Had not seen the NYC building. I did work on the Chicago C&C building in 67 and just before I left for the USMC in 68.
That Green Granite and Terra Cotta building built by Burnham was a beautiful building. I was a laborer on that job. Mixing mortar for the crew on the scaffold below. I would perch on the ledge next to the tower and watch them work from above. They would wave up to me and I would scamper down to the floor they were outside of, to hand things to them.
One person came out on the landing to see if I was ok. I had to explain to him I was at work.
I was a hopeful, future architect having attended Lane Tech HS and learning the things necessary to build houses as well as drafting. They had courses in Architecture then which included house framing, electricity, etc. You built your own home on a piece of plywood, frame it, roof it, etc. We would do thumbnail sketches of houses. etc. Never happened. It was a dream. Lane was an all boys High School in Chicago with ~4600 of us.
"...and found one that was taken down from Treehugger".
And now you are free from their censorship! Again, congratulations!
"...the biggest building designed by a woman architect"
Who cares and why does it matter? I have truly become more than bored by this "First XYZ done by some ethnicity/sex/et al. What's is SO BAD by just acknowledging "...this <insert name here> should be congratulated for their merit and prowess in doing XYZ".
In fact, it's insulting - it raises up "the political Group" to have a higher place than the person that deserved the applause.
Because a huge part of her merit and prowess was overcoming what must have been enormous social resistance. Plus it marks a shift in society to allow a woman to design this that should be noted and celebrated. This statement is not adding an irrelevant social label to politicize what is otherwise an egalitarian meritocracy. That’s naive an insulting to de Blois, but more so the many female architects of merit who never got the chance because of chauvinism.
Lloyd:
Had not seen the NYC building. I did work on the Chicago C&C building in 67 and just before I left for the USMC in 68.
That Green Granite and Terra Cotta building built by Burnham was a beautiful building. I was a laborer on that job. Mixing mortar for the crew on the scaffold below. I would perch on the ledge next to the tower and watch them work from above. They would wave up to me and I would scamper down to the floor they were outside of, to hand things to them.
One person came out on the landing to see if I was ok. I had to explain to him I was at work.
I was a hopeful, future architect having attended Lane Tech HS and learning the things necessary to build houses as well as drafting. They had courses in Architecture then which included house framing, electricity, etc. You built your own home on a piece of plywood, frame it, roof it, etc. We would do thumbnail sketches of houses. etc. Never happened. It was a dream. Lane was an all boys High School in Chicago with ~4600 of us.
"...and found one that was taken down from Treehugger".
And now you are free from their censorship! Again, congratulations!
"...the biggest building designed by a woman architect"
Who cares and why does it matter? I have truly become more than bored by this "First XYZ done by some ethnicity/sex/et al. What's is SO BAD by just acknowledging "...this <insert name here> should be congratulated for their merit and prowess in doing XYZ".
In fact, it's insulting - it raises up "the political Group" to have a higher place than the person that deserved the applause.
Because a huge part of her merit and prowess was overcoming what must have been enormous social resistance. Plus it marks a shift in society to allow a woman to design this that should be noted and celebrated. This statement is not adding an irrelevant social label to politicize what is otherwise an egalitarian meritocracy. That’s naive an insulting to de Blois, but more so the many female architects of merit who never got the chance because of chauvinism.