Keeping the Torch of Architecture Burning

Gutnayer drew christmas cards in ink on vellum and printed them as blueprints every year to send out as Christmas cards. The house figures in each one, as do the kids, Alice, and their activities that year. They are whimsical and so rich with great drawings. He has a symbol of the house as a torch that re-occurs in cards over multiple years.

I have been looking at a lot more of his projects and have started trying to identify them in Google Maps. I am building a public map that you can search for, I think. He did a high rise in Chicago and one in Evanston, and designs for two major highrises on in the 4200 block of Marine Drive that you can see from Lakeshore Drive. Given the volume of drawings in the house for these, I am quite sure they are built, but the Marine Drive project may not be his, I cannot tell yet. I need to go look at it and compare it to the drawings. His buildings seem to consistently have four bays in the front and exterior columns with volume underneath. Our house is consistent with that expression. The other interesting project he worked on was the transitioning of Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Building into Roosevelt University in the 1970s. Kathryn and I went to look at this building the other day, and it appears he did a lot of design of infill classrooms, lockers, mechanical, etc. He also designed a small workshop theatre and some other spaces. Now that I have seen the building and understand its significance I cannot wait to go back and look at the drawings. (Me in the studio:"why is this Louis Sullivan photograph in the studio? and why is it in a roosevelt university interior rendering? where is roosevelt anyway?") Obviously my education in Chicago architecture is just beginning. But Kathryn and I got a lot under our belt in a few short hours: the Mies apartment buildings at 860 Lakeshore (just steps from the American Girl Store!), Mies' Crown Hall at IIT, the Auditorium Building, and the Robie house. And those are the ones we got inside, not to mention the many we drove by while kids listened to storytapes in the back seat.

So, the torch of architecture. Gutnayer had a lot of passion for art and design, and he kept it very alive in his work and his personal life. I love the symbolism of the torch. It reminds to be a bit more attentive to keeping energy and excitement active in my own life and work. He lived so fully. We should all aspire to that.