City of the Century - Chicago

Lightwizard<

I haven't seen any of the Chicago series because I am not a big TV watcher. I do, however, -- and as always -- appreciate your invitation.

I don't watch tv anymore at all, but I do love the Chicago of my childhood.
Will watch here for comments on the show.

i have been watching and its amazing.

I have not seen it but will make an attempt to do so. That is if you say it is Burnsesque. The Cival War was one of the best pieces I have ever watched on TV!

Ah, dys, I figured you be watching. It's being repeated in Orange County on our KOCE PBS station on the 27th, I believe. I'm sure your local PBS will repeat it and I'm sorry I didn't pick up on it until it was partially over. The VHS is under $50.00 and the DVD under $80.00 -- I'd shop it around but it's one of the PBS shows that is worth owning. The final part I thought would go into the early part of this century but the World's Fair was the final section and the assassination of Major Harrison (a distant relation on my Mom's side -- her brother died of pneumonia in his early twenties, his middle name was Harrison). The graft and corruption of the local government and the capitalists was offset those who supported helping the poor and the unions. There was an ethnic apartheid that was unprecedented. I don't want to go into any long dissertation on the history (it's available at the link in the title section of this discussion).

Should have mentioned that the computer graphics used to portray the great Chicago fire is outstanding and, yes, Mrs. O'Leary was not responsible.

Chicago
I saw most of the series.
What surprized me, was the quality of the architecture.
I was amazed.
No wonder, it's a place where architects visit.
But, to me, there is only one city, New York.
Try as I might, Philadelphia,Chicago,SF seem like small towns.
But, it was a good series.
Anytime you have Louis Sullivan and Wright on your design team......

I missed whether they credited Sullivan with hiring Wright as a protegee. Wright later took credit for some Sullivan buildings in order to further his career. Lying -- for shame! Of course, Edith Head, the great costume designer in Hollywood did the same thing. A means to and end! What is it with resumes that manufacture credentials?
The "White City," which was the neo-Greco/Roman architecture of the World's Fair appalled Louis Sullivan, saying it set American architecture back fifty years. Try two thousand years, Louis.

Chicago
I knew Sullivan was in Chicago, but I didn't know Wright was.
As much as I like the architecture of Wright, I hate his personal cruelties.
He life went on forever,embracing so many different styles.
When I was in H.S., they were building the Guggenheim Museum,just a little North of my school, on the same block.I had forgorten that Wright had built it,too, in addition to so many, many buildings.

chicago fire
Jeanbean, ever been to Barstow, California?

Ah, yes, the Guggenheim Giant Cupcake. About as far away from Sullivan as one can get. The builders couldn't quite get the surfacing right on that building, either -- it looks like cake frosting.
How Wright settled for it is puzzling to me.

The Marin County seat building is Wright's best later buildings and it was designed by a team at Taliesen West.

Barstow is a Shangri-La (if you happen to be driving through that stretch of desert with your gas gauge on E).

chicago
Patiodog, well, then, how about Lancaster?

I love Chicago!! I didn't know about this series, though. Thanks for pointing it out.

chicago
Is the Guggenheim not the usual stuff that Wright created?
It doesn't work as a museum,either.
No,the only town I been to in CA,is SF.

chicago
I've only been to Chicago once, in the early Fall. It was beautiful, a true metropolis. I will return, of course, if only to meet one of our members from abuzz and to absorb more of the Art Institute. After] living my life in three southwestern cities, I don't think I could handle the weather anywhere else in the country. I caught only one of the TV Chicago episodes, that of the great fire. I agree that the computerized overview of the path of the fire was amazing, almost hypnotic. I was also impressed, but not surprised, by the fact that most of the city was made of wood, a fire trap.

On the matter of credit - many times the people in offices, team or one person, work the whole job out, and change, while doing that, the original concept. So then they felt like the work was theirs. Not exactly lying, not exactly truth, especially if the concept of the firm's main architect wasn't changed, but followed through on. Of course I don't know about Wright, I haven't paid that much attention to his career details.

I missed the entire series! Hopefully I'll catch it next time. Chicago is my home. I was born and raised there. Moved away almost ten years ago now. I miss it sometimes, the visuals. There was always something to see.