West Wilmette has secrets?  Yes!

Next time you're over at Dairy Queen, drive or walk across the street and go behind that apartment building.   You'll find some amazing things.  

• There is the brand new Wilmette Paddle Club with its very very snazzy clubhouse.  Let's just say you probably do not have a kitchen & great room as nice as this one.  Curling up in front of that fireplace during a snowy winter would be amazing.  
  
• Just behind that is a brand new super cool kids playground with equipment I've never seen elsewhere.  
  
• Just north of both is the most amazing thing - giant new baseball and soccer/football fields on top of the giant hole in the ground that will keep all our basements dry.  I'm proud of the village for making something beautiful out of something functional.
  
• South of all this are some more community gardens residents can use.   I thought the only ones we had were over by Centennial Pool but these are just as large and used really well.
  

Go check out amazing West Wilmette.

Can you spot the difference here?

Yes, the name changed.   That's not it.

The picture on the left is from 1915.   The one on the right is from 1926.  See what changed in those 11 years?

Where are the women in 1926?   Seriously!

I just love that in 1915 in this firm women architects were incredibly well represented.   In its infancy, this field was not very open to women yet Holabird & Roche had many women in their firm photo of 1915.   Eleven years later - not so much.   Quite sad I think.

photos c/o Chicago Architecture Foundation

* - Ok, my brother created the name and game.   I hope he doesn't sue me for using it for my blog.

This is where I took my dogs for their walk this morning.   It is the Wilmette dog area just west of west park, just south of Lake Street.  Standing under those wires may not be one of my favs but this is a really interesting place - really.    Here's why:

Do you know who this is?

Nope - not Mayor Daley.   Nope - not Ike Sewell, founder of Uno's Pizza.  This is architect Mies van der Rohe.

Disclosure - for no real logical reason I once had a dream where I was an architect working on a job site of his and I had an entire discussion with him in German.  Weird, I know!

From the Chicago Architecture Foundation's website:

"It’s difficult to imagine what the skyline of Chicago might look like without architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He influenced an entire generation of architects while tenured as head of the architecture department at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). During his 60-year career Mies established a design vocabulary that helped define Mid-Century Modern architecture.
Mies did not design buildings with a particular style in mind. For him, the philosophy came first. How a building looked was purely an expression of its time and materials. He explained, “I am not interested in the history of civilization. I am interested in our civilization. We are living it. Because I really believe, after a long time of working and thinking and studying that architecture … can only express this civilization we are in and nothing else.”
When Mies arrived in the United States in 1938, he was already internationally known and established in his field. He designed one of his most famous buildings — the Barcelona Pavilion — as the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Spain. It’s a magnificent example of his trademark emphasis on open space. Soon after that success he served as director of the Bauhaus, the school of design in Germany. He elected to close the school in 1933 and eventually left his home country due to mounting pressure from the growing Nazi regime.
From 1939-58 he served as head of the architecture department of IIT where he not only redesigned the department’s curriculum but also the university’s campus. A year after his appointment he developed plans for the recently expanded 120-acre campus. Mies designed a collection of buildings with steel and concrete frames wrapped in brick and glass curtain walls, including his masterpiece: Crown Hall. The campus was revolutionary at the time and perfectly expressed Mies’ design principles and “less is more” approach.  
In 1960 he was awarded the AIA Gold Medal, which is the highest award given by the American Association of Architects. Considered among the greatest architects of the 20th century, Mies’ influence can be seen throughout Chicago and certainly reaches far beyond his adopted hometown."

Who knows what terra cotta is?

From the Chicago Architecture Foundation's website:

"Latin words for "cooked earth"; a building material such as a tile piece; terra cotta is made from moist clays formed in molds and then fired at a very high temperature in a kiln"

You see a lot of terra cotta decoration on Chicago buidings.  When walking around even in neighborhoods, look up above the store windows on some buildings & you'll probably find some terra cotta.  

Let's say you find yourself in the Lincoln Square neighborhood.   First, go get something yummy to eat at Cafe Selmarie and get something for me too.  (Priorities people!)   Second, walk south on Lincoln to 4611.  That is the former Krause Music Store designed by Louis Sullivan.   Take a look at this masterwork of terra cotta design.   Pretty special!