Lynn Becker

...And did you know, the Pavilion was initially illegal, violating height limits for the park, until they simply declared the proscenium a sculpture? Again, the Chicago Way.

... My favorite part of the Pritzker is the back stair, where, very Chicago, you can see the exposed support structure for all the smooth, shiny billows of the proscenium...

I've taken 7,916 pics of Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion, one of Chicago's greatest cultural jewels, designed by Frank Gehry, who has died at 96. Here are just a few of my favorites. ...

From 2004, a look back at the origins and achievement of Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion and its architect, Frank Gehry, who has died at 96.
www.lynnbecker.com/repeat/Gehry...

Frank O. Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96

A full life, come to close. Frank Gehry dead at 96.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/a...

Trump’s New National-Security Strategy Takes Aim at Europe The document calls for an end to NATO expansion and chastises Europe over “unrealistic expectations” for how to end the war in Ukraine.

Donald Trump is a Russian asset, and he has made us all complicit in his treason.
www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

University of Minnesota Press announces a new book by Patrick J. Cannon, with over 100 photographs by James Caulfield, on Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, to be published next April.
www.upress.umn.edu/978151792177...

Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. Following the Separation of Discovery Global for a Total Enterprise Value of $82.7 Billion (Equity Value of $72.0 Billion) - About Netflix

... that'll be deploying AI to eliminate creatives and produce on the cheap the endless stream of franchises, remakes and sequels -not so much films as line extensions. Why share revenue with theaters when they can keep it all for themselves?
about.netflix.com/en/news/netf...

It’s Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion The streaming giant's proposal includes a $5.8 billion breakup fee and promises to maintain Warner Bros. current operations, "including theatrical releases." Theater owners are already speaking out.

Are you a troglodyte who thinks movies should be seen on a big screen? Enjoy it while you can -it'll be dead in 5 to 10 years. The studios that defined movies for a century are being obliterated into all-powerful streaming services ...
www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

An eco obscenity: Norman Foster’s steroidal new skyscraper is an affront to the New York skyline It contains enough steel to go round the world twice – and even has a fake breeze to flutter the stars-and-stripes flag in its lobby. If this $4bn colossus is just the first of a new breed of bulky su...

Much of Manhattan has long been Egyptian in scale, but Jamie Dimon's ham-fisted Ozymandian monument to himself is both a graceless tribute to unfettered power and greed ($1 billion in profit per week), and an overripe last hurrah before it all comes tumbling down.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Federal funding cuts threaten Chicago Harbor Lock, one of the nation’s busiest More than 900,000 passengers and 80,000 vessels traveled through the Chicago Harbor Lock last year. Federal funding cuts have become a source of worry for boaters.

Our reckless, malicious, idiot President at work: Trump administration cuts 90% of the funding for the Chicago Harbor Lock, which allows 80,000 vessels a year to navigate between the river and Lake Michigan.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/04/c...

Trump administration says nursing isn't a professional degree amid new limits on loans The new student loan caps take effect in July. Here's what that means for students looking to pursue advanced nursing degrees.

No bottom. Amidst a growing nursing shortage, Trump declares nursing no longer a professional degree, to restrict their access to student loans. Architects also no longer classifed as professionals.

www.nbcnews.com/news/educati...

Dennis Scott is the man who makes the Music Box sing The organist has soundtracked Christmas for 30-plus years.

Time Out Chicago's Shannon Shreibak's profile of organist Dennis Scott, who somehow makes the already wonderful experience of a visit to the Music Box even more wonderful.
www.timeout.com/chicago/thin...

How a Skyscraper Shaped Like a Radiator Helped Create the Modern Corporation Completed in 1924, the building stood at the intersection of major changes in the economy.

As part of its USA250 series, the Wall Street Journal includes a section The Business of Work, with a lot of great articles on the history and character of toil in America, including this great history of Trib Tower architect Raymond Hood's American Radiator Building.
www.wsj.com/real-estate/...

Block Club Chicago's Linzie Rice has a great profile of River North's landmark dive bar Rossi's, with some great pics from Colin Boyle, plus a list of all the building itself and its many and varied tenants, dating back to the 1870's.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/24/c...

Bruce Goff: Material Worlds | The Art Institute of Chicago Celebrating the unbounded creative practice of American architect Bruce Goff, this retrospective features over 200 works including architectural drawings and models and a selection of Goff’s ambitious...

www.artic.edu/exhibitions/...

Bruce Goff is having a moment Bruce Goff is often considered to be the greatest architect you’ve never heard of. But Chicago’s going to be hearing a lot more about him in the coming months.

The Trib's Jonathan Bullington does a deep drive, with a wealth of photos and illustrations, on the life and work of architect Bruce Goff, subject of an Art Institute retrospective opening December 20.
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/29/b...

Yep!

One day to another

Headline of the Day, from the LA Times

...30 North LaSalle, a structure devoid of distinction or merit, whose only claim to fame is that its windows popped out and crashed to ground shortly after the building opened. From now on, the actions of the Landmarks Commission will be followed by injunction, "Follow the money."

Commission, testimony to its fealty to not getting in the way of the will of big developers and institutions. And you, fellow taxpayer, get to make up that $47 million in lost revenue. t's no small irony that Adler & Sullivan's world-class Stock Exchange building was destroyed for ...

Egregious and outrageous. Developer's skin in the game? Almost nonexistent. Project cost: $135 million, funded with $57 million in TIF subsidies, and now $47 million in landmark tax breaks.

Landmarking the abject mediocrity of 30 N. LaSalle, is a rancid stain on the Landmarks...
bit.ly/4rshAxz

A little snow…

Conservation and Science Take Center Stage in the New Grainger Center | The Art Institute of Chicago Every artwork in the Art Institute’s collections—whether it’s on view in the galleries, protected in storage, or traveling the globe—comes under the care of the Conservation and Science team.

The New Grainger Conservation Center, design team led by Art institute architects Barozzi Veiga, looks really cool, but it’s replacing exhibition space.
www.artic.edu/articles/121...

Updates you have no real interest in but I’m going to tell you anyway because I’ve got nothing else to do. Incredible efficiency! Tests already analyzed: I have a big gallstone! Which is strange because they’re usually very painful. Removal shouldn’t be difficult, or so I’m told.

Utility shoes. Bought on sale for about $40 back in June and worn almost every day since, for average daily cost of about 38 cents. I do have decent shoes, for when required.

Being wheeled to CTSCAN. (Very colorful!) Such great people at Northwestern! Everything’s fine- just in for tests. For Billie Rubin somebody.

Adding still another bureaucracy is not reform. The only reference in the article is "toward a new Northern Illinois Transit Authority will oversee the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace." The very next paragraph refers to the continuing existence of the RTA. Fiefdoms in perpetuity.

White Castle craves a new look for its restaurants The original 1921 White Castle restaurant design — and the variations that have followed — was inspired by the old Chicago Water Tower, the crenellated landmark that survived the Great Chicago Fire.

The Castle of Tomorrow doesn't look like a castle anymore. Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey looks at how fast food chains are abandoning architectures that once defined their brand for generic replacements.
chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...