spanish Cuisine
OUT: Molecular Gastronomy

IN: Puppets
OUT: Clowns

IN: Dominican Republic
OUT: Mexico

IN: King Size
OUT: Queen Size

IN: Blue & Brown
OUT: Black & White

IN: Trying-too-hard Dunkin Donuts Commercials
OUT: Trying-too-hard Skittles Commercials