Is Chicago Architecture Too Enamored Of Its Own Past

When Alexander Eisenschmidt moved to Chicago in 2007, the German-born architectural theorist was disturbed by how the city talks about its buildings. Sipping a glass of rosé in the cafe at the Art Institute’s Modern Wing, he describes a kind of “museum-ification.” Take, for example, the time architect Rem Koolhaas proposed that his student center at IIT incorporate the Mies van der Rohe–designed Commons Building—it sparked public outrage that the new structure attacked the “purity and simplicity” of the existing architecture. “Preservationists have instilled this attitude in policy makers and politicians,” Eisenschmidt says. “If we don’t look out, [architecturally] we will be very quickly forgotten.”

Fortunately, they found potential contributors—architects, artists, historians, critics, curators, and theorists, some long established in the city—very receptive to their approach. “They were happy [Chicagoisms] wasn’t another boosterish publication,” Eisenschmidt says.

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